Chapter 21

Fed and warm the abandoned dog seemed content to sleep. Before sleeping, a bath was in order, and I carried her to my private suite and bathed her in the big tub. Once I rinsed off the medicated shampoo I used to cleanse her skin of any parasites, she looked like a drowned rat. Tom had provided a number of things to make sure she didn’t carry anything into the castle, and I used them all just as the directions indicated.

One comment he made kept running through my head. “Where are your puppies little lady?” He turned to me and said, “This dog has had at least one litter of puppies. If she’s been abandoned, I wonder what happened to her pups...” I asked Tom to have a couple of the boys that work under him check the entire property on that side of the river just in case.

Clean and dry, I fixed her a place beside me on the great big bed and stretched out to read while she slept. Having a dog again felt very good after so much time and so many lives. My mind drifted back to Benjamin and how we bonded. That little guy brought me so much joy. Maybe this baby girl would be just as loving.

Baby Girl...

That seemed like a wonderful name for the little angel sleeping beside me. I liked it and decided that that’s what I’d call her. Baby Girl sounded nice on my tongue.

The afternoon slipped away. Darkness came so early in the cold months. Baby Girl slept the sleep of the righteous as I lay quietly beside her. She looked all in after her bath. A hot meal, followed by a long sleep might be just what she needed.

The next weeks were filled with long walks. Baby Girl and I explored my lands, seeking out places I’d never been and seeing things I didn’t know were there. From time to time the security people would ride up and make sure we were safe, and were always nearby to give us a ride back to the castle.

My Baby Girl loved to explore the nooks and crannies of Castle Wellington. She would wander the halls for hours, going up one staircase, and come down a different one an hour later. Sometimes I would search one whole tower, only to find her resting under the big table in kitchen. Maeve always seemed to have soft meats and warm milk handy whenever Baby Girl would sashay in to see her.

The staff adjusted to having a puppy in the house. More than once I found the second floor maid sitting on the floor in my bedroom, playing with Baby Girl. They’d roll around on the thick carpet, with the maid giggling, while Baby Girl tried to lick her face.

Those were good days at Castle Wellington.

The interminable winter finally gave way to a reluctant spring, and I decided to end my exile in Scotland and visit London. The townhouse was sold for a tidy sum, after I got Baby Girl, because there was no good place for her to play outside.

Yes.

She was that much a part of my planning.

My real estate people found a number of properties far away from Deirdre’s estate for me to look over. Baby Girl and I chose one in early May. It was near Southend-on-the-Sea and had lots of room for Baby Girl to roam the lawn. The home was a bit run down, but we had nothing but time to put that right, and I had our contractor securely fence the entire property. There was no way I wanted to deal with other people’s dogs, or wandering animals bothering my puppy. The home was spacious, had wonderful natural light and seemed comfortable for a bachelor and his dog.

We did not throw a house warming party, nor did we announce our purchase to anyone at all. Deirdre didn’t contact me while she and Gregory traveled abroad, and by the time they returned, Baby Girl and I had left on a cruise of our own. I bought a lovely yacht at a distress sale from one of the banks we did business with. I called and inquired about potential repossessions and they leaped to help me buy a one hundred and sixty foot Oceanfast mega yacht.

It was exquisite in every way and well under priced at twenty million dollars. By the time the lawyers were done, I got it for a just a touch over fifteen million – dollars, not pounds. The inspections were done in a flash, and the bank already had the cash in one of my accounts, so payment was instantaneous. The bank handled the documentation, and much to my joy, since it was sold in international waters, and did not return to the UK at any time in the next two years, the tax boys didn’t get to fleece me to death on it.

I wasn’t mad or hurt at missing the wedding even though Deirdre went away and pointedly neglected to invite me. I was OK with being overlooked. The fact was very few people were invited and a whole passel of Gregory’s relatives weren’t invited either. If I was to feel anything, it would have been annoyance at being played by her and Gregory to get their hands on the companies. But – since I was rather pleased to be out from under them, I was content to let it all go and get on with my life, which I found was quite easy, once I put my mind to it.

Baby Girl turned out to be a great traveling companion. To pick up the yacht, we had to take the “G” to Nassau. She handled the flight like a trooper. Yachting seemed to agree with her. We slept late, late wonderful food, spent hours and hours watching sunsets, and generally enjoyed being far from all the things that annoy me. Our trip was perfect.

Just perfect...

It couldn’t have gone better...

Until those drug runners slammed their steel hulled, modified cargo ship right through the hull of the sailboat floating harmlessly about three miles off our port.

Baby Girl was keeping me company on the rear deck, under the great big sun cover, while I enjoyed a soak in the eight-person Jacuzzi. She loved to lollygag next to her water bowl, full of fresh water and lots of ice cubes, while I unwound in the hot water. The day was quite warm but the hot water was soothing.

In another few minutes I would have been deeply asleep, but the noise of the collision, when it came, was so out of place, that I jumped up and grabbed the binoculars that were conveniently kept near me, and looked for evidence of the crash. The sailboat mast was almost the only thing I could see, and I lifted the handset on the ship phone, which put me straight through to the bridge, and told the captain what I heard and saw.