Page 2 of Always

“I suppose you think I’ll be scrubbing the toilets!” from a disdainful Stella.

Give up their club membership?

Absolutely not!

Fly on commercial airlines?

Unimaginable!

“We should probably let the horses go,” Anika said with great reluctance. She was the only one that rode. She raised three of the older horses with her mother, before Elaine Knight had fallen ill. “Without the horses, we wouldn’t have to employ the stable staff.”

“You’d fire Tom?” Stella said. “He has a family you know.”

With great difficulty, Anika controlled her temper. She knew that Stella didn’t give a fig about the horses, except for how they allowed her to be part of the local equestrian society so she could attend their summer derbies wearing her most adorable frocks and hats.

“It’s Greg that has a family,” Anika said. “Tom is single.”

“You know what I mean,” Stella said dismissively. “People are counting on us. We have obligations.”

“I’m aware of that,” Anika said. “We won’t be able to meet any of those obligations if we lose our house.”

“I’d rather lose our house than lose everything that makes it worth living in!” Bennet cried.

“Well,” Mr. Burton said, “that is an idea...”

“What’s an idea?” Aunt Molly said.

“It’s so difficult to change habits without a change of scenery. And it’s so expensive to keep up an estate like this. What if you went to stay in the city for a while? In the penthouse? You’d only need a few staff members there, a housekeeper or two, the driver—“

“And the cook!” Stella put in.

“And the cook,” Mr. Burton agreed.

“We’re not selling the estate,” Bennet said stubbornly.

“Of course not!” Mr. Burton said. “I would never suggest that. But you could rent it for a while. That would allay its expenses and bring in some income as well.”

There was quiet as everyone pondered this idea.

“I don’t know who I could trust to live here,” Bennet said at last.

“It would have to be someone responsible,” Aunt Molly said.

“No children!” Stella added.

“Maybe someone famous?” Aunt Molly mused. “You wouldn’t want just anybody staying here.”

Aunt Molly was a wonderful woman—while not as beautiful as her sister had been, she was kind, intelligent, and extraordinarily patient with the foibles of her brother-in-law. But she had a weakness for celebrities of any stripe. It wasn’t only residual fondness for her sister that allowed her to judge Bennet on such a generous curve: while he might be vain and foolish, he was also well known, and well regarded in the fashion industry. Aunt Molly could not help but be impressed by that.

Still, she had made a mistake with her comment, because she had forgotten Bennet’s jealousy.

“No celebrities!” Bennet said. “I don’t want the place destroyed by parties. And they have the most horrific taste—remember when Prince rented that basketball player’s house? He painted the whole thing purple.”

“He did paint it back again,” Anika reminded him.

Bennet hated the idea of anyone more famous than himself inhabiting his hallways.

“No,” he insisted. “Find someone quiet, reclusive. Wealthy of course. From a good family. No foreigners—no Chinese billionaires or Russian gangsters. I don’t want to come back to a swimming pool full of koi fish or be stabbed with an irradiated umbrella if the rent is late.”

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