Highest Bidder

I settled into his body and felt the delicately winged demons in my stomach start fluttering. I knew then that I was in trouble. Big trouble.

Freya

As I exited the Merrill Lynch office, it was already half an hour to midnight. Brent was right, Merrill Lynch really did work its interns to the bone. I felt exhausted and cranky, but the moment my phone began to ring, I quickly searched for it in my purse before the call disconnected. Brent was away on a three-day business trip to New York. He wanted me to go with him, but there was no way I could take time off work.

Praying it was him, I looked at the caller ID and sighed when I saw that it wasn’t him. It was an unknown number, which I considered ignoring, but as I was about to take it, the caller disconnected it. “Fine,” I muttered, but then, as I was about to slip the phone into my pocket, it began to ring again.

It was the same number, so I clicked accept. “Hello?”

A man’s authoritative voice came through, “Freya Anderson.”

“Yes, this is Freya. Who is this?”

“I’m Henry Leighton, Brent’s father.”

I instantly froze, unable to think or move.

He went on, “There’s a black Mercedes right in front of your office building. Knock on the window so the chauffeur will pull it open for you. He’ll drive you to the Lucan estate. I need to speak with you.”

I immediately wanted to decline, because it was so cloak and dagger and because I didn’t know if Brent would want me to go see his father without him, but he ended the call. I was left staring at the phone in confusion.

Right before me on the sidewalk was indeed the black Mercedes he had mentioned, so I walked forward until I reached it. I considered calling Brent and telling him about this new development, but he was in another time zone, so I quickly sent him a text, and as instructed, I knocked on the window of the car and got in.

About an hour later, I arrived in the Lucan Estate, and was shown into the grandiose study. As I looked around at the marble and luxurious wood finishing of the room, I wondered if the Duke was aware that I had been a guest in his estate several times in the past with my family. It was like going back in time, but the sensation of nostalgia wasn’t completely pleasant.

Almost immediately, as though he had been awaiting me, he rolled into the study in a wheelchair. The moment he caught my gaze, he held it and did not look away until he positioned himself opposite me.

A woman dressed in a black uniform, hands politely held together in front of her, came into the room and stood just inside the door.

“Would you fancy a light refreshment, Miss Anderson?” he asked. “I understand that it has been a long day at work for you.” In so many ways, he felt similar to Brent, in their confident mannerisms and intimidating presence.

“Just a glass of water, please,” I responded quietly, as I tried to calm the pace of my heart down. I wanted to get this meeting over with as soon as I could. “Why did you request to see me?”

He broke my gaze to readjust the blanket on his lap. “I hear you’re in a relationship with my son.”

I did not know how to respond.

“Am I wrong?” he asked, his piercing eyes focused on me again.

“Brent and I are ... friends. We’ve been acquainted for quite a while.”

“Oh really,” he asked. “How?”

I didn’t want to mention my family, but then he knew my surname. There was no way that he wasn’t aware of perhaps even more than I was about my father, so I took a deep breath and responded in kind, “I used to come to this manor with my mother on invitation to certain soirées. One of those occasions, I became acquainted with him. That’s as far as our history goes.”

“You stopped him from harming his brother, did you not?” he asked me.

I instantly stilled. He was aware of everything.

“Neither of them know that I am aware of what happened that afternoon. It was only reported to me by the security team as they caught it on the cameras. I got to know who you were from then. I apologize for your father’s passing.”

That was it then, there was nothing left to hide.

“Thank you,” I murmured. Perhaps this visit was to warn me away from his son, just like it seemed the whole world was bent on doing. I just wanted to go home to bed.

“Could I ask you for a favor?” he said to me.

“Sure, Sir, go ahead.” I waited with bated breath for what he would say.

“You say that you and my son are friends, but I believe that your ties run deeper than that. Has he ever mentioned his family?”

“No, Sir, he has not.”

“I thought as much.” His smile was bitter. “Well, if there's anything I have learned in all of my years is that the cajoling power of one woman can be worth the force of ten thousand. Could you please try to re-open Brent’s heart towards his family?”

About twenty minutes later, I was shown out of the study, and with more information about Brent that I would probably never have been able to extract from him. I kept stopping the Duke to tell him I had absolutely no power to influence Brent towards reconciling with his family, but he refused to believe me. I could not understand if it was just blind determination, or misguided hope.

As I exited the study, a looming sense of calamity hung over me. Perhaps Brent would get wind of this and it would severely affect the relationship we had with each other. I was never more grateful that he was out of town. I was escorted by a butler, but I was engrossed in my thoughts I didn’t notice the man awaiting me at the end of the hall until I almost bumped into him.