Authors: Christin Jensen
“What happened when they finally contacted Mr. Bonner?” Clarice was horrified. If Farris had grown up with this story floating around in his head, no wonder he’d always been skittish around women.
“Grandpa made the call from the vet’s phone,” Farris explained. “The Bonner account was good for it. Anyway, Grandpa broke the news, and Mr. Damien was all quiet and cool about it. He thanked Grandpa and said he’d be home in a couple of days; he was in Washington DC at the time. The vet iced the body for burial in the animal graveyard; you’ve seen the place. Most people thought that was the end of the matter – until Mr. Damien got home.” Now Farris looked down at his town shoes he’d gotten all dusty in the stable. “When Miss Lauren opened the front door, Mr. Damien shot her until he’d emptied his pistol. Then he sat down on the porch swing and reloaded. Then he killed himself.”
Clarice winced. “So how did your grandpa wind up with the estate?”
“Mr. Damian hadn’t wasted his time in Washington.” Farris looked up with weary, grey eyes. “He’d made an ironclad will, witnessed by a couple of Senators. He left the entire estate – including all the money – to Grandpa to use as he willed.”
“Your grandpa had the dead reverently buried and pulled down the old Big House,” Clarice finished. “The house you’ve got now doesn’t have a front porch
or
a swing.”
“I knew you’d understand.” Farris held out his arms, and Clarice ran into them. Then the couple engaged in ‘heavy petting’ until Stinson made a great deal of noise to announce his entrance with the vet’s verdict.
During the next few days, Clarice almost got to the point of wishing for Mr. Damien Bonner’s pistol. She had agreed to return home at the end of next month, but that had not appeased Marion Saxe. Mother was demanding arrival date and flight number, plus nosy details about Clarice’s finances. Meanwhile, Farris, as good a man as she would ever meet, was doing his best not to cling to her.
Lauren Bonner’s revenge
, Clarice thought grimly.
Though she was still finishing a few paintings, Clarice spent most of her time making long-distance calls of her own and rejoicing that the cell phone was in her own name. She was calling her former professors at Sewanee, trying to find studio quarters for herself in that mountainous city. – Clarice realized she had to make a clean break with her mother; this would mean leaving the pleasant garage apartment. Also, she was trying to line up counseling and a good legal service.
Farris, meanwhile, moped around being very busy with horse breeding chores. He updated all his breeding records on his desktop. Then he checked all his veterinary records and personally rode every inch of electrified fence to check its safety. He was trying to break himself of the ‘Clarice habit’, and it was the hardest thing he’d ever tried to do in his life.
Meanwhile, John Pirtle had activated his own banking network after the latest call from his volatile former mistress. If
his
daughter was trying to break free of her domineering mother, he was damn well going to help her.
It was a bank in Sewanee that gave Pirtle his first link. Bank Manager Edward Barton had gotten word of Pirtle’s discreet inquiries through the grapevine and was glad of a chance to get help from Nashville for his own reasons.
“I hear you’re looking for current information on the whereabouts and banking status of Miss Clarice Saxe,” Barton began. “I am, of course, familiar with Mrs. Marion Saxe through the County Chamber of Commerce, and I’ve been privileged to hear her opinion of her daughter’s current activities.”
“You sound like you’re shuddering,” Pirtle remarked drily. “I quite understand, and you must certainly understand why I am concerned for the young lady.”
“The reason I am calling is that I have on my desk a loan application I think you would be interested in.”
“Is Clarice asking for a loan?” Pirtle almost tripped over his tongue. The recent news from Kentucky had suddenly roused dormant emotion for this unknown daughter.
“Well, I believe this loan has been submitted for her benefit,” Barton responded. “Here is the situation. One of the art professors at Sewanee has recently inherited a large farm which includes a remarkably intact outbuilding. – I say ‘remarkably intact’ because the structure was intended as a chicken house. We have interior and exterior photographs of the building. This art professor proposes to mortgage her entire property to provide an HVAC system in this former chicken house.”
“The lady must have provided a reason for such a crazy, uneconomical request,” Pirtle observed, twiddling with his desk set. “What reason did she give?”
“She wishes to renovate this ‘chicken house’ as a residence and studio for a former pupil,” Barton told him. “The structure could indeed be used for such a purpose with a few renovations. – I have also heard University gossip that Miss Saxe has been contacting a number of former teachers in her search for housing.”
“Fax me the pictures of the chicken house and the loan specifications,” Pirtle said immediately. “I’ll get a private investigator right on this and get back to you. – If my little lady needs a new home that badly, I’ll make the loan for it out of my own funds.”
Dina McGee was waiting up in the Big House kitchen for Farris when he tottered in one night about 10:00 PM. “Sit down right here,” she commanded. “You aren’t going anywhere until you explain why you’re letting Miss Clarice leave at the end of the month.”
Farris slumped down in the indicated chair and stared at her with eyes like soft-boiled eggs. “You don’t know how much I hate this,” he said through cracked lips. “I’m giving up everything I’ve ever wanted, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it back. – Dina, you must have realized Clarice has a bad case of Mother Dominance to handle.”
“I didn’t know it was
that
bad,” the older woman responded. “Clarice has certainly perked up since we’ve had her.”
“Marion Saxe has noticed that, too, thanks to the financial advice Terry gave the poor girl.” Farris laid his head on his folded arms. “The woman’s put a private detective on us; I’m just fortunate my staff is loyal. – Anyway, the old harridan has just about decided she’ll force Clarice to marry
somebody
on the place, then sell up her realty business and move in on us. – That realty business has gone to crap, anyway. Marion’s holding it together on a shoestring.”
“So the lady you love comes with a built-in problem.” Dina summed the matter up in her practical way.
“And I’m behaving in the manner recommended by therapists,” Farris told her. “We’ve agreed it is her problem, and I’m sending her home to solve it. – I just know that personal problems like that often don’t get solved.”
“Yes.” Dina thinned her lips. “I’ve known plenty who’ve tried to solve the toxic relationship problem with pills and repeated spells in rehab.”
“When I studied psychology in college,” Farris continued almost unwillingly, “we learned why most relationship problems don’t get solved. – Nobody really wants to solve them, because everybody’s getting some comfort or perks from the current situation. That’s why I won’t marry Clarice here and now. I don’t know if I’ll ever get her back.”
“I’ve sort of edged around the subject with her,” Dina admitted, “and I think she’d rather cut her own throat than gift you with her problem.”
Farris rose wearily. “That’s why I have nightmares, Dina. I’m going to have a detective in place down there to watch what happens, but I daren’t do any more.”
Clarice researched Tennessee law online and managed to retain a local attorney in her hometown. In truth, there were not many legal options for a person in her situation. Restraining orders, temporary
or
permanent, were worthless papers for the oppressed. The only factor in her favor was Marion’s tendency to fly off the handle; that would undoubtedly give the authorities local grounds to take some kind of action.
At her request, Farris pulled many strings with the private pilots who operated in the area and found someone who would agree to fly her home. Both were sure that Marion was carefully watching airline reservations through her contacts with travel agencies. A confrontation at some point was certain. Thankfully, Clarice had taken all her art necessities with her to Kentucky; there would be no going back to her dear little apartment. During their final weeks, the couple spent most of their time together, but it wasn’t until the last night that they finally made love. Farris had come to visit her, overwhelmed with a lust he had held in since the day of their picnic.
He followed her inside, but before they could turn on any of the lights he pulled her near to his body. He embraced her, pressing his lips roughly against the suppleness of her skin and trailed wet kisses down her shoulder blade. The scent of hay was in his hair, as well as earth and his intoxicating scent. She inhaled deeply, savoring each wet kiss as he went down to her breasts. He pealed the sticky shirt from her chest, revealing her robust chest below. For a moment he stood back and licked his lips.
She really does have gorgeous breasts.
He thought hungrily. Farris dove in, licking and kissing at her nipples until they grew hard from the sensations. He caresses her rounded breast him his rough hands, sending shivers of pleasure through her body. Slowly the two backed through the doorway and into the bedroom, where Clarice stood awkwardly in front of him, unsure of what to do next. He whispered in her ear.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” His voice was soothing.
“Yes.” She smiled, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
Farris lowered her onto the silken sheets and held himself above her with one strong arm. He removed her jeans and panties just as he had done before, gazing at her beautiful body in full naked form for the first time. He licked his lips and looked into her brown eyes with love. She glanced down at his erection and her eyes widened
. That is going to fit inside me?
Slowly and carefully he entered her wet body, a gasp escaping her lips. For a moment it was almost uncomfortable as Farris lay still, allowing her body to welcome him. Then he moved his hips, gently rocking back and forth and allowing the pleasure to creep into her body. Clarice tilted her head back into the pillow, the waves of sheer joy filling her mound as his cock pressed deep inside of her.
“Are you ok?” He whispered sincerely
“Yeah,” Clarice looked up into his chocolate eyes and smiled, her cheeks flushed with the excitement.
“I’m going to go faster now.” He smiled wickedly.
Clarice grinned upward and nodded. His hips thrust deeply into her and the pressure began to build once more as it had done in the woods earlier. She grasped his back tightly, feeling the muscles of his back flexing as he pushed. Farris let out a grunt and with one final thrust the two flew into a rage of organism together. Clarice could feel his warm wetness filling her body and dripped down her thigh. He slumped over beside her, a grin spreading across his face. He took her in his arms and held her tightly.
Farris had to pick out the horses he would take with him to sell in Virginia. Clarice helped him clean and stock the big horse trailer his dually pickup could handle, and she sat on an upturned bucket while he performed the maintenance chores. Perhaps this was the last time Clarice would enjoy the view of those tight blue jeans and the muscles they showed so clearly.
“Professor Santana got that loan she wanted to renovate her chicken house,” Clarice remarked one morning by way of conversation. “I’ll have ready-made quarters waiting for me and just have to install my own locks.”
Farris looked around from his tool drawer. “What will you do about furniture?” he queried.
Clarice just waved her hand. “I’m a big girl. I can raid the Army Surplus stores by myself. Thanks to all these commissions I’ve been getting, I can afford it. – Professor Santana will start spreading the word through the grapevine as soon as I arrive.”
Farris just stared at her, mouth grim. “What’s going to happen when your mother comes roaring up while you have clients?”
“Actually, I’m planning on having some of the students build me a website so I can get most of my clients online. That software we shopped for together has really made a difference. I can make my drawings straight from a photograph.”
Farris could only hope this sunny attitude would survive the slings and arrows Marion Saxe was sure to throw.
Farris began his trip to Virginia two days before Clarice had to leave. The girl had gamely waved goodbye until he turned out of the long driveway; then she locked herself in her cabin and wept.
Clarice had had to buy two extra suitcases for the new clothes she had bought here. Though she was still no fashion plate, she had begun to learn how to make the best use of her features. Dina McGee had even introduced her to an exciting new shampoo. It was like building a new Clarice, but from the inside out. Though the outside had become fresh, the inside and the years of torment would need to be freshened up as well if she was to feel whole.
But not even her ‘new look’ or the professional adulation she had garnered could comfort Clarice now. She lay naked on the bed now, rubbing herself intimately and trying to recall the feel of big hands, their roughness strangely softened, and the warm lips and tongue that had caressed her in ways she had never thought possible. Then there were the grey eyes and that questing face. Farris had begged for understanding when he looked at her. In a way, he was a lost little boy. Maybe most men were inside, and they were just afraid to show it.
Still, that made her own responsibility all the harder. Clarice stopped trying to pleasure herself and began to remember the mess she had tried to leave behind her. It was far better to face this than to run as she had initially planned to do. No, she needed to return home and deal with the monster she had lived with since birth. Marion Saxe’s voice still shrieked in the back of her mind, and she wondered how and why she had ever tolerated such persecution
. No one deserves this type of treatment, not even me.
She thought to herself over and over again as the time drew nearer to return. She began to coach herself, preparing for how she would face whatever came her way in the time to come.
“I have to be strong,” She muttered to herself, “I have to be strong for me and my future happiness. That is all there is to it.”
But deep down she knew it would never be that simple, then again, nothing ever was.
Clarice had also conversed with several psychologists and read a few professional texts online on her situation. She knew that the road to independence was going to be filled with pitfalls and difficulties, but it was the path she knew she needed to take if she ever wanted any form of happiness in this life. She loved Farris dearly, but her love would have to wait until after the dust had settled from this whole mess with her tyrant of a mother. There was old habits she would have to break, things engraved in her from an early age that needed to be dealt with according. She also knew that her mother would never allow this to happen with a hard core fight, and the storm of her anger was brewing.
Still, Clarice had made some progress. Terry McGee’s gentle exposition of the facts of financial life had made her realize just how Marion was cheating her. For years she had dealt with her mother’s reign, somehow feeling that this was the way that life was supposed to be for her, as if it was her fate to forever deal with a heartless and greedy woman controlling her life. Now she was beginning to assume her own financial responsibility and take control of her own life in the meantime. Then she had deliberately refused Farris’s offer of marriage, which was the hardest decision she has ever had to make. A choice that, at least for now, had to be made. That was the thing she had most wanted and that was to stay on his farm and in his arms forever. She would find her way back.