Page 5 of Dyson (Walsh’s Lair #3)

Emma wasn’t sure what to think about being a mate. For some reason, it seemed like she’d been set up in coming here tonight. Not really set up, but blindsided with her having a mate and all that would come with that. Grandda was talking to Dyson about things, and she found herself on the couch talking to Morning, Sidney’s grandmother. She came to dinner tonight, too, so that she could meet her.

“I’m not really someone that knows how to be mated to a very wealthy man. I’m sort of like one of those people behind the scenes.” Morning told her that she’d do just fine and that she was happy that Dyson had someone in his life, too. “He looks sort of stressed out. Is that because of me?”

“I think Dyson is stressed out a great deal. He’s a good man and, of late, has been working on projects with Sidney. They’re putting together things for the homeless. I’m going to be helping with that as well.” She told her how she was homeless for a while until her grandda took her in to be their servant. “That didn’t work out the way that his daughter wanted. He took one look at me and decided that I needed a last name. So he and Grandma Sally adopted me when I was just barely sixteen. I’ve been thrilled since so long as his family isn’t around.”

“I’m to understand that they don’t like him being in the nursing home. Nor that you visit him so much.” She explained to her that they don’t like her at all and that they want to keep Emitte close so that he doesn’t go spending what they consider their money. “Greedy bastards, I guess.”

“You have no idea. They wanted to cremate Grandma Sally when she passed because they thought it would be cheaper. They told Grandda that it was stupid to spend money on a dead person when no one could care. Turns out that nearly four thousand people came to pay their respects to the couple, and that burned their asses big time when Grandda had to pay for extra calling hours.” She laughed with Morning. “You sound like bells when you laugh. It’s very nice.”

“I’m glad that you told me that. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to get out and about. My daughter Storm and her husband Alex have taken over for me in the magical realm. They’re doing a wonderful job, the two of them, and I couldn’t be prouder of them. Alex is such a wonderful mate to my daughter. Even Ember, Storm’s sister, loves him like a brother.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’ve never heard all that much about Ember. Sidney talks about her but it’s usually in conjunction with other family members. I’m to understand that she has four children of her own with grandchildren.” She smiled so big that it felt like sunshine on her. After telling her their names, she was shown pictures of them. This was a wonderful grandmother like Grandma Sally had been.

They talked about magic, and while she was sure that she didn’t have any of her own, Morning assured her that she had some. It had been from Storm and everyone else that she’d hugged since arriving.

“Your grandda is going to be all right as well.” She asked her what she meant. “Well, he’s your family which makes him a part of ours. He’ll live a good deal longer should he wish, and he’ll not have any of the aches and pains that a man his age would have. He’ll be like he’s in his fifties again. But he doesn’t have to take the immortality. He’ll still be in good health, but he will die when it’s his time. If that’s what he wants.”

“I don’t know what he’d want. He’s sort of set in his ways a bit.” Morning said that they all were. “Yes, I can imagine when you’ve been around as long as you guys have, you do get stuck with things longer.” Again, they both laughed. And she was feeling more relaxed around the woman. Sidney had told her that his grandmother could snuff you out with just a point of her finger if she was pissed off enough. Emma didn’t know if he was serious or not, but she was going to be on her best behavior from now on. Even Storm didn’t scare her as much as her mother did.

Dinner was fantastic. They had steaks and chicken from the grill, baked potatoes, green beans, and a hardy salad too. Grandda ate nearly a whole loaf of the crusty bread that he’d asked for and was nearly unable to finish his steak. By the time that dessert came, they were all groaning about how full they were, but it didn’t stop them from having some pie and ice cream.

“I was just telling Dyson here about my house.” She nodded, so exhausted all of a sudden from the carbs that they’d eaten that she didn’t speak. “I told him that since I’m going to be leaving it to you that I’d just as soon the two of you move into it now, and that would save the two of you from having to go out and look for something together. It’s a fine old house, you know that, child.”

“It is a nice…what do you mean you’re leaving it to me? I’m not your daughter.” He told her that the state of Ohio thought that she was. “All right. You did adopt me, but your daughter is expecting to get that house.” He just smiled before speaking.

“I know she is, child. And I’m assuming that right now, she’s picking out curtains for her bedroom. But I’ve given her enough over the years. She and her deadbeat husband forcing me into retirement and only allowed me a small pittance to live on with my own money by declaring me incompetent, and all the money that she’s taken from me and her mother. All the times that I had to bail her out. These are things that I’ve kept track of since she was sixteen years old and totaled two cars before she even had her licenses. Besides, I don’t have to give her anything. But I should mention her in my will. Simply because I want her to realize that it wasn’t a mistake that I didn’t give her anything. Well, I did leave her something. A bill for all the things that she took from me when her mom was alive. That’ll get her goat.”

She loved to hear her grandda laugh. Especially when he did it with his whole body. When he started to slap his knee, his lack of control over his humor made her laugh, too. She loved this old man more than she could have ever explained to anyone.

They talked about the house and what it had in it in ways of rooms. There were eleven bedrooms, counting the master suite. Six bathrooms on the second floor where the bedrooms were and two on the main floor. There was, of course, one in the master suite that took up the entire third floor of the house. There was an extra room there that had been built as a nursery with a maid’s room, but all it had been used for was for storage for holiday décor.

The kitchen had a large pantry that held enough groceries for a month in it. A walk-in freezer that also held enough meat in it that would tie them over until the next month of food. There was an eat-in kitchen in the large room as well as a pretty little place that was near the back door and the windows there so that a couple of people could have tea there. Or a light breakfast.

She loved the dining room. They didn’t use it all that much when she’d been living there, but it still had fond memories of the times that they did. It was an oval-shaped room with windows that looked out over the expansive backyard, almost within touching distance. The table that was in here wasn’t as large as it would pull out to be. With all the leaves in the oak dining table, it would serve sixteen people. Around the room, there was a scattering of chairs that went with it when necessary. The rest had been stored in the pantry where they were easy to get to when a large group was expected to dine with them.

There was a library that held a large office desk that her grandma used. She said that she loved the smells from the room—mostly the old book smell mixed with fresh flowers that would fill the room when in season.

The four-corner fireplace only needed to be lit in one of the downstairs main rooms and it would be seen in each of the corner rooms. The living room, dining room, library, and sitting room. That had always been her favorite feature in the house to have a single fireplace for all the rooms that one could roam to.

The pool house was about ten yards from the house. The pool, one that was heated year-round, was in the ground and deep enough to dive in. The kids from the neighborhood used to come and play in the pool with her in the summer but Darling put a stop to that when she started to charge them for the privilege to use the thing. That had pissed Grandma Sally up so badly that she didn’t open the pool for even family after that. Telling Darling that if she thought she could make the rules, then she would show her who the boss really was. It had been an ongoing fight since she had passed away, and grandda simply kept up with the tradition just to keep Darling and Poppy from coming over and taking things from the house.

Marshall Manor sat in the middle of fifty acres that surrounded the house. There were about two hundred more acres that were used to supply things for the household in the summer months, but for the past few years, about twelve, she thought grandda had been renting the land out to farmers so that they could have a little more in their barns come winter. She thought it worked out well, and if she really was going to own it, she would keep things the way that they were simply because she didn’t care to put in that much gardening right away and have to have more help making it last through the winter months. She’d have to ask Dyson what he wanted to do.

They made plans to go over the house in the morning. She’d not be able to be there, she told them, as she had three appointments in the morning to make sure that her job was still for her. Darling and her husband Matt had made it so she wasn’t able to go to work for the three days that she spent in the hospital when they’d beaten the crap out of her over grandda moving into the nursing home.

“How do you suppose she’s going to feel when I move back into my home with you and Dyson?” She told grandda that she thought that if Darling could get to him, she’d be fine with that. He was shaking his head. “Dyson told me that there is enough magic in the family that they could make it so that no one with ill will could enter the home. Not even if they were on the outside shooting into the house will anyone be harmed. I think I like that bit of magic. What do you think about it?”

“Do you think it’ll work because she’s family?” Grandda said that he said it would. “Well, I’m all for no one being able to get into the house to hurt any of us. How far extending does it go? I mean, will it cover the yard too? I’d just as soon she wouldn’t be able to even do that, wouldn’t you, Grandda?”

“I’d surely love to be able to sit out on the deck out back and not have to worry about any old fool trying to kill me off. I might even have the pool opened if it was to cover anyone coming over to have a good time with it.” She said that she’d like that as well come summer. “We’ll talk to him. Did Dyson tell you that he’s going to wait until you can go with him to see the house? Nice young man, that boy. I know that he’s a mite more older than me than he looks but I see him as a boy nonetheless.”

Taking Grandda back to the nursing home, he was dozing on the way. She hated to wake him up to go inside, but he was all right with that. He’d had a wonderful time and had so enjoyed the company that he wanted to do it again. But not put anyone out. She loved this old man more than she could have anyone else in her life, and he told her that he loved her as well.

Dyson took her to the place she’d been renting for the last few years. It wasn’t much. She had three rooms and a bathroom that was all hers. There was parking for her car, but since it seldom ran, she didn’t think much about it. She used to be within walking distance of the grocery store, but it burned down a few years ago, and no one replaced it. There was a Dollar General in town, but she didn’t do her grocery shopping there like most of the people living in the complex with her did. Usually, she’d just hitch a ride with someone who was going there and come back with them.

“This isn’t a good neighborhood here. I’m sure you know that.” She said that she doesn’t spend much time here, only to sleep. She’d been working two jobs since she started working, and it was all right for her. “If we do move into your grandda’s home, your home, I guess, will you still need to work that much?”

“I still need to keep up with my bills. I don’t have a great deal, but I’ve been supporting myself for a few years now, and I don’t care for the feeling of not having some money in the bank to keep me from being homeless again. That’s something that I never want to have to do again.” He explained that what he had was now hers, and what she had was hers as well. “You can’t have enough money for you to give it all to me. That would be just stupid.”

“I’m wealthy, so in turn, we’re both wealthy. If you wanted to give a million dollars to every man, woman, and child in this town, we’d still have billions of dollars left over.” She told him that wasn’t possible. “However, it is true. I’ve been around for a very long time, and in that time, I’ve been able to invest in things that have become very profitable. Also, the saying about dragon’s tears is true. I have banked all of those, too and have quite a bit of gems and jewelry that is just laying about to sell off if I were to ever find myself short of funds. In all my years, that’s never happened.”

“And only knowing me for the short time that you have, you’re willing to give it over to me as if you’ve not been saving all your life.” He said that it would be his pleasure to give it all to her should it make her feel like she was safe and secure. “I don’t know what to think about that. I mean, even saying you have one million dollars is a lot for me to think about. But to have that much, in the billions, is more than my mind can comprehend.”

“However, it’s all true.” He put the car in drive, and the two of them left the area. “Is there anything there that you have to have? Any kind of family things that you need tonight?”

“There is nothing in the place at all that can’t be replaced. I have nothing but a few items that I even paid full price for.” She looked at him as he pulled up in front of one of the nicer shops in town. “What are we here for?”

“We’re going to get you what you might need for the next couple of days—shampoo that you need, toothbrush. Things like that. Then I’m going to take you to a hotel where I know you’ll be safe.” She asked him why. “There isn’t any safeguard at that place like there will be at the hotel. No one will know you there so the other family won’t come looking for you. Once we move into the Manor, if we do, then I know that the magic there will keep you from being harmed. I worry about you.”

She nodded and got out of the car with him. While Emma didn’t know what he thought she could afford here, she was willing to see what they had. The little boutique was full of the prettiest things that she’d ever seen. And she wanted it all.

~*~

Never had he done any shopping with a woman and getting things for her. Dyson found that he was having a good time. At first, she was looking at things that she wanted but could afford. Then, after he picked out a nice dress that he thought would look good on her, he found other things that he wanted to see her in. By the time they were being rung up, she had enough clothing to last her a couple of months. He didn’t care. It was fun being able to afford whatever she wanted.

“I don’t know what came over me in shopping like this. I was going to blame it all on you, but I had a wonderful time as well.” Dyson agreed that he had as well. “Good. We can’t do that all the time, but I can’t tell you that it wasn’t a blast.”

“I enjoyed it as well. It’s the first time in my life where I didn’t look at prices when I wanted something. I mean, I really didn’t have to do that at all, but I certainly enjoyed the look on your face when I found something that I thought you’d look good in.” she smiled at him, and in that moment, he thought that he could go for the rest of his life on the feelings that it had given him. A simple smile from a mate did that for him. “My mom got in touch with me while we were there. She wants to know if she can go over to the house and make it safe. I told her that I had hoped to have it done soon and she wants to make sure that everyone that lives there is as safe as she can make them. She’s already gone to the nursing home to take care of that. She told me too that three employees weren’t able to enter the place when their shift came up.” Emma asked them what she’d done. “Figured out that they were harming the patients that were bedridden and some of the ones that were confined to wheelchairs in order to get around.”

“That’s terrible.” He agreed with her just as they were pulling up in front of the hotel. “I’ll have to let your mom into the Manor, won’t I? Or can she just slip in without anyone being the wiser?”

“Mom won’t need to get into the house right away. But in order to make it so that your grandda can sit on his porch and enjoy himself, she’ll make the land surrounding the place a safe zone for all of us living there. I’m ready to move in now. I figured that if you liked the house, I will as well. And your grandda had done such a wonderful job describing it to me that I think I could find my way around all on my own.”

“He loves that old house. He and my grandma lived in it from the time they were married until she passed away. After they forced him into retirement and declared him incompetent, they forced him to move into a small apartment where they could keep an eye on him to control him. When he moved himself into the nursing home, one of the others would bring him back after beating the shit out of him. They liked him living where no one was watching over him so that they could get to his money and other things in the house.” Dyson told her that he thought that was sad, too. “It is. Darling and her daughter lived there for a while, right after I was forced to move out, but since there wasn’t any kind of internet around the house, they couldn’t stand it. I’m going to have to figure out a way to get at least cable for him. He’s enjoyed watching the old westerns on television as well as some old shows that he and grandma watched when she’d been alive.”

“I’m sure that one of the faeries will be glad to do that for him. They enjoy his stories, and he treats them well when they show themselves. I think that a couple of them would live out their days with the elderly man just to be able to say that they’d been around someone so great. Your grandda is a good man.” Emma said that she thought so as well. “I like him. He says what he thinks, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

“When my grandma was alive, she used to scold him when he was so vocal. Then, toward the end of her life, a few years, she became just as blunt. I remember once when they’d gone out to eat, Grandma hadn’t liked her fish dish. After sending it back to be redone, they simply gave her the same fish on a different plate. She was fit to be tied. Not only did she demand to talk to the chef on duty, but she had the entire management team trying to make things right. And you know what they did? Left a huge tip because they knew that it wasn’t the waitstaff’s fault but that of the cook. I don’t believe they stayed in business much after that. A bad review from them would make a lot of people stand up and take notice. They felt bad about the closing, putting all those people out of work, so they made sure that those who wanted one had a job at one of their factories. I believe a great many of them still work there.”

After getting a room for each of them, he went to his room after carrying up a bag of things that Emma would need tonight. It occurred to him that she could change at will if she wanted to, but he thought that would have been less fun than shopping. He might have to do that more often, shop with her just to see her eyes shine in happiness.

Going to bed after hearing from his mom. She was going to meet with them tomorrow evening. The staff had been made aware of them coming there for dinner, and the house was being cleaned from top to bottom tonight and into tomorrow. He was glad for the extra hands. While he’d never been in the house before, Emitte had assured him that there were rooms that had been closed off in a while and they would need a good cleaning. He was looking forward to touring what he was going to consider their forever home. He only hoped he wasn’t putting too much faith in what Emitte had told him instead of what was really going on with the house.