Keeping Company Ch. 05: Revisited

I read it and smiled, employment by stealth. Most of those that lived around here never really wanted to leave so Amy knew that she would get back the student that received the scholarship. The sweetener was the summer job. Mandy opened an accountancy firm three down from Amy's law firm and pretty much had half the town's tax business within six months of opening and with our warnings ringing in her ear about not repeating past mistakes she quickly employed two and then three staff so she didn't spend half her life at the office.

Wendy divided her time between helping the girls open there offices and her company for now. Laurel was on an even keel with her work and had given a clean bill of health to every animal on all three ranches. The dust had settled and the ranches moved on, although from now on they all deferred to Laurel when new breeding stock was brought in. Each rancher put aside an area and Laurel would go over every cow.

They only moved when Laurel said they could. It may have slowed down the work some but given past history every family made allowances and let Laurel take the lead. Within a year of Amy opening the Law office Maurice Bennett strolled in asked for the paperwork for the Clearwater Bank. Amy told him that those files were at the cabin; Maurice asked her when he could come by with Mitchell and sign them.

A week later the County Bank was now minus three accounts and all the same day when Jonathan, Maurice and Mitchell walked in and closed there accounts. The towns folks knew why and understood when word got out the steady trickle of accounts being withdrawn over the next couple of days caused the bank to close its doors. The near riot as folks wanted there money caused the sheriff to have a car stationed outside the bank trying to keep the peace.

The town council wasn't stupid and knew that drastic action was needed so they phoned Amy and asked her to come and talk to them. The afternoon of her leaving her meeting with the mayor and his advisors both Amy and Mandy called an emergency meeting of the girls and me and between us we bought a bank. With the help of the mayor and the whole town council they rushed the paperwork through.

We changed the name of the bank to 'The Ranchers and Farmers Bank' although around town folks all call it the R&F. It started to look like the girls dream of retirement was just that. At the next cookout over at the Bennett's place Amy gave Maurice a ration of shit for destroying her dream of retirement but all he did was smile at her and then waited until she had finished before hugging her and walking away to get her another drink. Amy had indeed met her match.

*******

It was Mandy who was the first to leave us. Amy was by the office window when the ambulance rushed by and screeched to a stop outside Mandy's accountancy office. When Amy got to the door a deputy stood in her way telling her she couldn't go in, now Amy may only be five foot six and a hundred and ten pounds but she blew through him like a linebacker and watched as the medical team were in the process of shaking there heads.

News either good or bad travels fast over the vast areas of our county. By sundown we had all said goodbye to Mandy. Carol-Anne was still in Japan and in the process of hiring a private jet to get her back here quicker. I met her at the airport the next day, she looked like shit as we all did I suppose, the rest of the girls met us at the hospital and we once again said our goodbyes to an important part of our lives.

The medical report said it was an aneurism, the coroner said it was instant and she didn't feel any pain. Those words were important to us, Mandy had so much pain in her life that slave was born to curb it and keep her from self destructing. We did what came natural to us and closed ranks, what we didn't take into account was that we had the friendship and loyalty of not only three other families but a town that no longer looked on any of us as 'those city folks'.

The service had to be out in the open since everyone that wanted to attend wouldn't have fitted inside the church. It was poetic in a way considering Mandy's stance on religion. The padre knew of her opinion and thankfully tailored his words accordingly, the one argument that never got resolved between Mandy and I when we talked of death was burned or buried.

Mandy wanted to be burned, she saw no point in having a headstone that would be forgotten about ten years after she was laid to rest. It was also one of the few times I found I had pushed to far and she screamed at me. 'fine then when you get buried you can take my ashes with you and you can have the best of both worlds' slave jumped in then and calmed the situation but I now understood that getting her to change her opinion was a non starter.

Carol-Anne stayed a week before she told us she had to return to Japan. We all took her to the airport and wished her luck and told her to let us know when she landed safely. We had all reached a new stage in our relationship, we felt vulnerable.

I practically had to push Amy back into her law office, when I went to the accountancy office the girls were still hard at it. Each of them looked towards me, more nervous than I was. Telling them all that as far as we were concerned it was business as usual although I would be leaning on them heavily for the foreseeable future since numbers were Mandy's thing and not mine.

We muddled by and after a month I made some changes in the office and promoted who I believed deserved it. Other than the odd week to cover sickness I left things alone for now, still torn between closing the office or selling it to those that run it now.

It was Amy who noticed something about me that I had been spending so much time trying not to be. She had asked Laurel to sit next to me before she spoke.

"Your drifting, you need to stop. Mandy is dead and we have all mourned a dear friend, in your case a slave as well but this has to stop."

Something passed between Laurel and Amy just then, Amy stood and left leaving Laurel to swing her leg over my lap and hold me tight. For the first time since the death of Ginny I cried, poor Laurel hung on for the ride as every emotion that was stored in me unleashed itself upon this world. From great sadness that I was going to miss Mandy so much to anger that we are all so fragile and since none of us are getting any younger, these feelings of loss will be repeated.

It was dark when sanity returned to me, Laurel was tucked into my body and a blanket was placed over both of us. For someone so young Laurel had so much heaped upon her, my next words caught her by surprise and I actually felt her jump.

"Over time we will all die and you will be alone. We have all had great lives and you are just starting yours, perhaps it's time we find you a Master that is the same age as you."

Laurel didn't even move, I knew she was awake I could tell by her breathing.

"This slave chose once and got it ever so wrong, this slave found you and you gave this slave a second chance at being what she wants to be. I am slave and you are my Master you can't change that, this slave won't allow it."

Laurel moved so that she could look directly at me, her collar clear to see sitting snug to her neck.

"For just over three years now I have loved you both as a man and my Master. When you die a piece of me will die, I know that just as I watched a part of you die the day of the service for Mandy. But know this, I give myself willingly to you but I will give myself reluctantly to any Master you choose to give me too. You gave this slave life, please don't suck that life out of her."

It was not in her to refuse me but it was the closest she could get to doing so. We both smiled her words were clear to both of us. Laurel watched as acceptance crept across my face and her smile warmed the room, the blanket fell to the floor as I lifted her into my arms and stood. Amy woke when we came into her room and I dropped slave onto the bed next to her.

"Good she talked some sense into you."

"Oh shut up the both of you."

Between Amy and I we destroyed slave that night, when we couldn't drag another orgasm out of her and she begged for sleep I pulled her up the bed and both of us lay either side of her. Poor Laurel's eyes closed seconds after her head found the pillow I kissed Amy goodnight and our hands found each other as slave tucked herself into me. I was the last to find sleep, the gentle breathing of both women giving that reassuring sound that all was as well in this world as we mere mortals can make it.

*******

We had a party the day Carol-Anne signed the paperwork. Mackenzie's was now a subsidiary of a Japanese company that wanted to branch out into the American market. We all knew that a mind like Carol-Anne's had to have something to do so we talked to the local school and between us and the school we kicked, pushed and generally brow beat her into accepting a position as a guest speaker to all the schools on our area.

It isn't often someone like Carol-Anne ever came to there school and could talk in the millions of dollars. Within eighteen months her reputation escalated to out of state as well and even we had to tell her to calm down, we had started to see less of her now she was doing seminars and talks at schools and colleges than we did when she actually owned Mackenzie's.

Toby had died last summer and Laurel was in the process of breaking in a new horse, Carol-Anne watched from the porch and eventually joined Laurel to watch more closely. Laurel said she would teach her how to ride if she wanted, we can't get her off a damn horse now and two horses now sit in the stable. Most of the time both girls alternate cleaning out the stable but one will cover for the other if vet duty or seminars get in the way.

If we all learned anything from Mandy's death it was that it was coming to us all. You could sit around and wait for it or you could enjoy life while you can and we all chose to enjoy life. We found this place because we wanted a weekend getaway and fell in love with it so hard that we all noticed we spent less time in the city and more here. That in itself told us enough.

Sharing time the folks like the Colson's also made us look inwards and realized something that in our own haste we had failed to see. To others we had what was labeled a polygamous relationship, but to us we were like the Colson's or the Bennett's of this world. We are a family and as such we look out for each other.

When Mandy wanted to finish any argument she always said. 'Where you go we go.' I brought us to this cabin with the best view in the world and one by one it won us over, Laurel came into our lives and even now I still think of her as a gift from Hank. I once asked Laurel if she still looks on herself as a Colson.

True to her nature she thought on the question for a moment and said that until she has another name she would always be known as Laurel Colson, but she notices that to the girls she is Laurel and to me she is slave. The only time she uses Colson now is when she has to sign for something, in some ways since coming here we have all made a small footprint in the sand.

Laurel saved three of the biggest ranches in the state by being in the right place at the right time, the shock waves to the economy if all three went to the wall would have been felt for years to come. When the bank closed it's doors in the name of profit the town council saw the writing on the wall for there town without a bank in it and turned to the most logical people for help.

Our investment monetarily was minimal at best, but people want and expect to see a bank in any town. Amy resigned from the board at the bank three years after the doors opened once again to the townsfolk. She is also part-time at her law firm, she kept three out of the four students who took the scholarship so far. The forth married another lawyer and went to her fathers law firm across state, not bad forward planning on Amy part.

We are happy, I keep Laurel happy as best I can and when I know I can't I give her to the girls to wear out. Its Laurels birthday in three days, the Colson's want to celebrate it and we are going to a cook out at the big house. When we come back we all plan to take on Laurel for the rest of the night.

Laurel says that her birthday ends at midnight and the look she had on her face when I told her that about midnight is when we plan on part two was priceless. I still talk to Ginny and Mandy in my head they never answer but I'm sure they are out there keeping each other company.

The End.