Thank you to Blissful Thinking for being my beta for this story

Three years previously at Pendragons Corporation.

Arthur's day couldn't have gotten off to a worse start: first his car wouldn't start, then when he finally arrived at work his father immediately demanded he go to his office.

Now Arthur had been working for his father for the six month period after finishing his business degree at Cambridge, and although he went straight in as Vice President, he was after all his father's only son, he was already hating it. His father seemed to have ridiculous expectations on what Arthur should achieve. Although, that shouldn't have been a surprise as that had always been the case. Top marks in everything or why not, he was after all a Pendragon. Uther had built his business up from nothing to the largest company of its kind in the UK after all. So why shouldn't his son be able to achieve the same?

Arthur also hated how his father ran the business and his attitude to his employees, yet nothing Arthur said or did made any difference. He walked up to his father's office and Catrina his father P.A, and latest mistress, told him to go straight in.

"He's been waiting for you," she drawled, in a tone that spoke volumes.

Arthur walked in, his back straight and shoulders tense, as he wondered what he hadn't done this time. Uther Pendragon was sat behind his large mahogany desk, glaring at his son as he entered.

"What time is this to get to work?" he snarled, "You know better than to arrive at this late hour."

"Sorry Sir, the car wouldn't start." Arthur never called his father anything other than Sir at work.

Without even asking his son to sit, Uther ignored his son's excuse. "Never let it happen again do you hear?" he paused, "sit down."

Arthur sat in the most uncomfortable chair in the building, his father once told him it had been chosen especially for that reason, and all employees who were called to the office suffered the chair knowing that they had displeased the CEO.

"Morgause Gorlois has been witch hunting again, she is coming with her cronies to go through the books. That woman has it in for me, just because I wouldn't adhere to her demands."

Arthur felt like rolling his eyes, the woman in question worked for the Inland Revenue as one of their top fraud investigators. She had expressed concern about the amount of tax Pendragons had been paying and also the management of company's pension fund. Uther in his normal brash style had at first treated her with a very sexist manner and insulted her abilities, then when that didn't work he had made threats. Uther had friends in high places and had no compunction about using them.

"Sir, perhaps we should cooperate more, she does work for the government after all," Arthur suggested.

"You are a fool! They already take more than they should of me! Everything I do is legal and within the law. Pendragons, like every company, has to take advantage of loopholes otherwise we wouldn't make a profit and without profit we wouldn't be employers," Uther immediately retorted.

It was an argument Arthur had been hearing all too often since he had taken up his position. Yet despite that, Uther still wouldn't give him access to the information so he could double check everything. In his frustration, Arthur looked at his father. "So what do you expect me to do? You won't let me look at the information. Without that I can't do anything"

Uther looked at his son, "You're a good looking man, use your imagination. She would be a fool, an unmarried woman of her years, not to be flattered Fend her off!"

Arthur gasped, "Are you suggesting….?"

"To be in business you need to use every advantage. This will be your company one day so stop being so prudish." Uther looked at his son sharply, "Now, do as you are told."

Arthur stood up and, without saying another word, walked out of his father's office. During the rest of the day he got very little work done as he thought through what his father had suggested. There was no way he would prostitute himself out, this was going too far. As the office started to empty, he was still sat at his desk lost in thought. At six, when his father walked in, he looked up.

"I'm off, I have a chamber of commerce meeting tonight so get that report finished before you leave. I expect it on my desk when I get in at eight," then without further ado he was gone.

Arthur was used to working long hours, it was something his father expected, but he had hardly started the report in question and until he sorted out something in his mind he knew it wouldn't get done.

Waiting for half an hour, to make sure his father was gone, he got up and walked to his father's office. He went to the desk to find it locked, no problem with that, he probably wouldn't find what he wanted there anyway. Then he turned to the hidden safe behind the picture of the Pendragon company logo on the wall. Just how corny was that! He wasn't supposed to know the combination but his father wasn't always as careful as he thought he was. It was almost as if Arthur knew this day would come. Opening the safe he found a key, just what he was looking for. Turning to the door of the small room to one side, where his father kept his spare suit and sofa that he sometimes slept on if Uther worked too late to go home. Arthur turned the handle and opened the door.

Arthur went to the corner and pulled out a bookshelf and under that found a floor safe. It had been years beforehand, when he was about ten, when Uther thought Arthur was asleep on the bed, that his father had crept in and gone to the safe. Arthur grinned at the memory, he had been on holiday from boarding school and his father had brought him to work for the day, to show him what he would be running in the future. The only time it happened, Arthur had got bored in a meeting and had crept in and fallen asleep. Arthur had watched his father through slightly opened eyes knowing his father would have been upset, had he known his son was awake. Ever since then Arthur wondered why his father had needed two safes. Now he would find out.