Welcome back!
Ellie: A chapter a day is easy when the story is already done. I write stories that feel true, that I can identify with, and that work for me. Otherwise, I can't get it done. I pace so that each chap has a theme and purpose. Accomplish those, chap is done.
Guest: I don't like telling readers what my stories mean, because that's a reader's prerogative. However, the question was 'I don't get Belle's outrage upon finding out that Gold owns the whole block. What is so bad about that?"
Answer- She's more annoyed that he wasn't more honest about his wealth (she revealed that she wasn't just a tenant, he said nothing). What Belle is furious about (and it perhaps is more explicit in coming chapters) is Gold's use of his position and wealth to control her fate (no one determines my fate but me). This is her work, her adventure, and her success or failure, and this guy just tried to butt in and make decisions for her (just like Gary and her father). IE- Belle is a (stubborn) grown woman, her own person, and damn anyone who tried to take that away.
Juju: When relief comes, the agony makes it even sweeter.
Personal sacrifice moves the queen.
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Big Gambit
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A buzzing sensation brought Nicholas Gold around, rattling between his hand and chest where he'd clasped it. The light in his living room was bright and it streamed through the windows, cutting bright gashes into the room and illuminating the flecks that passed through the beams.
Maybe he should commission Marco to do a new apartment for him as soon as possible. He'd rather like a new one. One that wasn't quite so gloomy all the time.
After a few blinks, he glanced down at the phone. He had a message. Jefferson had the draft of the proposal done and wanted to give it a run through with him.
Come down in a half hour? -G
Will do. Need anything? –J
Coffee. –G
I'll alert Columbia. –J
Unwilling to sit and have to get up again, Gold showered in the marble enclosure. The only concession he made to his discomfort was skipping the silk waistcoat as he dressed, but otherwise he managed to appear his usual self. The bruising on the side of his head was hidden beneath his hair.
There would be no one to see his side.
The maroon shirt that Belle had wrapped herself in was still draped over a chair in his bedroom. He gritted his teeth.
…
Jefferson let himself in and started a pot of coffee immediately. "I've got the draft document. I need you to run over the terms and conditions." He poured a mug and handed it to Gold. "See if you want to make any adjustments."
Gold took the mug and set it on the table, then flipped open the box. "I see. Is the current…occupant amenable to being released from their contract?" He poured his coffee from the mug into his chipped cup. Jefferson stared pointedly. "What?"
"Nothing." Gold's lawyer returned to his papers. "Yes, your last hire was delighted to hear about the opportunity."
"I thought she might. Make sure her boat The Sea Witch is released from dry dock with the understanding that if she's ever caught trolling the waters off my enclosed beach again, I'll host the season's biggest clambake and use her deck boards for kindling."
"Raking her across the coals, are we?"
"If she didn't wish to imperil her boat, she shouldn't have used it to fish Atlantic sturgeon in my coves. Otherwise, I'll rake the coals made by her boat's planks, dumps seaweed on them and let it steam my dinner."
Jefferson raised an eyebrow. "You're bloodthirsty today."
Gold sipped his coffee carefully. "No, I'm just addressing an error I made years ago. I need the head office vacant to make this work." The rough corner of the chip brushed the same corner of his mouth that Belle had spent time licking at. The inadvertent symbolism was not lost on him. "I can right several wrongs at once. It's an opportunity I'm not, for once, going to squander.
Jefferson leaned back from the table and considered. He tapped his lower lip with his pen. "Alright." He picked up a small packet of papers and handed them to Gold. "Here, let's get this done right the first time."
Nicholas Gold peered over the pages and looked over at the mad man he had as his only confidant. "If we pull this off, consider any debt you have with me paid in full."
Jefferson said nothing, but Nicholas Gold saw the faint twitch of a real smile.
…
Mr. Gold did not spend time at his shop on Sunday evenings. Nicholas, however, would make an exception, and as he waited for his swiftly scheduled meeting to commence, he puttered with his enamels and selected the finish for the apothecary chest. Without the pounding in his head, he was feeling rather comfortable, provided he didn't breathe too deeply or turn too fast. His entire side was tender and an obscene shade of bluish brown, with a few patches of veined purple where the great ape's boot was pointed.
He might even get most of the egg done in the next few days, provided business was slow. Or if he closed the shop for a few days, which might be necessary, just to clean up the mess. Jefferson had already arranged for the large cases and the twisted remains of their frames to be removed and the worst of the broken glass swept away, but there were still bits everywhere and stock to be put away and reshelved.
And he wanted to have Belle's pieces done before she got her new contract. Maybe then she could forgive him before she left and never returned.
He nudged the edge of a broom along the bottom of one of his remaining cases and pushed bits of glass free. He wasn't able to hunch over with a dustpan, but he could at least try to find as much of it as he could.
"Mr. Gold?"
He straightened fully and set the broom aside. "Regina. Please come in and do watch for the glass."
He escorted her to the back room and motioned to a chair. Regina Mills set her leather case down and perched on a stool. "So, you said you had a deal that might interest me."
"Indeed, dearie. Though I should tell you it will be the deal of your life. Possibly a deal for your life."
Regina frowned. "Is that a threat?"
"No, it's a life line." He held up a bit of string and laid it across the table. He laced a pretty glass bead on it. "You have, for the better part of your life, been pulled either by one side or another." He tugged on the ends of the string, making the bead shiver and dance across the table. "I am aware that I have been one of the forces." He lifted one end of the string and cradled the bead carefully in a loop. "What if you were able to remove my influence from your life?" He slipped a penknife from a pocket and cleanly sliced the string, freeing one end of the loop and allowing the bead to roll.
Regina watched. "And how would I go about doing that?" She held the bead under a finger. "Your hands, one way or another, are on every single one of my leases, contracts, and sales."
"Let's say I've had a revelation." He set the penknife down and tugged the bead from her fingers by the other end. "Now we are left with one problem: your other force, far more tenacious than I, I suspect." Gold dangled the bead and gave it a spin.
"I'm not a fool, Mr. Gold."
"Please, call me Nicholas."
"I'd rather not." Regina folded her hands together. "I know you're after the property. I've always known that you regretted giving it to me, even if that was a better option than letting my mother have it." Her dark eyes sparkled under the bright work lights and Gold knew the fire was still there. "So why did you do it?"
Nicholas Gold took a deep breath. Regina had sharp eyes and a sharp mind but, for now, lacked the empty-souled drive that animated Cora. "Do you recall the circumstances under which I gifted the property to you?"
"I know there was a major change at the last minute. You originally gave it to my mother, then wrote her out in an eleventh hour move."
"Correct." Gold affirmed. "Do you know why I did that?"
She frowned. "No, I really don't." Regina's blood-red lips curled in a parody of warmth too much like her mother's. "She says you were in love with her."
"Is that so hard to believe?"
"Which part?" Regina's face did not soften with her humor. "The idea that you could be in love or that someone could love her?" There wasn't any good response to that, so he let it go as Regina shook her head. "But that was years before."
"I drafted the deal while your mother and I were still… well." Gold fidgeted. "Then we weren't. You had nothing, and I was already letting your mother manage some smaller contracts. So, after Bae left, I felt like I had to do something. Like I needed to make good on my promise to you."
"But the contract was written to my mother. Not me."
"A mistake I amended, though not terribly well. I'd like to fix that now." Regina was silent. "Do you not wish for autonomy?"
"No, I just can't believe that there's any way to do it. There is nothing she is unaware of. She arranges the hires and I sign off. I can barely pick out paint or remodel a unit without her being there."
Gold tugged the string and made the bead hop across the table. "I have a way."
"Don't play games with me."
He abandoned the string and bead and pulled out a stack of papers. "Did you know, dearie, that I have a company headquarters? It's a charming little office in a cottage on the outskirts of Inverness. The downstairs is a shop that sells everything from ridiculous trinkets and maps for tourists to basic groceries for the locals. It also happens to be the mailing address for all my official business. And at the moment, it is vacant."
"I don't…. what?"
"The apartment above the shop requires a tenant for six consecutive months of the year. The other six the tenant is allowed to travel, take residence elsewhere, whatever they wish, so long as they are present for other six. All that is required is a certain tolerance of the climate and to scan the two or three pieces of mail I receive there every day. The shop already has a minder, but they do not live on the premises." Gold handed Regina the bead. "Do we understand each other now?"
Regina fingered the bead, and looked up at Gold. "We might. Tell me more."
"So long as your mother does not actively dispute the contract and delay it by filing an appeal, I can have the deal in place in the next week."
"What do you mean, dispute? Of course she's going to dispute it! You're trying to ship her off to Scotland!"
"Ah, but I happen to have some information that may make her think twice." Gold handed Regina signed copies of his hospital outpatient files. "You may not have seen the worst of the mess, but I'm sure you heard that I was assaulted. I happen to know my attacker, and that he was hired or at least influenced by your mother."
Regina flipped through the file, and saw the signature of a police officer acknowledging contact. "Did you file a statement? Are you pressing charges?"
"As it so happens, I had a momentary memory lapse that has since cleared. I'm going to have a chat with the young man quite soon with that same officer present. He will run off to your mother and impress upon her the dire nature of the charges should I choose to file." Gold took back his records and placed them safely under the egg. "Do you think you could begin to extricate your holdings from your mother's influence in six months?"
Though her eyes had narrowed, Gold could see the fire grow hotter. She placed her hands flat on the table, framing the documents he'd handed her. "So, you're offering to remove your son from all the property business, thereby loosening your grip on it. You're going to amicably relocate my mother and not press charges for the alleged attack on your person and the damages done to your property."
"Among other things, yes. Those are the issues that pertain to yourself and are addressed within the contract you hold."
She flipped her hair back. "So what's in it for you?"
Gold adjusted his tie. "I need to do this. It's right."
"Bullshit. What's the catch?"
Gold reached forward and flipped the contract to the back page and pointed to a subsection.
"You want me to release the contract on the business space and renegotiate?" Gold nodded. His silence and the strain on his face weren't missed. "So this is what it's all about."
"Hardly. Every big deal requires a trigger. I had to wait more than a decade for one. The fact that I shot myself in the foot in the process is not your concern." He straightened and slid off his stool. "Renegotiate all points, with proper representation. I have reason to believe Miss French had no advocate for her interests."
Regina shrugged. "That wasn't my problem. Sidney did the deals, I just wrote up what Mother wanted." She examined the bead, glittering and deep red shot through with flecks of metals. "So, why now? When there's enough to ruin us and take it back?"
Gold folded his hands over his cane handle. "Because I deeply suspect that your silent partner would be as horrified by that action as you are that I haven't done it."
Regina smiled. "Bae was a good boy."
"I know."
…
Regina had stayed in the back room of the shop while Gold and Officer Swan put Young Gary through his paces. By the end, the thick idiot was shaking and ran directly across the street to warn his handler. Regina promised to examine the contract and get back to him the following day.
Evening drew near and Gold was weary. A good deal was usually invigorating, but he was worn down, either by the unbelievably personal nature of the whole affair, the physical injuries that plagued him or some combination thereof.
Either way, the mess swirled through his head the entire walk home and all the way up to his apartment. Someone had seen fit to put sheets on his new bed and supply him with a few mild painkillers.
He dialed his phone.
"Jefferson."
"Grace still with you?"
"No, she's back with her mom."
"Do I owe you some thanks? Or have the fairies been to my place and seen to me?"
"If fairies had done it, they would have left you better pills. I can't have you sleeping on your couch when you have a new bed."
"Hmph." Gold tried to stretch as much as his side would let him. "Regina is go. Gary is go. I am stop."
"You should write children's books."
"And yet I write contracts instead. Good night, Jefferson. The first batch of news should be in late tomorrow. I'm going to the shop for the day."
"Don't overdo it."
"Tell me what to do again and I'll reconsider my offer to you."
"Good night, sir."
The mention of Ursula was inspired by audreyii_fic. She is the author of the brilliant Of Maids and Merchandise.
Thanks for reading! Lurve, pls?
