Cora's head fell heavily into her hands as her weariness finally caught up to her.  She had been trying to plug a sinking boat for too long.  If something didn't change soon...she didn't even want to finish that thought.  She would take on more commissions, or find another way to make more money, there were too many people depending on her for her to fail.

Margie sat a mug of coffee at her elbow and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Leon and I can go a few months without a salary if that would help," she said in her soft Scottish accent.

Cora felt the tears threaten again as she reached up and placed her hand over Margie's. "We're not that bad off yet," she lied. "I would just feel more comfortable if we had a little extra, that's all."

"Is everything ready for Miss Patty and Dr. Foley this morning?" Cora asked as she took a sip of the warm coffee, letting it sooth her scratchy throat. The only thing worse than crying was trying not to cry.

"Yes, Leon and I put a few extras in the baskets this week for the holiday. I wish we could have them here to celebrate it with us." Margie moved towards the tray she was preparing for Cora to take up to her aunt.

"Aunt Mable would never allow it." Cora had asked her aunt many times to include her brother's, Cora's father's friends in their celebrations, but the answer was always no, coupled with the question; did Cora think she was made of money?

Cora knew for a fact that Aunt Mable was sitting on a nice little nest egg even though she wasn't sure exactly how nice it was, but there was no way that she had withheld as much as she had from the household account and not have saved something over the last five years.

"The tray is ready Cora."

Sighing, Cora reached over for the large scarf she wore over her head. Her aunt claimed that her vibrant red hair was upsetting and demanded that she cover it whenever she was in her presence. Cora's hair wasn't a pretty shade of auburn or strawberry blond, it was red orange, and the color of a carrot in Cora's opinion.

After tucking the accounting books into the kitchen drawer where she stored them, she wrapped the scarf around her head as she thought of the long list of chores that awaited her that afternoon. The old house they lived in was built in the 1880s and hadn't been updated much since then. The only room that had been modernized was the kitchen and it looked like something out of a 1950s-magazine advertisement. There was a lot of pink in the room.

Cora picked up the tray and climbed the stairs from the basement, where the kitchen was, and pushed through the baize door that led into the main hall of the house. It came out just behind the majestic staircase that looked like something out of an old movie. The house had been built by her father's predecessors and had been in the family since the time of its construction.

The building was shaped like an H with a great two story hall in the center that held the elaborate staircase. The center hall had five rooms off of it and all of the rooms were very large and grand and impossible to heat. Upstairs consisted of six bedrooms, two of the bedrooms had been divided to include bathrooms. One of these rooms was her aunts, who had the bathroom was an en-suite. The room that Cora had was the other sub-divided room, but it was not an en-suite. The bathroom next to her room served as the main one for the house.

One of Cora's favorite places since she was a little girl was the attic, and it was there that Cora hid her drawing table and supplies. There was also an old atrium off the back of the main hall, but it had gone to seed a long time ago.  Cora managed to keep a small corner behind a screen green, but it was getting harder and harder to keep up and with the lack of income, it might be one of the things that she could no longer continue.

Cora fought so hard to keep a small space green because it had been her mother and father's favorite place. Many of her happiest memories of them were in the atrium. Her father, Phillip Scott, had fallen in love with her mother, according to him, at first sight. He had married her almost immediately and had adopted Cora as an infant. The Scotts were one of Boston's oldest and finest families, at least they had been. The only ones to uphold the family now were Cora and her aunt, Mable Scott-Reed.

Aunt Mable had made a very advantageous marriage, but it had been late in life so she had not had any children of her own. Cora's parents, Philip and Eileen Scott, had taken Aunt Mable in after her husband's death some fifteen years earlier. Shortly after she came to live with them Cora's mother, Eileen, had died, leaving only Cora, her father, and Aunt Mable in the house.

Aunt Mable had convinced her father, just prior to his death while he had been deathly ill, that Cora, who was only twenty-one, was unable to manage the financial responsibility of such a house, and Mable had succeeded in inheriting not only the house but the money as well. The only good point in her father's will was that the house had to be left to a family member as long as there was one willing to take it, and that all family members got the first right of refusal should it ever be decided to sell the house.

Not that there was any way that Cora could ever afford to buy the house.

There were many reasons why Cora stayed in such an unpleasant situation; she had nowhere to go, no education, and no money because every dime she earned she sunk back into the house; but her primary reason was Margie and Leon Hall. They only had a few years left until retirement, and if she left they wouldn't last long without her. The only reason they stayed was because of her, but if they left the chances that they would find new jobs was almost non-existent, so she stayed to protect them.

Cora started the long climb up the stairs and went left at the top. Her aunt's room was the corner room that overlooked the front of the house. She balanced the tray as she walked down the long gallery, reaching up to adjust her scarf before she knocked on the door.

"Enter!" the strong voice commanded.

Cora entered looking towards her aunt where she laid propped up in her bed. She had taken to her bed a year ago, even though there wasn't anything wrong with her then. Cora was of the mind that Mable realized just how uncomfortable the living conditions in the rest of the house were becoming so she had made a little oasis in her room.

"I need more wood for the fire, Cora. Have Leon bring me some more."

"Yes, Aunt Mable," Cora agreed as she opened her curtains and laid the tray on her lap.

Aunt Mable was a small woman who reminded Cora of a bird.  She had a beaky nose and narrow eyes, her gray hair was long, scraggly, and loose around her shoulders unless she was going out, if she was going out she pulled it back into a severe bun. The woman, despite her need to constantly eat, was rail thin adding to her appearance of sickliness.

She and her Doctor both insisted that she was sick but Cora had a hard time believing it.

Cora tidied the room, stoked the fire, and fluffed Aunt Mable's pillows. "I have to go out this morning Aunt Mable, is there anything that you need before I leave?"

"No, when will you return?"

"I should be back shortly after lunch."

The woman grunted as she shoved another fork full of egg into her mouth.

Cora sat silently on the chair in the corner as she always did and waited for her Aunt to finish her meal. She noticed her aunt kept looking at her with a smug look, as if she had a piece of news that she couldn't wait to share. Knowing her aunt, it would be bad news.

Cora didn't have long to wait, about five minutes later the doorbell rang.

"That's Garrett Reed, my nephew. He's here to take over the running of the house since you seem incapable of doing it properly."

Cora kept her calm expression in place, to show surprise or concern would have pleased her aunt too much. "If your done with your tray I'll take it down to the kitchen and send your nephew up to you."

Cora waited for her aunt to give her approval for the tray's removal before she rose and took the tray. When she was out of the room with the door closed behind her, she sagged against it in despair. She couldn't help the few tears that snuck out of her closed eyes. She couldn't take many more challenges.

Maybe Garrett Reed wasn't a challenge, she wiped her eyes. She had heard of him, he was at the top of Boston's blue blood society, he had money, and power, and he was known to be a little rude and cold hearted in his business dealings. She couldn't imagine that he was here to run a house.  He had to be too busy running the Reed empire which consisted of more businesses than one could count.

Maybe he could help her get her more money or help her talk to her aunt.

Still hesitant, but with a little glow of hope she started down the stairs only to stop halfway down at the sight of the man in front of her as he was taking off his coat and handing it to Margie.

He was not what she had expected, she had expected someone who was middle aged, slightly balding, and pudgy around the middle, but that description definitely did not fit Garrett Reed.  He had to be one of the handsomest men she had ever seen.

He had jet black curly hair, a strong jaw and sharp nose with high cheekbones, and the iciest blue eyes she had ever seen. His gaze raked over her as if she was hardly worth the effort. Taking his time, he looked around the hall, but he was guarding his thoughts well as his gaze fell back to Cora.

'I'm here to see my Aunt Mable." His voice was hard and cold just like his eyes, and Cora felt her little spark of hope vanish, there would be no help from this man.

'She's expecting you, if you'll follow me," Cora said as she turned her back to the tall man as he joined her on the stairs. He towered above her and she had the thought that he was even better looking up close. He was almost too perfect in his handsomeness.

Cora's father had been an avid researcher of folk tales, and Garrett Reed brought to mind the story of the Selkie. It was a story about a seal that could become a man. The story told that the Selkie only emerged from the sea after a young woman cried seven tears into the sea. He transformed into a perfectly handsome man after emerging from the water, and he would hide his seal skin on the beach then find the young crying woman in order to seduce her. In the stories the young woman was always innocent or married, and after she had been seduced, and her life ruined, the Selkie would return back to the sea, leaving her to a lonely existence. The only way you could force a Selkie to stay on land was to steal their skin and hide it from them.

She looked over at Garrett's cold profile and dark hair, his eyes reminded her of the sea and she had cried a little that morning, perhaps he was a Selkie. Shaking the whimsical thought off with a small smile, Cora delivered him to Aunt Mable, then looking at her watch, she decided that she could no longer stay to see what happened.

"Who was that?" Margie asked as she joined her in the kitchen.

'That was Aunt Mable's nephew. Garrett Reed."

'Her nephew?"

'Yes, must be her husband's brother's son." Cora pushed him from her mind as she gathered her drawings to submit to her agent and the baskets for Dr. Foley and Ms. Patty. "I'll be back after lunch. You might want to take some coffee up to Mr. Reed."

She didn't have time to tell her and Leon about the new state of affairs.  She would have to do it when she returned. Hopefully Aunt Mable wouldn't break the news to Margie.