A Summer's Affair (closed)

[TheAntiRebel]

Jonathan Medfield
Age 31
Tall, Broad Shoulders, Muscular Build, Dirty Blond Hair, Deep Blue Eyes, Square Chin

------

Cape Cod, Massachusetts
May 1921

Jonathan looked out the window of the 1920 Cadillac he found himself riding in and watched the trees go by as the car buzzed down the narrow road. Occasionally, the trees would give way to a driveway as they buzzed by, usually providing a brief glimpse of a massive mansion.

For his whole life, he had been surrounded by wealth like this, but he had always been an outsider. His mother had taught English at Dartmouth and his father was the rowing coach. Thanks to his parents, he had gotten a free Ivy League education there, but his classmates always seemed to sniff him out and treat him differently, as if they could smell the fact that his family wasn’t Old Money.

He proved himself, however, on the polo field. He took a liking to the sport and led Dartmouth to two Ivy League championships. Dartmouth kept him on as a polo coach for a few years, before he was wooed away to Columbia for the same position. From there, he joined an ill-fated professional polo team which collapsed. But, the banker who owned the team had hired Jonathan to teach his 12-year-old daughter how ride horses. That started his career as an equestrian tutor and that career led him here, north, to Cape Cod.

He had been hired by the Rossi family to teach their youngest daughter how to ride horses. Room and board would be provided, he would be allowed to live with their other servants for the summer, and he would be paid $3,000 for the summer, which was considerably generous. For Jonathan, it was a job to get him through the summer. The pay was a bit better than usual and he expected it to be a typical job, teaching a child how to ride horses.

“First time on the Cape?” the chauffeur driving the car asked.

“Yes, actually,” Jonathan asked.

“A lovely enough place, I suppose. A bit cooler than the Hamptons in the summer.”

“How’s it like working for the Rossi family?”

“Oh, most of the kids are nice. The mother is a bit stuffy and well… I wouldn’t cross Old Man Rossi. He’s been known to fire the help for the smallest transgression.”

Jonathan considered this, then added, “Good thing I’m not serving him his eggs and toast in the mornings, then. I’m just here to teach their daughter how to ride, nothing more.”

The graying chauffeur rolled his eyes at him in the rear view mirror. “Just be sure you only teach her how to ride horses, young man.”

Jonathan was taken aback by the comment. Before he could reply, the Cadillac turned off the main road and headed down a long drive through the Rossi estate. In the center was a collection of buildings, the mansion, the staff dormitory, the stables, and a few other small buildings. The estate itself seemed to go on endlessly with rolling green hills, some forested areas, and even an ocean beach off in the distance.

They stopped outside the mansion and Jonathan grabbed his suitcase and climbed out of the back seat of the Cadillac unassisted. He thanks the chauffeur for the ride, then headed up to the house, suitcase in hand. The butler intercepted him there.

“Welcome, Mr. Medfield. We’ve been expecting you. I hope your trip was fine,” the butler said.

“It was okay. My first time in a Cadillac,” Jonathan added.

“How quaint. This way, please,” the butler said in a sarcastic tone. He lead Jonathan out of the mansion to the staff dormitory. After the curt response, Jonathan had little wish to engage him further in small talk.

The butler showed him to his room for the summer. It wasn’t unlike a university dorm, a small room, with a single bed, closet, desk, chair and lamp. It was pretty minimal, but for $3,000 pay, he could live here for three months.

Jonathan was filled in on when the staff meals were served, then the butler promptly disappeared. Now directionless and without any current orders, he unpacked his clothes into the closet before leaving the staff dorms and heading back into the mansion. He asked a maid where the youngest daughter was, and was told she was somewhere upstairs.

Alone, Jonathan headed upstairs, looking around. “Hello? Anybody here? I’m looking for the youngest daughter. I’m Jonathan Medfield, the equestrian coach?” he called out. The house felt so large and empty.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

Viola Rossi
18 years old
5'4", 126 lbs, 34C-24-35
Auburn hair with a natural curl and wavy to it, worn longer then the current trends but will submit to pinning it up for the sake of her mother. Expressive roundish almond eyes in a light hazel color that displays hues of greens, blues and browns. Light skin with a faint rosy blush to it that freckles easily but oddly enough doesn't burn in the sun despite it's delicate color. A slim body with a dancer's grace that shows none of the hidden strength that it has.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Robert Rossi was fourty-one when he learned that he would be a father again. At thirty-seven Irma never would have expected getting pregnant again, not at her age but just a week after her thirty-eigth birthday she gave birth to the Rossi family's first baby girl. She was the youngest of the three children born t Robert and Irma but with twenty years of differences between Charles the first born and nineteen years between her and George, Viola grew up in a setting much like that of a only child.

From a young age Viola was loved and cared for, spoiled even. It was the way of the upper class and with the Rossi being the wealthiest family in the area there was little to nothing that Viola didn't have or want. Yet that didn't make her rotten like she noticed in the other children she interacted with that came from money. She watched as fits were thrown and toys were broken and swept under the rug. It wasn't something that Viola ever understood. In her household when someone did wrong they were punished for it, even her.

But as time went by her parents got older and the energy that it took to keep up with a young girl who fund a wonder in the world that could only be quieted by exploration became too much of the elderly parents and because of that Viola was sent off to a boarding school at the age of seven and stayed there for the next eleven years, coming home only for holidays and breaks in the academic year.

During those years at Linden Hall Viola learned a great many things and sharpened her mind like the good little girl that they wanted her to be but she saw more in the world then what they were just teaching her. She was witnessing the subtle change of their times. The status of the common women was changing and it excited Viola like nothing had ever before. Not one to sit and watch Viola joined the cause and devoted her free time to things that had once been considered 'wrong' for a woman.

The school tagged her as a troublemaker, a rebel but as their highest academically ranked student and as the child of the Rossi family there was little they could do but put up with Viola's antics and pray that she would soon grow out of them. It wasn't in their favor because the more that Viola knew the more she wanted to learn. And by the time that she graduated from Linden Hall she had started a school movement with nearly half of the boarding girls. Their motto was 'Fear nothing!' and 'Nothing worthwhile can be learned without risk!'. What had started as a group of friends meeting up on their free time to make their own clothes and hit the town in search of fun became a breeches wearing, motorcycle riding, life living club coined as 'We Are...' and finished by every member's wish or want. Many of the times the women finished it with; 'We are strong!' or 'We are courageous!', 'We are beauty and brains!'. For Viola it was 'We are the want for a better tomorrow!'.

With all that had been going on in Viola's life at school she hadn't been able to make it home in the last four years and when the car came to pick her up from Linden Hall to take her home there was an emptiness as she looked back at the place that had been her home and all the faces of the friends and family she had made over the years she had been there. As everyone was saying their goodbyes Viola had been the only one not to cry and taking one last look she felt her throat tighten with emotions. 'I will not cry tear of sadness.' She told herself as she turned her head away from all that she felt secure in. 'There have been too many good times to sour with tears of sadness.' Viola reminded herself as she got into the car.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Four weeks later...

It had been a battle since Viola came back home. Time and experience had changed Viola in the last four years that her mother didn't or hadn't expected.

"You were supposed to come home a Lady!" Her mother argued again, backed this time with both her brother's wives. Viola had only met Charles' wife that one time the last time she came home and hadn't even met the other. Because of that Viola had little understanding on why they got to weigh in so heavily in her life why she knew so little if anything about them.

"I am a Lady." Viola sighed.

"Ladies don't wear that." Snuffed Dorothy, Charles' wife.

"They what, pray tell, does one wear when riding a motorcycle?"

"A Lady does not ride motorcycles!" Eleanor the wife of George said before Viola's mother could.

"We got you that horse for a reason." Her mother tried again, pushing the horse on her in trade for the cycle.

"Which I gave a very good go at if I do recall. Hmm, it gets a little fuzzy. Wait didn't I bump my head when the beast threw me off? Maybe I didn't give it all that good of a go, my head after all has been damaged." She really had given the horse a try. They had the creatures at school as well but she had never taken to the animals like her friends had. Viola had preferred the speed and complete control the motorcycle had given her over the battling of two mind that she ran into with a horse.

"It was just a brush." Irma waved away as if the landing hadn't left her daughter bruised and sore for a week.

Viola sighed tired with this fight, tired with all the fights and arguments she and her mother and her brother's wives had all the time. They just didn't accept the 'this is me' speech when she was asked why she was the way she was. "If we could compromise a little-"

"You can't wear breeches while riding a horse." Eleanor snapped.

"Well you can't straddle a saddle in riding skirts!" Viola returned with the same tone and felt emotion.

"That's why it's called side saddle. Ladies don't straddle." Again from Eleanor.

Viola tried to fight the snicked and comment she felt like sharing. Unless all the scholars were wrong there women should be straddling things more often. It was a new view on having a healthy life means having a healthy sex life. It was a prescription for married couples in a unhappy marriage that she felt her sister-in-laws could benefit from.

"We're never going to get her married to a proper family." Irma sobbed covering her face and her sudden break of emotions. The two wives rushed to comfort Irma and embrace her all the while glaring daggers and poison at Viola.

"By the green grass..." Viola sighed leaving the women of her family. She didn't like that she made her mother cry but she didn't understand why she had to change. She wasn't a bad person just someone with new and different views that the world was slowly but surely embracing.

Given the west wing of the manor gave Viola the false sense of privacy from the rest of her family who occupied the rest of the house. But she soon came to realize it was so the women could better corner her why they felt she wasn't doing something the proper way. It also put distance between her and her father who although gruff, cold and a bit mean protected his daughter on the claims that she's just like him when he was young.

Because of that distance between the main doors and her rooms the voice's echo was soft and distorted by the time it reached Viola's ears. Knowing that all the staff knew of the noise rules of the house Viola hurried towards the sounds intrigued by who felt comfortable enough in their house to just enter but wasn't informed enough to know how her father felt about excessive noise.

"Hello?" Viola seemed to spot the man first and when she did he had already made it up the stairs, another break in the family rules. Many in fact. "Is there something I can help you with?" Dressed as she was in riding boots, breeches and a button down she doubted the man would see her as who she was. From first glance she didn't know the man but that didn't mean that someone in her family didn't. In the last four years since she had been home there had been a number of new additions that she hadn't known about. An instance that maybe reading her letters from home would have been helpful rather then just skimming them over.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Jonathan spun around and saw a stunning young woman standing there. She was young and beautiful, with a perfect slender body. Jonathan couldn’t help but skim her body with his eyes, an instinctive male reaction that he wished he had just suppressed. She was a bit older than the Rossi daughter he was supposed to teach, he assumed, and was dressed rather plainly. Jonathan wondered if she was some sort of stable girl, or perhaps a daughter of the horse trainer or something.

He realized he was considerable undressed compared to the other servants in the house, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers and a tight green polo shirt. “I apologize if I’m somewhere I’m not supposed to be,” he said. “I’m Jonathan Medfield, from Long Island. The equestrian coach,” he explained, although he was sure she heard his yelling as he climbed up the stairs. “Mr. Rossi hired me to teach his youngest daughter how to ride horses,”

He smiled at her. “I’m afraid the butler wasn’t much help. He showed me to the staff dorm and disappeared. I have the growing suspicion that there’s so much going on around here that a lot goes unnoticed,” he said with a smirk in a slightly flirtatious voice. “So, I’m trying to find a member of the family for some direction or instruction.”

 

[Sexual_Muse]

When such a look would have fueled her into a fit, Viola welcome the head to toe body check with his eyes as a distraction to the hissy that the proper women of the house were holding in her bedroom. For a moment she thought about returning to her room and asking if Ladies acted in such a manor but Viola didn't want to risk not being able to get away a second time.

"Jonathan Medfield." His words upon introducing himself weren't as welcome. Viola's first reaction was purely emotional and blinded her with her own stubborn pride. How dare they. If she had wanted to learn to ride a horse she could have while at Linden Hall. That she made the choice not to they should have respected. Like a little girl she wanted to storm over to her father's library and cry about the unfairness of her mother and her brother's wives, to get him on her side and send this man away. Because whatever it was that this man said about her father hiring him, he was wrong. Her father would have told her about him if he had indeed hired this man.

It took longer then Viola would admit to get over her childish fit and reassess the current situation. Not feel rude at all for returning the body skim, Viola looked him over much in the same way he had her. His dress was casual, the shirt nearing obscene for her mother's taste while being enjoyable for her own tastes. There was nothing on him that labeled a brand of some sort nor was there a glint of luxury in his outfit. Just that alone told Viola more then what he had just told her. That he was a working man she could gather and support by his introduction but that he was the sort to work with it rather then sit on the side lines and coach was a tell as far as she was concerned.

"He never is." Viola smiled speaking of the butler. "But his family has been with the house since it's standing, so it's kind of like a package deal." She joked. "A far as the going on's here..." Her tone turned in the slightest of ways flirtious. "It would shock you blushing mad what goes on unnoticed." And another jest that hit a little too close to the truth but Viola cloaked it with a teasing half smile.

Viola wondered where he mother had found this man, convinced as she was that her father had nothing to do with his. He didn't seem the kind to advertise at country clubs or hand out flyers at stables and matches. No this had to be a word of mouth thing but even so where would they have heard it. Also knowing her mother she would have had strict rules drawn up for him and an hourly expected day plan so that when he wasn't teaching her he wouldn't get in the way of things. So maybe it was one of the wives?

Either way Viola was starting to see the opportunity before her. Maybe this man was the ticket to her freedom. Surely he would rather have his own time then teach her. It would be easy enough to come to mutual terms where he would let her go on her own within the block of time that he had her while he did whatever it was that equestrian coaches did. Yes that would be the-

So deep in thought and plans that Viola didn't hear her mother and the wives behind her arrive.

"A guest?" Eleanor's voice doubted that's what the man was while pretending to give him false kindness.

"May I present Mr Jonathan Medfield the equestrian coach for Mr Rossi's youngest daughter." Viola spoke up turning to face her mother so she could watch her reaction to the announcement. "He's trying to find a member of the family for some direction." She added flatly.

Her mother didn't so much as bat an eye at the introduction. "And you've kept him?" Was all she said but Viola heard the underline meaning. "Show him to the stables." Irma smiled. "I'm sure my husband has told you that we want our daughter to learn to ride like a proper lady. Sidesaddle with the proper riding attire. Full skirts not arpons or culottes." She clarified.

There was no sense bring it up again, especially in front of someone not in the family. What her mother had heard and ignored once was just going to be ignored again. While still a new concept in their culture, women's fashion and the acceptable don of breeches was a coming fashion statement for a new age girl. But she couldn't make her mother hear her, even when she tried to compromise with a split skirt her mother would hear none of it.

"Well?" Irma's attention turned from Mr Medfield to Viola.

"To the stables we go." Viola sighed pricked by the smirk on Eleanor's face. "Mr Medfield," The estate was large and the stables were on the other side of the grounds and she wanted his attention so he wouldn't get lost as she guided him to his destination. "Shall we?" She asked polity all form of playful flirtations gone from her voice and body language.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

When the older woman arrived, it slowly dawned on Jonathan that he had been mistaken. The younger woman was apparently Viola. She was a bit older than most of his students, and that had thrown him off. Not to mention her dress and beauty as well. Maybe he had hoped she was some stable girl or something so he could have a chance at some secret summer tryst in the staff dorms over the summer.

When the young woman led him off to the stables, the sudden appearance of the older woman seemed to have killed all the fun in her mood. “So, I suppose you’re Viola,” he said. “And was that your mother? She seemed to put a damper on the conversation.”

As they trotted towards the stables, he snuck a peak at her rear-end. Her breeches weren’t the most form-fitting clothing, but she looked rather shapely from what he could tell as she walked. As they headed outside and across the perfectly maintained lawn towards the stables, Jonathan sped up to walk alongside her.

“Listen, Viola, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know a damn about riding sidesaddle. I never taught anybody how to ride sidesaddle and I don’t intend to start now.” He continued. “I’ll teach you how to ride regularly. If that’s not what you want, they we’ll go back and I’ll tell your mother that this won’t work out and I’ll try to catch a train back to New York, is that a deal?”

He could already tell she was a headstrong, confident strong young woman. Treating her like a child would get him nowhere, and judging by her curt reaction to her mother, he doubted that treating her like a proper wealthy New England woman would get him much anywhere, either. He decided that he would have to treat her like an equal, with no bullshit, and get as straight to the point as possible.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

"You picked up on that quicker then I would have thought." Viola had no idea to who Jonathan thought she was but she guessed that he hadn't expected her to be the daughter he had come here for. "And yes, that's the Lady of the house and my mother." There was a slight hint of bitterness in her tone that only grew when she said the next part. "The two women behind her are the wives to my older brothers." She informed him. "For them the idea of a Lady having fun is outrageous. So naturally I must have none what so ever." It was a tab bit over dramatic but Viola couldn't help feeling that way after their introduction of rules and structure they saw fit to place on her. And the saw she saw it this man was just another tool at her mother's disposal.

There had been a time, before she had been sent off, that she had known every face and name to every person that lived, worked and visited here but so much had changed that now all she saw were strangers where once there had been friends. If the gossip was to be trusted, which it shouldn't be, the wives had done away with all the servants that they didn't like. In the end it left a very small handful that still remained and none were people that Viola had called friends.

She looked back at Jonathan as he sped up to catch her. He was nice to look at but if he would be a friend or not it was too early to tell. If she was right about why he was here she doubted that he would fall in the friend category.

The way he talked to her initially shocked her. It was a pleasant surprise but a surprise none the less. "Maybe my father did hire you." Viola slowly smiled rethinking everything though she had from the moment she saw him to now. "What about this," They were in the middle of one of the expansive lawns and there was no one around to hear them. As it went this was as much privacy as they were likely to get. "How about we just pretend that I'm doing these lessons. I'm sure the last thing you want to be doing is teaching some girl how to ride when she cares little for horses or the riding of them." His offer was a good one but it wasn't want she wanted so she continued with her proposal. "I'll meet you here everyday, every other day or however many times this riding lesson thing goes on for and then from there we can go our own ways. I'll return here before the end of our 'lesson' and we can call that, that." Viola smiled not at all doubting that Jonathan would rather have his own time then spending it teaching her. "No one will be the wiser and we will both have much more fun."

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Jonathan watched her smile at him and he returned it with a big grin. There was something about Viola that he couldn’t put his finger on. All the other wealthy heiresses he had tutored, even at a young age, had an air of entitlement and arrogance about them. Viola was different, she seemed rebellious and more akin to somebody you’d find in the “real” world.

He found her plan entertaining. She didn’t play games and knew what she wanted, which he admired. It would also make his time here considerably easier, but he wondered exactly what he would do here if not his job. Most of the servants seemed much older than him. He was surrounded by acres and acres of somebody else’s palatial estate, and he had no means to get to any nearby town to find some local entertainment. Surely there were so many books he could read in that cramped dormitory room they had given him.

“Fine, I’ll play along with your little ruse if you want,” he said, “But, I think before we run off and do whatever clandestine activity we’re going to do during our lessons, we should spend some time chatting together. The whole scam would fall apart if somebody else asked me something about you and I didn’t know anything. I think we should spend a bit of our lesson time actually together. Maybe down by the beach?” He suggested. He wasn’t foolhardy to actually lay a finger on her. Out here, they probably would cut off his head and the police would never find out. But, spending an hour or two with a beautiful eighteen year old in the sun for the summer wouldn’t be too bad, right?

“You may not like why they sent me here, but trust me, I’m really quite charming when you get to know me,” he said with a smirk as he walked next to her.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

Spend sometime chatting together?

The airs that she fought against, that mentality everyone in her family had, even her father. Roared and Viola's chin rose slightly up into the air. The words almost escaped out of her mouth before she could stop them. For half a breath she had almost asked him why she would tell him anything about herself. They were not friends and they seemed to have nothing in common. That were would be no fault in their ruse because proper ladies don't talk to the hired help. It was that last smile killing thought that had the young woman rethinking her prior offer and her immediate dismissal of his counter.

"Quite charming you say." Viola lingered, her mind recalling the roster of all the people who lived or worked on the estate. Jonathan was the youngest of the list who she wasn't related to. He didn't seem to be a spy for her mother, which gained him more points then she was ever going to admit to him. Again her eyes took in his form, slower this time seeing everything that was there on the surface. He was definitely a nice man to look at. "You have been hold true to your words, Sir." There was a teasing note in Viola's threat as a smile came back to her face.

The stables were in sight and Viola felt conflicted at it's appearance. The building was grand, like all things on the property; standing two stories tall build from hand cut light stone bricks. The inside was done in the same light shades of brick and rich dark woods. There were stalls enough to house over a dozen horses, four wash bays, a large tack room with a separate feed room and the second story was halved as a hay loft and Master of the Horses' quarters. Detached was an all seasons indoor riding arena opposite the clearing used for practice rides and training. Once upon a time the family bred thoroughbreds but had long since stopped finding it to be too much trouble. Now the stable was simply the home of the horses bought by the family numbering in the half a dozen at best and taken care of by the grounds staff.

Viola had once loved the animals, spent time and became friends with them. In fact she had been there for the birth of the last horse and had fallen in love. She and Butterfly were the best of friends and it had broken her heart when her mother had sold the horse a year and a half later after promising that she could keep the horse. It was what had turned her from the animals. That and her mother's controlling nature over what she had once loved. Where Viola had seen a passion for horses and a comfort of just being around them, her mother had seen a prized show rider and had pushed her to learn to ride despite her fears.

It suddenly dawned on her that she was showing Jonathan the way to the stables. They had no hired staff to take care of the horses, that Jonathan was the first person they had hired for the horses, in a way, since the last Master of the Horses. A position that hadn't been filled since before Viola had been born. "Where are you staying if not at the stables?" She knew that the rooms for temporary hires were small and cramped offering little to nothing in comfort. It made sense in her own mind to house Jonathan in the stables where he could take better care of the horses when he wasn't pretending to give her lessons. The M.o.t.H.'s quarters were spacious with it's own bathroom and balcony over looking the grounds with a nice view of the pond. It had been a dream of Viola's to run away from home and move into quarters before she had been sent off to the boarding school.

Like normal there was no one at the stables, the horses were left alone during the days with the doors to their run outs left open. The only time someone was here was when someone from the house called for their horses to be readied or when it was time to feed, clean and open their doors in the morning and when it was time to feed, clean and close their doors at night.

The sliding doors opened without a sound but when Viola walked in all the horses stood in their large stalls with their heads hanging out waiting to see who it was that was visiting them. At the sight of the Viola's heart clenched. These weren't like the horses at school who were loved on by every girl there. No these horses were used creatures to be called on a whim and forgotten else wise. And as much as Viola wanted to love them, she didn't trust herself or her mother to allow herself to love them and be happy.Viola shook her head knowing that the moment she cared for any of them they would turn into pawns to be used against her.

The first horse to the left was a 16.1 hand pure black stallion. "This is my father's horse Duke." Across the hall was her mother's horse. "This is Rose and she belongs to my mother." Rose was 15.2 hand red roan and ruled the herd when they were put into pasture together. "My brother Charles' horse Beast." On the left a 16 hand chestnut with a large blaze snorted. "His wife Dorothy's Topaz." She was stalled across from Beast and was a 15.1 hand pretty cremello with tall white stalkings and a horrid attitude. "On the right is George's Whiskey." A 15.3 hand dark bay with a small star and snip. "And there is Eleanor's Princess." At 15 hands Princess was the shortest of the thoroughbreds. An seal brown with subtle dappling and a bald face with blue eyes. "Above us is the hay loft. The stairs are over there." Where the thirteenth stall would have been a set of stairs led up.

On the very end of the rows on the left hand side was a delicate dish faced horse. Viola walked towards the Arabian horse and stopped shy of the horses reaching range. "And this white beauty is Baheera. Mother says I have to rename her but I haven't bothered with it yet." Baheera was the shortest of all the horses at 14.3 hands and didn't seem to get along with the thoroughbreds, which was why she was as far from the others as she could be. "Father says Baheera's four turning five and has already been trained to ride." Baheera's ears flicked towards Viola at the sound of her name and her large expressive black eyes bored into the girl. "While young he thinks she could turn out to be my perfect ride." Viola's words came out as a short of disbelief and Baheera threw her head up as if to agree.

"You know," Viola stepped back from the white horse when it stretched it's head out. "I think you might have a point about having our chats off the grounds." There were always eyes and ears around and the last thing she wanted was to be over hear and reported on. "But with that we run into a problem. If someone comes by the stables and sees the horses in their stalls when we're supposed to be having lessons..." She let the rest go unsaid, he could form him own conclusions about what would happen if they were caught.

The obvious answer was to just take the horses with them but after her many falls and now distrust of the animals she didn't want to have to be responsible of them by hand. Maybe Jonathan would have an answer that she hadn't thought of yet.

"Over there are the wash bays." Viola pointed towards the west wing of the stables. "This way." She lead the way towards the tack and then feed rooms, pointing them out as she passed them. "Tack room." Point. "Feed room." Point. "Oh!" Viola had almost forgotten and turned her body to face the feed room door again. "If you need medical provisions for the horses you can find them in the feed room." At the end of his hall against the far walls before the large sliding doors was another set of stairs. "Up here," Viola was smiling again as she skipped up the stairs leading the way. A single heavy door fashioned in the same style of the sliding doors but smaller blocked off the top landing of the second story. Viola didn't have the key to the door but knew where there was a hidden double, a double she took great pride in hiding. Near the bottom of the wall, at the ninety degree joining of the door was a loose board that Viola pried back. There in the wall was a tiny square space and about four inches before it met with the floor. As secret as this was Viola smiled back at Jonathan and reached her head in wiggling the cut floorboard loose. Once loosened Viola flipped it open and reached in about an inch further into the wall's opening and pulled out a key. Once everything was in place again Viola stood up and held up her key in victory.

There was a tale to his mystery nook but that would be for another time if ever.

"This used to be the Master of the Horses' quarters when my family used to breed thoroughbreds." Since the door hadn't been opened in sometime there was a small squeal as the door swung back into the large room. There was a small seating area with a couple of chairs around a table, all covered by white sheets. A kitchenette provided two burns and a sink with one wall of cabinets. A chaise lounge sat next to a bookcase under the window and a round top table. A foot or two from the round table was a door to the water closet. The door across from that lead to the bedroom with a east facing window and a chest of drawers. "We were fairly well known for the stock we bred." There wasn't much pride to her tone of voice, after all it was other men that did all the work. Her family just gave them the money to run it and the family name by which to sell them by.

"So what do you think?" That was the tour of the stables and she leaned against the counter that divided the seating area and the kitchenette waiting for an answer. There were actually a few answers she was waiting for but knew she hadn't really given him a face chance to answer them. Now that she had though she expected answers.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

As Viola showed him around and asked where he was staying, Jonathan piped up. “In the staff dormitory, actually. The room they gave me is rather small. I think somebody managed to fit a bed in the broom closet,” he quipped as she continued showing him around.

He was impressed by the stables, and he wasn’t easy to impress him at this point. The appeal of fancy things on the son of a teacher had been lost after his years in the Ivy League and the Hamptons. After watching the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean from the backyard of a 90,000 square foot marble mansion owned by Edmund Lynch (of Merrill Lynch) one morning before he started lessons with his granddaughter, nothing really seemed to impress him anymore. There were only so many massive houses and automobiles you could see after a while, especially when you knew you would never had the money to buy one.

But, there was a certain charm to these stables, with its stone bricks, and second story apartment. He admitted to himself that it was the nicest he had ever seen. Rich people viewed stables either two ways, in his opinion. Either they were nothing more than shabby wooden outbuildings and were old and creaky, or they were 100-stall gaudy monstrosity with gold plated ceilings and marble floors as the owner tried to compete with Churchill Downs.

As Viola showed him where everything was to care for the horses, it started to occur to him that she intended him to care for them. The idea amused him at first, but he wasn’t entirely opposed to it. It would give him something to do aside from the time daily that he was supposed to be teaching her. And he loved spending time with the majestic, powerful animals. Still, that wouldn’t stop him from having a bit of fun if she asked, or vocalized her assumption.

After she finished showing him around the apartment that sat on the top of the stables, she asked "So what do you think?" Jonathan again took a quick look up her body as she leaned against the counter, before he looked her in the eyes.

“Well, I’m assuming you want me to help take care of the horses,” he said, feigning seriousness. “That wasn’t in my employment contract, to be a hostler, too. I’ll have to talk to your father about an extra $500 or something,” he said, rubbing his chin as if to indicate he was thinking about it. “But, I’ll tell you what, I’ll settle for the extra work with no further compensation, in exchange for letting me stay in these quarters. Plus, your lovely company wasn’t a part of the deal, either,” he said with a smirk.

“Is it a deal?” he asked, holding out a hand and looking intently in her eyes.

“All joking aside,” he said, “I’d be happy to tend to the horses. They must be a little lonely out here on the far side of the estate. And I don’t mind getting a little dirty from time to time,” he said, cocking an eyebrow.

He turned around and looked around the kitchenette. “I’ll have to bring my bags out here. And food, do you think the majordomo will arrange for some food to be brought out here for the pantry? Although, I won’t have all those old maids and house servants to eat with in the dormitory anymore. I’ll be eating out here all by my lonesome,” he said, coyly. He almost asked her to join him sometime, but stopped himself at the last minute. Some light flirting and innuendo were one thing, but inviting her to dinner would probably be a bridge too far. Besides, she seemed bemused by him above all else, and all he had done was talk her into chatting with him during their fake riding lessons. She was still from the upper crust and he was still the hired help. One word too far and she could shriek and run back to her father and force him to swim back to New York.

Had he really thought about getting fresh with one of his students? She was by far the oldest student he had ever had, and past the age of majority (barely), but still, it seemed like a bad idea to mix business and pleasure. A bad idea, he repeated to himself.

He coughed to clear his throat and changed the subject before she connected the dots at what he was about to imply. “So, when do you want to have our lessons? In the morning, or after lunch? And my contract with your father doesn’t exactly cover the length of the lesson. I would recommend either an hour or 90 minutes four or five days a week. I guess it’s up to you how much time you want to spend escaped from reality.”

 

[Sexual_Muse]

His eyes traveled over her body again after she asked him a question and she blushed, feeling where his eyes lingered as if he had touched her.

"Oh, well..." Viola hadn't meant to project to him that she wanted him to take care of the horses. "We have staff members that feed, water and clean the horses." She corrected pushing off the table. She ran her hand through her hair and found it pinned up, not free and unbound like she liked to wear it. Viola had showed him every part of the stables because the truth of it was she knew nothing about horses. She knew what snacks they liked; apples, carrots and sugar cubes, they drank water and ate grass, they pooed quite frequently and they didn't really care for her. Viola didn't know how to care for them, what it took to dress them or what was need to make sure they were healthy. The health and caring the family had covered but should her horse fall or she get bucked off she wanted to know that he could take care of the matter.

Jonathan offered his hand in an acceptance of a deal but Viola shook her head no. She wasn't all that sure she had the right to move the man from the main house to the stables but that wasn't what had stopped her from making the deal. It was the needed assurance he had failed to give her. "My company you are forced with until the summer's end." She teased with a smile of her out, outlining what she wanted from this deal before she would shake on it. "The horses are another matter. The family has the basic needs taken care of but you are right in that they might be lonely." She didn't know for sure if that was how they felt but in their position she knew she would be. "So if you feel the need or want to ever go riding the horses are yours with the exception of mine and if the family calls for them." She assumed he knew what was needed before hand and after riding and had Viola known she would have included them in her proposal but because she didn't she said nothing on the matter. "I will require you to ready my horse for our lessons so our ruse will look true." That was as close to admitting that she didn't know how to do that. "And to take care of her after." That again was a blank on what it required and her wording made it clear that she knew nothing of the horse world. "If we can agree on that you can have this key." It was a bold move on her part but she didn't feel her father would force the matter. Her mother on the other had was a fifty-fifty draw on how she would feel about the matter.

Viola didn't offer her hand yet because she felt like there were still things to be discussed before agreement. "Why don't you just take the car to the market? I'll write you up a credit line and you can buy the foods that you want." The alternative was taking food from the main house and that was against the rules. "You can't buy alcohol or cigarettes with the line but it's open to food and kitchen ware." She clarified running her hand through her hair again and frowning at the pins her fingers ran against. "I'm sure should you befriend any of the staff here they would join you here for dinners." She smiled pulling the first of many pins from her hair. Viola had an idea at what he was hinting at and she mentally rewarded him for the tact to not say it to her face and the bravery it took to even hint at it in the first place.

If she wasn't going to go riding she was going to let her hair down, blast these pulling prodding pins to hell. Pushing off the counter Viola approached Jonathan, teasing him like she saw her friends do with the boys they liked by swaying their hips. As the last pin was pulled out of her hair Viola shook her head and freed her hair, her glossy auburn hair tumbling over her shoulder to mid breast.

"Do lessons typically take that long or do you just favor our magnificent horses?" A teasing smirk played at her lips as she stopped a foot from Jonathan. Viola couldn't believe that she was returning his flirtations in such a brazen fashion. All that was missing was one of those girlish laughs and some weakly framed excuse to bat her eyelashes at him and graze his arm with just her fingertips. "Or is it maybe something else?" And just for the effect and having thought it just moments before Viola batted her eyelashes a few times.

Joking aside, as he had said earlier Viola wanted to used this as a reason to get away from her family as much as possible and while she would have loved to have it be 6 hours a day seven days a week she had a strong suspicion that her family might catch on if lessons were that long or that frequent. "An hour and one half in the mornings to the ground staff can see up leave or what have you in the mornings and maybe start off at four times a day. Gaining to five a week if lessons progress faster then expected because I'm such an astounding student." Viola said with mocking hairs as she tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Is it a deal?" This time Viola held out her hand and stared intently into his eyes waiting for him to either agree to negotiate the terms of their deal. Her eyes leaving his for a handful of seconds to travel over his body at such a close distance.

 

[TheAntiRebel]

Jonathan watched with great interest as Viola pulled her hair pins out and shook her hair loose. It stirred a great passion in him, watching the beautiful young woman like that. He had to suppress his instincts and resist wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her against him and kissing her passionately on the lips. Instead, he smiled at her. She wasn’t naïve and seemed to savor the game as much as he did.

“Do lessons typically take that long or do you just favor our magnificent horses? Or is it maybe something else?" she asked, battering her eyelashes at him.

“Usually, I’m actually used to teaching girls how to ride horses and not planning a ruse, and usually they’re rather eager about it. ” Jonathan explained. “I do like your horses though, they seem… very beautiful, strong, intelligent, and seem to know exactly what they want,” Jonathan said while he gazed into her eyes, referring to something other than the horses. He had wanted to add something about wanting to mount them but decided not to take the innuendo too far. At least, not on their first meeting.

He listened to her propose a schedule and then offer a hand. He took her hand softly, his heavy calloused hand rubbing against the soft skin of hers. He saw her eyes very briefly dart down at him. “It’s a deal,” he said, agreeing, and let their hands linger holding one another for a brief moment too long, just so it was noticeable, before he let go.

He rubbed his chin softly. “Just another thing, although I fancy the idea of spending time clandestinely with you, won’t your family expect some sort of demonstration at the end of the summer? Or don’t you think they’ll care?” he asked.

“And,” he started, taking another look around the kitchen, before returning his eyes to her. “Do you think your parents will agree to you offering me this apartment? Or do you like to handle your own affairs? It’s rather roomer than the room in the staff dorms that I was originally assigned to,” he explained. As he continued to stare into her eyes, he couldn’t gage her intentions.

Not that, as a man, he was very good at figuring out women to begin with. Granted, all they had done was just some harmless lighting flirting, but Jonathan couldn’t determine what she got out of it. Jonathan could already tell that she was headstrong and rebellious. Did she like disobeying her parents’ wishes by getting friendly with the help? Or did she genuinely like talking to somebody from outside this circle of hell with her family and (seemingly entirely) near-elderly servants.