1

Sighing, Emily looked over the papers that Miguel, the foreman for her family’s estate for the last thirty years, had given her again. Looking at numbers, Emily was beginning to have a bad feeling that her uncle had been lying about a lot of things. Several months ago Emily had asked her uncle to see the estate’s books due to some concerns. He did follow her dad’s example in the fact that they wrote everything down, and would die before using a computer or most forms of technology. Emily had thought that he was withdrawing an awful large amount of money, but the notes by the withdrawals did seem plausible. Looking at the figures again, Emily could easily see that the large amounts of money that he had pulled out of accounts to cover the cost of things needed around the estate is twenty times more than what was actually being given to the estate to help keep everything running. With these papers, Emily figured that roughly over four hundred thousand dollars was missing.  

Slumping in the chair Emily did not think that her day could get any worse. She initially left the mansion early this morning to avoid a rather nasty man that her uncle wanted her to marry. Last night her uncle had ordered her to be dressed and ready to meet Lord Rotterford for brunch this morning. Emily and her uncle had the same argument several times over the last few months. Her uncle was wanting to parade her around to all of his rich friends to marry her off. Each time he tried to introduce her to a friend that he considered acceptable, they were worse than the previous one. Emily had zero interest in getting married currently, and she definitely was not interested in marrying anyone that her uncle considered a friend. Emily wanted to marry for love like her parents, and she refused to settle for anything less. 

When she left the house early this morning, Emily did not want to chance her uncle tracking the chip in her car, so she went to the barn to spend time with her mare Millie. She even left her cell phone in her room just in case he tried to get someone to track her using that. While hiding out in the barn and visiting with Millie and the other horses, Emily began to notice that a lot of equipment, and other items seemed to need to be repaired or replaced. Emily went to look for Miguel to inquire about having equipment and other things updated or repaired. Once she found Miguel they began talking and that is how she ended up in his office looking over the records that he had been keeping. 

Already knowing the answer in her heart, Emily asked the question that was burning foremost in her mind. “Has my uncle seen these,” she asked as she passed Miguel the papers back. 

Standing and taking the papers Miguel nodded his head. “Yes Miss Emily. He knows. He is the one that has been asking me to find more and more ways to cut costs. Many of the problems that we have been running into are due to your uncle buying cheap equipment, letting go of good workers, and not providing proper care for the animals,” Miguel said as he put the papers back into the box he kept them stored in. 

“I am so sorry,” Emily said as she stood up shaking her head. “I recently found out that he was blowing through my father’s money, but I had no idea that he was neglecting everything

around the estate. All of the books in the office show that he is pulling out large amounts of money for items, projects, and help around here. I wonder where the money is actually going since the books in the house are not matching,” Emily said as her brow creased. 

“I’m not sure Miss Emily, but I do know that it has not been spent here.” 

Standing and dusting off the back of her jeans, Emily placed her hand on Miguel’s shoulder sympathetically. “Thank you Miguel,” she said quietly in a reserved voice. “I am so sorry that you had to make do with so little for so long. I wish that you would have let me know sooner,” she squeezed his shoulder lightly trying to offer some support and an apology. “This is my fault too for not being more involved. I know I shut down when my father passed away. I am so sorry that I have let all of you down. I thought that my uncle was taking care of the estate.” 

“No Miss Emily,” Miguel said, shaking his head. He took his hat off of his head and began to nervously fiddle with the brim. “I know that this is not how you and your father would have wanted the estate kept. I should have come to you a long time ago. I will admit that at first I thought maybe money was a little tight, and I did not think anything of his requests. As things continued to get worse, I also saw more and more of his temper. I have been afraid to speak to you for fear of him finding out. Your uncle is not a good man.” 

Nodding her head Emily said, “I am beginning to see that. I do not blame you, and I promise that I am going to look into this as soon as possible.” She began walking toward the entrance of the barn. “Thank you again for showing me all of this. I probably need to head back to the house. I know my uncle will already be furious with me since I did not follow his orders and meet Lord Rotterford this morning.”

Nodding and heading toward the horse stalls Miguel said, “Be careful Miss Emily. Your uncle has a very nasty temper. Be careful pushing him.” 

Waving Emily smiled back at Miguel, “I will. He cannot do anything to me. This is my estate and it was left to me in my father’s will. I have only allowed him to help me. If he does not confess and make things right, I will tell him he has to leave.” With that final statement Emily peaked out of the barn door to make sure that the coast was clear and started making her way toward the rear entrance of the mansion’s kitchen. 

Miguel nodded and smiled at Emily’s last words, but deep in his heart he had a bad feeling that things were not going to go the way that she thought they would.