Free Reluctant Consent by Saorise Roghan

 
    Chapter One
     
     
    A
desperate woman will resort to desperate measures.
    Denise
Marrow lost both parents when she was 21, three months shy of graduation, three
months and twelve days after breaking up with her fiancé, three months and
eighteen days after totaling her car, and three months and nineteen days after
losing her job.   She had - -   just to make
things even more overwhelming -- been appointed guardian of her three younger
brothers.   She would have been
happy to have had a nervous breakdown but there wasn’t
any time, and honestly, it wasn’t really her style.
    Standing
in her mother’s art studio, Denise watched funeral guests straggle to their
cars under the overcast sky.   The
threatened rain was holding off, allowing the guests time to do what they’d
really come for – a chance to let their eyes roam over the property while
speculating about what it all meant.     Over the years very few
people had been allowed through the gates so they were happily making up for
lost time.   Since Denise lived
inside the gates (did she) she knew there was plenty of fodder for gossip.   The place was rundown and ill kept -- and
that was being extremely generous.
    A
shout broke through the funereal quiet and floated up through the open windows.
William appeared out of nowhere chortling madly and tore off across the gravel at
full speed toward the barns.   The
other two boys followed in his wake.  
    Denise
smiled.   The boys had been solemn
and silent for days now. It was time they broke loose.     She was quite sure somewhere
in the house Mr. Tullamore, and Mr. Lawrence ,   dear friends of her father co
executor’s of her parents estate, would be shaking their heads with serious
misgiving while Mr. Millicent, guardian of the will, cast his eyes heavenwards
and prayed for patience.    She
doubted any of them understood, at that precise moment, the need for adolescent
boys to kick free. Denise drained the liquid in the glass she held in one hand
and turned for the door.   Time to
go down and face the music.
    She
descended the elaborately carved and curving staircase as slowly as possible
giving them a few moments to adjust themselves, or at least lower their voices,
in case they might not want to offend her.  
    Fat
chance.
    Her
mother’s sisters fluttered between the front sitting room and the hall, anxious
to keep their eyes on the action. Thehusbands
paced about as well and everyone twittered away --in the old fashioned, bird brained sense of the word having nothing to do with the
internet or smart phones. They were assuring each other that dear Dorothy had
indeed left ‘things’ poorly and speculating on who best to put things
right.   Not one of them wasted any
time suggesting Denise’s father, Henry, would have encouraged Dorothy in any
significant way to make common sense plans for the future in the event of their
death.
    Mr.
Millicent, the lawyer, waited grimly in the doorway to her father’s
‘library’.     
    “Those
boys!” Aunt Caroline boomed out as Denise’s foot hit the floor from the last
step.   “Are carousing. Outside. Do
call them in.”
    “Don’t!”   Mr. Millicent barked the word out.   Up to this point he’d appeared too gravely
depressed and morose to manage an effective bark.
    “At
least not in my behalf. I will speak with Ms. Denise privately, along with the
executors.”
    All
heads turned towards him.   Eyebrows
rose. Mouths opened.
    “As
per the terms of the will.” Mr. Millicent cut off further protest. “   He seized Denise’s upper arm in a firm
grasp and propelled her into the library setting her loose abruptly enough to
send her rocketing into the room and banging into the foosball table while he
braced himself against the door in case any of the aunts rebelled.
      Denise boosted herself onto the foosball
table.   In addition to foosball, a
full size basketball hoop hung from the balcony of the upper level.   Several targets were lined