Free John Saul by Guardian

what was going to happen once she got to Sugarloaf. Had she assumed she could just help get Joey through his parents’ funeral, pack his clothes, and take him back to New Jersey?
    She hadn’t even bothered to think about the ranch, or Ted’s company, or any of the other details of his and Audrey’s complicated lives. But from the way Charley Hawkins had just spoken, apparently Audrey and Ted had thought about it all. When she finally replied to his last statement, she chose her words carefully. “I assume the estate is complicated, and from what you just said, I’m beginning to suspect I must be the executor, too.”
    “Not quite,” Charley Hawkins corrected her. “I’m the executor, which means I’m the one who will be dealing with all the paperwork. You’re the trustee.”
    MaryAnne turned to gaze at him blankly. “The trustee?” she repeated. “I thought I was Joey’s guardian.”
    Hawkins turned to smile at her, and she thought she detected just the faintest tinge of sympathy in his slate-gray eyes. “Oh, you are. But when an estate is the size of Ted and Audrey Wilkenson’s, and the main heir is a minor, things get complicated. It was not sufficient simply to make you the boy’s guardian, they also made you the trustee of his estate.”
    “Dear God.” MaryAnne suddenly thought of the company in California in which Ted still had a major interest. “What does that mean?”
    “Well, for one thing, it means you and I are going to be doing a lot of business together. Ted and Audrey and I became good friends almost the minute they arrived in this area, and they knew that if anything ever happened to them, you were going to need help.”
    The uneasy feeling in MaryAnne’s stomach jelled into fear. “Just exactly what kind of help are you talking about, Mr. Hawkins?”
    “Managing a fortune. And in the business Ted was in, they don’t come small. As of this morning, Joey is a very wealthy young man. And you are a rather wealthy woman.”
    “Me?” MaryAnne asked, still dazed by the implications of what Charley Hawkins had just revealed. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.…”
    “It’s pretty simple, really,” the lawyer explained. “They decided that given the size of the estate, and the problems concomitant to raising the heir of the estate—that’s legal jargon for Joey—the position of guardian should not be without compensation. It was put on a sliding scale, decreasing according to the age Joey had reached in the event he was orphaned. The sum they decided upon was one percent of the estate—”
    “One percent!” MaryAnne exclaimed. “But that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars! It’s crazy!”
    “It’s not crazy, MaryAnne,” Charley Hawkins replied quietly. “When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. It makes the guardian—you, Mrs. Carpenter—independently wealthy. A precaution, you might say, against Joey being resentedfor his wealth. It also prevents Joey from attempting to control you by holding money over your head.”
    “Good Lord,” MaryAnne breathed. “How much is it?”
    “A lot more than you’re thinking,” Hawkins replied. “Because it’s actually one percent of the total for every year remaining until Joey’s twenty-first birthday. Which means that your share is eight percent of the total.”
    MaryAnne felt a strange numbness forming in her body. “It’s not possible,” she breathed. “It’s just not possible!”
    Charley Hawkins chuckled hollowly. “Just be glad you were in New Jersey last night. If you’d been here, I’m afraid you’d be very high on my list of suspects.”
    MaryAnne gasped and turned pale. “You don’t think—”
    “A joke, MaryAnne,” the lawyer told her quickly. “It was only a joke!”
    “My God, everything’s changed!” MaryAnne exclaimed as they drove through Sugarloaf on the way up to El Monte Ranch. The village was at least twice the size she remembered it from her single visit eight years