Read Online Folly by Jassy Mackenzie - Free Book Online

stomach that he was waiting for me to tell him I could no longer afford to pay his salary – that he had lost his job.
    Goodness was no fool. He’d seen what I’d been going through. He’d even helped me carry some of the furniture to the car, on its way to be sold. Most probably, he’d been expecting, and dreading, this conversation for a long time.
    â€˜Luckily, I have made a plan to earn more money,’ I continued, not wanting to keep him in his misery for a moment longer. ‘I’m going to run a business from this place. You’re going to need to help me with it, though.’
    Now he looked at me and I saw on his face the beginnings of hope.
    â€˜We are going to …’ I began, and then started again. ‘Some men like to …’
    At this point, I gave up.
    â€˜Come and have a look inside,’ I said, and turned to the folly’s door. I flung it open and at last, thankfully, managed to find the words to explain what this was all about.
    â€˜Some men like to be tied up and whipped,’I told him. ‘That’s why I’ve taken all the whips out of the tack room and brought them here. These men are going to pay me money, and I am going to whip them.’
    Goodness stood at the entrance with his feet planted on the doormat and peered inside. Round-eyed, he took in the red-painted horse, the silvery chains and leather straps hanging from the walls, the whips on the shelf, the candles on the bookcase.
    â€˜Hau!’ he exclaimed, shaking his head. ‘Hau!’
    â€˜That’s what I feel as well,’ I told him, ‘but we need to do whatever we can at the moment to earn some income. I’m going to need you to help with security. You will have to let the people in and out, make sure there is only one person in the car, and also press the panic button if anything goes wrong. If you hear me screaming inside.’
    He nodded.
    â€˜If you hear me shouting, it is ok,’ I hastened to clarify. ‘Screaming is not.’
    â€˜I understand,’ he said.
    He backed out of the folly and moved a few steps away, still shaking his head and muttering to himself.
    I went over the protocol with him a few more times and even verbally demonstrated the difference between a shout and a scream.
    When I’d finished his doorman training, I felt a huge sense of relief. Goodness, my most loyal and trusted ally, was on board with this, and I knew for sure he would try his hardest to keep me safe and to do his job thoroughly.
    I hurried over to the main house to contact the security firm, transfer some money and ensure my account, which I feared was a few months in arrears, was brought firmly back into the black.

Chapter 9
    I woke up in the early hours of Thursday morning to find a massive electrical storm raging outside. My bedroom window lit up in eerie bluish-white as lightning flashed, and the almost instantaneous thunderclaps that followed seemed to shake the house.
    Hard rain – or more probably hail – was striking the windows. I got up to check that the study window was closed, and, pressing the light switch down without a response, found that the power had gone off.
    I fumbled around in the bedside drawer looking for a torch I absolutely knew was there, eventually unearthing it from its hiding place right at the back. Its beam was weak and wavering and I’d have to replace the batteries if I wanted more than five minutes’ use from it.
    The study window was indeed open, and rain was blowing inside, splattering onto the documents on the left of my desk and trickling down onto the computer tower below.
    I pushed it shut, and returned to bed, shivering in the sudden coldness that the rainstorm had brought, noticing that only Bob the Cat, the oldest and bravest of my felines, remained on the bed. He blinked up at me resentfully, as if blaming me for the change in weather.
    I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was too excited and