The morning sunlight glinted through the leaves on the tree outside her window. As Valerie opened her eyes she stared at it and thought of home. As a child she had played in the trees that grew all around her plantation home. These thoughts of homesickness weren’t helping her she realized. She needed to get up and get ready. After all she had a meeting with some council members. What they were the council of she wasn’t entirely sure, but if Petersen -Snow wanted to do anything in Sun Valley, these people had made it abundantly clear that she had to go through them.
The meeting was in a conference room in the city hall. It was a squat building with the obligatory columns out front and three floors, but it was a block of concrete that some inept architect had tried to fancy up. Valerie hated buildings like that, but she made her way inside anyway, toting her laptop bag on her shoulder. She was dressed in light grey slacks and a peach blouse with a thin jacket to keep out the chill. The wind was blowing today and it was a little fresh for her taste.
Looking professional was important, but for the life of her, Valerie had not been able to tame her wild, dark curls this morning and now they blew about her face until she was safely inside where the wind couldn’t get her.
The conference room was on the first floor right at the back of the building and she got lost along the way, and had to ask directions twice. So she stepped through the door a little after ten to find a whole host of people sitting around the oval table.
On one side, sat men with grey hair, beards and matching grey suits. On the other sat grey and white haired men, in jeans and flannel shirts. There were eight of them in total, four suits and four flannels.
“Morning,” Valerie said a little nervously. “I’m…”
“You are late young lady, is what you are,” a suit said standing up, “Introductions; you must be Miss Valerie Rousseau, your office has been in constant contact with mine. These good gentlemen are Mr. Archibald Wilson, Mr. Peter Law, Mr. Jerome Wilde and I am Jeff Headley.” Each man stood and nodded to her in turn. They were so alike it was scary. Same look in the eyes no matter if they were brown, green or blue, same beards almost as well. Valerie felt a Stepford moment coming on.
Then Jeff indicated the other side of the table, “And here we have Mr. Jordan Ewes, Mr. Clancy Jones, Mr. Paul Barkley and finally Mr. Marcus Pierce.”
As he said the last two names Valerie felt her stomach sink into her over-priced shoes. Well there was no denying or hiding from it, the last two men were the same old men she’d had dinner with the night before.
Oh, boy!
“So, to business,” Jeff Headley said, “Sit down young lady.” She sat in the first chair she could reach. Mr. Headley had the tone of one who would broach no argument.
“Miss Rousseau’s company, what was the name again dear?” he asked leaning towards her. Although there was a lot of wood between them she could feel his condescension rippling across the space towards her.
“Petersen-Snow,” Valerie offered, “I have…”
“Yes, I’m sure you do,” Mr. Headley drawled, “But all in good time.”
Valerie developed an instant, bone deep dislike of this pompous ass. But he was one of the people she’d been sent to schmooze. She couldn’t do that with her boot up is prerogative. So she sat back and let him prattle.
“As I was saying, Miss Rousseau’s company has taken a liking to Sun Valley. They want to buy the place and since the amount to purchase the land, outstanding since 1876, has not been paid in full…”
“We will need to see your ledgers, Jeff,” Marcus said softly. His eyes moved from Jeff Headley to Valerie and his look was pure venom.
Valerie wished the ground would swallow her whole. Of course her company wanted to buy the place, she had known that, but it had only been a blip on a map when she’d started this whole process for them. And now it was an actual place with real people who had history and lives and futures. They were proud of their land, their heritage which seemed so connected to the land. Valerie knew about that. Being from New Orleans with the story of witches and supernatural beings tying their magic to the land, she had grown up knowing her own anchor was the soil she was born on. That was why she longed for it so. Her family went back generation on generation on that land, and she didn’t want to take Kyle’s equivalent away from him.
But this was her job.
She came to when raised voices tore into her shame and sadness.
“We have been working for you people, at a reduced wage for over a hundred years Jeff! I think we’ve earned our land!” Paul was yelling. He was on his feet, his face red, his big hands fisted and resting knuckles first on the table, like he intended to punch it to pieces and was just lining up the shot.
“Now Paul, the ledgers are precise,” Jeff said raising his hands. Valerie saw the abject fear hiding behind his blustering façade. “You are welcome to go through them along with your attorney.”
The room exploded in rage, both sides of the table yelling and calling each other names. And then Paul’s voice rose above everyone else’s and he was yelling at her. He shook an accusatory finger at her, spittal flying as he ranted, “And you! You hussy! You tricked his grandson into showing you the whole place! And now you want to take it from us!”
Valerie was close to tears. The tension in the room was insane and she just wanted to run. She tried to defend herself, to tell them that she didn’t want any of that, that she was just a pawn. Valerie Rousseau made no decisions in the company. She was a glorified pencil pusher with frequent flyer miles. She didn’t want any of this.
God, that vacation time was looking real good around now. In fact, unemployment was looking good too, and that was crazy.
In a rush of emotion Valerie picked up her bag and stormed out of the room. She could be fired for this but who cared, really?
She blundered down the hallway, needing to find her way out when suddenly she bumped into someone, and something hot spilled all over her arm.
Valerie looked up into Kyle’s golden eyes.
“Hey, stranger,” he said smiling instantly when he recognized her. “Sorry about the coffee.”
Valerie shook her head and looked away, “It’s fine, Kyle. Oh God, what are you doing here?”
“Here with Marcus, he’s got some big meeting,” Kyle said vaguely.
Just then the door opened behind her and Marcus and Paul spilled out followed by the others.
“Get away from her!” Marcus roared at Kyle. “She’s poison!”
“She’s gonna take Sun Valley from us,” Paul ranted and Valerie knew she was done for.
She grabbed her laptop bag in her arms and fled down the hallway leaving a confused Kyle behind her.