You can’t keep a good person down

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So, what do you do when you discover your life’s work has been hijacked, not only by people you thought you could trust but that unfortunately includes your father.

Guinevere is in charge, making changes, hiring cronies, and pandering to the passed-over celebrity who is now the face of her organisation.   An advertising campaign that cost a lot of money, salaries and benefits to the management and talent, and something else entirely for her father.

He had been waiting in the wings a long time to get in the door, and her incapacity was his one chance.  She had kept him at bay, and if it had not been for her illness, and the accident, he’d still be in Siberia.

So, what does a stranger in her own castle do?

Plot against those insidious creatures that have taken over.

This is where we discover the plans, she implemented with Howard just before she was incapacitated.  That and the investigations she had Monte the private investigator undertake on all of those now working in her organisation.

A very interesting collection of individuals, all of whom had something to hide, and because of this, a means of leverage.

Plans are drawn up, and shots are fired over the bow as a warning.  Everyone has been told, the proverbial is about to hit the fan.

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Words today, 2,013, for a total of 20,075

A third of the way

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Part one sets the scene, we are introduced to the characters, and we get some insight into the machinations of business and the underlying problem of Agatha’s health.

It could be for any number of reasons, hard living when younger, and a little bit older too, it could be the pressures of work, the pressures of motherhood, trying to find the right man knowing he doesn’t exist and worry about people trying to take your money.

Being titled and wealthy is not a benefit, it’s really a curse.  It often works to her advantage, but in others, well, it just doesn’t.

Her health issues have so far been undiagnosed.  She has seen any number of doctors, and none can find what is wrong.  Lethargy, constantly tired, often feeling nauseated, always at the mercy of common colds and viruses, the notion of taking a few months off to try and recover is not an option.

The thing is, the answer to her problems, getting qualified people to run her organisation was a good idea, and she thought she had picked the right people.  And once they start, the subtle changes begin, the little things like being left out of the loop, that sense that she is being spied on, paranoia fed by the illness, and observation, cause her to become unpredictable, then, at the height of it, after discovering what is a revelation, she is incapacitated.

In a sense, she had planned for just such an eventuality, in another, it was almost inevitable.

Guinevere

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There is always a reason why someone wants to leave an organisation where they had been successful, to a point.  After all, the charity business was a rather small world, and it wasn’t hard to find out all the goings on.

Except when an organisation no longer wants to keep a certain employee and is prepared to write a glowing recommendation to hasten their departure.

Guinevere hadn’t done anything wrong; it was just she wanted to move in a new direction, and probably what sealed her fate, wanted a large increase in salary.

Charities tried very hard not to have expenses that exceeded the value of their bequests.  Sometimes they failed, but those were foundations set up by individuals looking to gain tax and other benefits.

And since Agatha was looking to expand her organisation by actively seeking outside donors, Guinevere had been successful in setting up a similar process in the last organisation she worked for.

And after speaking confidentially to Agatha’s father, she knew it was the position she was looking for.  All she had to do was convince Agatha and Adria.  That, of course, might be easier than she thought, discovering that Agatha was unwell, and would be stepping back for a while.

An old adage comes to mind as I’m plotting this, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

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Words today, 1,718, for a total of 16,133

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Howard Joffs

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Howard is Agatha’s lawyer, but more than that, he is a friend and has been ever since they started university together.

He was fully aware of who she was, the title, the heritage, the expectations, and her need to rebel in her own way.

He watched her destroy a marriage that would have worked if she had let it, with a man who was, in the end, too good for her. 

And, along the way, Howard always thought one day she would wake up and see what was in front of her, the man who loved her.

The pity of it was she had sent him to the friend zone and did not think of him in that way, having discovered the truth one night when charged with a lot of alcohol, he told her how he felt.

She was not reviled, just amused.

It was then he realised there was only one man for her, the one she could never have, even though he knew she harboured a secret desire for them to get back together.  Only recently did he discover that man was the father of her children.

But despite his unrequited love, he still did anything and everything she asked, and more.

And would until the day she died.

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Words today, 1,870, for a total of 14,415

The reporter

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Winifred, daughter of Adria, is the contradiction.

She always had no intention of playing on her title, and she always regarded people addressing her as Lady Winifred with suspicion.

She also never wanted to use her name to open doors or get an advantage.  She went to university, and soon realised her calling was the written word and a talent for getting to the truth of the matter.

She honed her journalistic skills in the university newspaper and had the distinction of solving a rather convoluted death that was first believed to be a suicide as a murder, one the murderer would have got away with if she hadn’t tenaciously pursued it.

Those detective skills stood her in good stead, getting her a job at a major newspaper, except the editor didn’t believe she was up to the task, her society and aristocratic background getting in the way.

She has a point to prove, and this latest move by her mother’s organisation as good as any for what might be a good story.

And, in the back of her mind, something she had overheard when researching another story stuck, that involved the General, and it wasn’t good.

Of course, her mother knows Winnie is like a dog with a bone and warns her, ‘There’s nothing to see here’.

Winnie isn’t so sure…

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Words today, 1,529, for a total of 12,545

The General

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We are now going to look at the individuals who are national heroes, looking to do some good in the twilight of their lives.

They have a name, they have a reputation, and it’s a recognisable commodity.

Selling range rovers or enticing young adults to join the armed services isn’t quite the post-service career move he was looking for.

The trouble is, he never got the opportunity to get rich like some of his contemporaries, and what there was went on a gambling addiction that just about took everything when he retired.

But the question is, is the General the person he portrays himself as?

Truth is, he needs to find a very well-paying gig.

And just lurking in the background, fuelling the rising trust issues between father and daughter, why is Agatha’s father promoting this particular celebrity?

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Words today, 2,070, for a total of 11,016

What are friends for?

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Well, when they too have the rug pulled out from under them, how much can they do?

Her best friend and fellow founding member of the charity, recently but no longer CEO, due to the new Chairman who had taken over during our main character’s incapacity, had been visiting her friend in hospital and relating the day-to-day events that had turned the running of their organisation into what she calls a circus

I’m going to give her a daughter who is a tenacious reporter and set her on the trail of a conspiracy, that of the so-called benevolent charities and the shady characters that manage to attach themselves to what she will call the charitable gravy train.

She also is the product of that echelon of people who are upper-class nobility, having resented from a young age being called Lady So and So, going to the privileged schools and being treated differently.

She is the rebel against her birthright, her parents, and everything they stand for.

And yet, as she gets older and sees the worth of those connections, those she had so willingly trashed for the sake of getting an editor to take her seriously, it’s going to be a tricky line she will have to walk if she is going to help her mother.

Perhaps her parents were not the monsters she believed they were.

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Words today, 1785, for a total of 8946

The days you wish you didn’t have children.

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Children are meant to be the joy in your life, not the bane of your existence.

Of course, keeping the secret from their father might have seemed like a good idea if not out of spite in the beginning.

But the truth was he left, and that was on him.  It was not as if he was going to hang around, not after telling her that it was not the time to be having children, not with her wild partying or the fact he was trying to move on after his stint in the Army and that overseas deployment that had severely scarred many of his friends.

Yes, they were perfectly matched, and both agreed they both soul mates and kindred spirits, but it was not enough to keep them together.  Marrying him to spite her father had the reverse effect, and she still suspected her father had bought him off.

But, whatever the reason, she was left with the parenting, delegated to nannies, then boarding school and servants.  It was no wonder they hated their forever disinterested and absent mother, and because of the bored, mischievous miscreants who were constantly in the news and police stations.

Their latest antics were mild compared to previous escapades, but the school could always see a fundraising opportunity.  And being sent home yet again to consider their situation was all she needed.

Fresh out of her latest and longest stay in hospital, the full extent of her situation was becoming clear.

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Words today, 2294, for a total of 7161