Chapter 1

Joel

I was a sell out.  A fake. A waste of space.  A pathetic little….

A door opened to my left making me snap to attention in my uncomfortable, plastic, olive green chair.

A member of staff walked passed me, too engrossed in a file in their hands to even notice me.

The noise of their high heels clicked down the otherwise silent corridor until they walked through the door at the other end.  The door closed with a thud and it was silent again.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, which gave off a creak of protest under my moving weight.

I glared down at the offending object, daring it to even think about collapsing.  It wasn’t like I was overweight; far from it. It was just that at 18, I was about 10 years too old to be sitting in it.  It was just another symbol of the divide between me and them. I was sat on this shitty green excuse for a chair, while they would be sat on the best hand carved, Indian Oak chairs with velvet inlays and extra padding.

Ok, I didn’t know if that was technically true, but I bet it was.

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration, then quickly cursed, remembering that I had used various products in it this morning to try to tame the mane that sat on top of my head.

I quickly patted it back down, then shrugged. Did it really matter what I looked like?  Did it really matter that I had put on my best black pants and a freshly ironed white shirt today?

For goodness sake, it was only a job washing pots.

I let out a snort of laughter, just loud enough to echo lightly down the corridor.  Being here reminded me of having to wait outside the headmaster’s office at school, waiting to be told off.  This building felt like a school, with it’s high ceilings, endless corridors, and big black pipes from a heating system put in back in the days of black and white TV.

The door next to me suddenly opened and a rather timid looking girl shuffled out and bolted down the corridor.

My head snapped back to the door as a man in his late 50’s craned his head round to look at me.

“I’ll be with you in about 10 minutes Joel.  I’ve just got to run a quick errand.”

I nodded and flashed a quick smile as the door was closing behind him.

Now where was I….  A sell out. A coward.  A hypocrite! Ooo, that’s a good one.

A loud clatter at the end of the corridor grabbed my attention.  

“Holy shit and crap and bollocks!” someone shouted clearly frustrated by something.

I felt a strong urge to go and see what was happening.  I glanced around to make sure no one was looking. Slightly daft since I was obviously in an empty corridor, but it somehow felt necessary.

I slowly stood up and crept towards the double doors at the end of the corridor, where the noise came from.

There was no need to creep really, but the boredom of being sat on that god awful green chair for the last half an hour had made me crave some excitement and drama.  So I crept with the stealth of a ninja, slowly towards the door.

I took another exaggerated look around before slowly opening the door an inch at a time before stealthily poking my head through the small gap to see…

….an empty corridor.

Oh, well that was a disappointment.  I walked fully through the door and looked around.  Maybe I should go for some fresh air, pass some time?

A loud growl to my left made me jump in fright.

I held my hand over my beating heart while I looked at the door to my left which was slightly ajar.

I peeped through the small window in the door.  This must be the kitchen. It was a large commercial sized kitchen, full of stainless steel work surfaces and large pans that hung on giant hooks from the ceiling.

So this is where I’d be working….

I couldn’t see anyone so I stepped into the kitchen and looked around.

Suddenly the door at the other end of the kitchen burst open and a blur of black and white stormed into the room and bumped straight into a trolley sending a tray of cutlery clattering to the floor.

I involuntarily tensed my body at the loud sound and watched as one of the forks skidded across the floor and came to a rest next to my foot.

“Fuck,” the blur growled as he surveyed the mess around him.

The blur had his back to me, but I could see now that it was a guy dressed in black trousers and a white shirt, like me.  I assumed he must be a waiter or something. He could be the head waiter and therefore my future boss?

I quickly bent down to pick up the offending fork.  “Hey, I’m sure if you wanted to kill me, there would be better ways to do it.  ‘Death by fork’ seems rather anti-climatic.”

I smiled and waved the fork waiting for him to turn around.

The guy froze for a few seconds, his body tensed, shoulders hunched.

He may have his back to me, but I could tell he was pissed off.  Somebody must have really ticked him off.

Suddenly he swung round to face me and my breath caught in my throat.

Shit it was the alpha’s son! I felt a flash of hate shoot through my veins, followed instantly by something else. Damn, he looked better up close than I was expecting.  His eyes were a really intense chocolate brown…..and they were currently staring straight at me, boring holes into my retinas….

Shit! I quickly looked down and bowed my head.

“Sorry Sir,” I said hastily, “I didn’t realise it was you.  I wouldn’t have expected to see you down here.”

This could be bad.  We were not supposed to look an alpha in the eyes.  And we should most definitely not flippantly accuse him of trying to kill me with a fork! Damn it, why did things like this always happen to me?

I heard him take a few breaths.  “Clean up this mess!” he growled before walking back out the door he came in.

I slowly let out the breath I was holding in and raised my head.  Damn it, that was close. I’m surprised he didn’t kick me out for talking to him like that.  And then staring…..

I quickly started gathering the cutlery and putting it back in the tray.  I wanted to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible in case he came back again.  What if he decided he had been too lenient with me?

As soon as the tray was back on the trolley, I made a run for the door.  Then I stopped and quickly ran back and moved the trolley back to the side of the kitchen to prevent another accident from happening.  So I may be a little health and safety conscious - is that really so bad?

I sort of ran-walked back to the corridor and to what was now a very welcoming looking green chair.

I barely had time to catch my breath before a familiar head appeared out of the door beside me.

“Right Joel, I’m ready for you now.”

“Great!” I said with a forced smile plastered on my face.

I followed him into the room and sat on a more comfy chair in front of a rather large desk. The room was quite small but very orderly, with lots of boxes and files stashed neatly on the shelves.  The desk was mahogany with green leather inlays and looked huge in such a small space. I couldn’t help but imagine that it belonged to one of the grander rooms upstairs at some point, probably replaced by a newer even uglier monstrosity.  

The bald headed man shuffled some papers on his desk, then looked at me over the top of his spectacles.

He clasped his fingers together, almost like he was about to prey, and fixed me with a serious gaze.

I anxiously awaited his first question.  I’d prepared for this. Heck, I’d even had a mock interview with my dad this morning, so surely I would be ok.  I discreetly wiped my sweaty palms on my trousers.

“So Joooel” he said, dragging out my name as if in contemplation.

“Yes?” I replied trying not to let the anxiety creep into my voice.

“Ooo” he said suddenly, almost jumping in his seat while he thrust up a finger into the air in realisation of something.

I flinched backwards in surprise, his change in demeanour quite startling.

“Before I forget…..can you ask your mum if she’s still planning on coming to lunch on Sunday.  Janice said she wants to do the food shop this evening so we need to know numbers.”

“Uncle!” I shouted in dismay.  “This is supposed to be my interview!”

He smiled sheepishly as me, then returned to his serious pose from earlier.  

He glanced down at his notes, like he was trying to remember why I was here in the first place.

Finally he looked up at me and smiled. “Ok Joel, so why do you want to work at Blackwood Manor?”