Chapter 40

It was their last week at Stonebrook, and everyone seemed to sense it.

For one, Clancy was much more active. Usually the old fox would have lunch with them and tea about every other day, but in the two days since they returned from Maine, he was a virtual fixture. He had all three meals with them and would often walk with him or Jessie, or come out of his apartment to spend quiet time with them in the TV room in the evenings before he went to bed. Kit was happy that he was willing to ignore that invisible line he himself had put up between "Vulpans and servants" and acted much more like what he really was, an old, old friend and someone whom Kit saw as a father figure.

Clancy wasn't the only member of the staff that was reacting to the impending departure of their young master. Luann seemed quite despondent over the idea of Jessie leaving, having become a friend to the young cat in addition to being her maid. Bartholomew and Stanley as well looked unhappy in those two days, but for different reasons, Kit figured. Stanley was going to feel like Stonebrook had no purpose if there was no Vulpan to serve, even one like Zach, while Bartholomew, like Luann, had become much more than just a servant to the young couple, had become a friend as well as an employee, so much so that it was to him that Kit took his mortgaging idea for a neutral second opinion. The MacArrens were more than just head butlers, they also were masters of accounting and had keen business sense, and Bartholomew was a solid fox to approach with his idea. Frannie and the other cooks were already complaining that they were going to miss their daily cooking lessons as they taught Jessie their recipes, including some Stonebrook exclusives, and some of the other mercs on the manor were quietly getting ready to move on to their next assignment with a little bit of reluctance. Nick had confided that all of them had enjoyed Stonebrook, but they also liked Kit and Jessie.

They really must, because every guard that Vil offered a position in Austin had taken it. There would be three guards moving to Texas on Saturday along with them. Sylvia, Krichek, and Barnett had all accepted Vil's contract to move to Austin and act as quiet background security for Kit, Jessie, and their coming daughter. Krichek had already left to arrange things, prepare Austin for Kit and Jessie's return while Nick and Sylvia stayed with them, and also while Barnett was transitioning all the increased security over to Stanley's control so the head butler could keep the security measures and know how to use them. All of them would be moving into the complex, scattered through the complex to provide complete coverage, and their job would generally be to keep Austin under strict Vulpan control and ensure that nobody with any hostile intent got within ten miles of the Vulpans. Kit wasn't sure he liked the idea of how much it must be costing Vil to hire four very professional and very expensive security guards, but on the other paw, he wanted absolute security for his daughter. Nick and the others would keep them safe, and Kit wasn't so naïve as to think that it was all over. Zach and Alicia were still a threat, and they wouldn't stay cowed forever. They had lost their eldest son, and he had no doubt that they blamed Kit for it. No, they would need help to be protected and safe in Austin, so Kit was not going to say a single word if Vil hired an entire army of guards. So long as they didn't feel like prisoners in Austin, he would welcome Sylvia and the other guards with open arms.

There were other plans to make as well. Jessie wouldn't be attending the fall semester because of Laura, but she would be back in school in January. When that time came, Kit would be the one caring for Laura, most likely taking her to work with him. He had a nice office that was more than large enough for a crib and a changing table. They also had an appointment in Kansas that Amanda wasn't letting them forget, given the package that arrived today with more stuff in it for their flight training. Amanda had literally already penned them in for two weeks in November where Jessie would get her commercial and Kit would get his ATP. He wasn't sure if they were going to make it, but he did still study his ATP material every night, and Jessie still picked up her commercial manuals with almost daily regularity. She wasn't as adamant about her flight training as he was, but she did enjoy it enough to want to improve herself… and if she was going to fly, then there was no earthly reason for her to not get a commercial. A commercial rating was the gold standard of sorts among pilots, opening a large number of doors for a pilot. Thankfully, she was also rather taken with the idea of getting her flight instructor's license, mainly because of the idea of being able to officially train friends and family in flying. Both Ben and Jenny had professed interest in learning to fly, Sandy, Danielle, and Lisa also seemed quite taken with flying now that Jessie, Sheila, and Allison had licenses, and if they had a couple of instructor-rated friends, they could literally learn to fly for free.

The other package he'd received that morning made him laugh. Vil had been in Monaco since Saturday, but she'd also been to the doctor the day before she left, and had had her cast removed. She was fully healthy again, but she'd had her cast very carefully taken off, put back together, and she'd shipped it to him. She'd had it mounted on a walnut stand, and it had a little brass plate on it that read My leg, your arm. We've paid the piper. Kit laughed when he read it, and vowed to hang his sling off of it to complete the adage pay an arm and a leg. She also sent a little gift box with a little crystal bell with the coat of arms of the ruling family of Monaco, which only remained separate from France so long as it continued to produce male heirs to the noble house, a little vial of sand taken from the beach, and a DVD filled with pictures of the Brighton villa, Vil, Kendall, and one picture at a dinner party with them and Kendall's brothers and Charlie Duke. It was small as villas went, but it was richly appointed and right on the beach, a very private beach where, in Vil's little scribbled letter and later a picture on the DVD supported, bathing suits were entirely optional. Kit had a rather scandalous picture of his sister and Kendall sunbathing in the nude on the beach, but the picture was taken from the rear at an angle, so all Kit saw was Vil's bare shoulders, an arm, a peek of the outside slope of her breast, the lounge chair, then her now uncasted leg… and the gaps in the lounge chair made it blatantly obvious that Vil was wearing nothing, while also not revealing anything to the camera that she wouldn't show on an American beach. All he could see of Kendall was his shoulders and tail, but Kit didn't have to go far to guess that he too was sunbathing nude.

The rash of socializing wasn't limited to the manor. Suzy had come over after work both days since the trip to Maine, and she showed them pictures yesterday of a house in Austin she fully intended to buy as a vacation house for her visits to Austin. Kit had to chuckle at that when he realized that he and Jessie were supporting a sudden boom in rich New England and British foxes buying vacation houses in Austin. Terry had bought one, the Brightons had bought one, Suzy was going to buy one, and Vil was having one built.

That was about halfway done. Kit told Rick about it, and the clever dingo, who knew the ranch country east of Austin very well, was able to track down the ranch and take some pictures of it. It was about five miles off 71 and about ten miles east of Bergstrom, out on the ranch roads and very well hidden if one didn't know the area very well. The house's frame was already up, covered in wallboard, the roof was up and shingled, and three other buildings were being erected behind and beside it… the gym, exterior garage and storage shop for the landscaping equipment, and pool house, Kit reasoned, with the horse stable and two barns visible behind the construction that Vil obviously intended to keep. Vil wouldn't build a manor without a poolhouse or some other outside dwelling, since it was all but a fixture on any manor. Judging from the pictures, Vil had a couple of hundred workers out there building her vacation house, and Rick noted that they'd be done with the major construction in about two weeks, going by the progress he could see. If they had the exterior wallboard up, then they were almost done with the exterior and were working on the interior. When they had the interior finished up to a certain point, they'd finish the exterior. The other pictures showed that the pool was already done, covered with a tarp and planking to protect the concrete from the construction of the pool house on the far side of it from the main house. Kit was surprised at how fast they'd done so much work, but then again, it shouldn't have been too much of a shock. Vil had a small army there, and Rick told him that a good crew could build a house from foundation to finish in three weeks if they had the foundation ready and had all the materials available.

The biggest surprise visit of them all was Sonya. She was back in Boston and attending Harvard for her final semester, which would be the semester she completed her Master's thesis and got her MBA. She called that morning and asked if it would be alright to come see them after class, and Jessie all but fell over herself inviting Sonya to dinner. That dinner was very warm and intimate, for Clancy and Suzy were also there, and it was a chance to remind himself just how tall Sonya was, and for the earthy coyote to get to know Kit and Jessie much better… and Kit liked what he saw, even if he did have to look up to see it. Sonya was new money, but she was very smart and had a great deal of common sense. She was like him, a common fur in the rich fur's world, and like him she didn't give a flip what proper society thought about her. She would be going back to Nebraska when she graduated, so she couldn't care less about her reputation among Boston blue-bloods. They showed her all the pictures Vil sent them and the cast, which made her laugh, and they spent a very pleasant evening with friends and family.

Wednesday started real work for them. They would be on Vil's private jet and on the way home on Saturday morning, and there was plenty to do. They had to pack up everything Lupe had sent up to them and everything they'd accumulated since coming to Boston, but they also had to go through it and decide what they wanted to keep, and what they wanted to leave behind. The manor was his as was everything in it, so he had some serious choices to make. The huge private DVD collection was a perfect example. Kit rather liked having a few thousand movies at his fingertips and he could easily take it home with him, but the serious issue of just where he'd put the four shelf units that held the DVDs at home reared its ugly head. But, in the end, Kit and Jessie decided to go through it and select about 100 DVDs to take home with them, taking the movies they liked the most and leaving the rest at Stonebrook. There were a few other instances of them taking a small part of Stonebrook home with them. The cooks went through the kitchen and picked out a few things that Jessie didn't have back home, then Stanley went out and bought them and had them shipped straight to Lupe. Luann had the bedspread and mattress apron on the bed, which Jessie adored, boxed up and sent to Austin, along with four of the warming tea plates and two tea stands, which Kit found rather useful and knew exactly where he'd put them at home. They also had to pack up the gifts Jessie received during her shower, which had been stored in the manor until such time Jessie either had the baby or went home.

They spent all of Wednesday both packing up their own things, and having the staff secretly or openly add things to it, to the point where their townhouse was going to be cluttered with stuff until they could get rid of some of their old things… which would all be shipped to Stonebrook for storage or given to the sorority, depending on how much they wanted to keep it. The only thing that Kit didn't mind going home with him was a healthy supply of Stonebrook blend tea, and a promise from Stanley that replacement boxes of the custom blended tea would arrive in Austin every Friday to replace what he used the week before. If Kit was going to own Stonebrook, then he may as well take advantage of it by getting an unlimited supply of real tea, loose-leaf custom blended tea, not Lipton in teabags. There were a few oddities thrown in there, that was for sure.

The first was Nick's K-80 competition shotgun, which was worth a hell of a lot of money. When Jessie put it back in its case and took it to him, he just laughed and waggled his paw at her. "Keep using it, dove," he told her. "You like it, you'll actually use it, and I can always sell it later. So consider it to be on loan to you, because I live just twenty meters from you, you know," he grinned. "I know where it is."

"That's true," Jessie admitted. "And you know where to come get it when you finally sell it."

Nick's shotgun wasn't the only gun that was going home with them officially rather than with Nick. The wolf hadn't been joking when he said that there would be some serious firepower in the Vulpan townhouse, because Nick told him, rather casually, that Vil had bought the MP7 currently sitting in the secret room from him, and Vil had bought the Glock that Kit had been forced to carry around and had bought a Beretta 92 exactly like Sylvia's for Jessie to carry back in Austin, and they were now theirs. Vil had set up that collector's permit along with Kit's and Jessie's concealed carry licenses–under the table of course–which would allow Kit to own that gun legally, even though submachine guns were illegal and Heckler and Koch assault weapons were illegal to buy, sell, or possess in the United States. But Vil had set it up with the ATF that Kit was a collector, and that weapon was part of a collection, which gave him the ability to possess it legally, even buy other illegal weapons legally under the condition that he could only buy one, and could never buy another of that make and model again in his lifetime. The ATF wouldn't have made that special exception for just anyone, even established and avid collectors. Vil's name and connections made it happen, and so long as Kit didn't take it down to the range and use it, he was within his legal rights to own it, and even allowed him to buy more legally so long as he only bought one. He could never buy another MP7A1, but there was nothing stopping him from buying a MP7A2, or one of every model there was of the MP-5, because his collector's license allowed him to buy one and only one of any make and model of firearm.

The rules were much different for the rich.

Another oddity going home with them wasn't so much an oddity as it was a guilty pleasure. They didn't own any TV as nice as some of the "junk" TVs scattered through the manor, so Kit arranged to have one of the 52 inch plasma TVs in the manor sent home with them, but Stanley, feeling that just a TV wasn't good enough, threw in a Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound system that doubled as a component audio system along with it, which was paw over fist better than the stereo system they had at home. Jessie found it amusing that a fox that didn't watch much TV wanted to steal one of the home theater systems from Stonebrook, until she realized that watching the movies they were taking home and Ben's football games on that TV would be much better than the 34 inch LCD TV they had now. He'd move the TV they were using now to the bedroom, move the stereo to the bedroom or give it to the sorority, and then they'd have a home theatre nice enough to make Lupe unbelievably jealous.

So, Kit and Jessie were going home with a machine gun, a Glock pistol which was his, a Beretta 92 for Jessie, Nick's K-80 which would make Jessie the envy of every skeet shooter down at the range, an unlimited supply of Stonebrook tea, and one home theatre system complete with a substantial expansion to the DVD collection they had at home. And concerning the guns, Kit wouldn't say a word. He was already resigned to the idea that he'd be carrying his Glock even at home, and he sure as hell didn't want Jessie going anywhere without her Beretta in her purse, even on top of the protection that Nick and Sylvia provided. Back in Austin, the guards wouldn't be escorting them everywhere, so they would need some means to protect themselves if the unthinkable happened and they were attacked. Kit had not forgotten and would never forget that it was Rick's concealed carry pistol that had literally saved his life. If ever put in that position again, he wanted the ability to protect himself, and for Jessie to be able to protect herself and their daughter, from attack. So, when he got home, Kit was going to look into a concealed belt holster for when the shoulder holster wouldn't be hidden.

It took them almost all day to finish packing up that which they wouldn't use for the next couple of days… which was only their toiletries and enough clothes to last until Saturday. The manor provided duplicates of everything they packed away immediately, so they wouldn't be sacrificing anything. Stanley would have it all shipped to Austin in the morning, where it would be waiting for them when they got home.

Suzy and Sonya both came over for dinner again on Wednesday, and Clancy again came out of his apartment to join them, so they had another enjoyable night.

Thursday, the sense of impending change was heavy in the air, for Barnett left that morning along with the packed boxes. Barnett was going to go join Krichek in Austin, and thanks to a call to Lupe, all of them already had their apartments. They were unfurnished, but Krichek was taking care of that. Instead of buying furniture when they got to Austin, Krichek had sent pictures of different furniture sets up to Stonebrook, and Barnett and Sylvia used them to pick out the furniture they wanted, which Krichek then bought. The apartments would have all the furniture they'd need before they even set foot in them, leaving them only to buy the little things that would make the apartments more like homes. Sylvia was having some things sent from Germany, for unlike Nick, she had a permanent house just outside of Berlin. Nick lived out of his plane. Kit rather thought he'd like to see what kind of things Sylvia had, what kind of taste she had in home decor. Sylvia was a soldier and a mercenary, but she was also a femme, and she had a femme's tastes if her taste in dresses was any kind of indication. She definitely had a very elegant sense of style.

Thursday evening, they had another pleasant surprise, for Muffy had come up from Yale to stay overnight. "I'm blowing off class tomorrow," she told them. "Besides, I kinda promised to stay 'til you leave."

"And I made you go to school!" Jessie said imperiously even as she hugged the shorter vixen.

"Yeah, well, I'm not missing anything tomorrow," she grinned. "I'd much rather be here. Tomorrow's your last day here, you know. Back to the slums!"

"I can't wait to go back to my slum," Kit said fervently, to which Jessie laughed and nodded.

"This has been almost surreal, and I'll be glad to be home," she mirrored. "There must be an inch of dust all over everything!"

"Lupe promised to take care of everything," Kit protested.

"Have you seen his house?" she countered. "He has no idea what Pledge is!"

"Point," he admitted.

"And Mom will be there next Friday!" she said, almost worriedly. "I only have a week to get the house clean!"

"Your mom is going to Austin?"

Jessie nodded. "She wants to be there when I deliver. Mister and Misses Brighton said they were coming too."

"And I seriously doubt that Vil's going to miss it," Kit added. "She won't come down early, but the instant you go into labor, she'll be on her jet and have it go full throttle to get here."

Muffy settled into the same room she'd been using, but she had barely managed to come out before Suzy and Sonya arrived again, looking for another free meal. They took them in and promised them dinner, but the real motive was revealed when Bartholomew brought in a few boxes. "What is this?" Jessie demanded, pointing.

"Oh, we're throwing you a farewell party tomorrow, as soon as Vil gets home," Suzy told them. "Those are the decorations."

"We're doing it all ourselves, no servants," Sonya added.

"Well, I'll certainly help, and not as a servant," Bartholomew snorted. "So will just about anyone in the manor. Master Kit and Mistress Jessie are more to us than employers."

"Pick a nice room for the party, Bart, and put them in there. We'll put them up tomorrow morning. And keep those two out of it!" Suzy barked, pointing at Kit and Jessie.

"I'll put them in the sun room. That room has locks on the doors, and naturally, me and my father are the only ones with keys to the locks," he said with a slight smile.

"I pay your salary, you know!" Kit threatened with utterly insincere outrage in his voice.

Bartholomew waggled his tail at Kit as he and Oscar carried the boxes towards the back stairs, which made Jessie giggle.

"We'll have the party as soon as Vil feels up to it," Suzy announced. "Has she changed her plans?"

"Not that I know of," Kit answered. "She's supposed to get in tomorrow around ten or so, give or take."

"That's what she told me, too," she nodded. "To think she'll be in the air for six hours and it'll only be three hours after she left," she laughed.

"The perils of jet travel," Kit shrugged. "At least they'll be traveling west, and the pilots won't have the sun in their faces the entire trip. I wonder why she's flying in in the morning rather than the evening."

"Probably so she has a long weekend to get settled in before going back to work," Suzy guessed.

Jessie put her foot down that evening, and refused to allow the cooks to make dinner for them. She did it herself, making goulash, broccoli, and salad, which surprised Suzy a little bit. "What is this stuff?"

"Just try it," Kit said mildly as he spooned a large helping onto his plate.

"I haven't had goulash in years!" Sonya said brightly, taking her turn with the ladle.

"It sounds like a moldy boot," Suzy declared, which made Jessie laugh.

"Well, I did use leather in the recipe," she winked.

"Hush, mean kitty," Suzy said, then she took a testing bite. Her eyes lit up. "This is good!"

"Then eat," Kit told her. "Just mind the shoestrings."

Suzy elbowed him. And she wasn't gentle.

The combination of Muffy, Suzy, and Sonya made it a late night for them, and they managed to make it to bed around midnight. Kit settled in with Jessie and sighed. "Tomorrow's our last day here," he noted. "Full day, that is. What do you think?"

"I think I'll miss the furs here, but I won't miss Boston," she answered. "I want to go home, my handsome fox."

"That's the second best thing I've ever heard you say," he said with relief, nuzzling her.

"Second best?" she challenged. "And just which is better than that, 'I love you' or 'Yes?'"

"Well, I don't really care if you love me now that we're married," he said flippantly, "so I'd have to put 'I love you' at number three. You saying yes ensured I have a free maid for the rest of my life. That was what was really important, you know."

She laughed so hard that she missed when she tried to bop him with the pillow. He wrapped her up in his arms and pulled her down to the bed, then put his head on her upper chest and a paw on her distended belly. "I know what'll knock those out of the top three," he said gently, feeling a little thrill when he felt Laura kick against his paw. "The sound of our baby."

"Amen, handsome fox," she agreed, putting her paw over his and her chin on the top of his head, just over his damaged ear. "I love you."

"I love you too, pretty kitty," he returned immediately and with utter honesty in his voice.


Vil was nothing if not punctual. For a femme who took her commitments seriously, the promise to be at a certain place at a certain time was a serious matter, and it reflected bad on her when she was late, even as it annoyed her that she had failed to keep her word.

However, two complications to her rigidly scheduled life had intruded themselves into her ordered and highly structured domain; a somewhat irreverent husband and the fact that she was coming home from her honeymoon.

In that respect, Kendall was the best thing that ever happened to his sister. She was so orderly and organized that he wouldn't be surprised if she put bathroom time in her Blackberry's daily planner. Kendall would disrupt that scheduled life, introduce elements of pure randomness, even some silliness, that she desperately needed to help decompress her from the stresses of running a multi-billion dollar conglomerate of companies, two of which were multi-billion dollar companies all by themselves, Vulpan Shipyards and Vulpan Steel. She needed someone that would take her Blackberry and throw it out the window and make her live a little, someone that would surprise her, challenge her, even make her a little angry from time to time. Kendall was the perfect male for Vil, because he was an intelligent young fox with a mischievous streak, and he'd urge Vil to not just bring home the bacon, but enjoy it in ways far more than simply enjoying the perks of being rich. He'd make her appreciate life, make her look forward to coming home from work every day because she would be going home to a loving husband who would both make her laugh and make her feel wanted and cherished.

So, when they were late, Kit suspected that reluctance to leave Monaco had something to do with it. Vil called them from the jet at 8:30, as they were having breakfast with Muffy, a breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage made by Jessie. "Hey bro," she called over the faint hum of the jet's engines. "We're running a little late."

"Late? Vil? Late? Look outside, pretty kitty, and make sure the sky isn't falling," he said, which made both femmes laugh.

"Oh hush you," Vil snorted. "We're only about an hour behind schedule. I just wanted to call and warn you, so you don't get all ready to go and then have to wait."

"Who said we're coming to pick you up, femme?" he teased. "I think you know the way from the airport all by yourself."

"You'd better be standing on that tarmac when we get there," she said darkly, which made him laugh. "Besides, we have to go to the office as soon as I get back."

"That's true," he realized. "I have to file a letter of resignation."

"Well, I'm not accepting it," she said bluntly. "I want to keep you on the board for a while longer, brother."

"We had a deal!"

"No, you had a plan, I never agreed to it," she countered. "Besides, to be very blunt about it, I want you on the board because I want one Vulpan on the board that I absolutely know beyond any shadow of a doubt will never backstab me. I trust Terry and Brian, but I don't know if I can trust them in ten years. You, I never have to worry about, brother mine."

He couldn't refute her logic, but he also saw that it was recent events that were influencing her position. He knew better to argue the point for now, but in five or six months, when things were much calmer, he felt he could talk her into letting him quit. But right now, that was a brick wall just waiting for him to try to ram his head against it.

"That's one reason why we're going to the office. With Steven dead, things have changed a little bit. He had stock, and if you recall, stocks revert back to the company on the death of the owner, so I have to deal with them. I have to schedule a Monday meeting to have the stocks held by the board redistributed equally among the seats, minus myself, and I'm going to give back the stocks I took from them to sell to you, which should make them happy. Since the dividends were disbursed just a couple of weeks ago, this is the perfect time for it."

"You know, I didn't get my dividends this quarter. I checked my bank account last week, and it's not there."

"What? They damn well have better paid your dividends!" she barked. "Ken! Get the office on the other phone right now! You should have received your dividends on the sixth!"

"Kit, love, you checked the checking account. Did you have them send you the records on the money market account too, or just the checking account?" Jessie asked.

Kit laughed suddenly. "You're right, pretty kitty!" he realized. "Don't declare war yet, sis," he warned. "Jessie pointed out that I didn't check the money market account, and that's where the dividends are deposited."

"That could be it," Vil said. "Did you get your money back from the charter?"

"I did, that's why I had to have them send my transaction records in the first place," he answered. "Too much money in the bank. They're depositing Jessie's salary into the checking account, but the dividends should be going to the money market account."

"That's what they should be doing, I wanted Jessie's pay going to the checking account. Let me call and make absolutely sure your dividends were disbursed. And you call your bank and make sure it's there. I don't want this hanging over my head the rest of the flight home. I want to make sure it was done right."

"Alright. Call you back in a few minutes."

A call to the bank confirmed Jessie's suspicion. The dividends were indeed paid on the 6th of September for the third quarter, but what startled him, and what he forgot, was that he had more stock right now because he was on the board. His one dollar a year salary didn't encompass stock dividends, and Vil warned him that he'd be earning dividends off the board stock in addition to his own so long as he was on the board. So, instead of the usual approximate $31,000 he was expecting, his dividend payment for all the shares of the three companies he currently controlled came to $122,947.39.

Over a hundred twenty thousand dollars for just one quarter! He earned triple from the board stocks than he did from his personal stocks!

"Holy hairballs," Kit gasped when he hung up the phone, which made Muffy burst into laughter.

"What's wrong, love?"

"Vil is what's wrong," he said. "I completely forgot about how she set up my board membership. She found a way to sneak us extra money," he said as he speed-dialed Vil. "Sis. I got the dividends, and if I wouldn't have signed that contract, I'd be waiting for you to get off the plane so I could slap you."

She laughed brightly. "Finally figured it out, didn't ya?" she teased. "I told you you'd get a bigger dividend!"

"I was expecting a few thousand dollars more, not triple my usual dividend on top of my dividend!"

"That's because you're earning board rate on all your stocks," she said dismissively. "You are on the board, Kit, and not just on paper. Just throw it in a T-bill or something, bro. You need that money for Laura."

"Well, I can't argue with that right now. It's hard to argue about money when my daughter is only days from being born. I want a nice big bank account on paw just in case we need it," he declared, to which Jessie nodded emphatically.

"Good. You just saved yourself getting chewed out in front of your wife."

"Suuuure," he drawled, which made her laugh.

"We should be there in about four hours. I'll call right about an hour out, so you can get here."

"Alright. Talk to you later, sis."

"See you soon, bro."

Kit hung up the phone and blew out his breath. "I am so glad I hired that accounting firm," he grunted. "Our taxes are going to be murder next year."

"That's a good thing," Muffy chuckled.

"You've never done your taxes before, Muffy," he said accusingly.

"Well, you're not doing yours either," she retorted.

"No, but unlike you, I have to keep track of everything. Who do you think keeps all the paperwork in order?"

"Oh. Well, sucks to be you then," she said flippantly, then she squealed with laughter and rushed from the room when Kit lunged at her.

They didn't spend the time waiting for Vil idly. They were leaving tomorrow, and despite everything being packed, there was plenty to do. Both Kit and Jessie spent a lot of time on the phone calling down to Austin, getting everything ready. Jessie called Doctor Mac and reaffirmed her appointment on Tuesday, Kit called about half the gang but focused on Rick and Pat to organize his return to the office, and Jessie also called through most of the sorority to arrange her return to the fold… in a matronly sense. In some ways, Jessie was almost like the sorority mom now, cooking for them, being the shoulder they could cry on when they needed it, and just generally always being there for them, which was one reason why every femme in the sorority loved Jessie. She had been their little sister when she arrived, always looking out for her, but now she was their mom, and she was the one looking out for them. Jessie's compassionate, kind nature was one of the most endearing things about her, and to Kit, it marked the inner strength he had always seen in her. It takes a strong femme to care as much about others as she does herself.

Jessie also spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with Sheila and Allison, and she looked a bit miffed when she got off the phone. "Your cousin is a sneaky rat!" she declared.

"What's the matter?"

"She had our townhouse cleaned by her maid service!" she cried.

"So? I think that was very sweet of her, and now we don't have to do it," Kit said. "We won't kick up a dust storm when we open the door."

"But, strangers were in our house, love! Looking through all our stuff! What if they found the box?" she asked with a gasp, mentioning the box in the closet that had the DVD with the pictures they took on their honeymoon.

"I think that you feel you were cheated out of doing a whole lot of unpleasant work you felt you had to do because you haven't been doing it lately," he said sagely. "Luann has cleaned the room a couple of times this week."

Her cheeks ruffled almost immediately, then she laughed helplessly. "We've been so busy," she said defensively.

"And you forgot to do it, so Luann just came in behind you and tidied up," he finished. "Besides, you shouldn't be doing any heavy work right now, in your condition."

She laughed again. "Don't get all protective on me now, Kitstrom Lucas Vulpan!"

"Who said I was being protective? Cute girls should do housework naked. I've told you that over and over again. Strip off those clothes and wiggle that cute little butt of yours as you bend down to make the bed, and you'll be in proper condition to clean."

He ducked to avoid the pillow that was launched at him.

Because they had so many plans to make and so many friends to call, they were busy right up until Vil called to give them about an hour's warning. "We're somewhere over the Atlantic, but Avery says we're about an hour out," she told him. "So, come get us, bro. We need a ride home."

"Liar," he laughed.

Two limos pulled out of Stonebrook about fifteen minutes later. One of them was empty, but the other had Kit, Jessie, Muffy, Sonya, and Suzy inside. Kit and Jessie were still making calls to Austin as they finalized everything, and Lupe was the last one he called. "So, what time you pullin' in, brah?"

"We're not sure yet, because we don't have a set departure time," he answered. "Just whenever we get up and get to the airport."

"Need me to come get ya?"

"Nah, Rick's gonna take care of it. He has my truck, after all," Kit chuckled. "How is the car?"

"I've been drivin' it about once a week to keep it good, brah," he answered. Rick had Kit's truck and Martha had been using Jessie's van, but Lupe had Jessie's car. "Ain't good for a car to just sit."

"True enough," he agreed. "Do me a favor and go into the house and turn down our air conditioning."

"Already taken care of, brah," he said. "We got your house all set up for ya, and all that stuff that got shipped down from Boston is in boxes in the living room waitin' for ya to go through it. Sheila had her maid service go in there and clean it yesterday."

"Yeah, she told us. That was nice of her to think about it. We weren't looking forward to battling the dust bunnies."

Lupe laughed. "They can get vicious if you give them time to grow," he agreed. "And I put back all your stuff I borrowed while you were gone, brah," he added.

Kit chuckled. "Well, as long as nothing's broken."

"If it's broke, you'll never notice."

"Oh, can you smell the lawsuit," Kit taunted.

Lupe laughed suddenly. "Brah, don't be mean to your best bud!" he protested.

"That's what friends are for. To use and then throw away."

Lupe laughed helplessly.

Vil's jet landed about ten minutes after they arrived at Signature's hangar, and they were all standing out on the tarmac as it taxied up and came to a stop. The ground crew ran out and chocked the wheels and opened the cargo hatch after the engines were powered down, and then the hatch opened and the stairs extended. Avery stepped back, and Vil appeared in the hatchway, wearing a tee shirt and a pair of shorts of all things, and she was not in a cast. Her fur was a tiny bit lighter than usual, bleached by the Riviera sun. She walked maybe a tiny bit less certain than usual as she came down the steps with Kendall right behind her, in a tank top and a baggy pair of Bermuda shorts, but Kit didn't think that was unusual for a femme who had had her leg broken and had only been out of the cast for a week. Her leg had to get its strength back, and that wasn't something that happened the day after the cast came off. It had taken Kit's arm and shoulder over a month to fully recover after he was out of the sling, and that was with weekly physical therapy. He had no doubt that Vil's doctors had her on a physical therapy regimen to get her leg back up to par, or they would start one now that she was home from her honeymoon.

Kit folded her into a big hug when she got off the stairs. "You look like a beach bum!" he laughed as he greeted her.

"I was enjoying being one," she laughed in reply, patting him on the back. "I'm glad to be home, though."

"We had a great time," Kendall said as he shook Kit's paw after Vil moved on to hug and greet Jessie.

"You'd better, or we'd be attending Vil's wedding to Harry next month," Kit told him, which made him laugh brightly.

"We had a great time outside the bedroom as well as inside," he corrected with a wolfish smile. "Vil even came home richer."

"Eh?"

"We visited Monaco's casino," he laughed. "She won fifteen thousand dollars in there. Never play that femme in poker, Kit. Never ever ever."

"So, she cleaned out the suckers?"

"More like scared them into folding repeatedly," he said as he hugged Jessie. "There you are, you beautiful girl! Ready to throw over the Vulpans and run off together?"

Jessie grinned at him. "Sorry, you're not fox enough to make me give up my Kit."

"Rejected again," he sighed, which made Jessie burst into a fit of girlish giggling.

"I'll show you some rejection, you femmanizer," Vil said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder after hugging Sonya in greeting. "Well, let's not spend all day out here on the tarmac. I heard there's a farewell party in the works back at Stonebrook."

"Just waiting for you, Vil," Suzy told her.

"We're getting rid of Vil already? Why don't you guys tell me these things?" Kendall demanded. "I haven't even made her meow like a cat yet!"

"That's your fault, not mine," Vil said in a voice that made just about everyone crack up.

Suzy and Sonya rode in the second limo with Stav and Marcus, giving the Vulpans a chance for a little private conversation on the way back to Stonebrook. Vil and Kendall fell over themselves describing their honeymoon, from their week in Florida spent mainly in the bedroom and on sloops and yachts on the water, to the week at the villa in Monaco, lazy days spent lounging on the beach and nights spent club-hopping or staying in the villa. Vil had her camera with her, and she showed them quite a few pictures of Monaco that she didn't send on the DVD, its beaches, its architecture, and the swimsuit optional public beaches that made Jessie's cheeks ruffle.

"Who took that picture of the two of you without suits?" Kit asked with a chuckle.

"One of the servants in the villa," she answered. "Unfortunately, someone got a much better picture of us that ran in a French tabloid," she grunted. "It was taken from a boat offshore with a telephoto lens. They had to use some black bars, though. And a pretty good-sized one," she said, giving Kendall a sidelong look that made him laugh. "We were walking along on the beach."

"They took naked pictures of you? That's awful!"

"It also pissed off the old male," Kendall said. "He took steps."

"He's going after the tabloid," Vil said with a nod. "He intends to run them out of business. They broke French law when they printed the picture without our permission, part of the paparazzi reforms after Princess Di was killed. The paper is claiming that since it was taken in Monaco the law doesn't apply, but it'll be a moot point. Winston will simply put a legal team on them with orders to litigate them into the ground. You do not cross the Brightons if you're in Europe."

"Too right, love," Kendall nodded. "The old male will have that tabloid out of business by Wednesday, you mark my words. And the photographer that took it will never work in photography again."

"I just hope that the tabloids over here don't print the picture," Jessie said.

"The French put a legal injunction on it," she answered. "The tabloid can't sell or redistribute it, and the French confiscated every copy of it they could get their paws on. They even somehow managed to prevent the tabloid from putting the picture on the internet, but I have no idea how they pulled that off. I certainly don't mind that."

"I wouldn't," Jessie agreed with a nod. "Did you have much trouble after getting your cast off?"

"I limped a little the first couple of days," she chuckled. "The doctors are going to start me on physical therapy on Monday so I can get my leg rehabilitated. They wanted to start it the day after I got my cast off, but I was on my honeymoon," she said, bristling slightly. "Besides, I didn't spend all that much time on my feet," she added, giving Kendall a slight look that made him clear his throat, and made both Kit and Jessie explode into laughter.

"I'm going to need some physical therapy for my back," the British fox complained. "I wasn't kidding when I was talking about all that repressed sexual tension."

"Well, you'll have to keep working on me so I can let it all out, Kenny," she told him. "Because until I'm pregnant, you get no rest."

"Oh trust me, I've already been told that by the old male," he retorted. "I'm being dragged to the bedroom by both sides of the family!"

"Oh, keep talking like it's a chore," she said in a frosty tone.

"Well, it can be," he said with utterly insincere sobriety in his voice. "All you do is lay there, femme. I do all the work. You reap the rewards of all my labor!"

Jessie spluttered, then almost fell sideways on the seat in laughter at the cold stare Vil leveled on her husband. He winked at her, and she laughed despite herself as he put his arm around her and kissed her fondly on the side of her muzzle. "But it's a labor of love," he said in a gentle voice. Kit saw his sister melt against her husband, fit herself against him and accept his attention, and that told him more than anything that Vil truly did love Kendall Brighton.

Fortunately, they weren't at the office very long. Vil stormed in unannounced, putting the building on its ear, and went straight to her office. All three of her secretaries rushed in with her, a red vixen, a male fox, and a gray vixen, and while they stood by and listened, Vil gave the male a flash drive holding the board change proposition proposal, and had the red vixen schedule a board meeting for 10:00 on Monday morning. "Get everything that needs my attention organized and have it on my desk Monday morning," she commanded the third. "Anything that's critical, give me right now, and I'll go over it over the weekend."

"I have it all ready for you, Misses Vulpan," the young gray vixen said immediately, offering Vil her briefcase, which she had left at work before her wedding. "Organized by importance."

"Very good, Miss Harmon," she nodded. "I'm not available until Saturday afternoon. So don't even try."

"Yes, ma'am," the three secretaries said in unison.

"Get it done, good work while I was gone, and see you on Monday," she commanded, then she led them right back out of her office as quickly as they entered.

"That was fast," Jessie laughed.

"I'm not known for chitchat when I'm at the office, Jessie," Vil said with a mild chuckle. "They may be young, but Harmon, Bell, and Thatcher keep the whole company running smoothly."

"You don't have an executive assistant?" Jessie asked.

She shook her head. "It would be too much work for just one fox, so I have three assistants, and each one more or less specializes in one aspect of keeping my office going. Harmon arranges my in-box paperwork, sorting it by importance and making sure it's all correct, Bell deals with my out-box paperwork, making sure my orders are carried out, and Thatcher manages my calendar, schedule, and appointments. Oh, and don't let the secretary title fool you, sis, those three make even more money than you do, and they are executives. But those three back there have more power in this company than just about anyone else," she laughed. "Everyone knows they have to get past Thatcher to get to me, they know if they so much as don't dot an I on something they send to me, Harmon will be giving them a call, and they know that Bell will be like a pit bull making sure my orders are carried out to my satisfaction."

"Which one does your research?" Kit asked.

"All three do, handling the research for their role in the office. Harmon always knows what's most important because she researches every piece of paper that hits my in-box, Thatcher researches all furs I do business with and all locations I visit before I go, and Bell researches past action of my office and the board and analyzes its impact and success. If it's something outside those, whoever notices it does the research on it. If it's something I don't want showing up in the books, then Stav and Marcus do it, for an additional fee, of course."

"Efficient."

"The most efficiently run office in the company," Vil said proudly.

They left Boston quickly after that, and in almost no time, they were back at Stonebrook. The entire staff was in the courtyard, lined up to greet Vil, and she fell in among them with smiles and pawshakes. To Kit's surprise, Brian and Ruth came out of the garage, and they had Jonathon and Misty with them. "We heard you're leaving tomorrow, and they're throwing you a party, so we decided to crash it," Brian chuckled as he reached them.

"We can't let you go home without saying goodbye!" Ruth declared, kissing Jessie on the muzzle fondly.

"You're looking a tad bleached there, Vil," Brian remarked as she came over.

"A week in the Florida sun and then a week in the French Riviera can do that to a fox, Uncle Brian," she chuckled. "We spent a lot of time on the beach."

"You're looking well, Kendall. Not too exhausted?" Ruth asked with a slight smile.

"A little bandy-legged, but otherwise fine," he said seriously, which caused Ruth to erupt into laughter.

"We have the sun room ready for the party," Stanley announced. "Which will begin at your leisure, Master Kit."

The party wasn't so much a party as it was a gathering of Vulpans, friends, and staff in the sun room, his favorite room in the house, amid tasteful decorations and a banner reading We'll miss you! hung between the windows. The cooks had made h'ors deurves and a large cake, and it was attended by the entire house staff and the friends and family. There were no gifts given, because they didn't need anything else, but there were plenty of hugs and kisses and pawshakes spread through the room as the staff got a chance to mingle with Kit and Jessie in a social situation before they went back home. Kit had spent a lovely couple of hours sitting around talking with the staff, as Jessie made promise after promise that she would send them lots of pictures of the baby when she was born. Kit had such a good time that he didn't really even object to Brian and Ruth being there.

There was some business discussed, though. "So, it's official?" he asked Vil.

She nodded. "Zach had it on my desk when I came back, just as I warned he'd better," she affirmed. "He's out. That means I have to hire at least two more board members, one to replace Zach, and one to fill the new spot on the board. I'm having it expanded by one and the shares redistributed through the board seats, everyone but me."

"How many shares is that?" Jessie asked curiously.

"There are eighteen thousand total shares of board-distributed stock, six thousand from each company, which is ten percent of the original sixty thousand shares issued from the when the stocks were first created. I own forty thousand of each, and the rest are spread through the family. Originally there were twelve board members, so each one had five hundred each. The board's size has contracted and expanded over the years, and then I stripped each of the current board members there are now of a combined thousand shares of each stock to sell to Kit. Well, Kit's going to surrender those thousand shares back to the board, because Steven had shares, and those will be awarded to Kit."

"Vil–"

"Hush," she interrupted Kit before he could say another word. "Those shares reverted back to my control when he died, no matter what. That's how they're set up and have been set up since the thirties, and we never changed it. I'm returning a thousand shares each to the board pool, and you get the remainder."

"How many did he have?" Brian asked.

"Twenty five hundred of each, so Kit and Jessie will gain five hundred shares of each company," she answered.

Brian whistled. "Why did Steven have so many?"

"Zach sold some of his own stock to Steven on top of what Steven got from the family. Too bad for him he can't claim those stocks now that Steven's dead. They were in Steven's name through a legal sale, and when he died, they came back to the company. They're mine now, and I can sell them to anyone I please. Odds are, Steven was using the dividends to fund the Paladins, and that's why he needed so many shares, since he doesn't have his father's rate, and Zach had to keep his involvement secret. Came back to bite him in the ass," she said vindictively. "With twelve board members, that means each seat will get five hundred shares of each company, going back to the way it was originally set up. When all is said and done, you and Kit will control two thousand shares of each stock."

"But if our dividend was three times what we usually get for even less stock–" Jessie started.

"Board members earn a weighted dividend," Vil interrupted. "So do I. We earn more per share on the dividend, almost as if we owned more stock than we do. It's how it was set up, to allow the dividends to be paid out at different rates while the number of stocks in each company never changed, to reflect the holder's worth and value to the family and the company when facing the fact that only twenty thousand shares of stock per company could ever be available. Every registered owner of stock is tagged with a multiplier to his dividend, what we call a rate," she continued. "Depending on who it is. Some earn face value, like you and Kit. Some earn a weighted share, like me, the elders, and the board members. There are even different multipliers in the board, based on rank and seniority. A stock can change paws, but the multiplier is tagged to the holder, not the share. When Kit was put on the board, his multiplier went up on all the shares he owns, both his private shares and his board shares, because he became a member of the board. That's why even though he only gained an extra three hundred sixty-two shares from holding a seat on the board, he earned four times his usual dividend. He has the lowest rate of all the board members, the minimum rate allowed by our rules, but it's still applied to all his shares."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense," Jessie nodded.

"It was our grandfather's solution to the fact that such a limited number of shares would be available," Brian added. "There are only sixty thousand shares of each company, and only twenty thousand of those are available. That number can never change. It's literally written into the company's charter. If not for the weight system, each single share would earn a huge dividend."

"It's zero sum," Vil elaborated to Jessie's slightly confused look. "For every point of rate one fox earns, that means that the rate, in a way, goes down for everyone else. It's based on the lump sum cash paid out in a dividend cycle. There's only so much money, so it's divided per share and per weighted rate to disburse it evenly and fairly. What one fox earns over the baseline has to be taken away from the others."

"Ohhh, okay!" Jessie said in comprehension.

"One of the ways Grandfather kept control," Brian chuckled. "He couldn't force someone to give up their shares, but he could adjust their rate to ensure they earned virtually nothing for them."

"Back when the CEO had direct control of the rate system," Vil sighed. "I'd love to have that power."

"It's controlled by the board now, isn't it?" Jessie asked.

"Yup. So I'd have to have support to get a rate change through. That's why I didn't simply give you one share of stock and stick a ridiculous rate on it," she winked at Jessie. "To make the shares pay off for you, I had to sell you a large number of shares."

"And they weren't cheap," Kit grunted. "It was a huge chunk of my inheritance to buy the Vulpan stocks."

"Pft, they paid for themselves with the first dividend," she declared.

Kit chuckled. "They did."

"Well, you'll get more of a dividend as a board member. Your rate is about three times face value, give or take, which is the minimum rate allowed to a board member. Controlling two thousand shares per company, you'll be looking about a hundred fifty thousand a quarter in dividend payments."

"Which is why you won't let me quit."

"Mmmmaybe," she said with a coquettish smile, which made Jessie giggle and him laugh helplessly.

"Then give me the card."

"Oh, no way!" she laughed, pulling her paws away and over her shoulder as if holding it. "That doesn't even qualify as meddling! I gave you a very logical reason for keeping you on the board! I need you on it, silly male! You're my strongest anchor!"

"Card?" Brian asked.

"My wedding present," Vil grinned. "I'm entitled to one act of meddling with no repercussions, a one free meddle card."

"Within reason," Kit stressed.

"Your concept of reason and mine are two very different things," she said sweetly. "And since I'm the one who got the present, it's my sense of reason that counts."

Kit gave her a strange look, then laughed helplessly.

It was a very nice party. It lasted about two more hours, filled with conversation and laughter, and also a chance for Brian and Ruth to get to know Sonya better, and then it slowly broke up. Staff left one by one to return to their duties, then Brian and Ruth left with their kids, then Vil declared that she was ready to go home, to return to Hart's Crossing… and that was that. The party wound down, and they walked Vil and Kendall out to a waiting limo that would take them home. "I'll be back over here around seven," she promised, "so I can take you to the airport. I doubt you'll be awake before then, but I know you'll be too anxious to go home to sleep much past it."

"Are we so predictable?" Kit laughed as he hugged his sister.

"About some things, yes," she winked. "I'll see you tomorrow, little brother."

"I'm glad you're home, sis, because now I can go home too."

"More's the pity. I was hoping exposing you to your birthright would soften you up a little bit," she said with a shameless wink.

"I'm Vulpan enough to be stubborn," he chuckled in reply as he kissed her on the side of her muzzle.

"See you in the morning, taller sis," Vil said, hugging Jessie. "I'm very disappointed in you, you know."

"What? Why?"

"Because you were supposed to be completely seduced by his money and demand to stay here," she declared, pointing at Kit. "You let me down!"

Jessie laughed. "I'm so sorry that I'm a normal girl at heart," she answered. "It was fun to be here, and nice, and I can't deny that there were times I really enjoyed it, but I want to go home, Vil. This is just a glorified vacation. My heart belongs in Austin, and it's time the rest of me went back to it."

"Well said," Kit said with a nod.

"Good, that means I won't have any competition for my wife's attention," Kendall chuckled as he hugged Jessie, then shook Kit's paw. "See you two tomorrow."

"We'll be ready," Kit answered.

"I guess we'd better wander off too," Sonya said. "We still on for dinner tomorrow, Vil?"

"Sure are," she answered.

"We'll be back tomorrow to see you off," Suzy promised as she hugged Jessie, then kissed Kit on the tip of his nose playfully.

"Wait a minute, you're leaving us with Muffy?" Kit suddenly demanded. "No! Take her too!"

"Why you jerk!" Muffy retorted, which caused everyone, even Muffy, to crack up.

Muffy didn't really factor much into things after everyone left, because Kit and Jessie were too busy, and she had her own things to do. She was staying at Stonebrook overnight and would leave for Connecticut after they left in the morning, and that left Kit and Jessie to finish getting ready to go home. Both of them had a few more calls to make, and Kit went through the manor with Stanley and a checklist to make sure that everything that was going to Austin was either already there or boxed up, and everything staying at Stonebrook was accounted for and didn't accidentally get packed. Stanley was quite reserved and pensive through the whole thing, so much so that Kit had to ask him what was wrong. "It's going to feel quite unnatural to have no Vulpans here to serve, Master Kit," he said quietly. "We'll have no purpose. We'll be keeping the house up, that's for certain, but it won't feel like we have a reason to do it."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that, Stan," Kit told him. "I think you'll find that you'll have plenty to do when we leave. For one, weren't you talking about remodeling the kitchen?"

"Oh yes, I've had the funds set aside for that project for a while."

"Well, with no kitchen demands, I think this is the perfect time to do it."

"True, true. And there's the landscaping project that Daniel wants to undertake in the garden, to smooth out that hill behind the fountain, and Bartholomew mentioned the other day that the Autumn cottage is due for an inspection and repainting."

"Well, this is a good time to get most of the maintenance out of the way, mainly since you won't have to listen to a bunch of Vulpans whine about all the dust, noise, and disturbance," he noted, which made Stanley chuckle a little bit. "After you get that done, I think you'll find that Vil will keep you busy. I told her to use Stonebrook as she sees fit, and you have to admit, this place so kicks Hart's Crossing's ass when she's trying to make an impression."

Stanley laughed. "That, Master Kit, is certainly true. We did not embarrass Mistress Vil at her reception."

"So, I'd expect to be doing a lot of planning over the winter, Stan," Kit noted. "I guarantee you, after you get the repairs and other maintenance done, Vil will not let you get lazy."

"I certainly hope so," he said honestly. "Master Kit, I want you to promise me something."

"What?"

"If you run into any kind of difficulty at all down in Austin, please, don't hesitate to call. This is your home, no matter how you feel about Austin, and the manor and its resources are always at your disposal."

"I appreciate that, Stan, I really do," he said sincerely, patting the older fox on the shoulder. "And it's more of a comfort than you can ever realize to know that if all else fails, I can always return here, even if I'm broke and homeless."

"You will never be homeless, Master Kit," Stan told him. "For this is your home, and it will always be here for you. And if you are indeed broke, why, I'll simply send a car for you," he declared.

Kit laughed. "The way the economy is tanking, that's always a distinct possibility," he said sagely.

"Pft, to a Vulpan, a weakening economy isn't a crisis, it's an opportunity," Stanley declared. "As I recall, your grandfather truly solidified the family fortune during the Great Depression, and then it skyrocketed at the onset of World War two."

"True," Kit nodded.

After they got everything squared away, the staff didn't allow Jessie to cook her last dinner at Stonebrook. All three chefs all but ran her out of the kitchen, and they prepared a dinner of lobster, crab, tuna, and salmon, a true fisherfur's feast, which made Jessie almost swoon in delight when they put it on the table. Jessie was all cat when it came to seafood, and fortunately Kit shared her taste for it… or he'd be in big trouble come dinnertime in the Vulpan household. Three or four dinners out of seven were seafood within their house, though usually not anything quite this extravagant. Muffy certainly wasn't complaining either, for lobster was her favorite food in the entire world, and they had made sure to make her a very large one.

"Alright guys, I'm going to go out and see some friends," Muffy said. "I think you two probably want to be alone on your last night here, so I'll clear out."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Jessie asked. "We love having you here, you silly vixen!"

"If I were you, I'd like a little privacy on my last night in that big bedroom… with that big bed," she said knowingly, and she laughed when Jessie's cheeks threatened to ruffle. "Besides, I do have a couple of friends to see tonight."

"And a few parties to go to, and a couple of clubs to visit," Kit added.

"Yeah, those too," she agreed with a laugh. "So I'll see you tomorrow if you're not awake when I get back tonight, okay?"

"Don't you dare oversleep!" Jessie warned.

"Who said I'd sleep? I just need to make sure I'm back by seven," she said with a bright, toothy grin, then she laughed when Jessie shooed her from the table.

"She's a Vulpan, all right," Kit chuckled lightly.

There was something to be said for Muffy's gesture. Kit found himself walking the halls and rooms of Stonebrook after Jessie went to go take a bath, to enjoy that huge spa tub in the bathroom one more time before going home to the much smaller jacuzzi tub they had in the master bathroom. He'd lived in this house for sixteen years before walking out of the house and the Vulpan family, and though there were enough bad memories to last a lifetime in this place, there were a few good ones. Memories like listening to his mother sing, dancing with her in the ballroom before a Christmas party, just the two of them, or sitting on the edge of the pool, before they remodeled it and made it bigger, watching Vil being taught how to swim by Clancy. That was one of his earliest memories, when he was just two years old, sitting there in a pair of swim trunks and floaters on his upper arms. He recalled that his mother and father had hated the water, and so it was usually Clancy that went with them when they went swimming. He walked through the grand entry foyer, where his father had issued the ultimatum when he was sixteen, and he looked at the front door that Kit had stormed through almost immediately afterward, storming off into a bitterly cold late winter night wearing nothing but a dress shirt and a pair of slacks… and nearly freezing to death walking away from Stonebrook. The nurse to which the police had taken him said his thick fur was probably the only reason he didn't die out there in that storm. His thick, handsome fur was more than a matter of vanity, that night it had saved his life. He opened the front door and looked out over a huge front lawn where he used to play in the summer, and sled down its slope in the winter, since it was the steepest hillside that wasn't covered in trees on the grounds… but that wasn't saying much. He did remember once, when he was twelve, when the snow had frozen over with a sheet of ice from freezing rain, getting on his sled and absolutely flying down the hill, so fast he had to bail out before his sled zoomed into the trees between the hill and the front wall. Then there was that ice storm when he was fourteen, with ice so thick that he put on his hockey skates and skated around the courtyard. The whole city lost power for days after that, but Stonebrook had its own generators, so they hadn't gone without power. He remembered that Sheila had been over before the storm and was stuck with them overnight, and how she had fallen on her butt and slid halfway down the road towards where the chopper pad was now, and then spent nearly twenty minutes trying to waddle her way back up the hill, having to use the sawpoints of her figure skates to literally claw her way back up to the courtyard. Good grief, was she pissed that he hadn't helped her, had done nothing but stand there and laugh, so much so she hauled off and whacked him a good one and knocked him down. Sheila was much younger than him as the cousins and kids in general reckoned such things, but since his father and her mother were the closest of all the Vulpan elders, she was over at their house so much that he knew her better than most of the other cousins, her and her siblings. Sam and Randy were happy-go-lucky troublemakers and Randy was Kit's own age, and they'd gotten themselves into all kinds of mischief when they were over… but never on purpose. Will and Duncan weren't quite so adventurous as Sam and Randy, but Kit rather liked them, too. Will wanted to go into the family business even at a young age, and was working hard to be ready for it, but Duncan wanted to be a painter. That hadn't panned out, because his bastard father had forced him to give over art and take up business, just as he tried to do to Kit, but Duncan was taking quite a few art classes in addition to business classes at Harvard, and he was a very good painter. Sheila was the true hellion of Sarah's kids; where Sam and Randy just liked to have fun and got into trouble as a byproduct, Sheila was the type that intentionally went out of her way to stir things up. That was why they were such good friends when they were kids, despite their age difference, and the only reason why Kit had given Sheila a chance in the airport down in Austin when she barged back into his life.

There were some good memories here, but the problem was that they were drowned out by the intensity of the bad ones. He and his father had had so many fights in this house, in almost every room, and he still felt like the ghosts of past Vulpans stared at him from the walls disapprovingly for him marrying Jessie.

Well, they could all go to hell. Jessie was his match, the femme he was put on this earth to find and marry, and he didn't give a damn if they didn't approve of the fact that she wasn't a fox.

He returned to the bedroom after a last, lonely tour of this house that he hated yet was now his, to see Jessie sitting in the body dryer, on the ventilated seat as twelve air nozzles oscillated around here to dry her fur. She was so pregnant that the bottom of her belly was pressing against the top of her legs, hiding the best part of her he liked to view, and he had to agree that she could pop any day now. She was drying her hair, and the warm, loving look she gave him when he stepped in was like sunshine, basking him in its radiance. "Hey, my handsome fox, mind getting the comb for me?"

"Only if I get to use it," he said.

She smiled. "Of course. Where do you want to start, tail or feet?"

"The tail, of course. That way I can paw your butt and just pretend I'm clumsy."

She laughed. "You're anything but clumsy, you naughty boy," she declared as she stood up, a bit awkwardly, then turned and around and presented her tail to him, flicking it at him in a manner that was considered an insult among the youngers of Cincinnati.

"Aat, you're about to lose your valet," he chided as he went over to the sink and got her body comb, one of the few possessions they'd left out.

"Suuure," she teased as he came over, stepped into the blowing air, and sat down on the damp seat despite his jeans and started combing her tail out to its usual long-tailed, silky, gorgeous perfection. Jessie was very beautiful, to more than just him, and her vanity was one of her little quirks. She wasn't obnoxious or arrogant about it, but she was beautiful, and she knew it, and she liked to stay pretty. She didn't stay pretty to attract males or make her friends jealous, she stayed pretty because she liked to feel good about herself, and the fact she was pretty was one of the things that she felt good about. Hers was a private vanity of self-image, not a preening one meant to impress others, which kept her on a strict exercise regimen so she kept her figure and caused her to always want to make sure she didn't look like a mess when she went out in public. She didn't have to be beautiful to go out, but she did want to be presentable. And her presentable made almost all male eyes turn her way and made girls annoyed, because it didn't take much for a girl as pretty as Jessie to be "presentable." When she wanted to be beautiful, males gawked and femmes glared… and she didn't seem to understand just what kind of effect she had. That was part of her alluring charm, a ravishing beauty who was both modest and innocent enough to not fully comprehend just how gorgeous she was.

And she loved a plain, scarred, scruffy-looking male like him. Life was funny sometimes.

She laughed when, instead of pulling the comb through the fur of her tail, he instead pressed it up against her furry backside and sawed it back and forth "It's looking better already," he hummed.

"Stop being silly and start combing, or I'll fire you!" she commanded, whacking him on the side of the head with her tail.

"Hey, hey, watch it!" he called. "You already have five appendages that end with sharp pointy things, I don't need to be attacked by the only one that doesn't!"

"Five? Five? Where do you get five?"

"Don't you have teeth in your pretty little maw?" he asked, slapping her on the rump playfully before he bent to the task of combing out her tail.

"My head is not an appendage," she said primly. "You make it sound like I have an arm coming out of my forehead."

"And if you did, that would have claws too," he noted, which made her giggle, then gasp.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, putting a paw on her swollen stomach. "Oh my, that was a sharp one!"

"Another pang?"

She nodded. "I hope that's not an omen that we'll be landing somewhere in Tennessee," she laughed. "The last thing Laura needs is the stigma of being a hillbilly on top of being a Yankee!"

"She won't be if she's born in Texas," Kit mused.

"Sure she will, because her father's a Boston blue-blood," she winked down at him. "That makes her half Yankee."

"And half what? Alley cat?" He barked in surprise when her tail swatted him again, then he laughed.

"Watch yourself, buster," she warned in a thoroughly insincere dangerous voice. "You know what happens to little foxes that wander into the wrong alleys."

"I'm not worried, because I have this cute little bruiser that'll be there to save me."

"Bruiser!" she said in outrage, then slapped him a third time with her tail, which nearly made him fall off the seat laughing. "I give you the best years of my life, I'm bearing your daughter, and I'm a bruiser? Comb, you ingrate!"

He laughed brightly at that declaration. "Yes, dear," he said mockingly. She moved to swat him one more time, but he was ready for her. He opened his mouth and intercepted her tail, and when he bit down on it, just hard enough for it to register, she squeaked in surprise and put both paws on her shapely backside. "You rat!" she declared hotly. "Leggo!" She gasped when he put a little more pressure on her tail between his jaws, then she put her open paw in his face and extended her claws for his benefit. "Let go right now, or you'll be playing with one of the pointy ends!"

He released her tail, then spat out a stray hair from her tail. "Bleh, next time wash all the soap out of your tail," he complained, spitting the taste out of his mouth. "Cat hair and soap is not a good taste combination. Ick."

She almost fell over laughing.

It was their last night at Stonebrook, and as they climbed into bed, after watching a DVD, it felt a little strange, but it also felt like the end of a long ordeal, almost like he'd been sent out of state by Rick to do a long job. But it was over now, and they'd be going to bed in their own bedroom tomorrow night, back in their own house, and a house that would take a day or two to get straightened up after they unpacked everything. Jessie snuggled in against him, and all he could feel was her large belly against his side, almost feeling Laura's heart beating through her abdomen. He wrapped his arm around her, and she sighed and nestled her head against his shoulder and chest. "We'll be home by this time tomorrow, handsome fox," she said quietly. "I can't wait to go home."

"Me either. And thank you for wanting to leave this place."

She giggled. "It was nice. Almost like a vacation. But we don't belong here, love. We belong in Austin, in our house, with our friends, and where our daughter will be born. It's home."

"Amen, pretty kitty. Amen."


Vil knew Kit very well, but in this instance, she didn't know him well enough.

Both Kit and Jessie were awake at 5:30am, and they couldn't go back to sleep, despite honest attempts to try. The excitement at the idea of going home was like a kid at Christmas, and they were much too anxious to go back to bed. So, it was with honest annoyance that they got up, ate breakfast, looked at the clock, and realized that they were stuck there until Vil arrived. If they left without giving her the chance to take them to the airport, they'd be hearing about it for the next ten years. Hell, Vil would fly down to Austin just so she could smack them. So, after eating, getting dressed, and packing their laptops and their carry-on bags holding their toiletries and other necessities they'd left out, they had nothing to do but wait.

They tried to make the best of the time. Kit checked the weather in Austin and on their projected flight path using a manor laptop to see how things would be, and Jessie distracted herself with knitting, since she'd kept out her knitting bag and was carrying it with her. Then Kit pulled out the camera and took some final pictures of both the manor and those inside it, including a very nice picture of the sun rising over the forest to the east, and a picture of the manor house bathed in the golden light of the dawn.

Nick and Sylvia woke up not long after them and also got ready, and there were a couple of suspiciously large and ominous-looking cases stacked by the door. After they were ready, they joined Jessie in the TV room to keep her company, but Nick spent most of that time on the phone, making sure that the drive to the airport would be safe; as a last act, some of the mercs on the manor were spread out along the route to make sure nobody tried anything, and Donny and Grizz were at the airport, already at Signature's hangar, keeping their eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. After Kit and Jessie left, the mercs would pack up their bags, get their final pay, and then move on to their next assignment. But, they'd all go with a bag of Jessie's homemade cookies and a paw-written note of thanks from Kit for their effort and their service.

Fortunately, Vil wasn't quite as late as he expected. Around 6:30, Vil and Kendall arrived, buzzing in through the gate since Oscar hadn't made it out there yet. Stanley went to go hurriedly wake up Muffy as Kit and Jessie went to the garage to greet them. However, when they got there, they found out that Vil and Kendall weren't alone. Stav and Marcus were helping them out of the limo, Will, Vil's head butler, was with them, and even more of a surprise, Abigail Brighton was helped out of the limo by Stav as they came through the door. "There you are, duckies," she said with a bright smile, folding Jessie into a hug before Vil could reach her. "Why, you're even more radiant now than at the wedding, my dear," she said to Jessie, kissing her on the cheek.

"It's nice to see you again, Misses Brighton," Jessie said, a bit modestly.

"Aat, aat, you call me Abby!" she declared.

"Be nice, mum, they're not used to pushy femmes like–oh, nevermind," he said, looking at Vil. Kit laughed as Vil elbowed him in the ribs.

"I just got in last night," she said as she hugged Kit. "I'll be in Austin in just a couple of days. We took possession of the house on Friday, and I'll be down around Tuesday to oversee the furnishing and decorating."

"So you're really coming down?" Kit asked.

"Of course we are," she said dismissively. "Winston will be down sometime late next week or the week after next, and he's bringing the boys. We can't miss the birth of our daughter-in-law's first baby!"

"I have tea prepared, and can have breakfast made if you're hungry," Stanley offered.

"I think we have time for a spot of tea," Abigail declared. "But not long! I get the feeling that our duckies are anxious to go home!"

"That's the truth," Kit chuckled as he hugged Vil.

Brief was a good word for it. As the staff loaded the last of their things in Vil's limo, Luann and Bartholomew served them tea in the TV room near the garage. Vil and Kendall didn't look entirely awake once they sat down and stopped moving, but Abigail was just as animated and funny as ever, peppering Kendall with jokes and sly observations that made it clear that Kendall inherited part of his sense of humor from his mother. Muffy joined them, looking very haggard, not long after they sat down for tea, dragging herself in and flopping down beside Kendall and yawning widely. "Mornin'," she mumbled.

"GOOD MORNING!" Abigail all but screamed, which made Muffy flinch violently and most of the others laugh. "Out a bit late last night, were we?"

"You mean this morning," she said weakly. "I got in around four, but I made sure to be back in time to see you off. I thought you'd be leaving at like five," she chuckled, then winced.

"We would have if not for the fact that Vil would have called her plane back in midair if we left without her seeing us off," Kit said.

"Damn right I would have," Vil affirmed with a sharp nod. "My plane, my rules."

"Delta?" Kit said to Jessie.

"United," she answered with a slight smile. "They have better peanuts."

"It seems your services are no longer required, Vil," Kit told her grandly. "It was so nice of you to get up to see us off, but we'll be on our way now."

"I don't think so," she shot back with a smile. "Besides, why are we still sitting here? I thought you wanted to go home."

"Can I finish this first?" Abigail asked, holding her tea up. "I do so love the tea you serve here, Stanley. You absolutely must arrange to send some of it to us."

"It's a secret proprietary tea blended specifically for the estate, madam," Stanley told her with a bit of regret in his voice. "I'm afraid that giving away the recipe is quite impossible."

"Who said I want the recipe? Just send me a box, you silly male," she retorted.

"She's family, I think that's alright, Stan. Besides, I get the feeling she'll make your life hell if you don't," Vil said with a sly smile at the older vixen.

"It's the femme's way. Males threaten and bluster, femmes nag," she said shamelessly. "And our way gets much better results."

"Playing on the inherent annoyance factor of the female," Kendall said sagely.

"So says the most annoying male on earth," Vil snorted.

"But you married me anyway," he teased.

"I'm desperate for a baby, and you were barely adequate," she sniffed, which all but paralyzed the room with laughter.

After Abigail finished her tea, they were indeed off. Nick and Sylvia helped pack their carry-ons in the limo as the entire staff lined up in the garage to say goodbye to Kit and Jessie. Clancy was up and about, and he joined them to ride with them to the airport, so he skipped standing there and hugging the pair as they more or less went down the line to say goodbye to each and every member of the staff, and there were many promises that they'd take care of themselves and keep in touch. Frannie and the cooks made a light lunch for them to eat on the plane, and a very large thermos of Stonebrook tea was put in the limo for them to enjoy. After they said goodbye to everyone, Stav and Marcus helped them into Vil's largest of her three limos. She owned three, a small one she used for daily business, a larger, more luxurious one for receiving guests and business associates, and this two-seater stretch limo she used for groups. This one, with its two large seats that faced each other with plenty of legroom between and a utility third seat between the driver's seat and the passenger area, was more than large enough for all the Vulpans, Abigail, Clancy, and Nick and Sylvia, who had to ride in the middle seat because there was no more room up front. Abigail made quick work of making Clancy feel comfortable and welcome among them, and she engaged him in stories of the Vulpan kids' youth as Kit looked out the window and saw Stonebrook sliding by, as they went around the manor house and down the hill towards the front gate.

He felt relieved to be leaving it behind, but there was a small part of him that felt a touch nostalgic. After all, he had been born in that house, in the very bedroom where he'd been staying since coming up here. It was not his home, but it did belong to him, a final legacy of the Vulpan family, the final payment for the way the family had treated him. It was a bit of ironic justice that Kit would be the one to end up with possession of Stonebrook, the one Vulpan who wanted the least to do with his family. And yet, Vil had found a way to get her claws in him when he rushed up here to be with her and to help her when the family went after her, which said much about his sister's personality. Even in the midst of all that, she found a way to rope him into taking a seat on the board, and had acted in a very sneaky manner by making him the owner of the manor. She'd taken what he did in good faith and used it to alter the deed, and there was nothing he could do about it. Like it or not, and certainly it wasn't a matter of like to most of the elders and many of his cousins, Kit Vulpan, the renegade outcast of the Vulpan family, now owned the bastion of family power, and in many ways, the very icon of the Vulpan family. Stonebrook was the seat of the family power, so much so that Zach had moved in there to try to establish his dominance over Vil… and now no Vulpan would be living within it. It wouldn't be forgotten or unused, that was for certain, for Vil would find ways to use the manor, but the staff would have something of a reprieve in the fact that there would be no Vulpans to serve for a while.

"Regrets?" Vil asked him quietly as he watched the manor go by.

"Only that it took this long to leave," he answered immediately. "I've told you over and over, Vil, Austin is my home. It's where I want to be, and it's where we're happy. I don't belong in Boston, sis."

"Well, excuse me if I disagree with you," she said simply. "No matter where you want to be, brother, you are a Vulpan, and that means that Boston will always be your home. I will absolutely guarantee you that eventually, maybe twenty or thirty years from now, you will come home."

"That's a bet you'll lose, Vil," he said with a slight smile.

"We'll find out, won't we?" she said with a quirky smile.

Clancy entertained Abigail, and mortified Kit and Vil, with stories of their adventurous youths for the entirety of the trip to Logan. Donny and Grizz were standing by Vil's private jet as they pulled up to the hangar at Signature Services, and the big bear opened the door when the limo came to a halt. Avery was standing in the hatch, and the jet looked ready to leave at any time. Ground workers rushed out to load the luggage into the jet, and Kit and Jessie hugged and kissed everyone goodbye. "You know, I'm surprised Brian isn't here," Kit chuckled as he hugged Vil and kissed her on the muzzle.

"He wanted to be, but I told him that you wouldn't have appreciated it very much. So, he sends his regards."

"I'm glad you thought to mention that," he nodded as he accepted a hug from Abigail.

"I'll be down early next week, ducky," she told him, kissing him noisily on the cheek. "Tuesday, unless plans change."

"Need me to pick you up, Abby?"

"I'd love it, that way I can show you where the house is," she told him as she held her arms out wide to Jessie. "Don't you dare pop before I get down there!" she warned as she kissed Jessie on the cheek.

She laughed. "I'll try not to, but I don't think I have much say in the matter, Abby," she warned.

"Alright then, Laura, no early appearances!" the matronly vixen demanded sternly, waggling a pointed finger at Jessie's stomach. "Or it's no birthday presents for you for five years!"

"Such a mean mum," Kendall teased as Clancy shook Kit's paw, but then chuckled when Kit dragged him into an embrace.

"Be good, Clancy," Kit told him. "And remember that we always have a spare bedroom reserved for you any time you want to come down and see us."

"I'll be down when Laura is born, my boy," he promised. "And I'll always remember that you keep a room ready for me."

"Be good, pest," Kit told Muffy as he hugged her. "Don't drive them too crazy down at Yale."

"As long as they don't bore me in class, I won't," she laughed in reply, then winced. "I'm going right back to bed when we get back to Stonebrook."

"Who said you can go back?" he grinned at her. "You might try to steal the silverware."

She laughed and slapped him on the arm. "Say hi to Sheila and Ally for me."

"I will, I promise," he assured her.

After all the goodbyes were said, Nick and Sylvia preceded them up the stairs and into the jet, carrying their carry-ons and Jessie's knitting bag. Vil and the others stood back from the jet and waved as it started moving, and Kit and Jessie waved back through the window as Avery taxied them out and towards the runway. "Well, pretty kitty, we're on our way home," he said with an explosive sigh.

"And I can't wait to get there," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I hope everything in the house is alright."

"It should be, I doubt Lupe stole too much out of the house he had to put back," Kit laughed. "Though I'll bet money the big TV we sent down mysteriously found its way into his townhouse for a couple of days."

"I wouldn't take that bet," Jessie giggled. "Did you get your apartment all fixed up and ready, Sylvia?"

"Ja, Jessie," she nodded. "It has enough furniture for me to function until I can get it furnished. Barnett bought a cheap bed and some kitchenware and a chair, and that's all I need until I can furnish it and have some of my things sent from Germany."

"Well, if it's not good enough, you can always stay in our spare bedroom until it's ready."

"Dunca, but I'll be fine."

"Well you can stay in my apartment, Sylvie," Nick grinned. "My bed's big enough for both of us."

"No bed is big enough for your ego, wolf," she told him darkly, which made Jessie giggle.

"I don't think he'd fit on the bed we bought for the spare bedroom," she agreed, smiling at Sylvia.

"It's good they have their own apartments. We would have had to keep Nick in a closet or something until we needed him," Kit said, giving Nick a sly smile.

"Just try and put me in a closet, mate," he replied. "I don't think you can make me fit."

"I could after I broke your back and folded you in half," Sylvia noted, which made Jessie laugh.

"Sylvie, don't you love me anymore?"

"Did I ever to begin with?"

Chapter 41