JC: William Redman Carter Noble Savage Chapter 41 By Lazlo Zalezac Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005 Amused by what he was doing, Derrick led the little horse using the reigns. Lucy was seated on its back holding onto the saddle horn with white knuckles. She was nervous; feeling like the horse was huge and ready to run away at any moment. She looked over at William and, voice tight with tension, said, “I’ve never ridden a horse before.” “You don’t say. I would never have guessed,” William replied with a grin from atop the horse that Derrick had given him. It was a nice quarter-horse of good stock and was a real pleasure to ride. “It’s not funny. This is a monster. Couldn’t you have gotten a smaller horse for me?” Derrick chuckled at the characterization of the horse as a monster and said, “Any smaller and it would stop being a horse.” “Huh?” “Anything smaller than this is called a pony,” he replied considering that at 14.1 hands that if the horse was one inch shorter then technically the animal would be a pony. As it was, he was being generous in calling it a horse since it just barely qualified. “I thought a pony was a breed and not a size,” Lucy said. The horse gave a quick double step and she squeaked. “It’s both. Usually an equine smaller than 14.2 hands is a pony while an equine taller than 14.2 hands is a horse. With Pintos, any equine taller than 14 hands is a horse while less than that is a pony. The Shetland pony is a breed and runs less than 14.2 hands,” William answered. His horse, at 15.3 hands, looked huge compared to her little horse. “It’s still big,” she said. Of course, when William rode his horse over to walk next to hers it was obvious that hers was a very small horse. Seeing that William was in position to take control of the horse if it got away from Lucy, Derrick stopped and handed her the reins. He said, “She’s a real gentle animal. Don’t overwork the reins. Give her a very soft touch and she’ll go where you want her to go.” Lucy let go of the saddle horn, grasp the reins and pulled back on them. The little horse started backing up. William put his hand over hers and forced it to a position where the reins hung with a little slack. He said, “That’s how you want to keep the reins. Think of it this way, each time you yank the reins you’re hurting the horse just a little. The harder you pull, the more you hurt it.” “That’s horrible,” Lucy said. “Well, you just hurt Lady’s Prize. So take it easy,” William explained. “I hurt the horse?” Lucy asked. “Yes,” William answered. He leaned over to her and said, “Now, if you want to turn right remove the slack on the right rein and put just a little pressure. That will turn Lady’s Pride’s head to the right and she’ll turn to the right. When she’s going in the direction you want, let the slack return. Turning left is the same process with the left rein.” Derrick said, “You aren’t driving a car. A horse is a living animal and can handle most of the details about how to go from one place to another. Your job is to let the horse know where you want to go.” William watched Lucy ride the little horse around the corral. Derrick walked beside the horse just in case something happened. Having the two men watching over her allowed her to relax a little and she started enjoying being on the horse. She asked, “How did you give her the name Lady’s Prize?” “I didn’t give her that name. That’s her registered name,” Derrick answered. “Oh,” Lucy answered not sure what that meant. William said, “She was given that name when she was born and registered with the Pinto Horse Association of America by the previous owner. You don’t change the name of a horse. Lady’s Prize is officially a skewbald Pinto horse of stock type with overo markings.” “Oh, I see,” she said staring at William. After a minute, she asked, “What’s a Pinto?” “A pinto is a horse with the kind of two-toned coloration that your horse has. Overo means that the coloration is jagged rather than spotted. Skewbald means that it is a lighter coloration rather than black. Stock type means that it is a western horse with predominately quarter and paint breeding and conformation,” William answered with a grin. “How do you know all that?” she asked. Even Derrick looked impressed that William knew that much about Pintos. “Daddy Ed made sure that all of us kids know our horses,” William answered. Seeing the expression on Derrick’s face, William added, “It was also a favorite horse of the Native Americans.” “Oh,” Lucy answered. “Getting tired?” William asked. “A little. I guess I’m not used to sitting in a saddle,” Lucy answered. William led her horse to the rail of the corral and tied up the horse. He climbed off his horse and walked around to help Lucy out of the saddle. She slid down to the ground with a little help from him. She took a few steps and said, “I feel bowlegged.” William laughed at the expression on her face and said, “That’s okay. You don’t look it. When we get back to the Carter House, we’ll get you a massage and you’ll feel a lot better.” “Good,” Lucy said. Derrick walked over to the horses and said, “I’ll take care of the horses while you check out the progress on your house. I’m sure that you’ll want to walk through it.” “Thanks, Derrick. I’ve got to say that you really picked out two nice horses for us,” William said running a hand along the flank of Lady’s Prize. “I’m glad you like them,” Derrick said tipping his hat. Looking over at Lucy, William asked, “Do you want to walk over there or take the Hugger?” “We can walk.” William walked with Lucy the two hundred yards to the entry way of the house. The foreman, Jack Dickles, was waiting for them by the time they reached it. Nodding his head, he said, “Hello, William and Lucy. I take it you’d like to see the progress on your house.” “That’s right, Jack,” William answered. Jack handed over a pair of hardhats and said, “You’ll have to wear these while you’re in the house.” William took off his cowboy hat and put on the hardhat after fiddling with the headband. Lucy took off her baseball cap and put it in her pocket. She put the hardhat on and found that it was riding high on her head. William took her hat and adjusted the headband before putting it back atop her head. It fit perfectly. Surprised, she asked, “You know my hat size?” “I know all of your measurements,” he answered with a wink. “Really?” she asked. “Yes, really.” “What’s my bra size?” “It’s perfect,” William answered. “That’s not a size,” she countered. “It is as far as I’m concerned. Your breasts are perfect. Your ass is perfect. Your feet are perfect. Your chest, waist, and hips are perfect. See, I know all your measurements,” William said with a smile. “You’ve been around Happy Harry too much. You’re beginning to pitch woo like him,” Lucy said with a grin while hitting his arm in a playful manner. Despite her words to the contrary, she didn’t doubt that he knew her measurements. Jack listened to the exchange while thinking that he would have to use that line on his wife sometime when she asked him a question like that. He was sure that answer would keep him off the couch at least one night. Shaking his head, he said, “Let’s get to it.” William and Lucy entered the house through the framed doorway at ground level. From the front, it looked like a rather large one story ranch house. Ten paces after stepping through the door, they reached the edge of the first floor balcony. The lower three levels of the house opened up beneath them. In front of them, they could see the canyon through the four story glass window. Taking a deep breath, Lucy said, “It’s beautiful.” Jack could understand her reaction. He had that same sense of wonder each time he stepped through the door. He said, “The stairs down to the next level are to the right and left of us. The elevators are still being installed in the shafts behind us. The elevators will be fusion powered electromagnetic lifts. These have the advantage of being completely quiet so that you won’t be disturbed by the sounds of an elevator.” Nodding his head, William asked, “The Otis version?” “Of course,” Jack answered. “Good. They have the magnetic safety locks that engage if the power should ever fail for any reason,” William said knowing that he would test them by cutting the power from the fusion batteries. His sister was definitely making sure that his money was being well spent. Leading the way down the stairs, Jack said, “This level contains the formal living room, dining room, ten guest rooms, and an open area that can be used when entertaining. There are four readily accessible bathrooms on this level, two at each end of the open area.” Lucy looked around the huge open area. They could have five hundred guests in that area without difficulty. Shaking her head, she said, “It’s so big.” “I’m sure that we’ll wish it was larger when we have our house warming party,” William said with a wink. Believing that William was correct, Jack pointed to the cement columns that broke up the large area. He said, “The support columns will be encased in a natural stone façade. At the ends of the room, the walls will be finished with a natural stone façade as well. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to the formal dining room and formal living room.” William and Lucy followed him to the end of the open area. There were two doors, one close to the front and one farther back along the wall. The door closest to them led to the formal living room. It was huge and provided a view of the canyon. A door at the back of the living room led to the dining room. There was a work light on the floor that allowed them to see the dining area. This room was not as wide as the living room since it had a smaller room along the side. Jack pointed to the smaller room and said, “That is a service area. There is a dumb waiter to transfer food to and from the main kitchen on the first floor. There will be standard kitchen equipment in there and storage areas for the formal place settings and silver.” Lucy looked in the room, but was unable to see much. She asked, “Where are the light switches?” “We haven’t finished the wiring yet,” Jack said. William looked around and realized that his sister had designed the room so that there wouldn’t be a view of the canyon to distract guests away from the food during meals. He could just imagine the arguments that would have resulted from seating some guests so that they were facing the view and other guests with their backs to the view. Smiling, he said, “My sister is definitely the best.” “Let’s go to the other end of this floor so that I can show you the guest rooms.” William and Lucy followed him across the open area to a hallway that ran down the back side of the room. It took William a moment to realize that his sister had put the entryways into the guest rooms at the back. That would allow the guests to have a view of the canyon from their bedrooms. Entering a guest room, it was obvious that a lot of thought went into the design. There was a small living room and a bedroom. A bathroom and closet separated the two primary living areas. Lucy said, “This is going to cost us a fortune to decorate.” William laughed at the comment and went into the bedroom. Looking out the window, he could see the canyon, but not the levels of the house below. He was impressed with his sister’s foresight. Lucy stepped up beside him and said, “My mom and dad will love this room.” “I’m sure they will,” William said. Watching their reactions, Jack was pleased to see that they liked what they were seeing. This was the largest and most complex construction job that he had ever worked on. The supports and walls were more robust than was necessary. He was sure that the house could take a direct hit from a missile without taking much more than superficial damage. He said, “We’ll go to the emergency stairs and go down to the next level.” The emergency stairs were located along the back wall. Work lights were hung along the stairs for them to see. Going down a level, they found they were facing another set of rooms. Jack said, “These are the suites for the people who will work for you. There are twenty of them.” “Twenty?” Lucy asked. “Yes. Ten of the suites have a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. Ten of the suites have two bedrooms.” “They don’t look any wider than the rooms upstairs,” Lucy said. “They are wider by about five feet and longer by an additional thirty feet,” Jack answered. “How can some of them have two bedrooms while the others have only one bedroom?” Lucy asked. “Every other suite extends into some of the area of the adjacent suite. If you look at the bathroom, you’ll see that it runs along the length of the room rather than across the width. The second bedroom is on the other side of the bathroom,” Jack answered. The young couple followed Jack to the office area of the house. It was a huge area with lots of offices. As they walk through it, Jack pointed to an area and said, “The elevator shaft there connects to a separate building on the surface. The receptionist’s office is in the building above. This will allow you to have work related visitors without having them go through the house. Your sister led me to believe that was one of the minor irritants about the Carter House.” “Yes, it was,” William answered. Looking around, he asked, “Won’t the noise of having an office here be distracting?” Jack laughed and said, “You won’t believe this, but the crews are working on this section of the building today.” William raised an eyebrow and followed Jack into the office area. He slowly became aware of a saw running in the background. Lucy looked over at him and said, “I can’t believe that I couldn’t hear that in the atrium.” “I know what you mean,” William said amazed at the fact that someone was actually running a saw in one of the rooms. “This whole area is designed to be a sound baffle. Now, each of the offices are rather plain but we have installed wiring conduits that will allow you to have the entire wiring of the office areas reworked without intruding into the structure. I have to admit that it is one of the nicest infrastructure elements I’ve ever seen in an office.” “What are the plans for the walls?” “White board,” answered Jack, “You’ll have ceiling to floor white boards all around the room. There will be a metal backing so that your employees can hang things off the wall using magnets. There will be no need to drill any holes into the walls. The metal backing also acts as a faraday cage. Ling Carter insisted that we incorporate some space for her to attach some sort of security filter to eliminate electromagnetic emanations. I’m not sure that I understand all of the details about that.” “Interesting,” William said. He hadn’t thought of that as wall finishing for an office space, but it made sense. It also made sense that his mother would use it to ensure that no one would be able to put in bugs. “Your mother is one paranoid lady,” Lucy commented looking around the office in amazement. “Really, I hadn’t noticed,” William teased. Jack led them to the break area. Entering it, he said, “This is the break room. It is right above the main kitchen. The dumb waiter runs through that back wall so that food can be delivered here and to the conference room that we just passed. The library is right behind the conference room.” The view from the break room was spectacular. Lucy asked, “With this view, how are we ever going to get people to work?” “I have no clue,” William answered. He looked out the window as a hawk drifted through the canyon. Looking down, he could see some cattle at the bottom of the canyon grazing on some of the vegetation growing along the stream. “Ed will love this view,” Lucy said. “He enjoys watching his town from the roof of the Carter House. He’d like this view, but he’d miss his little town,” William said. The library and conference room didn’t have a view. The size of the library was staggering. Looking around, Lucy said, “This is huge.” “It is the largest enclosed room in the house. Beth said that you would probably be hiring a full-time librarian.” “It will be nice to get most of my books out of storage,” William said. The room had a very comforting feel to it. It felt as if he were being comforted inside the Goddess herself. “This room is actually built into the earth. The doors are fireproof and very thick so that in case of a problem, it can serve as a safe room for everyone on this floor.” “Nice,” William said realizing where that sense of being surrounded by the Goddess originated. “I can’t wait to see our rooms,” Lucy said. Although she had seen the drawings of what the house would look like, she hadn’t been able to visualize it. The lower floor contained a swimming pool, a dojo, a playroom, a living room, a dining room, a home theatre, and ten apartments. There was also a kitchen and a utility room. They wandered through the area amazed at the size of each room. There was a large atrium in the center that was a copy of the atrium in the Carter House. It was spacious without being overwhelming. They entered the apartment that was to be theirs to find Beth waiting for them while seated in a metal folding chair. There was a small piece of luggage next to her. She grinned up at the couple and asked, “Well little brother, what do you think?” “It’s a little cramped, but we’ll manage,” William answered while winking at Lucy. Laughing, Beth rose from her chair and said, “I think you’ll manage just fine.” Lucy asked, “Just how big is it?” “It is just a little over seventy thousand square feet,” Beth answered. She smiled at the shocked expression on Lucy’s face. She added, “This level of the house is thirty thousand square feet. This apartment alone is two thousand square feet. There are three bedrooms, two offices, a living room, and a small kitchen with an attached dining area. For all intents and purposes, it is a house within a house.” “It must have cost a fortune.” “We’ve done a real good job of keeping the costs down. It is running about four hundred dollars a square foot,” Beth answered. She smiled at Lucy and added, “Of course, it is going to be a little expensive decorating this place.” Lucy still had a problem understanding just how wealthy William was. She asked, “Can we afford it?” “Well, I put aside thirty million from my play money for it when we started. I would have to say that yes we can afford it,” William answered. Lucy stared at William. She often heard him refer to his play money as the funds that he was willing to lose. If he was able to take out thirty million of his play money, she wondered how much money he had. Thinking that Beth knew exactly how much William was worth, she asked, “How much money do you have?” “We are worth a little over a billion now,” William answered. The amount surprised Beth and she stared at her little brother. She had nearly doubled her inheritance, but that was nothing compared to what William had done. In fact, he hadn’t even gotten his entire inheritance out of the trust fund yet. She realized that he must have made all of that money off the original million that he received when he graduated high school. Stunned, Lucy said, “You said that you give away half of what you make!” “Yes, I do,” William answered. Over the past two years, he had been able to go from his base twenty million in his mad money account to over two hundred million every four months. He was giving away three hundred million a year and putting another two hundred million into his conservative funds. The conservative funds were earning a small five percent a year, but even that was a lot of money and he wasn’t spending any of it. “So I guess paying my tuition isn’t really a problem,” Lucy said trying to grasp the idea of a person controlling that kind of money. “You’ve been worried about paying your tuition?” Beth asked. She was wondering why he was living in the little house back in Pennsylvania when he could have afforded something much larger. Turning to William, Lucy asked, “What are the limits on my credit cards?” “You don’t have any credit cards,” William answered. “Yes I do. You gave me three of them. One for travel, one for personal items, and one for business expenses,” Lucy countered. “Those aren’t credit cards. They’re debit cards,” William said. “Debit cards?” she screamed. Having spent hundreds of dollars without much concern about using the cards, she said, “I could have overdrawn the account.” “I doubt it. You’d have to buy this house to do that,” William replied. “Oh.”