Ardent Hearth Manor

By Randall Rogue

It seemed liked a cushy gig: take care of the expansive an beautiful manor of Ardent Hearth during the off season. Nicky takes the job and finds herself working alongside the adorkable Arthur and the luscious Rose. Everything seems to be going well. Maybe a bit too well. Soon, the biggest problem in Nicky's life is balancing her growing affection for both both of her coworkers, lest she give in to her desires and cause all sort of drama.
One night awaking from a very good dream, Nicky wakes to find there's something new in her pajama bottoms, something only men are supposed to have. In a panic, she rushes to Rose's room in the dead of night, knocks, and is greeted with the last words she expected:
"Oh, not you too."

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Dapper Rat Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310495069

Book preview

Ardent Hearth Enigma

When she first heard about the job offer, Nicky was dubious. On initial description, it sounded like something out of a horror movie: spent half a year in a mostly empty manor house most of the way up the side of a mountain with only a couple of other people for company, secluded through the dark parts of the year. The more she learned though, the better it sounded. Sure, they'd be living up the side of a mountain, but the roads down to the local village were almost never impassable. It was an old building, but they had working phones, television, and internet. There was work to be done on the property, but none of it sounded arduous. The pay wasn't fantastic, but with free room and board calculated in, it worked out to be a damn sight better than anything else she could spend six months doing.

She drove her battered old hatchback up the winding wooded road to the manor on an evening in late September, and was handed her copy of the keys by her employer, who barely stuck around long enough to introduce her to her fellow caretakers before disappearing. Nicky was pleased to learn that she was at least working with people her own age; she wasn't sure how well she'd have been able to get along if it had turned out to be a couple of old creeps or something.

They turned out to make fairly good companions, all things considered. Arthur was a quiet one, taking a year off between getting an anthropology degree and trying to find a job with only an anthropology degree. He had that untended, mopish hair of a young man who had to be reminded to run a comb through it and a sweet, if anxious disposition. Almost immediately, he gravitated to the manor's massive over packed library. On the other hand, Rose was as carefree an individual as any. She had an easy smile and an energetic manner. She'd brought a truly astounding amount of clothes, accessories, and makeup with her, and struck Nicky as the type who up until probably very recently, had found the greatest joy in life was having her hair braided and gossiping.

Nicky found that she got along well with both of them. She could talk movies and books with Arthur, and fashion and relationships with Rose. Surprisingly, considering their different personalities, the other two seemed to take well to each other as well, such as when Nicky had to put a stop to them sliding through the main hall in their socks before the broke something or themselves.

They duties were mostly in regards to keeping the place clean, sweeping and vacuuming the floors, dusting surfaces, and wiping down windows. It all seemed a bit daft to Nicky. Not that she wanted to be out of a job, but why didn't the owners merely throw down some sheets and shutter the place up for the winter? They'd told no one would be using the place until at least March. Why did it need to be kept as though there might be guests any day?

The worst and seemingly most pointless job, though, was lighting the fires. They'd been given clear instructions; the most important part of their duties was to set and light a fire in every one of the thirty-five main fireplaces every day. This sounded alright on paper, but it turned out to take an extremely large amount of their time. They did not have to make huge roaring fires in most, just a couple of logs would do, so long as there was a fire every day. They ended up coordinating the work, with Arthur hauling the fuel and stocking the small stores kept by each fireplace, and Rose and Nicky doing the actual lighting and all three clearing the ashes into the traps at the end of the evening.

It drove Nicky a bit mad; it just seemed so pointless. The three of them could very well live in about seven or eight rooms; why heat nearly the whole of the building? It was a terrible waste of time and energy. Still, it had been made clear it was very important, so they continued on. Even with over a hundred rooms to keep clean and nearly two and a half dozen fires to light every day, Nicky only really spent about two-thirds of the hours working as she would at a normal full-time job. Even if the fires seemed pointless, she was getting the better end of the bargain.

She took to doing a bit of exploration of the manor in her free time. She'd taken a survey architecture course in college and this place was a wonderful example of a whole mishmash of styles. It seemed like the building had been built in an Elizabethan style, although it had to have been built much later. Renovation after renovation had been layered on top, but all of the work had at least kept similar motifs. Everywhere there were sunbursts and foliage patterns; in wallpapers, carved into moldings, in a few lead and glass windows. It really was beautifully done, if a bit eclectic.

On the weekends, one or two of them would usually drive into town to buy food for the week, or procure anything else they needed. Occasionally they would stop in at the village's homey little pub for a few drinks. The locals were always pleasant and cheerful, but Nicky got the impression that the trio were just ever so slightly unwelcome in town. It was nothing specific, just a vague unspoken tone from the villagers, but it put her a little on edge.

By mid-October, Nicky was coming to terms with a developing problem in her life. She'd told herself that this six-month stint at the manor was going to be a celibate one; there was apparently a strict ban on bringing others to the manor, and of the idea of falling into bed with one of her fellow employees, the rational part