Chapter 12

Josiah escorted Rossalyn to the car at the end of the night. Several of the men walked them out and it almost felt to Rossalyn as if they were set to be shot any second. She felt extensively on edge as she looked around them, though nothing seemed out of place to her. Well, who was she to know what was out of place in the area? She'd never been to the side of town he had his club on. It was almost exclusively expensive businesses and restaurants that she'd never even hoped to afford to be at. They got into the vehicle without incident and headed back toward his house.

"I hope you understand, you're going to have security with you all the time now." Josiah said, breaking the silence between them.

"Wasn't I always going to?" Rossalyn asked, looking at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Fair point, Ross. Yes, you were always going to have a security guard with you. Not going to put up a fight?" He asked sounding a little surprised.

"I think there are some fights I will win with you, but this isn't one of them. Plus, I'd rather have them with me if there is going to be people shooting at me." She said then turned her attention back to her window.

Josiah expected a bit of an argument on that score. Not that he planned on letting her out of his sight much, but when he did he planned on having her well protected. He couldn't be around her all the time. There were some things that it would be untenable for her to be present during. Josiah let the silence stretch between them. She didn't seem upset or to be brooding over anything. He was sure after being in a group that large she was just enjoying the quiet.

They pulled up to the house and he escorted her inside and all the way to her temporary bedroom. He stood there with her for a minute, wanting to say something, but unable to come up with anything. She seemed to sense it, so she wasn't rushing into the room. They were both reliving the words that she promised him. She was going to try. But with all the drama of the night, he didn't feel like it was the time to push her for anything.

"Goodnight. I hope that you have sweet dreams." He told her finally, letting the back of his fingers brush her cheek gently.

"You too. I'll see you in the morning." She said then went into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Rossalyn leaned back against the door and let a long sigh escape from her. It had been, without exception, the most trying night of her life. It hadn't necessarily been unpleasant, but her nerves were shaking from the amount of people that had been demanding her attention. She'd have to get used to that occurance though. This would be her life. She would be the boss's wife and expected to host gatherings and entertain everyone. She had no doubt that everyone had been on their best behavior. She knew that the politics would eventually start and she wasn't ready for that to be sure.

***

The next morning found her being escorted down to the dining room by Abigail to meet Josiah for breakfast. She was sure that he had another fun filled, busy day for her. She hoped that the majority of the wedding planning had been handled the day before but she wasn't so dumb. She entered the dining room and found Josiah seated already with what seemed like a library of pamphlets surrounding his place at the table.

"We have some..." Josiah started to say but she interrupted him with an irriated groan.

"Coffee and breakfast before you start bombarding me. Its only polite." She said as she sat down at the table and was immediately rewarded with coffee being poured by someone she hadn't even noticed in the room. By the time the coffee was poured someone else was placing an omlet on the table before her. "Thank you." She said glancing up at the middle aged man that had just served her with a smile.

"...things to go over once you've eaten." Josiah continued as if he hadn't been interrupted but gave her a raised eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that. You might be used to being bombarded by people wanting things from you before you're even awake, but I'm not." She said defensively.

He shook his head with a chuckle then cleared his space so that his breakfast could be put in front of him as well. "I will endeavor to remember that. It doesn't seem like that is going to change. But how will you handle our children bombarding you first thing in the morning? Shall we have a nanny to care for them in the mornings?" He asked her.

"There is a difference between a child needing their mother and a grown adult. My children won't be raised by a nanny." She told him hautily.

"Thats good to know. Especially since that is what I was hoping you'd say." Josiah said sounding relieved.

Once they had eaten their breakfast he slid the pamphlets over to her. "These are the locations we could go for the honeymoon. I wanted to see what you thought of them." He told her when she looked down at them then back up to him.

She looked back down at the pamphlets and seen locations such as Hawaii, Rome, Paris, Queensland. She looked back up at him with a startled look. "I don't have a passport. There are a very limited list of locations I can legally visit without one." She said giving the pamphlets back to him.

"You won't need a passport to travel with me. Well, legally you would. But we can work on that once we return. I plan on spending most of our honeymoon on my boat. Well, boat is an understatement. Its more like a hotel on the water. What I'm getting at here is you can pick any or all of those locations and we could go there. So, where do you want to go for our honeymoon?" Josiah asked her.

"Honestly, I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and Paris and Rome. How long do we have for the honeymoon?" She asked him curiously.

"Oh, my dear, thats the benefit of being the boss. However long we want. Two weeks, a month, three months. I can run the business here in person or over the phone just as easily. When you're ready to come home, we'll come home." Josiah said, then added as an almost after thought, "Getting away from here would actually have you the safest for a while."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked looking up at him, confused.

"I haven't been able to confirm anything, but I'm not convinced what happened last night wasn't connected to us getting married." Josiah said to her and studied her face carefully.

"Not possible you pissed someone off and they want revenge?" She pointed out, sounding snotty.

"Oh, that is entirely probable. But there are few people that are brave enough to do what happened last night. I might make someone angry, and they may even fantasize about avenging themselves. But few actually would do it." Josiah shrugged.

"Well, we can always hope they got it out of their system." Rossalyn said with a sigh. "What are the plans for my brother? If we're going to be gone for a while, there is no telling what he will be getting up to. He has a wife and kids that need him to get his life together."

"Don't worry I've got a plan for him." Josiah said then stood from the table and straightened his jacket. "I have a meeting that is going to take up the rest of the morning. So feel free to do some exploring. Just do me the favor of staying inside, please."