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sitting down to join them.
    “ And Aden owns it?”
    “ Mmmm, he bought it with the proceeds from the sale of his garage.”
    “ Oh, was he a mechanic, then, before?”
    “ Yeah, he was. He still looks after the generator and stuff, but mostly he's into his horses now.”
    “ I don't blame him. They're the love of my life.”
    “ You two should get on very well then. It's not Mia's cup of tea to be honest. She likes riding the horses, but she'd rather be in here, doing something else, anything else in fact! Especially in the winter. She complains like hell about it all. But Aden insists each job needs a man and woman on it. He thinks that's fairer. Rather than keeping the women on domestics and the men outside. It works well for the rest of us. We all enjoy our work. Don't we, sweet?” He placed his hand over Sammy's possessively and a look passed between them that Maddy couldn't help but recognise. They were in love. Very much so.
    She sipped her wine thoughtfully, looking at Shane's attractive features. He reminded her of Christian Bale a little, but a fair version. She couldn't quite get over the good looks of the staff here. There wasn't an ugly one amongst them. Mia was probably the prettiest of the women, with her silky dark hair, tall, slim body and soft feminine curves, and those big brown eyes of hers. But from what she'd seen, she didn't have a very attractive personality to match. None of the men equalled Aden and Lucas in terms of size, but they were all so good looking it took her breath away.
     
    “ I see… Having a party are we?” Lucas appeared in the doorway.
    “ A welcome drink and a nightcap. Fancy one?” Shane asked as he came inside and stood behind Maddy's chair, with his hands on her shoulders.
    “ No, I think I'll turn in now. I'm tired after our hunt.”
    “ What do you hunt?” she asked, intrigued, turning her head to look up at him.
    “ Anything. It's not for sport, It's for food, you know.”
    “ I'd love to come. I've never been on a hunt. When are you going next?”
    “ It'll be a while I'm afraid. We don't hunt when we have guests.”
    Oh, that's a shame. It must be exciting. Do you go on horseback?”
    “ No, we go on foot. We track, stealthily.”
    “ What do you use? Shotguns, rifles, bow and arrows?” She laughed.
    “ We use what we need to take down our prey,” he said cryptically. An odd, creepy look passed between the three of them that she couldn't explain. “Look, I'm off. I need some serious shut-eye. I'll catch you tomorrow my gorgeous ginger nut.” He leant down and placed a gentle, but rather too long kiss on her lips, and then looked at the other two as if to say, 'she's mine, got that?', and he turned and left, leaving them open mouthed at the table, herself included.
    “ Boy, our Lukey's a quick worker,” Shane chuckled.
    “ I know. He had me in a tight bear hug against the fence within a minute of starting our after-dinner walk. I do like him though. We'll see how it goes, eh?”
    She spent a few minutes more chatting with her two new friends and then got up to leave.
    “I'll get a movie and watch it in bed,” she announced.
    “ Good idea. Time for us to turn in too, isn't it honey?” Shane said with a big yawn.
    “ 'Night, then.”
    “ Yeah, sweet dreams Maddy,” Shane said, as she left to look through the movies.
    She sat on the floor and looked through the shelves. Shane was right. It was full of horror films. Every vampire, werewolf, and creepy monster film she'd ever heard of was there. Plus a lot of comedy, children's films, and quite a few well known Hollywood blockbusters. Someone must like Will Smith a hell of a lot, she thought, as she looked through, as he featured in many of them. She smiled to herself and chose 'I am legend', one of her favorite weird apocalypse films, and carried it off to her room for a spot of night-time horror.
     
     

Chapter 3
     
    She woke with a sudden start, her ears picking up a sound. It was still dark.