Of Horses And Waterfalls

5. Frustrations

Draco had left the mansion about two hours after the argument with his father, and had told their butler, Dobby that he would appreciate it if the rest of his things were boxed, so that he could collect them the following day.  Dobby assured him that this would be done, and so he had left in his car, a red Ford Mustang, while Pansy had followed him in her own, a pitch black BMW, that was the same color as her heart, bless her soul.

It wasn't a long drive, taking them only about another hour to reach the ranch.  When they reached the electric gates, they started to open, as if they had been expected to arrive.  This was something that Draco was very thankful for, because there was no way he was leaving his car to do such tedious work that was only fit for people beneath him anyway.  The road leading up to the ranch was lined with flowers of different colors, but most seemed to have died.

There were also weeds in between the flower beds, and the all along the driveway.  Which wasn't a bad thing per se, because that could be fixed with a good weed killer.  When he reached the actual house, the one that Bella had lived in, he remained sitting in his car and just stared at the façade.  It wasn't broken down, but it could do with a bit of TLC.  The fence around the house would have to be replaced completely, while the lawns just needed a good saturation with water to bring back the luscious green color of it's former years.

There was a patch of dry ground where the cattle would be herded into their corral, but that too could use some sprucing up as well as the wooden boards around it.  The barn that was to the left of the house, needed to be repaired badly.  The paint was peeling off would have to be redone, and some of the sides of the building had holes in them.  It seemed that the staff who had stayed on had neglected their duties, or Bella really had given up long before her death.

The horse stables seemed the only thing that was still standing proud, even if the structure looked old.  Draco thought dismally about how he would have to really get his hands dirty, if he wanted to bring new life to the ranch.  The property was huge, and it would take total dedication to achieve this.  He was screwed, and he knew it.  He was going to need help.  In fact he was going to need a lot of help.

Pansy knocked on his window and raised a brow.  "Are you going to sit there the whole day?", she asked waving her hand in front of her face, trying to tell him of the heat that she was experiencing.  He rolled his eyes and got out of his car.

"Fuck me, it's hot here", he said.  She laughed at him.  "Let's go inside, check out the place", she shouted and ran up the five steps leading to the front door.  He followed her and took out the keys that had also been in the envelope from his Aunt Bella, and unlocked the door.

Stepping inside, he felt a familiar warmth fill him.  He had come here so often when he had been younger, that every time had felt like home.  Now, the same feeling was enveloping him, as if it were welcoming him back after a long period of being away.  Draco loved it, he reveled in it, and he embraced it.  He had never felt this at the mansion.  He had never felt this anywhere else, and that itself, meant that this place, was home.  

He just needed to turn it into one.  The house it seemed had been woken up from a deep slumber, and Draco wanted to be the one who would bring life back to it.  Color in the gardens, clear water running through the pipes, cattle making their noises in the morning, birds singing and chirping in the trees.  He wanted it all.  But when he said he wanted to be the one to do it, he didn't mean the actual physical side of it.  He was going to hire a ranch hand that would do all the dirty work.

He would just sit back and pay whatever he needed to, so that he could call his father and rub it in his face, telling him to fuck off, Who is King of the castle now, bitch!  He smiled at the thought.

"What are you thinking Draco?", giggled Pansy, knowing full well what he was.

"About how I'm going to stick it to my father.  Stick around Pans, I'll make you famous", he said with a wink.  They started their tour of the house, and discussed certain things, like what needed to go and what needed to stay.  What needed to be replaced and everything that was ugly and had no future here, was either going to get burned, or donated.  

Depending on his mood of the day.  

"Jesus, you have your work cut out for you Draco", she said in a somber voice.  She knew that Draco hated manual labor, but she also knew the other side of him.  The side that wanted to show his father that he could achieve anything.  She wondered which side of him was going to win this war.  Inheriting a ranch this size meant that even if he did rise to the occasion and made it look glamorous again, he would have to do daily chores in order to keep it that way.  Was he willing to go that extra mile?

"Yeah", he sighed.  He knew from experience with his Aunt Bella that she had been tired most days from the physical work of maintaining the property, but she had help.  He would just garner more.  Where she had one stable boy, he would have one per horse.  Where she had one lady to clean the house, he would have two.  See, not so hard.  Now, just to find those people.  

He also knew that there were smaller properties on the land, that housed the staff members, and for that he was grateful.  Imagine having them come to work late because they lived miles away, that would be so annoying.  Well, he wouldn't stand for it, and apparently neither had Aunt Bella, choosing to build them in the first place.

The main house was a three story building with a wrap around porch.  Made entirely of wood, there were two bedrooms on  each floor, so six in total.  Each floor had one bathroom, with a bath, shower and a toilet.  On the first floor was the kitchen, dining area and lounge.  This was going to be one hell of a project, one that was going to be filled with frustrations.

Frustrations that Draco could do without, because how was he supposed to be glamorous, alluring, well known and adored while bearing the brunt of frustrations on his face.  His face would wrinkle, and Draco didn't do wrinkles.  No he would have to hire someone who could do the job.  He just had no idea who the hell that would be, or even where to start looking.

He had accepted the challenge from his father.  He had one year to bring the property and the ranch back to what it once was, or even better than before, and Draco wasn't the kind of man who took kindly to failure.  Neither was his father, but he wasn't going to focus on that.

There had also been an unwritten clause in the bet his father had made.  "You lose everything", his father had said.

If he didn't deliver, it meant that his father would be the new owner, and we couldn't have that happen, now could we.