Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (16 page)

Penny took his hand and he sighed with relief. ‘I understand not wanting to tell her, but if she finds out we’ve been sneaking around behind her back and lying to her she is going to be even more hurt.’

‘I know. I would just like to get to Christmas without upsetting her. I like seeing a smile back on her face again.’

‘OK.’

‘And we’ll just be really careful for the next few days.’

She nodded.

‘Now let’s have a quick shag, whilst she’s on the phone to her friend.’ Henry reached for her, and she laughed, batting away his advances.

Henry chuckled. ‘Come for dinner tonight. I’ll cook you something special.’

Penny nodded. ‘I’ll bring some cake.’

‘Well, if making cakes is your response to getting annoyed with me, I’m going to be as big as a house.’

‘Then don’t annoy me.’

Henry smiled, peered over her shoulder at the still closed connecting door and reached forward to give her a brief, soft kiss, before walking out the door.

H
enry pulled
his car into the furniture factory car park and got out. The car park was nearly deserted.

He had been surprised to get a phone call from Audrey, Clara’s assistant, half an hour before, asking him to come in and discuss his designs with Clara and Edward. It was one of the things Henry had brought up in his interview, that he would love the opportunity to design his own furniture. Edward had seemed really interested but hadn’t been sure whether at that stage they would be looking to design anything new when their current lines were selling so well, but he had promised to talk to the design team. Henry hadn’t expected to hear any more about it and certainly hadn’t expected to get a phone call from Clara so late on a Wednesday night just a week before Christmas, especially because, according to Daniel, although Clara headed up the design team, she basically did a big fat lot of nothing. But it wasn’t an opportunity he was going to miss: designing and creating ideas from scratch was something he was passionate about. He loved building a piece that was individual and not like anything that could be bought in shops.

He grabbed his portfolio from the car and walked into the factory just as Daniel was walking out.

‘Oh hey, mate, what are you doing here so late?’ Daniel asked, shrugging on his coat and pulling his hat on over his messy hair.

‘I’ve been asked to come in and talk to Edward and Clara about my designs for some new furniture.’

‘Oh, that’s cool. I hope they like your designs. Oh, before I forget, Maggie wants me to invite you round for dinner tomorrow, you can bring Daisy too if you want.’

‘Thank you, I’d love to. I’ll ask Daisy though I’ll doubt she will come. What time?’

‘About seven thirty is good. I’ll see you then.’

Daniel left and Henry looked at his watch. The nice dinner and evening he had planned with Penny was quickly disappearing. She had been out walking Bernard when he left so he had asked Daisy to start dinner and to pass on a message that he had been called into work but he would be back soon. He only hoped that this meeting didn’t take too long.

He raced up the stairs and walked into Audrey’s office, which led through to Clara’s office. Audrey was just getting on her coat and scarf to leave too.

She looked at him apologetically. ‘I’m sorry to call you in so late, but she insisted,’ Audrey whispered as she walked past him and out the door, leaving him alone.

He approached the door to Clara’s office. Clara was sitting behind her desk, a huge thing that took up almost the entire room. The whole room was covered in dark wood that matched the desk and modern art pictures that were slashes of brown and beige. There wasn’t a single slash of colour in the room, in stark contrast to Edward’s office, which was pale wood, lots of colourful photos of sunsets and beaches and even a little Christmas tree in the corner. There was nothing that indicated that it was Christmas in here.

Clara’s desk lacked any kind of work paraphernalia at all. It was devoid of all the papers that had littered Edward’s desk. It was hard to see what she did with her time all day. Maybe she spent a lot of it on the phone, but he would still expect to see some kind of notes from her telephone conversations. The computer was switched on and she was working on it but there didn’t look like there was anything work-related on there; in fact the screen was filled with lots of photos of expensive-looking dresses.

He knocked softly on the door and she looked up and flashed him a huge smile when she saw him.

‘Henry, do come in, shut the door behind you.’

He did as he was asked but, looking around, he could see they were alone, whereas Audrey had made it sound like there would be members of the design team there too. He took his coat off and left it over the sofa that was in the corner of the room, though he instantly regretted it when he turned to see her appreciative gaze raking over his body.

‘Are Edward or the designers joining us?’ Henry said, hesitantly.

‘Edward has already left for the evening,’ Clara said, coming round the desk towards him. ‘He asked me to arrange a meeting with you and one of the designers but, as the managing director in charge of the design team, I wanted to look through your designs first. We are very hands-on at the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company. Something I’m sure you will appreciate about working here.’

Henry cleared his throat, not at all comfortable with the way she was staring at him like she wanted to eat him.

‘Let’s see what you’ve got,’ Clara said, without taking her eyes off him.

He opened up his portfolio and pulled a few sheets from the folder, spreading them out on her desk as she stood just behind him.

‘I know you’ve just started doing a range in chairs but I thought about maybe expanding it. The chairs we sell are very functional and nice but I think we could make them into something more.’

She moved in next to him, her body pressed close to his, though her eyes were still on him and not the designs. He subtly moved away a few inches.

‘I’ve designed a chaise longue which is classic but with traces of more contemporary styles at the same time. The chaise longue is a most sought after piece with many women, it’s romantic and will make a great addition to any lounge furniture or even the bedroom.’

‘What would you do with it in the bedroom?’ Clara said, raking her fingers seductively over the curves of the chair, her eyes returning to him almost immediately.

‘Well, you would sit on it and read or…’ He trailed off as her fingers skated over his knuckles as he leaned over the desk. He removed his hand from under hers. ‘I thought we could make it from white, black or beige leather as that will fit in with most colour schemes and we can add silver or gold to the legs to make it more—’

‘Will it be big enough for two?’ She stared up at him through long lashes as she ran her fingernails up his arm.

Henry glanced over to the closed door, a sick feeling of panic rushing through him. This was not good. She hadn’t brought him here for the designs. There was only one portfolio she was interested in and it wasn’t the one in his black folder but the one that was mere centimetres from her ever encroaching hand.

In a last-ditch attempt to change the subject and put the conversation back on track, he rifled in his folder for another drawing to show her, moving subtly away from her gold-painted talons.

‘I have some other designs too.’ He grabbed the first design that came to hand and laid it on the desk. His heart sank as soon as he saw which design it was. The two chairs facing in opposite directions, joined together by the S-shaped curves of the backrest and arms, was a very popular style in the late Victorian period and Henry’s design was a modern twist on that but the name was vastly inappropriate for what Clara had planned for this meeting.

She glanced at it briefly. ‘A love seat?’

‘Yes. Also known as a tête-à-tête.’

‘Face-to-face,’ Clara whispered and Henry cringed because the literal translation was not helpful either.

‘They are making a comeback in garden furniture and I think we can—’

‘I wouldn’t have a love seat in the garden. Besides, these armrests between the couple are not exactly conducive to a romantic setting. I prefer a lover’s chair with no boundaries,’ Clara said, leaning up and pressing her lips to his throat.

He immediately took a step back. ‘Clara, I’m flattered but I have a girlfriend.’

A girlfriend who was sitting at home waiting for him, someone he should have been having dinner with at this very moment. This whole meeting was a huge waste of his time.

‘Yet you’re here with me and not at home with her.’ Clara cocked her head to one side, in what she clearly thought was a flirtatious move, running her tongue across her teeth as she surveyed her prey.

He took a step to grab his designs but she moved in between him and the desk.

‘I came for purely professional reasons, working in design is important to me.’

She stepped forward, placing a hand on his chest. ‘How important?’

He wanted to push her away, her perfume settling round him making it hard to breathe. He wouldn’t touch her. Just the two of them in a closed room, she could claim anything had happened and it would be his word against hers. He took a step back, but her fingers had already closed over one of the buttons on his shirt and as he moved he heard the small tear of material as the button came off in her hand.

He stared at her in shock before he turned and grabbed his coat. ‘If Edward is serious about looking at my designs then I’ll make an appointment to see him.’

He opened the door and stormed out. He should have seen through the façade from the second he realised it was just going to be the two of them. He should have told her where to stick her inappropriate advances and most importantly he should have stayed at home with his lovely girlfriend.

He got in the car and drove quickly back towards Lilac Cottage. Rain lashed down on the windscreen and storm clouds rolled across the sky, lighting up the heavy clouds with periodic flashes of lightning, reflecting his mood perfectly. As he approached a little hut used for birdwatching, he nearly ran over a hooded figure who was cycling quickly away from it, dressed all in black, silhouetted against the rainy night sky; the boy was almost impossible to see. He cursed as he mounted the grass to avoid him and then turned down the driveway to his home, wanting nothing more now than to wrap his arms around Penny and know that there were still good people in this world.

He pulled up outside the house and strode straight into Penny’s kitchen. She looked up from a book she was reading and gave him a half smile. He had let her down by not being there for dinner as promised.

‘I made you and Daisy spaghetti bolognese, but it’s probably all dried out now,’ Penny said, moving towards the oven.

‘I was going to cook for you, I’m sorry, something came up,’ Henry said, catching her arm. She didn’t shrug his hand off her but she distinctly moved out of his reach. Her stomach suddenly gurgled hungrily and he felt another wave of guilt. ‘Have you not eaten?’

‘No, pathetically, I thought I’d wait for you.’

‘Where’s Daisy?’

‘She went out, about two minutes after you left.’

‘What?’ Henry looked outside into the inky black night, rain coming down in curtains as it ripped across the cliffs. ‘And you let her go out in this?’

Penny stared at him incredulously. ‘I was out walking Bernard when I saw you both leave. And I certainly don’t have any authority over her.’

Suddenly the kitchen door banged open and Daisy came in with a huge grin on her face. She was soaking wet, and little stalks of grass were stuck to the legs of her jeans. Her trainers were covered in mud.

‘Hey Daddio,’ she sang, sitting down at Penny’s table as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

‘Where have you been?’ Henry tried and failed to keep the angry concerned tone from his voice.

‘Nowhere. I was in the shed chatting to Melissa.’

‘You got that wet running from the shed to the house?’

‘I slipped over on the grass.’

She was lying and he didn’t know why.

‘Penny said she saw you go out.’

Daisy stared at Penny for a moment. ‘I was… trying to get a signal down the drive but then it started to rain hard and I remembered that Penny said I could get a good signal in her shed so I came back a few minutes later. Penny must not have seen me. Is dinner ready?’

‘The dinner I asked you to start for me,’ Henry said.

Daisy shrugged, still unable to wipe the huge grin from her face. ‘The phone call took a bit longer than I thought.’

‘It’s fine, I made dinner,’ Penny said, deliberately stepping between them with a huge dish of bolognese.

He sat down and watched as she dished it up onto three plates and then sat down at the opposite end of the table to him. This was not how he had planned his evening at all. Outside the storm raged on, thunder rolling across the night sky, lit up periodically with spectacular forks of lightning. But inside the tension between the three of them was almost as tangible as the storm outside.

Henry sat staring at his spaghetti bolognese with as much concentration as he could muster for a plate full of meat and pasta. He glanced over to Penny who was focussing on the art of wrapping a string of spaghetti round her fork as if it was the hardest job in the world.

Daisy looked between the two of them in confusion. She knew something was going on even if she had no idea what that something was.

‘Did you guys have a row or something?’ Daisy said.

‘No, sorry honey, it’s just been a weird day,’ Penny said.

Henry cast around for a suitable topic of conversation. It was ridiculous to sit in silence when conversation had flowed so easily whenever they’d been together before.

‘Hey Dad, did you tell Penny about the huge penis we saw in town?’

Penny choked on her drink

That certainly wasn’t a suitable topic of conversation, especially after what had gone on between them the night before. But Daisy wasn’t to be deterred.

‘It was hilarious, some woman dressed in this huge seven-foot costume chasing men down the streets and hugging them. White Cliff Bay is a little weird, eh? I bet it’s a right little den of sin, people sleeping with their neighbours or having orgies.’

‘Hey,’ Henry reprimanded.

Daisy laughed. ‘Orgy isn’t a swear word.’

‘It’s not exactly an appropriate subject for the dinner table though, is it?’

Penny stifled a giggle and he sensed the mood between them was on the verge of passing. ‘I’ve seen people do stuff like that before, I think it’s to raise awareness or money for cancer. So don’t judge our little town too harshly just yet.’

Henry needed to change the subject away from people having sex with their neighbours. He latched on to something Edward had said to him on Monday.

‘Oh, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Edward said there was some Gingerbread House competition on Saturday, he asked if I wanted to come with my family and form a team. I don’t really know what it’s about, but it’s for charity. Daisy, do you want to do it?’