by Jennie Jones
Josh kissed the top of her head, her tangle of hair soft on his lips. ‘You had other things on your mind, Gem. And anyway—let’s share the burden of not caring, shall we?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I have a feeling your father is involved in much more.’
‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’
Josh smiled at the resigned look of acceptance on her face—Gem was about to get tough.
‘Let’s find out,’ she said. ‘Then take him down.’
Josh tapped the counter with his fist. ‘That’s my girl.’
‘So the woman’s moving into the flat?’
‘Yes,’ Gem said to her mum whom she’d called a few minutes ago. ‘Josh is going to take her through the daily procedures tomorrow. She’s a nice lady, actually. I think I trust her even though she ripped Josh off.’
‘The poor woman had cause,’ Mary said. ‘You’re doing the right thing, Gem.’
‘If it works out, maybe she’d like to stay as my part-time assistant.’
‘That’s the spirit! And while she’s looking after the shop you’ll be cuddled up with Josh at the farmhouse. My lovely girl,’ her mum lowered her voice, ‘is the spark still there?’
Yes. ‘He’s leaving in about five weeks.’
‘He’ll be there for the twins’ wedding! I’ll get to thank him for everything he’s done for you.’
Only four weeks till that event, and Gem would still be in the fuchsia boot. ‘He’s staying for another reason too, Mum, not just me: Dad. He’s been ripping Josh—and me—off.’
Gem wasn’t used to silence from her mum. ‘Mum?’
‘Do you have proof? You need proof, Gemma. I didn’t have proof.’
‘Of what?’
Mary sighed. ‘He’s been sending doctored figures to Josh’s trustees, hasn’t he?’
‘You don’t sound surprised.’
‘I’m shocked, Gem, but knowing Nigel, not surprised. How much has he taken over the last three years?’
‘About eight grand from Josh and a lot more from me. Mum, what didn’t you have proof of?’
‘Oh, dear.’
‘Mum!’ Gem said, exasperation almost overwhelming her. ‘Tell me.’
‘I kept it quiet, Gemma, to keep the peace. He’d given my children enough hurt to deal with—but I’m convinced he swapped his lottery ticket for mine.’
Gem gasped. She didn’t need to see proof, it was a typical devious manipulation from the all-time shit.
‘It was the morning after,’ her mum said. ‘I hadn’t checked the numbers when they were drawn the night before because I was doing a stocktake at the shop. Now, you know me—I don’t have time to take care of every scrap of paper in my handbag. I’d slapped my ticket up on the fridge door, crumpled and with one edge torn. Next morning I came down to breakfast and your father was on his way out to work. Up on the fridge was a clean, crease-free lottery ticket.’
Gem’s insides boiled in fury. ‘And he didn’t even have the grace to tell you he’d won the two million until after the divorce. Oh, my god, Mum. How could he be so nasty?’
‘He trained for it.’
Gem winced, visions of her brothers’ faces coming to mind. Tod standing before their father, stoically taking the verbal lashings from him—and the odd back-hander—and young Ryan, only five, running to his bedroom. She clenched her fist.
‘There’s more, Gem.’
She scrunched her eyes closed and took a steadying breath. ‘What?’ she asked in a barely there voice. What else had this man done?
‘Look,’ her mum said. ‘If you’re determined to get him—’
‘I am.’
‘—I think you might be able to do it, but it’s going to mean some private matters need to be discussed. This might cause pain, Gem.’
To whom? Gem could take more pain. She could take lifelong heartbreak if it meant this man was brought to some kind of justice. ‘What?’ she asked, bravery in her voice although the muscles in her body were quivering. She gripped the telephone tighter.
‘First, I think your father—’
‘Please don’t call him my father.’
Mary paused. ‘Are you alright, my lovely girl? Do you want to get Josh?’
‘He’s out doing grocery shopping and I’m fine. Go on.’
‘Well …’
‘Please, Mum.’
‘I think he had something to do with stalling the second stage renovation grant for the town hall. Ted got it through, in the end, but with nowhere near the hoped for assistance.’
‘Why would he do that to his townspeople?’
‘Because they’d annoyed him. He didn’t get his own way with the petrol station. He tried to buy it from Mrs Tam when she was thinking about retiring. He offered her a ridiculously low price and she refused him because she didn’t like him.’
Nobody had liked him. Gem tried to moisten her lips, but her tongue was as dry as sandpaper.
‘Eventually, she got another offer at the asking price and she was intending to buy a small property just outside town—the little house the Morelly grandchildren had grown up in—anyway, the sale of the petrol station fell through. Mrs Tam had no idea why but she’d received an angry telephone call from the proposed purchaser ticking her off for not having told her about her debts.’
‘What debts?’
‘Exactly. From what Ted figured, it was your fath—the shit—who had anonymously sent the purchaser correspondence claiming that the books were incorrect and the petrol station wasn’t running clear but making a loss, and also that Mrs Tam was personally in debt to her last hairpin.’
‘Not true!’ Everyone knew Mrs Tam had worked all by herself since her husband had died, before people Gem’s age were even born. She’d lived a quiet life, pulling the pumps until her age and the increased number of tourists meant she couldn’t handle it alone any more. ‘So she didn’t get the sale?’
‘Gemma,’ Mary said with a sigh and Gem felt her mum’s pain leap through the distance between them. ‘She sold the petrol station eventually—for half of what it was worth, just so she could stop working there. It was too much for her. But that meant she couldn’t afford to retire, so she opened the takeaway.’
Gem couldn’t breathe. The thought of Josh leaving had punctured a dozen holes in her soul but this was much worse. Mrs Tam, the town’s heart. Her father had been responsible for upsetting a darling old lady and ruining any chance of the gentle, refined retirement she deserved.
Gem was consumed by anguish.
Josh lifted his two shopping bags off the floor at the grocer’s.
‘Well,’ Jess said, sliding a French baguette into a long brown paper bag. ‘You two have lots going on, don’t you?’
Josh grinned. ‘Unexpected adventures do seem to follow us around.’
‘Still,’ Jillian said, ‘at least you’ll be together. At the farmhouse. Alone.’
‘So you’ve rented the farmhouse from Ethan?’
‘I’m taking it off his hands—for the moment.’
‘Well, we’ll certainly keep an eye out for this Marie—’
‘—Tell her she can pop in any time—’
‘—With any concerns she might have—’
‘—Especially with that old till,’ Jillian finished. ‘It’s ancient.’
‘Thank you, both,’ Josh said, smiling at the twins. ‘You’d be doing us an enormous favour—oh—and can I ask another?’
‘What do you need?’ Jess asked.
Josh walked to the door with his grocery bags, flanked by the girls. ‘I’ve told Dan and Charlotte what’s going on with the move and with Marie taking over the shop, but I’d like it if you two spread the word around town so nobody gets the wrong idea.’
‘The wrong idea being that you’ve employed a nobody off the street so you can whisk Gem away to your hideaway farmhouse and have her all to yourself?’ Jess said.
Josh grinned, although the idea of what might happen once he had G
em whisked away to the farmhouse—just him, Gem and the firelight—fuelled his desire a little more than perhaps it should have in broad daylight. ‘That reminds me, I better get some wine.’
‘Sav blanc.’
‘I know.’
‘Oh!’ Jillian jumped back and grabbed a tin off a stack of sweet goods. ‘She likes fudge.’
‘I know. Vanilla.’
Jillian stuffed it into an already bulging shopping bag. ‘On the house.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘Take good care of our girl, Josh.’
‘I’m not missing out!’ Jess said, and kissed his other cheek. ‘Have a lovely, lovely time all alone at the farmhouse.’
‘We will. Don’t forget to spread the rumour that everything about this situation is above board and normal.’
The twins grinned.
‘Yeah, okay,’ he conceded, and laughed.
He left the grocer’s and took a few steps so he was out of view, then stopped before he got to the toy shop to get his thoughts in line.
This was above board and normal. He wasn’t getting Gem over to his place so he could seduce her in front of the fire with wine and vanilla fudge. But hard as he tried, the thought of doing so tempted him. He closed his eyes. Let’s just see how it goes. Yeah, right. Don’t push for anything, even if she’s in a low-cut, shorty nightgown. Got it. This is not about you wanting your hands on her body. Of course not. This is about you taking care of her. Taking care of her in an intimate situation: roaring fire, candlelight—there were some candles in Grandy’s kitchen, he’d seen them yesterday—and a chilled sauvignon blanc bottle dripping condensation. Josh imagined slowly removing a shorty nightgown from the warm and tender limbs of one hell of a sexy woman.
He opened his eyes. Jesus, this was going to be difficult.
When he opened the shop door and stepped inside, Gem was leaning on the counter, her head on her arms, her shoulders heaving.
He dropped the grocery bags. ‘Gem,’ he said, heat of a different kind blooming in his chest.
She started when he touched her, his hands on her shoulders. ‘I hate him,’ she gulped through a sob.
‘What is it, baby? What’s happened?’ He turned her on the stool and lifted her until she stood so he could hold her. He’d never seen her so upset.
She shuddered.
‘Gem. What’s wrong? Hey.’ He pulled her into him closer still, holding the back of her head so her face was against his shoulder. Still it didn’t stop the heart-wrenching sound of her pain. ‘Stop crying, now.’ Please stop, I can’t bear it. ‘Stop crying, Gem. Tell me what happened.’ He stroked her hair, tightened the hold he had of her. He kissed the side of her head. She was so light in his arms; her body seemed to be weakened. He wondered if some bastard had come into the shop while he’d been out and—that didn’t bear thinking about. ‘Baby, please tell me.’
‘I’m so ashamed.’ She gasped a breath, nearly choked on it, then spoke again, her voice raw with pain. ‘The man who’s my father—he ruined everything—I spoke to Mum.’
Munroe. He cradled her against him while she sobbed some more, giving her time as his thoughts went wild in his head. This had to be about the townspeople. Probably more harm done to Gem’s family too. Stuff she might not have known about. Things her mum would have kept quiet.
At last, Gem took a shuddering breath, which seemed to fill her with a little more energy. She pulled away slightly and looked up at him.
‘What’s he done?’ Josh asked.
‘Oh, you know,’ she said, pain still in her eyes but her tough-nut determination poking through. ‘He stole the winning lottery ticket off Mum and he ruined Mrs Tam’s chance of retiring by … by … making up lies about the financial position she was in, because she’d refused to sell him the petrol station … So she had to sell it below value and still get a job to keep money coming in. That’s why she opened the takeaway …’
He’d kill the bastard. With his bare hands if the law couldn’t find a better way to punish him and see justice done.
Gem had said she was prepared to fight Munroe and bring him down, but that had been when the issues were about her and Josh. Now, she’d be fighting to bring him to justice on behalf of the people in town whom she loved dearly. Maybe Josh should take it all on and leave Gem out of it. He had no doubts about the people of Swallow’s Fall backing Gem and her family but the hurts and old wounds they’d be opening would crucify Gem. Fighting all her life for those she loved. Never thinking her own father would bring such pain. Could she do this? Josh wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to—but he’d damn well annihilate Munroe himself. Away from Swallow’s Fall if need be.
He studied her for a moment. It wasn’t his decision to make. He lifted an eyebrow in query.
‘We’re going to take him down, Josh.’
He pulled her into him. ‘You’re damn right we are.’
Sixteen
Josh crossed his feet at the ankles and leaned back in the overstuffed sofa, the pop and hiss of a log dropping in the hearth one of the only sounds in the evening. His whiskey nipped his throat, its malt taste a pleasant contrast to the peace in the room.
Gem sat on the sofa opposite him, painting her fingernails an eye-popping red. The fire between them and the lamplight at her side made her hair sparkle like snowflakes. They shared their evenings with whiskey, sav blanc and gentle talk about how the issues they were dealing with were progressing. Unfortunately he hadn’t yet seen any shorty nightdresses but somehow Gem filled all his senses even dressed in track pants, thick white socks and a midnight-blue baggy jumper that—thank you, Jesus—kept sliding off her shoulder and revealing the rise of her breast.
He inhaled and caught a waft of the winter roses she’d picked from the patch of garden in front of the farmhouse.
‘It’s so comfy, isn’t it?’
‘Mmm,’ Josh answered, as he did every night. She’d relaxed here, in Grandy’s place, her chirpy wit back in place, her smile unbearably lovely. The few occasions Gem hadn’t been in town with him over the last week, she’d spent it on the phone to him. Texting him or calling him. Checking on the shop, asking him if he could pick up dinner. Peking duck pancakes from Mrs Tam, or a takeaway fish and chips from Kookaburra’s. When she’d stayed home—he corrected himself—stayed at Grandy’s place, she’d been busier than a bee stuck in the lace on an old lady’s bonnet: polishing the wooden furniture; mopping floors; washing curtains, which he had to hang as soon as he got home. Being the sporty type, Gem didn’t let a fractured ankle bother her—not now she’d got used to the cast and its disabilities. If he didn’t want to touch her so desperately, he’d be content with the picture as it was.
‘No ghosts.’
‘Mmm.’
She looked up. ‘What’s wrong?’
This is wrong. You should be sitting next to me. I should have my arms around you. I should be kissing you and about to take off your clothes. ‘Nothing.’
She went back to her nail polish, the tip of her tongue touching her top lip as she concentrated. ‘I had a call from the hospital,’ she said. ‘I’ve got to go back for another X-ray.’
‘Why?’
‘They said they want to check my posterior because it might not be a malleolus after all.’
‘Lucky doctor.’
She looked up at him and grinned.
‘Is that where it is?’
‘What?’ she said. ‘My tattoo?’ She wiggled her eyebrows. ‘Only the doctor knows.’
Josh returned her grin then let his head fall against the sofa. Another few minutes and they’d pick up the thread. He almost didn’t want it to happen, or wished there wasn’t cause for it. It was pleasant chatting about Marie and the shop and little Kenny, a companionable dialogue between two friends who understood each other and their business.
‘Any news from Ted?’ she asked, shaking her hands to dry the polish on her nails. ‘Has he got hold of his bigwig buddies?’
Josh nodded. ‘Yeah. I have to say, he’s bee
n generously supportive, keeping everything to himself.’
‘Doesn’t surprise me. He handled the awfulness Mrs Tam had to go through without telling a soul. My mum only discovered it because she found Mrs Tam in tears one day and out it all came over a cup of tea. So untrue. So unfair.’ Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the fire. ‘Did I tell how he got the toy shop off my mum?’
‘No,’ Josh said, watching her watch the flames dance in the hearth.
Gem let out a sigh. ‘He forged her signature on a hand-over document. He’d done that eighteen months earlier and Mum had no idea until suddenly she was divorced and didn’t own the shop. She didn’t tell anyone. Too shocked. Too humiliated.’ She shrugged. ‘Too weary, perhaps.’
‘I wondered why my mother was dealing with your dad—sorry—the shit, as well as your mum when it was up for sale.’
‘What did Ted’s bigwigs say?’
‘They’re not executives, Gem. They’re guys Ted got to know while he was dealing with the low-level admin side of things.’
‘They’re bigwigs to Ted.’
So they were. ‘He’s found one man who thinks he knows something about another.’
Gem glanced up.
‘He thinks the man might have had a windfall. Around the time Ted was stymied on the second round of renovation funding for the town hall. The man bought a brand-new car, fitted out his wife with new kitchen and laundry appliances—’
‘Generous of him.’
‘—and began using up his accumulative leave to travel to Europe.’
‘A bribe from the all-time-shit?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘Timing fits. The shit won his two million—sorry, my mum’s two million—just before Ted applied for the next round of funding.’
‘That’s what Ted said.’
Gem bowed her head and chewed her lip. ‘How shameful.’
‘Not for you, Gemma. Nor your mum, nor your brothers. Ted doesn’t hold anything against your family.’
‘Only the shit.’ She gathered herself on the sofa, hands on the cushioned seat. ‘Well, I’m off to bed.’ She rose and stretched, arms above her head, fingers interlocked. Josh couldn’t blink let alone move. God, she looked good in the firelight.