by K. L. Slater
There had been no reason to believe Geraldine would see anything different in her.
‘I can promise you I’ll work really hard to do a good job,’ she’d heard herself say, before biting down on her tongue before she could embarrass herself further.
Geraldine had smiled.
‘That’s good to hear.’ She’d nodded. ‘Because I’m looking for a very special kind of person indeed.’
Chapter Forty-Two
Holly
The showroom hit a quiet patch, so Holly took the opportunity to sit at her desk and begin to tidy up her mounting paperwork.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Emily put her current victims through their paces. She could almost lip-read the stages of Emily’s patter, and it was obvious that she was currently at the ‘Look, I might get into trouble but…’ stage, no doubt poised to fleece the unsuspecting buyers of an extra few hundred pounds on the back-room sales price.
Incredibly, this time the customers didn’t fall for it. The man held up his hands, then they thanked Emily profusely and left the shop empty-handed.
Emily stood motionless for a few moments, staring out of the window. There was something just a little off kilter about her today, Holly observed. It was difficult to pin down why the thought occurred to her, but for one thing, Emily had seemed a little too pushy with the customers, a little bit manic even.
Josh sauntered over and spoke to Emily in a low murmur that Holly couldn’t quite catch. Emily nodded and shrugged.
Holly thought he’d probably offered her sympathy. She could imagine him saying, ‘You win some, you lose some.’ That seemed to be one of his favourite phrases.
They walked back to Emily’s desk together, and as they passed her, Holly called out to Josh.
‘I might have a buyer for the Lalique vase later today. A customer is calling back to view it again.’
‘Brilliant, Holly… fingers crossed!’ He winked at her but continued walking. ‘Mr Kellington will be delighted if you close that deal.’
She saw Emily’s face tighten and enjoyed the frisson of pleasure that resulted from it. Emily was quite obviously grossly irritated by the thought of Holly pulling off another high-profile sale.
When Josh left the shop floor, Emily turned her back and picked up the telephone, speaking in a low enough voice that Holly was unable to hear the detail. When she’d finished the call, she replaced the handset and turned towards Holly, flashing her a self-satisfied grin.
Holly felt like asking what the smug attitude was in aid of, but she bit back the retort and continued to record her sales chits on the database that Josh would authorise before sending it through to the wages department at the end of the month.
Emily walked over to the large expanse of window that overlooked the busy main road. Holly noticed that her demeanour had changed yet again. She now seemed to hold less tension in her body and, in the short time since her customers had abruptly left, her face had softened a little. She appeared… mildly excited, almost as if she were looking forward to something.
Holly was helping Ben to rearrange the accessories in one of the room mock-ups at his end of the showroom when the doors opened. She looked up and smiled a welcome as the Fenwicks swept into the store.
‘Mr and Mrs Fenwick,’ she beamed, walking over to them. ‘I wanted to formally introduce myself. I’m Holly, the new sales assistant here.’
‘How nice,’ Mrs Fenwick simpered, taking her hand. ‘And how lovely that you already know our names!’
‘I’m not surprised, the amount of time and money we spend in here,’ Mr Fenwick muttered drily as he grasped Holly’s hand.
Holly mischievously thought that if she could grab them quick and make a sale under Emily’s nose today, it might just be enough to finish her off. She fought a grin as she imagined the pristine Emily crumbling in a puff of smoke with nothing left but a pile of clothes, just like the Wicked Witch of the West. But before she could progress her amusing idea, Emily appeared at her side out of nowhere, as if by magic.
‘Mr and Mrs Fenwick!’ Her face lit up like a lantern. ‘Thanks so much for calling in on your way home. Did you have a super lunch?’
‘We did, darling. It was marvellous. And Holly here has just introduced herself, which we thought was so lovely of her.’
‘Oh that is nice of you, Holly.’ Emily turned to her with a dazzling, stretched smile and the manic glint still in her eye. ‘But don’t worry, Mr and Mrs Fenwick are quite safe in my hands now. In fact, I think Josh was just looking for you.’
Holly smiled at her prompt dismissal. Fair dues, she’d been rumbled. It was fun while it lasted.
‘Now.’ Emily clapped her hands and turned back to her clients. ‘Let me show you that wonderful Lalique vase I called you about. I think it would be the perfect piece for your stylish lounge.’
So that was her game.
Holly realised that when she’d mentioned to Josh earlier about the possibility of one of her customers returning to view the vase again, Emily had instantly determined to try and flog the item before she had a chance to add to her already impressive commission total.
Holly could read her like a book.
She watched as the three of them moved slowly across the shop, chattering on about the sublime fine dining menu at the astounding restaurant in Castlegate the Fenwicks had just tipped out of.
Some of these people were just a mine of superlatives with little substance behind them.
When Emily presented the vase, Mrs Fenwick threw her hands in the air and audibly gasped at its beauty.
No doubt the next few minutes would be spent with the two women shoehorning Mr Fenwick between a rock and a hard place in a bid to convince him to produce his battered credit card yet again.
Holly waited.
The first sign that something was wrong was when Emily took a big step back, her hands flying to her mouth. She spun around, her eyes wide and searching the store.
‘Bloody hell, what’s up with Em?’ Ben whispered, sidling up to Holly. ‘Have the Fenwicks finally refused to pay over the odds?’
Holly couldn’t help smiling at his comment, but when Emily dropped her hands, she saw that her face had totally drained of colour. Two bright spots of blusher and her vivid pink lips stood out incongruously against her pallor.
The obviously shocked Fenwicks backed away from the display pedestal a little, as if suddenly the vase had grown sharp teeth.
Holly walked slowly towards them. They had the look of wild deer that might scatter at any moment. A few other customers browsing nearby began to watch proceedings with interest.
‘Emily… is everything all right?’ she called as she neared the small group.
Emily shook her head, and then, noticing that people were watching, pushed her shoulders back, standing up a little straighter.
‘You’d better get Josh down here right away, Ben,’ she said coolly.
Ben dashed towards the stairs without a word.
‘Emily…’ Mr Fenwick glanced at his wife, who gave a small shrug of agreement. ‘To tell you the truth, we’re rather pushed for time today. We’ll get off now and you can give us a ring when there’s something else to see. I do hope everything gets sorted out.’
Emily gave him a vague nod, for once seeming quite distracted.
Martyn, the other salesman, walked over and ushered away the spectators. Emily’s eyes were fixed on Holly.
‘What?’ Holly asked. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ Emily said, in such an unexpectedly pleasant tone that goose bumps popped up on both Holly’s forearms.
Chapter Forty-Three
Holly
‘What is it?’ Josh rushed over to Emily, a little breathless. ‘Mr Kellington’s on his way down. What’s the crisis?’
‘It appears that someone has vandalised the Lalique vase,’ Emily said with a pained look.
Josh walked over to the pedestal and bent closer
to it, narrowing his eyes.
‘Bloody hell, the flowers have been damaged. How has this happened?’
‘Exactly the question I’ve just been asking myself,’ Emily said, the tip of her pink tongue shooting out and licking her lips. ‘The Fenwicks came in to view it and I’m afraid this is what they were confronted with.’ Her nostrils flared. ‘Needless to say, they couldn’t get out of the shop quickly enough.’
‘This vase is now unsaleable,’ Josh announced, his face grim. ‘It’s unlikely that a customer has damaged it walking past, because it’s behind the security rope and…’ he inspected the base of the marble pillar, ‘there are no pieces scattered on the floor as you’d expect with accidental breakage.’
‘What’s happening here?’
Everyone jumped a little at the sound of Mr Kellington’s voice booming from behind them.
‘I’m afraid the Lalique vase has been badly damaged,’ Josh said gravely. ‘Some of the flowers have been clean chipped off. It’s unsaleable and unreturnable.’
‘Was it a customer accident?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Josh shrugged. ‘It might’ve been done a while ago, because the broken bits are nowhere to be seen.’
Holly watched in trepidation as Mr Kellington’s usually pleasant expression grew thunderous. ‘What? And it’s only just been noticed? How can this have happened?’
Everyone shuffled, speechless, until Emily’s clear voice broke the silence.
‘I hate to say it,’ she sniffed, looking nervously at her hands as if it were torturous for her to issue a slight. ‘But as far as I’m aware, the only person who has touched the vase is Holly.’
All eyes turned immediately to Holly, and she felt her face ignite with a blaze of colour.
‘It was intact when I unpacked and dusted it two days ago,’ she said steadily. But the more she tried to focus on keeping calm and rational, the more she felt concerned it might look as if she was trying to cover something up.
Was it more natural to get annoyed? she wondered, and then berated herself. Such thoughts were ridiculous.
‘And when you unpacked it, you noticed nothing wrong at all… all the floral decoration on there appeared to be intact?’ Emily demanded, as if she were the showroom manager.
‘Of course I didn’t notice anything amiss. Don’t you think I might have mentioned it?’ Holly allowed a little more outrage to creep into her voice. Emily was a first-rate actress and she didn’t stand a chance unless she matched her skills.
‘You mightn’t have mentioned it if you were the one who knocked the flowers off it,’ Emily muttered, turning away.
‘Now, now, let’s just calm down a little,’ Mr Kellington urged. ‘There’s no joy to be had in pointing the finger and directing blame. It is, however, important that we at least try and establish how the damage occurred so we can avoid a similar situation in the future.’
‘It’s never happened before,’ Emily huffed, the implication being before Holly joined the company.
‘Perhaps we should have a search around and try to find the flowers,’ Holly suggested. ‘That might give us a clue as to what happened.’
‘I’ve already looked and there’s nothing on the floor or surrounding area at all,’ Emily said dismissively.
‘The cleaner has been in twice since the vase went on display,’ Josh pointed out. ‘It’s possible they’ve already been vacuumed up.’
‘I’ll have my secretary call her and ask if she found anything during her clean,’ Mr Kellington muttered, scratching his head.
‘I… I just wondered… what if it happened this morning?’ Holly ventured. ‘I mean… surely one of us would’ve noticed before now if it had been damaged for some time.’
‘It seemed to me the vase had been turned to purposely conceal the damage.’ Emily narrowed her eyes. ‘The chipped flowers were at the back where it wouldn’t seem so obvious.’
Holly said nothing and let her colleague’s peevish comments hang in the air. It would be clear to everyone, as it was to her, that Emily was persisting in her ploy to point the finger very firmly in Holly’s direction, despite having zero evidence.
‘Very well, let’s leave it there,’ Mr Kellington intervened. ‘We’re getting nowhere fast, and frankly, it’s rather unpleasant and not at all conducive to a happy workplace.’
The afternoon dragged on, as if something unspoken hung in the air. Holly even caught a subdued Ben and Martyn glancing at her a couple of times, as though they were trying to weigh up whether she was guilty of the damage or not.
Emily was the only one who seemed to get a second wind. She laughed more loudly with her customers, swept past Holly without acknowledging her in an overbearing cloud of Gucci Rush and stalked around the shop floor even more aggressively than usual.
Josh smiled at Holly when he passed, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t tell her not to worry, or reassure her that everything would be OK.
After yesterday’s high of being the sales golden girl, she felt quite the outcast.
Chapter Forty-Four
Holly
The first time Holly met Brendan’s wife, she’d got the distinct impression that Geraldine was looking for more than an employee; that she wanted a best friend.
Of course, she knew that couldn’t be the case; being someone’s friend was hardly a paid position.
‘Although we haven’t got kids yet, I hope we will have one day.’ A shadow had passed over Geraldine’s face but she’d quickly recovered. ‘Brendan works really hard and we have an amazing life, but it gets lonely and…’ She’d hesitated. ‘I’m not a friends sort of person, I suppose. I have difficulty trusting people.’
Holly had nodded, but she was far from being sure of exactly what Geraldine was trying to say.
‘As you can see, we have Patricia to do the housekeeping, so there wouldn’t be that much to do around the house. You’d be mainly hanging out with me and accompanying me to various places… Is that something that might interest you, Holly?’
Was she joking? Holly had thought. It had sounded like a dream… one she intended snapping up.
‘It sounds perfect. I’d love to work for you, Geraldine.’
‘Excellent! Well then, consider yourself hired. Myra at the office can sort out all the boring paperwork.’ Her eyes had flickered over Holly’s outfit. ‘We’ll go out shopping right now and get you some new clothes and anything else you need.’
Neither Brendan nor Geraldine had mentioned salary or working hours yet, but Holly felt a bit awkward bringing it up. She’d hopefully get a chance to broach the subject later.
‘I have some clothes back at the apartment,’ she had volunteered. ‘I can go and get changed if you’d prefer me to.’
‘Oh no, you don’t need to go back there. Come on, I’ll show you to your bedroom.’
Holly had found herself ushered back out into the hallway and up one of the flights of stairs. She felt a little twinge of sadness when she thought about the neat little flat with the river view. She felt sure she could have been happy there.
This was an amazing house for sure, but it occurred to her that living full-time with her boss might prove a little stifling on occasion.
Her mind had been swiftly wiped clean of any doubts whatsoever when Geraldine opened a door and they stepped inside a bedroom so beautiful it literally took her breath away.
There was a large double bed centre stage with a diamanté-studded cream headboard, champagne-coloured bedding and a matching sparkly throw. Fitted mirrored wardrobes entirely lined one long wall.
Geraldine had walked over to a door, opening it so that Holly could see the stylish black and white en suite bathroom beyond.
‘It’s so beautiful,’ Holly had exclaimed.
She’d stood by the large picture window that overlooked the front of the house and spotted the fountain Brendan had driven around earlier. From this vantage point she’d been able to see that the gravelled driveway was flanked with mature bushes and
trees, with just a glimpse of the imposing metal gates beyond.
Suddenly Geraldine had been beside her, encasing Holly’s hand in her own warm, dry fingers.
Holly had managed, somehow, to keep the startled look from her face.
‘Do you think you could be happy here, Holly?’
‘I do.’ She’d placed her other hand on Geraldine’s arm, overcome by a rush of gratitude. ‘I really do think I could.’
* * *
The next twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind.
Geraldine wouldn’t hear of Holly going back to the apartment for her belongings.
‘Brendan will arrange for someone to pick up your things. Probably best to throw most of it away anyway,’ she’d said dismissively. ‘You’ve probably noticed we prefer clean and new here at Medlock Hall. No bad memories, no insecurities that old stuff keeps hold of, you know?’
Holly had nodded in agreement. She’d known exactly what Geraldine meant.
All the clothes she’d brought with her to Manchester had memories attached. Of feeling less-than while wearing them. Labelled an ugly duckling and never quite matching up to the other girls at school. She wouldn’t be shedding any tears by letting them go.
‘I’ll give you a tour of the house later. We have a gym and pool in the basement that you can use. It’ll take no time at all to get rid of that puppy fat.’
Holly had swallowed down the lump in her throat. The girls at school had called her lard ass every day during her last year. Puppy fat was a kinder term, but everyone knew it meant the same thing.
Just before lunchtime, Brendan had swept back into the house.
‘She’s going to stay!’ Geraldine had clapped her hands childishly as he embraced her.
‘Brilliant news,’ he’d beamed, opening his briefcase. ‘I got Myra to draw up a contract on the off chance. Nothing to worry about, just covers us and protects you, you know the kind of thing.’ He’d waved a silver pen at Holly. ‘Have a read-through, make sure you’re happy with everything and sign at the bottom.’