The Visitors(59)

‘I… I swear on my mother’s life, I don’t know how they got in there,’ Emily stammered, wringing her hands. ‘I mean, I’d hardly empty out my bag in front of everyone if I knew they were in there, now would I?’

‘But you didn’t do it in front of everyone! You emptied it out in a temper looking for your keys and we came to see,’ Holly reminded her.

It was only natural that she’d enjoy paying her colleague back for her earlier aggression… wasn’t it?

Mr Kellington didn’t speak.

With pincered fingers, he gingerly picked out a flower and studied it in his palm. He did the same twice more until there were three tiny pink glass flowers nestling there, shining prettily under the lights.

‘Most definitely the Lalique flowers,’ he said sadly.

Holly found herself shaking her head. Earlier, Emily had enjoyed humiliating her in front of everyone, and now here she was, fighting for her own life.

Fat tears began to roll down Emily’s cheeks, leaving pale tracks in the heavy blusher and powder. Holly couldn’t help staring. She’d never seen the ice queen sobbing before.

‘Someone’s set me up,’ she spluttered, suddenly a sad, soggy mess. ‘Someone has made it look like I damaged that vase. And I didn’t… I didn’t!’

‘Who?’ Josh said, unconvinced. ‘Who on earth would set you up?’

‘You were the one who noticed the damage,’ Holly added. ‘You brought it to Josh’s attention in the first place.’

Emily glared at her.

‘And I saw you stow your handbag in your locker this morning,’ Ben said. ‘So the flowers must’ve already been in there when you got to work at the start of the day.’

‘Sounds like the damage must have been done after I put the vase on display,’ Holly added.

Emily’s head snapped round, her face a mask of hatred. ‘I don’t know how you did this, but—’

‘That’s quite enough,’ Mr Kellington interrupted. ‘All this bickering is going to help precisely no one. Emily, Josh, I need you to come up to my office right away. Holly, Ben… have a good weekend.’

Holly walked out of the back of the store and into the fresh, bracing air.

‘I’d like to be a fly on the wall up there. What a palaver.’ Ben rolled his eyes.

‘I’m glad the truth is out, though,’ Holly said. ‘I was beginning to think everyone thought I’d done the damage.’

Ben had the grace to look a little shamefaced as he wished her a good weekend.

As she walked past the glass kiosk, she looked in to see the young lad who did the afternoon car park shift painstakingly copying details onto a sheet of paper by hand.

‘Night, miss,’ he called after her as she walked out onto the street.

Holly smiled. Her first week had certainly been eventful, and rather stressful at times, but all had ended well and she now felt pleasantly vindicated after enduring sly and sometimes accusing looks from some of the others.

It had been a long, long time since she’d looked forward to the weekend, but right now, that was how she felt.

This new world of hers was real. Her job was grounded in a normal environment.

That had not been her experience working for Geraldine and Brendan.





Chapter Forty-Seven





Holly





She’d been at Medlock Hall for two and a half weeks and still hadn’t grown accustomed to the feeling of euphoria that washed over her when she opened her eyes each morning and found herself in that bedroom.

But this was no fairy-tale dream; this really was her new life.

She’d propped herself up against the mounds of duck-feather-filled pillows and looked out of the window. As with the apartment, she’d refused to close the curtains so that she could take in the view the second she opened her eyes.

The perfect landscaped gardens had seemed never to end, but of course Holly had known that beyond the far wall of neatly trimmed conifers lay the road.

Her job was basically to be best friend and confidante to Geraldine. Not a real best friend, however; there was an important difference.

She had very quickly realised that when Geraldine asked her something – Does this colour suit me? or Does my hair look OK at the back? – there was a right answer or opinion required. It was far more in her own interests to express the correct response than it was to speak the truth.

She had soon got the hang of it and it didn’t really bother her at all. So far as she was concerned, she had the best job in the world. No complaints at all.

Every day, Geraldine seemed to approve and rely on her company more and more. They literally hung out together all the time.

Brendan hadn’t spent much time at the house. He’d returned every day at some point and Holly would be expected to just disappear up to her bedroom for at least a couple of hours.

She’d welcomed that, looked forward to free time in which she could do what she wanted.

Geraldine asked her all the time would she like to do this or would she prefer to do that, but of course, as with other questions posed, there was a right answer. And that was for Holly to prefer to do whatever Geraldine wanted to do.

But Holly had hardly found it a hardship.

One thing still bothered her slightly, and that was the fact that she’d still not got her stuff back from the apartment after staying there the first night.