Bad Blood Read online

  Frank shook his head. “No, I’m fine. Anyway, what do I owe this pleasure?” He looked at them pointedly as if to emphasise that he remembered. “Twice in a year.”

  “I did tell Linda we were coming,” Belle replied coolly, before slipping back into a more cheerful tone. “I’m thinking of moving back down here. I’m going to view a house over by Nelson’s Garage.”

  “Moving?” He sounded surprised. “Down here?”

  “Yes,” she tried to sound breezy, but Will could see hear the edge to her tone. “It’s cheaper down here than London, and a nicer place to bring up kids.”

  “Oh,” his face was back to an impassive mask. “Well, that’ll be nice.”

  “Any more news on selling the fields?” Will asked trying to sound conversational.

  “Not got around to looking into it yet,” Frank replied curtly.

  Will flinched at his steely tone but pressed on. “I bet Mr Howells would snap them up. What do you think they’d go for?”

  Frank eyed him suspiciously before replying. “About two hundred, Linda thinks.”

  “Two hundred?” Will repeated. “That’s not bad for just the bottom fields. And it’s not like you’d ever suddenly want to use them.”

  “Dad, do you think if you sold them that maybe we could get some of our share?” Belle spoke up quickly, her desperation overriding her reluctance to ask.

  “Oh, this is nice,” Linda’s voice from the doorway made them all look up in surprise. Will felt his cheeks flame in mortification at how this must look. “I did wonder why you were coming down again so close to the wedding.”

  Will looked away guiltily, but Belle met her eyes boldly.

  “Hi Linda,” he pasted a friendly smile onto his face. “We’re actually on our way to view a house that Belle’s interested in.”

  The woman curved her lips into a cool smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

  “Have you got much left to organise for the wedding?” He asked when she didn’t respond.

  “No,” she replied bluntly. “Are you staying long?”

  Even Frank wasn’t immune to her impatient tone, and Will saw him frown at her.

  “We can’t stay,” Belle got to her feet before he could answer. “Our appointment is in half hour.” She reached for Toby’s hand but didn’t take her eyes off Linda once. “Hopefully, we’ll be seeing a lot more of you both.”

  He expected his sister to be livid, but the moment she laid eyes on the house she was viewing, she perked back up. Toby had barrelled around the garden squealing with excitement, and for Belle that had sold it to her. She was careful to manage his expectations, Will noticed, but he could see she was brimming with enthusiasm of her own.

  “What are you going to do about money though?” He asked levelly when Toby had finally fallen asleep in the back of the car. “Are you going to ask Tim?”

  “Probably not,” she admitted. “I’ve been living rent-free in his house, and he’s already lent me three-hundred quid for Toby’s birthday present. That’s going to take me forever to pay back as it is.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” Will hoped she wasn’t going to ask him again. He was trying his best to build the business, and save money, but he was practically living off Craig as it was.

  “The house is available from 1st July,” she said calmly. “I just need to put the deposit down to secure it, and then I’ll get another month’s payment for the first month’s rent. If I can get a job as soon as I get down here, I should be fine.”

  Will frowned. “But you’ll have to live somewhere until then.”

  She shrugged. “I can’t go anywhere until I can manage the stairs.”

  “I thought you were more mobile with that thing on,” he was trying to be diplomatic, but even he hadn’t missed Tim’s passive-aggressive comments about her moving out despite only speaking to him a couple of times since Belle had been there.

  “Well, I’m not,” she replied defensively. “I’m sure Eleanor won’t mind. Worst case scenario, we’ll have to go into a hostel temporarily or crash on Katie’s sofa.”

  “You can’t do that,” he cut in quickly.

  “I might have to,” she eyed him pointedly. “I’m not losing out on that house, Will. It’s perfect. I’ll do whatever I need to make sure it works.”

  He rearranged his expression into what he hoped was a supportive smile, but hours later he was still worrying. He had no doubt that his strong-willed sister would do whatever it took to make her plans come to fruition, but that would mean almost another two months at Tim’s and he had a feeling that it wouldn’t go down well.

  I’m going to have to speak to Dad, he resolved as he waved his sister and his nephew off. We could all do with the money, and it would solve all Belle’s problems.

  Rose

  Rose grimaced as yet another phone was slammed down on her. She should have grown used to it by now, but with every passing shift she was only growing more and more disheartened. She’d been at XZ Finance for three months now; optimistically hoping that the initial struggles would become easier as time went on, but every day felt like a steeper climb than the shift before. A quarter of the team that she’d started with had quit already, and in the past month Rose had taken a leaf out of their books firing out applications left, right and centre, knowing that it was a case of when, not if, she was either fired or had a complete breakdown from the relentless role. Not one application had resulted in even an interview yet, and she felt her hopefulness slip further away as she opened yet another ‘thank you but no thank you’ email on her lunch break.

  “Everything ok?” Lena asked as Rose let out a gloomy sigh. “Tough morning, huh?”

  “Pretty rubbish,” she agreed. It was only marginally reassuring that hardly anyone had made a sale during the shift so far. “I don’t know how long I can keep doing this.”

  “Think of the money, Rose,” Lena gave her a sympathetic smile. “Any word from that hunk of yours?”

  Rose had felt like a teenager confiding in her new friend about Gareth, their kiss, and the following flirtation. Today though, even that was a sore subject, and she shrugged woefully.

  “We text most days,” she admitted. “But between the distance and our shifts, I can’t honestly see it going anywhere.”

  It had been almost three weeks since the kiss, and as surprisingly keen as he’d seemed to pursue something between them, the only weekend neither of them had been working Gareth had had plans with his children. She couldn’t help but be realistic that his interest would start to wane. She was already mentally preparing herself to not grow too attached to his attention.

  “It is what it is,” she continued quickly, not wanting to put a downer on an already miserable day. “I found a nice dress for my dad’s wedding though.”

  She pulled up the photo on her phone passing it to her friend. They fell into an easy conversation about dresses, weddings and hair that was far more cheerful than missed sales targets and long shifts until it was time to log back into their systems ready for a long afternoon of bombarding people with their sales patter.

  Adele seemed more stressed and bad-tempered than usual, and Rose’s heart sank when she was told to log off and directed into the meeting room, suspecting she was about to receive a dressing-down for her performance. She felt a flicker of panic at the thought of the pay cheque from this job being pulled before she had something else to go to.

  “So, you probably know that your sales have been abysmal since you joined.”

  Rose flinched at the harsh opening. The door was still open, and her colleagues were within earshot. Admittedly, she wasn’t a top seller and she suspected that she never would be, but she was only a few sales off the department average. She felt a rare flash of anger at being singled out in such a humiliating manner. “I think abysmal is a bit strong.”

  As the sales manager’s eyes widened with surprise, Rose realised she’d been seen as an easy target to be made an example of. Adele recovered quickly
though tossing her head haughtily. “I disagree. It’s below average, and it’s dragging my team down. I’m happy to accept your notice with immediate effect, or we’ll go straight into a disciplinary after this. What would you rather?”

  Rose’s jaw dropped incredulously. “You can’t do that!”

  She saw uncertainty flicker across Adele’s eyes, but the woman held her ground. “I think you’ll find I can. What’s it going to be?”

  Rose’s stomach knotted in fear as she frantically weighed up her options. There was no way she could just hand her notice in. With the added expense of Tom’s accident last month, she was even further behind on paying her bills. Without a full month’s pay, she would go from barely treading water to completely drowning, and she felt sick at the thought. She looked at the hateful woman desperately trying to figure out what to do for the best. She could sense her colleagues’ eyes on her, and she glanced in their direction, too scared to be proud any longer. They were all watching in horrified fascination, and Rose had a sinking feeling that she was being sacrificed to scare them into working harder.

  “If I hand my notice in,” she said quietly with as much dignity as she could muster. “Do I get paid until the end of the month?”

  “No,” Adele shook her head scornfully. “You’ll get paid for what you’ve worked minus any leave owed. You will be leaving with immediate effect.”

  “It’s a week notice though,” she argued. “If I hand my notice in, I work until next week, so I get paid up until then.”

  “That would be at my discretion,” she hit back confidently. “It’s either leave now or disciplinary.”

  Rose was almost certain that Adele must be breaking some kind of law with her heavy-handed tactics, but she had no concrete knowledge of what she was or wasn’t entitled to. She could feel her hands beginning to tremble with adrenaline, and she balled them tightly into fists at her sides. “Can I think about this? It’s a lot to take in.”

  “No,” she seemed to thrive on Rose’s upset. “It’s one or the other. Otherwise I’ll be pulling the notice option off the table, and that’s your reference gone.”

  Rose stared at her, stunned into silence. She could feel her face heating up, no longer caring about the humiliation of the audience. She was livid that she was being forced into a corner by the obnoxious bully.

  How dare she?

  “Disciplinary,” she replied coolly. “Can I get a copy of the policy first please?”

  “It’s online,” surprise flickered fleetingly across the woman’s face. “I’ll wait here.”

  Rose was shaking with nerves as she returned to her desk. She could feel all eyes on her as she fumbled with the keyboard.

  “Are you ok?” Lena had moved quietly to her side, and Rose looked up at her grateful for her show of support.

  “I’m fine,” she lied. “Don’t put yourself in the firing line. She’s watching.”

  On cue, Adele barked at Lena to get back to work. Rose nodded hurriedly to her, not wanting to get her friend into trouble. “Honestly, I’ll be fine.”

  She had never had reason to access the company’s internal homepage before, and it took Rose a few attempts to find the correct section. She could sense all eyes on her, and after a few minutes of going around in a maze of incorrect links, Adele walked up behind her to stare unnervingly over her shoulder. Rose moved the mouse ready to click into the policy when the banner on the homepage transitioned to the next image making Rose doubletake.

  Head of Customer Operations discusses how we’re leading the way for Digital Banking.

  It can’t be… Rose clicked on the link to take a closer look at the thumbnail image.

  “What are you doing?” the woman snapped irritably behind her. “Can you hurry up please?”

  Rose barely heard her in her surprise as she recognised the headshot of her smartly dressed older brother next to the article. She scanned the text, but it was just waffle about webchat and online banking; it meant nothing to her.

  Would this be leverage? She wondered feeling like a miracle had dropped into her lap. Desperation at the thought of her mounting bills spurred her on.

  “Oh, look,” Rose glanced up at Adele feeling a rush of hatred for the cruel woman. “It’s my brother.”

  Adele frowned stepping forward to take a closer look; a beetroot flush replacing her smug expression. Rose couldn’t be sure if it was the name-drop or the company policy that stopped Adele sending her packing that very same day, but after a terse conversation the woman had no choice than to adjourn the meeting, issuing her with an invitation to a final hearing the following week.

  “You didn’t say your brother worked for XZ!” Lena said in surprise as they walked out together at the end of the shift.

  “I didn’t know he did,” she admitted. “I knew he worked for a big bank, but I didn’t even make the connection.”

  “He must be pretty high up,” Lena said in a low voice as they reached the bus stop preparing to part ways. “Do you think he can help you?”

  Rose shrugged, torn between her pride and her desperate need to hang on to the job for as long as possible. “I hope so.”

  Lena pulled her in for a quick hug. “Right, good luck. Let me know how you get on.”

  She managed to get hold of Tim on her third attempt that evening, and she felt her stomach knot with nerves when he finally answered.

  “Everything alright?” He asked curtly.

  “Hi,” she ignored his lack of manners and ploughed on. “It’s nothing to do with Dad. This is a work question.”

  “A work question?” He sounded confused.

  “I work for XZ Finance,” she launched straight into a summary of her disciplinary. “They can’t do that, surely?”

  “You work for the sales team?” He sounded incredulous. “Why are you working for them?”

  “Because I needed a job, Tim,” she replied defensively. “They’re horrid, but I need the money until I find something else. Can you help me?”

  “No,” Tim responded abruptly. “I can’t go getting involved in things like that. Take it up with HR or your union rep or something. Bloody hell, Rose, of all the things to phone me about. First Will and now you.”

  Rose’s heart sank at his cold response. She should have known better than to think high-flying Tim would dirty his hands to help her, but she had at least hoped for a little empathy.

  “What did Will want?” She asked, just for something to say. Hurt and dejected, all she wanted to do was to hang up on her brother, but she knew that it wasn’t fair to blame him for her bad luck.

  “To talk about the fields that Dad wants to sell,” he told her. “He wants me to see where we stand when Dad gets remarried. He’s got it into his head that we could persuade Dad to pay us a chunk when he sells the fields, like an early inheritance.”

  Rose felt a flicker of interest at the thought of a cash sum. “That’s not a bad idea. Has anyone asked him what his intentions are? Or checked that our interests are protected?”

  “I’ve not had time,” Tim snapped. “I don’t see why everything has to fall on me. You’re all capable of finding these things out.”

  His tone barely resonated with Rose as her head began to spin with optimistic calculations. “How would we find out? Would we have access to Mum’s will? Or we would have to check with Dad what he’s going to do. I mean, it’s not a bad idea selling the fields if he wants to, and it would certainly solve my work problem. It would help Belle and…”

  “I don’t know,” he cut her off abruptly. “Now, I really do have to go.”

  Rose gaped as the line disconnected. She sank down onto her sofa, feeling furious at her selfish brother and humiliated at her own dire situation.

  Tim

  Heavy footsteps and loud voices followed by a crash and a burst of laughter pierced Tim’s deep slumber, and he sprang awake already annoyed before he’d even opened his eyes. He struggled to sit up in bed, the mild ache of a hangover already playing at his
temples, bristling with indignation at the sound of his five-year-old son yelling out to his older cousin.

  This has gone too far, he thought irritably. He slid his pyjama-clad legs from the bed stomping towards the landing, ready to put a stop to their noisy, early-morning game.

  “Ready or not!” Hugo bellowed, his volume belying his diminutive stature. “Here I come!”

  “What is this din?” Tim opened the door abruptly. Hugo, who had been hurtling across the landing with glee, came to a hasty halt.

  “We’re playing hide and seek,” the small boy looked up at his father, his eyes wide with panic at the stern tone.

  “What’s the matter?” To Tim’s annoyance, he heard his sister call up the stairs, and he looked over the bannister to see her face frowning up at him.

  “This noise is the matter,” he replied. “Hugo, get in your bedroom. Toby! You, too! You can both sit quietly in there until you can learn to behave.”

  Toby peeked out from behind the bathroom door where he’d been hiding. “We were only playing.”

  “You were like a herd of elephants,” Tim replied bluntly. “Bedrooms now!”

  “Woah, hang on!” Belle called up the stairs. “That’s a bit of an overreaction, Tim. They’re just playing.”

  “It’s not even nine o’clock on a Sunday morning!” Tim snapped back. “Where’s Eleanor?”

  “She’s gone to the gym,” Belle told him. “Boys, come down here so Tim can sleep.”

  “No, boys. In your bedrooms, separately.”

  “Tim! Stop being dramatic.” Belle snapped. “They can play downstairs with me and Bea. Just go back to bed.”

  He stared at his sister, teeming with rage at her insolence. Her wide green eyes glared back at him, unphased and challenging, making his blood heat up with fury. The two little boys’ eyes darted between him, Belle and each other as they weighed up who to obey. Their uncertainty over who was in charge tipped Tim’s temper over the edge.

  “Hugo! Bed!” He bellowed, and the boy scampered into his room letting out a whimper of fear.