A Chance Encounter Rae Shaw (ebook reader with built in dictionary .txt) 📖

‘Over, what do you mean? Mark hasn't—’

‘He can't bring himself to tell you. He's a coward. So I'll tell you.’ She took a quick mouthful of wine to bolster her nerves. The room was hotter than ever. Winter had no impact on her horrible bedsit and she couldn't wait to leave it. ‘Dad's witness said nothing because he saw what Dad did with his own eyes and that was murder a man in cold-blood and try to make it look like self-defence. Dad took two knives.’

‘You're lying,’ Deidre said. ‘You wicked—’

‘Child, yes. I know. You shouted those words at me many times. But I'm not as wicked as Bill Clewer. I guess he didn't ask you to sew those extra pockets in his coat, did he? For gloves? Beer bottles. Knives?’

The line clicked followed by the hum of a broken connection. ‘Goodbye, Mum,’ Ellen said, softly.

Opening the laptop, she sent Freddie a message.

It's done. I told her. We're fine. Everything's good. Now, tell me, what are the pubs like over there?

Oh, sweetie, they're the best, but then I'm biased.

  21

Julianna

WEDNESDAY EVENING

Julianna opened the front door and greeted Mark with a lengthy kiss that left his ears a shade of pink.

He licked his lips. ‘Honey?’ he queried.

‘Honey and mustard pork chops.’

He slipped past her and deposited a corked bottle in the kitchen. ‘Delicious.’

She poured him a glass of wine. When Alex had brought home an extravagantly priced bottle, she had frowned upon it. How perspectives changed when the right man stood in the kitchen offering to help chop the onions. Before he had arrived, she had offloaded the pin-stripe trouser suit, and donned leggings and a baggy jumper that hung off one shoulder. If he expected bra straps, he wouldn't find them.

However, Mark showed no interest in slipping his hand under her clothes. It disappointed her, but she said nothing. After the meal, he fetched his files and scattered them onto the dining room table amongst the dirty dishes and wine glasses. They had two days left to explain the irregularities Mark had uncovered.

‘What do you think Mr Haynes will do with the information, assuming we find something illegal?’ she asked, circling dates with a red marker pen.

‘Send it to the appropriate authorities.’

‘People’s jobs could be at stake, but you know that.’ There was no need to mention Haydocks.

Mark tossed his pen down. ‘So what? It's their choice to involve themselves in illegal activities.’ Still a raw nerve.

‘No excuses?’ She topped up her wine glass. Mark covered his with the palm of his hand. One glass and he had stopped drinking.

‘None.’ He eyed the bare flesh of her neck and his fingers twitched.

‘And with me? What if you found out I lie about things?’ She hadn’t told him about her conversation with Chris, nor the threats to the Haynes, nor the potential links to Haydocks.

‘Why would you lie?’ He gathered together his files. ‘And about what?’

‘That I wasn’t interested in meeting your sister, for one thing.’ Part truth. She was concerned enough to want to meet her.

‘You don't need to meet her to know that she's okay. Ellen can look after herself. She's determined to make her own way in life,’ Mark said with unguarded annoyance.

She would have to try harder. ‘But you said she drinks too much. That she has this self-destructive streak. Doesn't that concern you?’

Mark fingered his wine glass. ‘I can't do anything more for her,’ he said quietly. ‘I never could back then, so why should I now?’

There was something almost mean in his tone. She had heard it a few times now. She was starting to worry about this invisible Ellen. Reacting to something showing in her face, Mark softened the hard lines around his forehead and eyes.

‘Don't worry,’ he said. ‘She's going to Ireland this weekend to start new life digging up old bits of stone and pottery. If she's happy, then who I am to stop her? She's got this friend and he's the one telling her what to do.’

‘You haven't met this friend of hers?’

His impatience was showing through the veil of politeness. ‘No. But she's known him for a few years. She's not your problem. None of my family is your problem.’

Julianna shifted backwards in her seat. Mark's dismissal of his sister was icy, uncaring, and unlike him in many ways. ‘No, you're right, it isn't.’

Jackson wanted her to solidify connections, ratify them with evidence. He wasn't interested in the periphery of Mark's life, and Ellen easily fell into that grey area. Given Mark's gruff response, she had probed enough for one evening. The lie went unchallenged.

His broad shoulders loosened, transforming him from edgy to calmer, friendlier. With no resentment, and clearly tired, Mark slouched in his seat with his shirt tails hanging out, oozing desirability. The shift in attention to her was a welcome interlude. He didn't need alcohol, he needed her, that was obvious from the way his eyes tracked her every move.

‘What do you want to do this evening?’ she asked. ‘In the bedroom, I mean.’

‘I know what you meant.’ He grabbed her hand. ‘Let's go find out.’

He surprised her. She’d not seen him so keen for a while. He was making a point, that he was able to push aside his troubles and concentrate on her, and what she wanted. He also animated a gentler side and one that she might come to like. Afterwards, he spooned his body around hers.

‘You’re a very sweet lover,’ she said into the darkness. The word 'lover' tasted delicious in her mouth. She hadn't intended to call him that.

He mumbled, a strangely courteous, ‘You’re welcome,’ as if he had provided her with a service, then he fell asleep.

~ * ~

Coffee beans were scattered around the coffee