The Legacy: Trouble Comes Disguised As Family (Unspoken Book 2) T. Belshaw (management books to read .txt) 📖

the traffic problems. Don’t you listen to the local radio station reports?’

The driver tutted to himself and decided not to get into a discussion about how he did his job.

‘Mollison’s farm is it?’

‘It is, I haven’t changed my mind since I booked the cab.’

‘We’ll be there in five minutes.’ He turned the radio up just as the traffic presenter gave out the latest bottlenecks. ‘Would you listen to that,’ he said. ‘They know about it already.’

Martha had to climb out of the cab on the lane as there was no room for the driver to pull onto the asphalt. She paid him through his open window and made shooing motions with the back of her hand.

‘Thank you,’ said the driver sarcastically, but Martha had already turned away and was staring fixedly at the sleek, silver Mercedes that was parked next to Jess’s little Toyota. She put her hand on the bonnet to see if the engine had been running recently, then tutting to herself, stepped up to the front door and rattled the knocker.

Chapter 29

‘Do you want coffee or tea with your eggs?’ Jess called up the stairs as Bradley stepped out of the shower room wearing her short, pink, fluffy dressing gown.

‘Coffee, please.’ He walked to the stairs fastening the belt around his waist.

‘It suits you,’ said Jess with a laugh. She looked down to her short blue PJ set. ‘You could have borrowed these if you’d asked nicely.’

Before Bradly could reply, there was a loud rap on the door knocker.

Jessica looked puzzled and thinking it was the postman, opened the door about eighteen inches and stuck her head around it.

‘Grandma? What…’

‘I’m early, as you’d know if you ever answered your telephone.’

‘Have you been ringing me? Sorry, Grandma, I switched it to vibrate-only last night and forgot to switch it back to the ringtone this morning.’

‘Vibrate, ringtone? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Well, are you going to leave me standing here all day?’

Jess looked over her shoulder and grimaced at Bradley. ‘It’s Grandma,’ she mouthed.

Bradley stood frozen to the spot as Jess eased the door open to allow Martha to gain access.

He tugged at the pink belt to tighten it. ‘Hello, Mrs Crew,’ he spluttered.

Martha gave him a withering glare, then looked Jess up and down.

‘Do you always answer the door half naked?’

‘I am wearing PJs, Grandma.’

‘You’d at least look decent if you wore that.’ She pointed up at Bradley who turned around and hurried up the stairs to get dressed.

‘Come through, Grandma,’ said Jess, leading the way to the lounge. ‘Would you like a coffee? I’m just making—’

Martha looked across the room to where Jess’s underwear lay in an untidy heap on the carpet. ‘It doesn’t take a genius to see what’s been going on here.’

‘Oh, Grandma. I am entitled to a private life you know? I’m not married or anything.’

‘In my day, you got married before you even thought about removing your underwear for a man, and even then, you did it in private, or under the bedclothes.’

Jess bit her tongue, just managing to stop herself reminding Martha that this wasn’t ‘her day’.

‘Times have changed, Grandma. We have different standards now.’

‘None of them are an improvement on what went before.’ Martha looked back towards the stairs. ‘It didn’t take you long to find someone new to climb into bed with, did it? You’ve only been on your own for five minutes.’

‘Look, I’m not going to argue with you, Grandma. What do you want? I thought I was picking you up at eleven.’

‘Marjorie has a dentist appointment at eleven. The silly woman didn’t tell me about it until this morning.’

‘Can’t she go on her own?’

‘MARJORIE!’ Martha looked incredulous. ‘You couldn’t trust her to find the place, let alone go inside, have the treatment and come home again. She’s hopeless.’

‘Maybe you should slacken the reins a bit,’ suggested Jess. ‘A little independence would do her good.’

‘Don’t tell me what she is, or isn’t capable of, young lady. You can’t imagine the chaos that would ensue if I left her to her own devices.’

Martha scowled as Bradley appeared at the lounge doorway.

‘And you… you should be ashamed of yourself.’

Bradley looked genuinely puzzled. ‘What have I done wrong?’

‘You’ve taken advantage of my granddaughter who has only just broken up with her long-term partner. You’re a professional man… allegedly… and she is your client.’

Bradley picked up his jacket, patted the pockets to find his car keys, then gave Jess a peck on the lips.

‘I’ll call you later.’ Fixing Martha with a tight smile, he let himself out of the house.

As soon as the front door closed, Martha resumed her attack.

‘I don’t know, Jessica, what were you thinking?’

‘I’m sorry to be such a disappointment, Grandma. But I have my own life to live and I’ll live it as I see fit. Now, are we going to have our little chat?’

Martha looked at the big clock on the wall and shook her head. ‘I’m not in the mood now. You can give me a lift back home; I’m not paying for another taxi.’

Jess sighed and turned towards the stairs.

‘And make yourself look half decent at least.’ Martha ordered. ‘Most of your backside is hanging out of those shorts.’

Twenty minutes later, Jess had dropped Martha off at home and had returned to the farm. She showered and dressed in some comfortable old clothes for a day of research and notetaking on her computer. First, she sketched out a rough outline of the two articles she had been contracted to write and to which she intended to expand on that afternoon, but after lunch, as she was washing up, she gazed out over what used to be a busy farmyard and her thoughts turned back to Alice.

‘I’m sure you wouldn’t have had a go at me for having my backside hanging out of my shorts, Nana.’

She laughed to herself. Although Alice held some very old-fashioned values herself, her views on female sexuality, hadn’t counted among them. Alice had been a sexually