‘Probably in order to make them easier to steal from.’
He nodded. ‘I hope the police catch him soon. He has done a lot of harm, and not only to your granddad.’ He pulled her on top of him, his arms tense like steel bands around her, his heartbeat reverberating inside her, and his eyes dark with desire. ‘But enough about Darren Morse.’
‘You’re doing what?’ Cassie looked at Stefan, trying very hard not to burst out laughing.
He put his mobile back into his pocket and pulled a face. ‘Big Jim said his wife needed help behind the counter because one of their barmaids had called in sick and he couldn’t spend all afternoon dressed up as Santa in the grotto… What else could I do?’ A faint and endearing blush crept onto his cheeks, which made her want to knot her arms around his neck and give him a long, tender kiss.
‘Besides,’ he added, ‘it’s for a good cause. I’m pretty sure no one will guess I’m the one in the Father Christmas outfit, so it will be more money for the Mountain Rescue Service.’ He looked at her, and there was a trace of vulnerability in his eyes. ‘You don’t think I’m going to scare all the children away, do you?’
‘Of course not, but they’re going to wonder why Father Christmas speaks with a French accent this year.’
‘I could always say I have been holidaying on the Côte d’Azur.’
She smiled. ‘When I think that a few weeks ago you didn’t even want a Christmas tree, and today you’re dressing up as Father Christmas!’
She checked her watch. She’d better hurry if she didn’t want to miss Nathan at the holiday cottage. ‘I’ll see you later. Who knows, I may even pay you a visit in your grotto so I can sit on your knee and give you a cuddle.’
He grinned back. ‘I would like that very much.’ His face became serious again. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you? I’m not happy about you meeting Hardman on your own.’
‘I’m only going to tell him I don’t want his job.’ She planned to tell Nathan more, but Stefan didn’t need to know. He would only insist on coming with her, and this was something she wanted to do on her own. Her days of feeling inferior and insecure and of being scared to speak out were over.
‘I still don’t like it,’ Stefan said.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.’
He sighed, and there was suddenly an air of mild panic on his face. ‘Then I’d better go. Big Jim said I could change in his flat above the pub, which means I’m going to have to walk down the streets dressed like Father Christmas and make a right fool out of myself.’
This time she didn’t hesitate. Never mind that they were in the main street and half of Red Moss would see them. She stepped closer to him, rose on her tiptoes and put her hands on either side of his face. ‘You’ll be great.’ And she gave him a long, leisurely kiss.
They agreed to meet at the Fair in the afternoon and Cassie drove to Nathan’s holiday cottage. Despite her earlier show of confidence, the knot of anxiety in her stomach was growing bigger and tighter by the second, and when she rang the bell, she felt sick.
Nathan opened the door and squinted against the bright sunlight. He was unshaven, his skin was pale and blotchy and his eyes red-rimmed. ‘It’s about time.’
He gestured for her to go in and she reluctantly followed him into the kitchen. ‘The others left for London an hour ago,’ he said, plonking himself on a stool at the kitchen bar in front of a steaming mug of coffee.
There were dirty plates and glasses, takeaway boxes, and empty bottles of beer, vodka and whisky strewn everywhere.
‘I see nobody bothered to tidy up,’ she remarked.
He arched his eyebrows. ‘That’s what the cleaner gets paid for… And that would be you, unless you accept my offer, which frankly you would be stupid not to.’
‘Then you can call me stupid,’ she replied with a cold voice. ‘And for your information, holidaymakers are supposed to leave their cottage reasonably clean, so I will take photos of the mess you’ve made and you and your friends will be charged for the extra cleaning.’
To make her point, she took her phone out of her bag.
He stared at her in shock. ‘Hang on a minute. Did you just say that you don’t want the internship?’
She nodded. ‘That’s right.’
‘Do you have any idea how lucky you were to get such an offer?’
‘Lucky?’
‘You’re hardly qualified and have no experience. You should be bloody grateful I was ready to take you on.’
Her fingers gripped her phone more tightly. Suddenly she knew that she was doing the right thing. Nathan would always try to wriggle out of giving her the recognition she deserved, and she would never be able to prove anything against him. Unless… She glanced down at her phone, pressed on the recording button and slipped the phone back into her bag.
‘So that you know,’ she said, ‘I won’t be signing your non-disclosure agreement either. I intend to go to London and show Maritel’s general manager the draft sketches I have left.’
Nathan slammed his mug on the bar, jumped down from his stool and walked towards her, his mouth twisted into a nasty, menacing scowl, and a cruel glint shone in his dark brown eyes. ‘You bitch. You won’t spoil things for me, do you hear? I won’t let you. I need this contract.’
She took a step back. ‘You should have thought of that before, Nathan. You should have been honest and told Maritel you were using my designs.’
She tried to keep her voice calm even though her heart drummed fast and her throat was tight. Surely he wouldn’t harm her?
‘You said you had other sketches,’ Nathan said. ‘Where are they? I’ll buy them from you.’
She backed off again. ‘They’re not for sale.’
He frowned then his face softened, and the charming, cajoling smile she remembered so well played on his lips. ‘Don’t be like that. I’m sure we can come to some agreement. What if I gave you some of the money Maritel paid for the London refurbishment… on the condition you sign that non-disclosure agreement, of course?’
She shook her head. ‘I want them to know you used my ideas.’
The soft look vanished from his eyes. ‘Go on then. Try it. They’ll only laugh. You’re a cleaner, for Pete’s sake! What do you know about interior design?’
‘I know enough to have won the competition.’
‘It will be your word against mine. I’ll say you stole the designs from my office when you were cleaning, that you wanted revenge because you had the hots for me… That bit is true, isn’t?’ His lips stretched into a mean smile.
So he had known how she felt about him? Her face felt warm, but she didn’t deny it. ‘That was years ago, Nathan. I was young and impressionable.’
‘Ah! I knew it. You were always looking at me with big, puppy eyes…’ He shook his head, and carried on, ‘You’ll be made to pay a massive amount in damages and you’ll lose your pathetic little cleaning company, all the way down to your last feather duster.’
He must have thought she would quake in her shoes, but she wasn’t afraid. Even if nothing came out of it, and if the Maritel executives did laugh at her like Nathan predicted, she would still take her portfolio to London and prove that it was her ideas Nathan had copied. And now, she also had the recording of their conversation…