Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,101

with the ice blocks I need for the ice carving workshop tomorrow and then I’ll get changed.’

Henry nodded and they walked into the freezer. He helped her load several small blocks that she had cut in preparation for the workshop onto a trolley and they wheeled it round to the van together.

‘Are you going to tell me what happened?’ Penny whispered just in case Daisy could hear them.

‘No, I’ll tell you in the car. I don’t want Daisy to hear this.’

They loaded the blocks onto the van, wrapping each piece in bubble wrap so they didn’t stick to the van or each other. Then Penny went to get changed.

She wanted something smart but not overly dressy for what was probably going to end up as a meal in a pub, so she just grabbed a nice jumper, threw on a little bit of make-up and brushed her hair into a plait. Henry had seen her first thing in the morning when her hair was everywhere, he’d seen her in her definitely not sexy pyjamas and in her usual jeans and hoodies and he still seemed to really like her.

She ran downstairs, they said their goodbyes to Daisy and got in the car.

‘So come on, out with it,’ Penny said as Henry drove down the bumpy driveway.

‘OK, but I don’t want you to think less of me. Part of me thinks it was a pretty shitty thing to do. Clara wasn’t taking no for an answer – the more I rejected her, the more of a challenge she saw me as. She told me to meet her in her office tonight or she’d make my life hell. So I agreed.’

Penny swallowed down the sudden fear that clutched at her throat. Had he agreed to sleep with her in order to get her off his back once and for all? No, he would never do that.

Henry glanced over. ‘I had no intention of ever meeting her. I wanted proof for when I told Edward just in case he didn’t believe me. I told him everything and Audrey, Clara’s assistant, backed up my story too. I told him where he could find her, that she was waiting for me, but he believed me without that. I feel bad that I set her up like that when I didn’t need to. Anyway Edward went to talk to her about it and found her in a very compromising position, half naked, sprawled across her desk from what I can gather. She must have been mortified.’

‘Don’t you feel sorry for her, don’t you dare,’ Penny said angrily. ‘She did this, no one else, only her. She blackmailed you to sleep with her and threatened you with your job too. What kind of scuzzy lowlife does that? If that had been the other way round and you had blackmailed her people would look at you like a sick monster because you’re this big man bullying some little woman into sleeping with you. Why is it any different that she was the one that was bullying you? She deserves everything that she gets.’

‘Well, I still feel a bit bad especially as Edward fired her on the spot.’

‘He fired her? His sister? How did he do that? They both have control of the company. I didn’t think Edward had more power than she did.’

‘Well, apparently he does. The company was originally offered to him by his dad as Clara had no interest in it, but she kicked up such a fuss that their dad was forced to make her managing director too, but he ensured that there was a sixty–forty split in the shares of the company, with Edward having the bigger share so that Edward would always have the deciding vote in the big decisions for the company. Clara’s never done anything for the company, he openly admitted to me that he has no idea what she does all day in her office and that she’s been a dead weight for the company for years, but she was his sister so he just let it go. Anyway he’s sacked her now. He stayed with her whilst she cleared out her things and took her key off her. She won’t be back. It caused a massive row between them and I feel bad for that too. I’m not sure if sacking her was an overreaction on his part or not. I feel like she should have had a warning first but apparently Edward has heard rumours that she’s done