Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,46

was asking him out. Surely it would be professional suicide to turn her down. And as she was so beautiful it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

‘Eww, Dad, don’t go out with your boss, that’s such a cliché.’

‘I have no intention of going out with her. It would be beyond awkward if things turned sour. Besides, she isn’t my type.’

Penny glanced over at him, and although he was talking to Daisy she felt like he was saying all this for her benefit.

‘You mean she didn’t have sleek blonde hair, big tits and a tiny waist,’ Daisy laughed. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and went to take a bite out of it before Henry snatched it from her and put it back in the bowl again. Daisy pouted.

Penny looked down at her tiny breasts and definitely not tiny waist. This conversation was getting better and better.

‘I don’t just go for blondes, I don’t have a type. I’m attracted to personalities, not looks,’ Henry said.

‘Yeah right. That’s why all your girlfriends have been verging on the supermodel end of the spectrum.’

‘You’re not painting me in a good light here,’ Henry growled at Daisy and she laughed, completely unperturbed with the idle threat in his voice.

‘You create your own reputation, that’s nothing to do with me.’

‘Come on, trouble, we’ll leave Penny to some peace and quiet.’

‘She asked me to come with her to a competition tonight, it’ll be great experience for me to see the other carvers and their work. Can I go?’

Penny waited for Daisy to tell Henry that she was submitting her own piece to the competition but she didn’t.

Henry looked over at Penny. ‘Is that OK?’

‘Yes of course.’

Henry shrugged. ‘All right then. Well, let’s go and have dinner and Penny can knock for you when she’s ready to go.’

He ushered her out through the connecting door and gave Penny a little smile as he closed the door behind them.

If that conversation about Clara had been designed to make her feel better it’d had the complete opposite effect.

Chapter Ten

Henry finished washing up the dinner things when a movement caught his eye outside the window. There was a huge man outside and, as Henry watched, he let himself into Penny’s house through the back door.

Henry quickly rushed to the connecting door and opened it a crack. The man was big and muscular but quite young too, maybe early twenties. He was wearing a t-shirt and both arms were covered in tattoos. The man looked around the kitchen, spotted Penny’s rucksack and loaded it with her purse and her mobile phone. He spotted a camera and threw that into the bag too. Then he opened the fridge and helped himself to a handful of chocolate bars, which joined the other stuff in the bag. He zipped up the bag and moved back towards the door.

Henry slammed the connecting door open, making the man jump out of his skin.

‘Going somewhere with all that stuff?’ Henry asked.

The man stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. He pointed vaguely to the open door, made some kind of squeak of pure fear and then bolted out the door, taking the bag with him.

Henry was hot on his heels. The guy was fast, but Henry was faster and, as the man sprinted round the corner of the house, Henry threw himself at his legs, bringing him face down onto the gravel driveway. The man let out a wail of pain as Henry used all his weight to keep him pinned to the floor.

‘Henry, what the hell are you doing?’ Penny said, running towards them from the front of the house.

‘I caught this thieving little shit stealing your purse, phone and camera. Call the police.’

‘Henry, this is Josh, a friend of mine. He helps me to take my carvings to events. I told him to grab my bag. And you just threw him down on the floor.’

‘He’s a friend of yours?’

‘Yes. He works for me.’

Henry processed this and quickly scrabbled off Josh, and then pulled him to his feet, brushing the dirt and stones off him.

‘Sorry about that, mate, I just saw you come into Penny’s house and take her stuff, and I thought… Sorry, you’re not hurt I hope? Why on earth did you run? You could have just told me you were a friend of Penny’s.’

Josh still looked absolutely terrified of him, obviously wondering if he was going to get a pummelling at any second.

‘Because you probably scared him, have you seen the size of yourself?