Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,98

Henry called over, directing her to the furthest corner away from them.

‘Have you told Edward?’ Penny said.

He shook his head.

‘If you don’t tell him then I will. I’m not letting her get away with that.’

‘Shit, Penny, that’s not how I want to resolve this situation. He isn’t going to believe me over his sister. If I go to him to complain about Clara I’ll likely get the sack from him.’

‘Then how did you plan to resolve it?’

‘I told her I’d slap a sexual harassment suit on her if she tries to blackmail me again.’

‘And will you?’

‘Well, I’m not going to sleep with her if that’s what you’re thinking,’ he hissed. ‘She can’t possibly sack me, Edward would want to know why. I’m sure if I keep rejecting her she’ll just go away.’

‘That’s why you’re as skittish as a kitten about her coming over here then. Because you’re confident that she’s just going to go away?’

He moved away, angry that everything was crashing down around him and there didn’t seem to be any way to stop it. Penny caught his arm and pulled him back.

‘You need to fight for this. If you want this job, if you want anything badly enough, then you fight for it. Don’t just roll over and play dead.’

Henry nodded, though he wasn’t sure what he could do to fight Clara. He glanced over at her again and he caught her eye. She smirked to herself as she moved to the team in the next bay. Henry saying no had provided her with a challenge which she wasn’t going to back down from.

Clara stepped up to their bay, the only thing separating them was the low rope barrier.

‘This is looking good,’ Clara remarked cheerfully, though her eyes were firmly on him and not the house.

He returned his attention to the house as Penny helped to join the final side together, piping the icing down the join while he and Daisy held the panels in place.

‘Henry, might I have a word?’ Clara called over.

‘I’m busy,’ Henry snapped and watched Daisy’s mouth fall open at his rudeness to his boss.

He glanced over at Penny whose face was switching between concern, worry and anger.

He had to resolve this once and for all.

Leaving the girls to work on their own for a moment, he stepped over the little rope fence towards Clara and moved a few steps away so no one in the audience could hear them either.

‘I told you to leave me alone.’

‘I’m not used to people saying no to me,’ Clara smiled, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

‘And are you used to getting sued for sexual harassment, because I told you if you bothered me again about this, that’s the direction I would take it.’

‘Oh please, Henry. If you were going to do that you would have done it already, you’d have marched straight from my office to Edward’s or human resources and complained to somebody but you haven’t. And that’s because you secretly want this.’

‘I’d rather gouge out my own eyeballs with a fork than sleep with you or have anything to do with you.’

‘Yet one word from me and you’re over here talking to me instead of working alongside your pretty girlfriend.’

Henry glanced over at Penny, who was studiously not looking at him. ‘Look, why are you doing this? You’re very attractive, you can have any man you choose. Why go for someone who is already taken?’

‘You’re right, Henry, I can have any man I choose and I choose you. Let’s cut the crap, you and I both know you’re going to sleep with me so stop trying to put me off. I’ll be in my office at six o’clock tonight. The factory will be empty but I’ll leave the side door open.’

‘I’m not—’

‘You will be there or I will make your life a living hell. I’m sure your little girlfriend will be delighted to hear of how you fucked me over the desk the other day, I could give her a very detailed account of that, if you don’t show later. Or perhaps I could tell her that that was how you got the job in the first place.’

Henry wanted to tell her to go ahead, but was his and Penny’s relationship strong enough to withstand that when they barely knew each other? Did Penny trust him enough to believe him over Clara?

He knew what he had to do and he felt sick at the thought of it. He nodded. ‘OK, six o’clock. Wear something sexy