The boys exchanged a look, then grabbed her and pinned her down on the bed where they tickled her until tears of laughter sprang into her eyes.
‘Stop, stop! You’re killing me!’
‘I see my patients are improving.’ Jonathan was standing in the doorway, eyeing their tussle with a wry grin. ‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were all guilty of faking it.’
The boys rushed to their father excitedly, while Hazel tried to tidy her dishevelled appearance. Their eyes met over the heads of the twins, and Jonathan’s tender expression made her breath catch in her throat.
There’s no going back now, she thought. If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll never want to leave.
Her foot improved quickly, soon causing her no more trouble than the odd twinge when she walked on it. On Friday afternoon, George appeared in the sick room with a message that Jonathan was throwing a small party in the office.
‘He’d like you to join the celebrations.’
‘I’ll be right there.’ Hazel closed the book she’d been reading to the boys. ‘But what about ...?’
George gave an impatient wave. ‘Don’t worry, I can take over from here; I read Wind in the Willows to Jonathan many times when he was a boy.’
Seth and Ben were fascinated that their father had once enjoyed the same book, and they let Hazel go without too much protest.
When she arrived, the others were all assembled clutching glasses of champagne. The office was festooned with banners, and in the middle of the room a trestle table had been put up and was groaning under the weight of several platters of food, nibbles and drinks.
Smiling, Jonathan handed Hazel a glass of champagne. ‘I’m glad you came, and just in time. I’m about to say a few words.’
Hazel went to stand next to Ellie. ‘What are we celebrating?’ she whispered.
‘The Robert Miles contract,’ Ellie whispered back. ‘Planning permission has finally gone through. Jonathan is pleased as punch.’
Having been so busy looking after the boys, Hazel had forgotten about the real world, but she was happy that work had gone according to Jonathan’s hopes.
‘I see your foot is better,’ Ellie commented. ‘How did it happen?’
Hazel grimaced, but was relieved that Ellie didn’t know exactly what had taken place. ‘I tripped in the garden. I’ve always been a bit clumsy.’
Ellie gave her a quick hug. ‘You poor thing.’
Someone shushed them as Jonathan began to speak. He started by thanking everyone for their hard work and dedication, then went on to talk about the progress of the project and what it would mean for the company.
Jonathan’s eyes found Hazel’s. ‘I’d also like to thank Hazel. Although she hasn’t been here long, she’s helped us get a very untidy operation in order, and in the last few days we’ve all felt her absence keenly.’
There were murmurs of agreement from the others.
‘Not only that, but she’s shown me what really matters,’ Jonathan continued, and raised his glass. ‘Here’s to our future.’
The toast was directed at everyone assembled, but Jonathan’s emphasis on the word ‘our’, and the way his eyes never left hers, made Hazel think that perhaps he was sending her a special message. She was confused by his attention and didn’t know what to make of it, but that didn’t stop her cheeks from heating up. Ellie noticed and elbowed her in the ribs.
‘Some food might take your mind off it.’
They helped themselves to food, and so did their colleagues. The mood was high, and soon the office was a noisy hubbub. Hazel stood a little to one side with her plate and watched Jonathan move about the room, shaking a hand here and slapping a back there.
Suddenly, he appeared at her side. ‘Enjoying yourself?’
‘Er ... oh, yes, very much. It’s a lovely party.’
He sent her a concerned look. ‘Are you sure? Because I really want you to.’
‘Thank you, yes. I was just thinking about Seth and Ben.’
‘I’m sure my father can cope. He’ll have to, because I’m going away tonight. Robert Miles is starting another project in Lincolnshire and has asked me to visit the site with him, but I’m back Saturday afternoon. I’ll leave you my mobile number just in case.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Hazel reassured him. ‘I’ll try not to leave it all to George.’
‘I know you won’t.’ Jonathan stroked her cheek briefly. The touch was feather-light, but made her entire body tingle. ‘And when I get back,’ he added in a low voice, ‘there’s something important we need to talk about.’
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips then turned away when one of their colleagues demanded his attention. While Hazel was still reeling from the impact and the significance of him kissing her in such a public place, her eyes met Tabitha’s across the room.
There was no disguising the venom in those baby blues. It was a look of pure hatred.
CHAPTER TEN
Jonathan said goodbye to his children when he left in the early evening, with strict instructions that they had to behave themselves. While their grandfather gave them their tea and made sure they had a shower, Hazel helped Irene tidy up after the party, then she went to tuck in the boys.
‘Please stay,’ they begged. ‘There’s this really good bit in the story, but Grandad’s too tired to read any more.’
‘If it’s okay with you, I’d like to turn in now,’ George admitted.
Hazel noticed he looked weary, slightly stooped and with dark circles under his eyes, but it was no surprise since he often worked in the lab late into the night. ‘I’d be happy to.’
George said goodnight in his usual gruff manner, but Hazel sensed that his relationship with his grandchildren was improving, and that pleased her. With no mother in their lives, having a close bond with their grandfather was doubly important.
‘Can you sit between us and read?’ Ben asked. ‘That’s what Grandad does.’
The boys patted the space between them expectantly, and Hazel vacated the armchair in favour of the bed, grabbing a blanket to put over her legs while the twins snuggled down in their duvets.
She read for about an hour until they fell asleep. Yawning, she debated with herself whether leaving would wake them, then she decided to stay a while to make sure they’d dropped off completely.
It was cosy and warm between the boys, and it wasn’t long before Hazel’s head fell back against the headboard, and sleep overtook her.
She was shaken awake by an agitated George. It was early morning, and a pale autumn sun was streaming in through the window where she’d forgotten to draw the curtains.
Making sure the boys were still sound asleep, she sat up groggily. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to fall asleep in here.’
‘Never mind about that. My lab has been burgled.’
‘Burgled?’ Hazel slipped out of bed quietly and smoothed down her crumpled clothes. ‘Have you called the police?’
‘They’ll be here in an hour. I’ve called Irene as well, although she doesn’t normally come in on Saturdays, but with Jonathan away ... Well, Irene is a rock.’
Was it her imagination, or was George’s interest in the housekeeper more than just professional? Interesting, she thought, and couldn’t help welcoming the idea.
In the kitchen, Irene was preparing a fried breakfast.
‘What a to-do,’ she said, although she looked her usual unruffled self. ‘I thought we could do with a big breakfast before the police get here. George, stop pacing and sit down. There’s nothing anyone can do till then.’
Only then did Hazel notice how haggard George looked. He’d been tired the night before, but it was nothing compared to this hollow-eyed spectre. It was as if he’d aged ten years overnight.
Her heart went out to him. He’d suffered a terrible setback once, and now it seemed as if it had happened again. Not only had his property been violated, there was all his research to consider. How much had he lost this ti
me?
Reaching across the kitchen table, she put her hand on his arm. ‘I’m sure everything will be all right.’
Unconvinced, George gave a curt nod.
Irene forced them to eat breakfast, although they both struggled. When a police constable arrived, the housekeeper had coffee ready.
The officer, a fresh-faced rookie, took down the details then went with George to have a look at the lab. Hazel organised breakfast for Seth and Ben and, judging them to be sufficiently recuperated, told them to get dressed. By the time she’d finished, the constable was ready to leave.
‘Call us when you’ve looked through the CCTV footage,’ he said to George. ‘You might recognise your burglar, or at least it’ll give you an idea how they got in through the main gate as well as inside the lab. I’ll send a chap around later to check for fingerprints, so no one should disturb the crime scene in the meantime.’
‘I’ll wait for Jonathan to get back,’ said George, when the policeman had left. ‘I don’t really understand all this newfangled nonsense.’
Hazel watched him leave the kitchen. More than ever, Jonathan’s father looked like a broken man, and she was tempted to run after him and hug him until he felt better. But she knew he’d hate that.
When Jonathan arrived back in the afternoon and saw the police car parked in front of the house, his first thought was that something had happened to the twins. He almost flung himself out of the Land Rover and raced upstairs.
Finding his apartment empty, he headed for the kitchen, having noticed Mrs Whitmore’s Nissan in the drive. To his relief, the boys threw themselves at him, babbling over each other and making no sense at all.
Hugging them close, he said, ‘Whoa, one at a time! What happened?’
‘Grandad’s shed’s been burgled,’ Seth explained, his eyes shining as if this was the most exciting thing in the world.
‘Really?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ said George. ‘I called the police. There’s a technician down there now, checking for fingerprints.’
Jonathan’s eyes fell on Hazel, who shrugged, and Mrs Whitmore shook her head imperceptibly. Clearly no one knew any more than that.
‘Any idea who did it? Have you checked the cameras?’
George shook his head.
‘Well, we’d better go and do that now,’ Jonathan said, taking charge. ‘We need to see if there’s anything which might help the police catch the culprits. Mrs Whitmore, any chance you could make some coffee, please? I’ve had a long journey.’
‘I’ll do it so Irene can get home,’ said Hazel. ‘It’s been a hectic day.’
‘Thanks. We’ll be in my office.’
He touched her lightly on the arm and was gratified by her heightened colour. During his time away, he’d come to realise how much he cared for Hazel. By telling her how he felt, he risked exposing himself, but he had to do it. Otherwise, how would he ever know what might be between them?
But first he had to deal with this burglary.
In the office, Jonathan fired up his computer and logged into the hard disk containing the footage from the various security cameras. ‘I doubt if your burglar climbed over the wall, so let’s check the camera on the main gate first.’
They trawled through hours of footage, and although they were able to play it back faster than normal speed, it was a tedious task. Hazel brought the promised coffee on a tray, with the boys carrying a mug each, then they retreated quickly and left them to it.
He hadn’t had much sleep the night before on the uncomfortable hotel bed, and although the coffee helped, Jonathan felt his eyelids grow heavy.
Suddenly George grabbed his shoulder. ‘There! Stop! Back up a bit. That’s it.’
An incriminating scene played out in front of them. A man with a bolt cutter appeared outside the locked gate, signalling to someone on the inside, who then came into view of the camera. It was a woman, dressed in a trench coat, jeans, and with a scarf tied around her head. Taking out a bundle of keys, she unlocked the wrought iron gates, keeping her face turned away from the camera as if she was familiar with its location. The man slipped through the gate, the woman locked it again, and they both disappeared from view.
‘Well, I’ll be ... that’s Lawrence!’ George exploded, clenching his fists. ‘The scheming toad!’
‘Lawrence?’ An icy feeling slid down Jonathan’s back, and it was as if his own voice came from far away. He’d heard that name before. Hazel’s friend. The one she claimed to have only just met.
‘The son of my old business partner,’ George explained. ‘His father wasn’t able to carry on with my research without my notes, but he knows my invention is worth a lot of money if they can sell it to one of the oil companies. Money is all they ever cared about,’ he added with a contemptuous snarl.
‘And did they succeed in stealing it?’
‘Harrumph. What they took won’t make any sense to them. I keep all my important findings up here.’ George tapped his head, then focused on the CCTV footage again. ‘Who’s the woman, I wonder? And how did she get hold of a key?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jonathan replied, but it was a lie. He did know. He’d have recognised that raincoat anywhere, the style and the cut unmistakable even on a black and white security film.
The woman letting in the burglar was Hazel.
Hazel was tidying up in the kitchen when Jonathan sought her out.
‘A word, if you please.’
‘Of course.’ She dried her hands on a tea towel.
Jonathan got right to the point. ‘You let the burglar in. Your friend Lawrence.’
Confused by his words, Hazel blinked. ‘Lawrence? What are you talking about?’
‘Don’t bother denying it. You were caught on CCTV wearing that red raincoat of yours. I’d recognise it anywhere.’
‘My raincoat? Oh, but someone collected it from the dry cleaner's, and– ‘
Jonathan held up his hand and sent her a look of contempt. ‘I don’t want to hear it. You’ve already explained yourself to me too many times. I should’ve seen through it, but I was blinded by your pretty face.’
‘Jonathan, listen, I– ‘
‘I want you to pack your things and leave. Right away. And I don’t want to see you ever again.’
He turned on his heel and left. Wringing the tea towel in her hands, she tried to make sense of what he’d said. Lawrence was a burglar. Someone had let him in during the night, wearing Hazel’s raincoat as a disguise. Which meant she’d been set up. Meeting Lawrence, losing her dry cleaning ticket, having allowed herself to be goaded into breaking and entering – it had been a set-up from start to finish.
But who was behind it, other than Lawrence? Tabitha? Maybe, maybe not, but there was no way Hazel could prove it. And Jonathan seemed to have made his mind up about her ‘guilt’ anyway.
The reality of the situation hit her. Jonathan never wanted to see her again. That meant never seeing Seth and Ben either, nor George and Irene, and everyone else she’d come to like and respect in this wonderful place.
Stifling a cry with her hand, she stumbled towards a chair. It was like losing her family all over again, and she wrapped her arms around herself to quell the horrible, sick feeling that her heart had been ripped out. It was almost too much to bear.
How long she sat on the hard kitchen chair, she had no idea. Finally she rose, slowly because her legs were shaking, and went to her apartment to pack.
Swirling the ice cubes in his drink, Jonathan stared out into the dark. Standing by the large window facing the front drive, he was in exactly the same spot he’d been earlier when he’d watched Hazel struggling down the gravelled path with her bags. The gentlemanly thing would have been to help her to the bus stop, but he’d found himself unable to do that.
The anger was still there, pushing against his ribcage from the inside so hard he feared his chest would explode. Anger at Hazel’s betrayal, anger that his father’s work had left them all so exposed, but mostly he was
angry with himself for being taken in.
I’ll never trust another woman for as long as I live, he thought for the umpteenth time.
But behind the anger was the realisation that he’d fallen in love with her, and it was like an open wound which wouldn’t heal. The sense that he’d lost something precious before he’d had a chance to hold it, gripped his insides and made even simple acts like lifting a glass to his lips physically painful. Whatever her betrayal, and despite his own righteous anger, he couldn’t just make those feelings disappear. It would be a long time before he got over her. If he ever did.
He was startled out of his thoughts by movement behind him. ‘Dad?’
‘Ben? Why aren’t you asleep?’
‘Is Hazel going to come and sleep in our bed again tonight?’
Jonathan frowned. ‘In your bed?’
Ben shrugged. ‘She was reading to us.’
‘How do you know she was in the bed with you, if you were asleep?’
Chewing his lips, Ben lowered his eyes. ‘I woke up, and it was, like, really late, but I couldn’t sleep so I played with my Nintendo for a bit. I was worried the beeping noise would wake her, but it didn’t.’ He looked up again. ‘Are you cross with me? I know I’m not supposed to play Nintendo in the middle of the night.’
Jonathan stared at his son while his mind was working overtime. His heart lifted at the thought that his suspicion of Hazel might be unfounded. Perhaps she hadn’t forsaken him after all.
‘No, I’m not angry,’ he said, and gave Ben a quick hug. ‘In fact, I’m very glad you told me. Now, let’s get you back to bed.’
He waited until he was sure Ben had fallen asleep again, then rushed to his office and switched on the computer. If Hazel had been asleep between the boys all night, who was the woman in the raincoat?
Calling up the security footage again, he played back the section from the main gate, paying particular attention to the woman. Recalling how perfectly that coat had fitted Hazel when he first met her, it became clear on closer inspection that both the sleeves and the body were far too short for the person wearing it in the picture.
Gorgeous Reads for Christmas (Choc Lit) Page 9
