Quids In: Covent Garden Series

by Mary B. Moore

  Rubbing her back, I waited for her to stop shivering. Once she settled, I knew she’d be aware of the truth and power of the words I was about to say and leaned down so that my mouth was right beside her ear.

  “You were made for me,” I whispered. When she squirmed slightly, I gave her the most honest words I’d ever spoken in my life. “And I was made for you, just for you!”

  Chapter Nine

  Wilhelmina

  “Cooeeee!” I woke up as a woman’s voice sang from the door.

  Sitting up quickly, I looked around me trying to figure out where I was. The night before and the ache between my legs hit me all at once, and then I focused on the woman standing in the doorway and recognised Will’s mum.

  “Mother!” his voice snapped from beside me, and the true horror of the situation came crashing down onto me.

  “Morning, dear!” She sounded like there was nothing untoward about the situation while I sat holding the sheet to my front for dear life. “Morning, Wilhelmina, love!”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, absolutely mortified.

  “How do you take your coffee, Wilhelmina? Or are you one of those strange women who drinks tea first thing?” she asked, moving to pick the towel up off the floor. “Really, William. I raised you better than this. You don’t want stinky towels now do you? Then people will think you pong when you’ve always smelled like roses. Well, apart from your arse,” she muttered. “I was blessed with a gorgeous little boy whose arse could peel paint off the walls.”

  “Mother!” he yelled, sitting up and pulling me close to him.

  “What?” she turned around looking shocked that he’d react the way he was. “Well, is it coffee or…” she looked like she was struggling with the next word and I wondered if the situation had finally hit her. But no, it was something completely different. “Tea,” she spat the word out. “And please tell me you drink it out of a decent-sized cup, Wilhelmina. If not, we need to have talks because those little cups aren’t fit for coffee consumption. Oh,” she cried, raising her arms in the air and waving them around. I’d been around Anne Renton before, but I’d never seen her in a truly relaxed setting. “I know, I’ll pop to Emma Bridgewater this afternoon and get you one of her one-pint mugs. Do you have a preference? Stars? Spots? Hearts?”

  “Oh, fucking hell!” Will muttered beside me. “Mother, please can we get up before you go off on one of your grand ideas? Please?”

  “But, William, Wilhelmina needs…”

  “You’re embarrassing her,” he pointed out.

  Looking back over at her, I met her eyes as she snapped from looking at him in confusion to me sceptically.

  “Am I?” she asked, leaving me gaping.

  What the bugger was I meant to say? The answer was nothing, instead I just shook my head slowly.

  When she looked back over at Will with her eyes narrowed, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, then - you’re embarrassing me!”

  Sighing, she shook her head and walked back toward the door. When she got there, she turned around and smiled sweetly at me.

  “How do you take your coffee?” I noticed that this time she left out the possibility of tea.

  “Milk, no sugar please,” I choked out. The humour in the situation had completely won over the embarrassment and I was doing everything I could not to laugh.

  Clapping her hands in delight, she gave Will one last glare and walked back out of the room shouting down the stairs about coffee and to use the Nespresso machine because his instant coffee was shit.

  Will looked like he was struggling and trying to say something, but the minute he opened his mouth, I burst out laughing, falling back on his bed.

  “How can you laugh after that?” he asked, sounding gobsmacked.

  The better question was – how could he not?

  William

  “So, he was having a J Arthur Rank?” Dad asked, looking disgusted. “In your dirty knickers?”

  “Whilst stroking a cuddly animal,” my brother Rafe added.

  Dad shuddered and took a gulp of coffee, but it was Mum who spoke up.

  “Did you not have any clean knickers, darling?” she asked Wilhelmina. “You should bring your laundry over here. Will has a machine that will do them for you within two hours.”

  Me, Dad, Rafe, Mina, Ruby, Digby and Guy all sat staring at her. Really? That was what she got out of the story?

  “Um, Mum,” Ruby called out. “That was the point of him wanking in them.”

  “To make dirty knickers even dirtier?” she asked confused.

  “No, he liked that they hadn’t been washed,” Ruby explained slowly.

  Mum froze and then took a sharp breath in, her head snapping in my direction.

  “That dirty bastard. Dirty, dirty, dirty, bastard. That’s just disgusting!” she stood up and stormed around the room. Dad, Rafe and I were ready to jump up and catch her in case she took a wild hair and decided to go out and have a word with the dirty bastard himself. “Oh, and with a cuddly animal. Was it a special one?” she asked Mina who shook her head. She had no idea where it had come from, but that was something I didn’t even want to go remotely close to. Filthy git! “Well, I hope you binned them, darling,” she snapped as she fluffed up the cushions on the sofa behind us.

  “I did,” Mina replied hesitantly. “And then I went out shopping and got new ones.”

  “Good girl,” Mum nodded her head as she dropped back down into her chair.

  My family stayed for a couple of hours, during which Dicky joined us and Mina got to experience him in all of his splendour.

  When they left, I felt like I should get down on my knees and beg her not to leave me. As I turned around to do just that, I saw that she was close to tears. Oh, fuck!

  “What’s wrong, princess?” I’d wanted to delay introducing her to the reality of my family by at least ten years and three kids.

  “Your family…” she croaked and swallowed audibly. I was really panicking now. “They’re…” she broke off again as two big fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “They’re fucking insane!” I froze when she said it. Three kids, that’s all they had to wait for, but could they do it? “I love them.”

  It took a couple seconds for the last bit to sink in, and when it did, I felt like I’d been hit in the stomach by a truck.

  “You what?”

  “I love them!” she cried, more tears rolling down her face.

  “You love them?” I questioned carefully. “As in love-love, or do you have a different definition for the word?”

  Pulling away from me, she paced back and forth her arms twitching as she explained. “My family is shit,” she started.

  “This isn’t a secret,” I pointed out, getting a dirty look from her in response.

  “They’re really shit,” she stressed. “I’ve known your family for a while, but I’ve never been around them like this,” she moved her arms again, lifting them in the air before lowering them. “They’re just amazing.” She stopped and then looked at me as the tears started again. “What if I’m not good enough?” she whispered, looking absolutely devastated.

  Rushing over to her, I pulled her into my arms and held her tight as she started sobbing.

  “Princess, please listen,” I said over the noises coming from her. When she didn’t stop, I repeated it and gave her a squeeze. This settled her enough to hear me as I said what she needed to hear – the truth. “You are more than good enough, it doesn’t even boil down to that with my family,” I explained, and it didn’t. They couldn’t care less what someone’s status was or what they did for a living, they cared what was on the inside. “You are an amazing person and it’s a wonder that you turned out the way you did with your family the way they are.” I wasn’t going to beat around the bush, and with her questioning her worth because of them, I wasn’t going to hold my punches either. “Don’t ever ask that question again, princess,” I growled into the top of her head. “If anyone should ask that, it’s them. You are n
ot responsible or to blame for how they have treated you and the fact that they didn’t appreciate you. Do you understand?” I waited until she nodded slowly against my chest. “Good, because if you do, then I’ll be forced to spank your beautiful little bottom. Do I make myself clear?”

  The way she gasped and went rigid in my arms made me panic that I’d gone too far until she threw her head back and asked me seriously, “Will you make me call you daddy too?”

  “God, no!” I replied, horrified at the thought.

  “Well then, we have a deal!”

  As soon as she finished the last word she was back up over my shoulder, just like the night before, and I was walking toward the stairs whistling. This time she was laughing hysterically though.

  I’d never felt so happy in my life.

  That was until five weeks later when I got the call that changed it all.

  Chapter Ten

  Five weeks later…

  William

  The police had charged the prick Rory for breaking his restraining order that had been granted within twenty-four hours of us reporting his text messages to the police. He’d continued to try to contact her though, going as far as to send her a gift basket from an online sex shop.

  The London hospital he worked for had suspended him too after they found him bonking a nurse in one of the triage rooms in A&E. All of those emergencies coming in, and he had his trousers around his ankles and a nurse thirty years older than him bent over a bed that people had shat, pissed and died in. Vile shit that he was. They had been in the process of suspending him after they’d found out he’d been charged by the police anyway; the nurse shagging was just the cherry on top. Unfortunately, they couldn’t fire him on the spot. Worker’s rights and shit like that dictated that a full investigation had to be carried out. The fact that there was a CCTV camera pointed at the room which had caught his spotty arse thrusting into the nurse hadn’t helped his case. Since then, he’d been quiet, and we hadn’t even heard about him being out and about in London.

  The same couldn’t be said of Mina’s family. Her father and mother had called up on the Monday following our first weekend together, inviting me and my family around for dinner. When we’d arrived, they’d been shocked that Mina was with us, like she hadn’t been included in the invite. The night went downhill from then when Portia sat down beside me at the dinner table and tried to grab hold of my dick. After one grab which ended up with her almost yanking it off my body when I pushed her hand away, Mum and Dad had stood up and told them what they thought of them before we all walked out together. That we’d all surrounded Wilhelmina as we did this and the amount of attention she’d received from all of us hadn’t gone unnoticed. Portia had tried spreading rumours about Mina around London, but Mina’s was actually well loved by a majority of people, so this had been a useless endeavour. More and more people were pulling away from her and her invites to parties and functions were dwindling down to nothing as was her father’s business.

  We were now close to Christmas and I’d just been told that I had to fly out to Dubai to sign off on an extension we were already having to add to our new hotel. It had only been open a matter of months, but we were a well-known brand and the demand for our rooms was high. Guy was coming with me to handle the PR side of it as Mina was snowed under with the work that needed to be done in London for the rest of our hotels. Her working for us had ended up being a necessity anyway as so much work was coming in that we were working eleven-hour days just to stay on top of it all.

  I’d left her naked and sated in bed this morning which had been the hardest thing to do knowing I’d be away for ten days while I sorted all of this shit out. Five weeks we’d been together, and each day was better than the one before it. I’d known she was mine from the beginning, but now I was rethinking the six months that I’d planned to wait to propose to her. I wanted her to have my name and be mine in every way right fucking now.

  Two days ago, I’d taken her on the London Eye because she’d never been. It might sound cheesy, but I knew when we reached the top and were looking across the Thames at London that I had to tell her how I felt. So, I’d quickly blurted out that I loved her and then asked what she wanted for dinner. I’d suspected that she felt the same way, but when she told me that she loved me too as we disembarked from our pod, I’d picked her up and spun her in a circle. Unfortunately, we’d clipped the leg of some guy who was walking past at the time, but when I’d yelled that she loved me, he’d called me a daft bugger and walked away. It was perfect!

  Slamming my glass down on the table in front of me, I stewed as I looked out at the clouds surrounding the plane. I had the ring, I had a plan, and I really fucking begrudged being away from her when I was so sure what I wanted and needed to do.

  I was going to work my arse off and get this done and dusted sooner rather than later. Then, as soon as I got home, I was making her mine legally and permanently.

  Wilhelmina

  Will had been away for two days, two very long days. I missed him hugely, but the time apart was giving me time to get his Christmas presents ready.

  Christmas was my favourite time of the year. Growing up, I’d spent almost every one of them with India and her family because mine was only interested in Portia. Every year, her mother and father, Frank and Iris, would plan a weekend where we decorated their place in Kensington. We’d blast Christmas music and wind lights and tinsel around everything that we could. Once India moved out, we did the same to her flat which was made even more magical because it was near Hyde Park and we could see it from her windows. Then I got my own place, and I got to start my own traditions.

  Will had some decorations, but not nearly enough, so I was going to go back to my flat this week to collect some of mine. I had five boxes of the things in my spare room, but I could do it in one journey and they would look lush around Will’s house.

  I finished looping the lights around the banister leading from the bottom floor up to the middle one and plugged them in. As the years had passed, I’d got over my tinsel addiction and now stuck to lights and more tasteful decorations. The copper wired lights I’d just plugged in looked so pretty against the white wood of the banister and even if they weren’t on it wouldn’t look garish. I’d bought twelve sets of them and had stuck them around windows, doors and one of the sideboards in the living room. They all came with a remote, so I’d had to write the location of the lights that the remote corresponded to on the back of the small boxes so that I didn’t mix them up. Now it was all done, the tiny little bulbs gave off just enough light to make it look festive, yet sultry when the main lights were switched off.

  Now, all I had to do was arrange for the tree to be delivered and get my decorations from my flat and it was all tickety-boo.

  Friday, five days later…

  A quick check through the boxes so that I could remove any decorations I didn’t want to take, and I was just closing up the last box ready to get going back to Will’s house with them.

  I was so distracted by what I was doing that I didn’t hear the door open behind me or the soft footsteps as they came up behind me.

  The only notice I had that I wasn’t alone, was the voice sneering in my ear.

  “If I can’t have you, no one can!”

  Before something hit me in the head, pain took over, and the world went black.

  Digby

  “You’ll be back tomorrow?” I asked as I drove toward Ruby’s flat.

  “Yeah, don’t tell Mina though,” Will muttered as a car door slammed in the background. “We’re just leaving the hotel now to catch the flight.”

  We knew he would never last away from her, so this all came as no surprise. The fact that he’d sorted all the shit out within five days was a testament to his feelings towards Wilhelmina. Signing off, I turned at the lights and went down the road that led to Ruby’s. I told myself that I was just checking up on her because she’d been off work with a cold, but I knew it was more than that.


  The road went past Wilhelmina’s flat, and out of instinct and habit, I took a quick look as I drove. It was a bloody good thing that I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the flickering of the flames inside it if I hadn’t.

  Pulling sharply into the parking spot allocated to her flat, I got out and ran up to the entrance door to the block which was yet again wide open. I was too busy dialling 999 and requesting the fire brigade come out to lose my shit over that though. I’d do that later.

  I’d just got to the door to her flat, when I heard the sirens in the distance. Not listening to the dispatcher who was telling me not to go into the property, I shoved open the door and quickly had to pull back because there was so much smoke, and the heat was so intense. Something told me to have another look though, so I pulled my jumper over my nose and went back in.

  I was just about to back out again when I saw the body in the corner of the room and recognised the clothes that Wilhelmina had been wearing to work that day.

  “Oh, fucking hell! Wilhelmina!” I yelled over the noise of the fire. I’d never known fire could be loud, but it really was.

  When she didn’t even twitch, I crawled across the floor and grabbed hold of her foot, dragging her out with me. Just as I reached the door, a feminine arm appeared over my shoulder and helped me drag her the rest of the way.

  As we cleared the door, the sound of boots stomping up the stairs sounded followed by the appearance of a couple fire fighters.

  “About bloody time,” I gasped, trying to get clean air into my lungs and realising that it would be impossible when I was close to the fire itself.

  My legs gave out on me as I panted and slid down the wall. The last thing I saw was the pretty face of Wilhelmina’s neighbour who I’d met on a couple of occasions.