Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

Author:Jodi Taylor [Taylor, Jodi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0847JM5YP
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2020-10-14T18:30:00+00:00

21

The café was warm and steamy. Since this was Chelsea, and despite the name over the window, the establishment was only playing at being a greasy spoon. The inside was bright and cheerful with red gingham tablecloths and travel posters on the walls.

‘I’m going for coffee and a sausage sarnie, Jane. You?’

‘Coffee and a bacon roll, please.’

Luke typed their order into the table and then paused with his hand over the paypoint.

‘While I think of it, I got you one of these.’ He handed her a paycard.

‘Thank you.’ She turned it over. ‘What’s the limit?’

‘Sorry?’

‘How much can I spend?’

‘Sorry?’

Jane enunciated slowly but clearly. ‘What is the amount of money I can spend on this card?’

‘As much as you like. It’s unlimited.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘What?’

‘Well, what’s the point otherwise? Suppose you suddenly decided to buy your own helicopter?’

She sat back and stared in astonishment. ‘How likely am I to buy my own helicopter?’

‘I’ve known you six months and I can honestly say you’re the only person I’ve ever known who’s been arrested for murder or destroyed a seagull, so how should I know what you’ll do next? Seriously, Jane, you’ve got a bit of a rep, you know.’

‘Have I?’ she said, suddenly feeling quite proud of herself.

‘You do, yes. I think one or two people at rehab have got their eye on you. For what reasons, of course, I’ve no idea.’

She tucked the card away. ‘Bit of a risk, isn’t it, then? Giving this to me?’

He smiled at her. ‘No, Jane. No risk at all.’

‘Is that a compliment?’

‘No.’

Their food arrived and Luke got stuck in. Jane stared at her coffee, still stunned at the prospect of unlimited credit. ‘Tell me about Birgitte.’

He chewed and swallowed.

‘Birgitte was what they used to call an au pair. Don’t know what they call them now. This was a long time ago.’ He sighed. ‘I had a lot of nannies when I was little. They were all much the same. They lasted as long as it took Dad to get them into bed. The next day there would be Ms Steel on the doorstep – payoff in one hand, NDA in the other. It wasn’t actually a case of out through the back door as the new one came in through the front, but near enough.’

He sipped some coffee.

‘Right from the start, Birgitte was different. She was with me for over a year – easily the longest any of them ever lasted, so Dad must really have had to work for it.’

Luke was silent for a while, staring into space and then continued.

‘I liked her. She didn’t just lie around doing her nails or talking to her friends on the phone. I was at a local school then but we did things together at weekends. She was a design student. We went all over London looking at houses, gardens, parks and so on. We went to the zoo, the Natural History Museum – things like that. During the school holidays I used to wake up every morning wondering where we’d go that day and what I’d see when we got there.

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