Rough Justice by Gilda O'Neill

Author:Gilda O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Family Saga, Chick-Lit, Contemporary, Fiction, Literary, Sagas, Historical, Women's Fiction, Love Stories
ISBN: 9780099492290
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2007-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Nell was standing at the bottom of the stone stairs that led up to the Flanagans’ flat in Turnbury Buildings – she had long since stopped thinking of the flat as being hers – with her head drooping, the bag of biscuits in one hand, and her handbag hanging by her side from the other. She was trying to summon the energy to make it up to the top floor.

She wasn’t doing very well.

‘Nell?’ Martin pulled up just short of crashing into her as he sprinted down the stairs, racing to get away from his father, his mother’s questioning, and to hide in the sanctuary and neat order of the brewery office as soon as humanly possible. He stared openly at her cut and lividly bruised face. ‘Anything I can do to help?’

She turned away, putting up her hand to hide her wounds. ‘No, thanks, I’m fine. Fine.’

‘At least let me carry your shopping upstairs for you.’

‘It’s nothing, only a few biscuits. No weight at all.’ Nell twisted away from him, not wanting him to touch her. But she shouldn’t have moved so quickly; the jolt to her ribs left her whimpering in pain.

‘This is silly.’ Martin took the bag and hooked his arm around her waist. ‘There’s no point saying no, because I won’t listen to you. I am going to help you. No argument.’

It was a slow journey climbing the stairs and Nell fretted every step of the way – and not only because of the pain. What if someone saw them together and said something to Stephen or to the twins? She liked Martin so much, she’d have hated to see him being hurt.

She needn’t have worried, the only one who did see them was a toddler playing on the second-floor landing, and he was far more interested in the tower he was building with his wooden blocks than in what the neighbours were up to. But Nell’s hands still shook as she dug around in her handbag, searching for her key.

Please, please let me find it before Ada Tanner comes out onto the landing.

She was in luck again, and she found the key almost right away, but what happened next wasn’t so fortunate. Instead of just handing over the biscuits and leaving her at the door with a polite goodbye, Martin actually followed her into the flat.

‘I meant it Nell, I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m going to help you, and if George, that so-called man, is still in here I’m going to make sure he’s got somebody his own size to pick on. He can’t keep getting away with this.’

Martin was endeavouring to get past her, craning his neck to see along the passageway further into the flat. ‘I could handle him when I was a kid, so I’m sure as hell I’ll be able to handle him now. I just don’t understand how Stephen lets him get away with it.’

‘George isn’t here, and it wasn’t him anyway,’ she said, tears running down her cheeks.

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