Threads of Silk by Grieve Roberta

Author:Grieve, Roberta [Grieve, Roberta]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780719810923
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2013-06-29T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ellie didn’t get the chance to talk to Alex before he dashed off on one of his frequent trips to Manchester, saying that Michael would sort out any problems. But she was sure now that Michael was the problem.

This time Alex was gone for six weeks and Ellie didn’t know what to do. Whenever Michael came into the office she bit her lip and clenched her fist. She was sure that if she was measured on the thread-testing machine she’d find she’d reached her own breaking strain. She laughed at herself, dismissing the fanciful thoughts. All the same, she willed her boss to return soon. He’d have to listen now.

She’d had her suspicions before, and they’d been confirmed when a customer phoned asking why his order was late. Michael told her there’d been a delay in the delivery of the thrown silk from their new supplier in Manchester.

But Ellie was sure they’d received it. She remembered the invoice arriving and Alex signing the cheque in payment just before he went away. Surely she hadn’t made a mistake and paid for goods not received. And hadn’t Jackie told her how quickly they’d managed to get the order out? Or was that for another customer?

She smiled at Michael, appearing to accept his explanation. But when he left the office, she went through the invoices carefully, then phoned the supplier to check the delivery date.

On the bus going home that evening she asked Jackie how soon the bolts of silk would be ready for packing. Somehow she wasn’t surprised when her friend told her they’d gone off the previous week. But what had happened to them if the customer hadn’t received them?

Puzzling over it in bed that night she remembered the strange van that had been parked near the loading bay a few days previously. Michael and someone she’d never seen before had disappeared in the direction of one of the disused buildings down near the stream. When she asked Michael who it was he’d told her it was an old friend who’d dropped in to see him. She didn’t believe him but his bold stare deterred her from asking more questions.

Now, she was sure that Michael was working some sort of fiddle – maybe selling their fabric privately and pocketing the money himself. She couldn’t think of any other explanation. Remembering the muddle the books had been in when she first came and how an apparently thriving firm seemed to be losing money, Ellie was sure it had been going on for some time. How could Michael cheat his own father, especially when he must have known it would mean the loss of the family business? Maybe he just didn’t care, Ellie thought indignantly. Well, he wasn’t going to get away with it. She must find a way of stopping him.

It wouldn’t be easy now that he was in and out of the office so much. For a while, he’d left her alone and she’d thought that at last he had got the message that she wasn’t interested in him.

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