Page 5 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

ChapterTwo

A few streetsaway from the Ram & Bugle, murderous thoughts were filling George Halcyon’s mind. He steadied himself against the door frame to his fully glazed executive office and narrowed his eyes at the elderly owners of WIV magazine tottering out of the general office.

‘Are you all right, George?’

‘Yeah, I think so.’ He mustered a smile for Kate, even though she already knew how dire things were. ‘Touch and go, though. They only agreed to three months’ extra funding.

‘Misers!’ she hissed. ‘That only gives us to Christmas.’

‘Yeah, and they’ll be on my back all the way. You wait and see. They’ve already said they want another meeting next month. I tell you, Kate, I’ll need a sodding miracle to save the magazine now. Only trouble is, I’ve no idea where to find one.’

He stared at the double doors left flapping by the brothers. Justin and Quentin Blanchard had screwed him. Three years ago, he’d taken this job against his wife’s advice. But it had seemed such an opportunity. Even if World in View wasn’t an upmarket glossy coffee table mag, he’d thought it had potential. There was room for improvement. Or so he’d thought. Now he wondered if he had been kidding himself. How could he confess to Millie, she’d been right all along? He shouldn’t have accepted the brothers’ offer. It had been a trap. They’d just wanted a fall guy, and he was it and he was desperate. So desperate that if he thought getting the brothers killed would help, he might have contacted some of his dad’s old crew, but it wasn’t a solution. Besides, he’d promised Millie long ago he was nothing like his father and would never do anything criminal. Depression threatened to overwhelm him. He needed to eat something warm and comforting.

* * *

Outside,it was still raining. ‘Bloody climate change,’ he growled. London-born, George remembered Octobers when they were crisply cold. Ice blue skies, frosty mornings. Leaves on trees turning golden and, if you were lucky, around the eighteenth of the month, there would be a late heatwave in St. Luke’s Little Summer. Now October was full of storms and rain. Days and days of sodding rain.

Scowling at the weather, he pulled his coat collar up and turned towards the pub. It was Friday, steak pie on the menu at the Ram & Bugle. Spirits lifting at the prospect of flavoursome, good pub grub, George hurried on, imagining eating in a quiet corner of the Ram unnoticed by anyone, work worries temporarily put aside, savouring every delicious morsel, while anticipating the weekend ahead. A special weekend because it was his and Millie’s wedding anniversary.

He’d take Millie shopping in the morning. Buy her something expensive. His credit card would have to take a hit yet again, but she was worth it. He’d already checked on the internet and discovered silk was the traditional gift for the twelfth wedding anniversary. So maybe he’d buy her a new dress. Or, if she would allow him, he’d get her some sexy lingerie … classy of course. Desire flared at the thought of Millie in lace-trimmed black silk. He loved her so much, just as much as when they first met, just as much as he had during that trauma filled Christmas with Owen when he’d finally worked up the courage to ask Millie to marry him, and she’d said yes.

Smiling at the memory of kneeling in the snow in front of Millie, George pushed the pub door open.

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