Page 49 of The Mission

“My five have always treated everything as a competitive sport. Poor Arlo, being the youngest, was never able to beat them. Now he sometimes can. He’s faster than Rurik on skis.”

“Mum!”

Conrad frowned, thentsked. “Youlet me win?”

Arlo didn’t answer.

“Arlo!” Conrad said more insistently.

“I might have.”

“Don’t ever do that again.” Conrad paused. “Well, not unless I’m sobbing because I’m desperate to win and you can do it without me finding out. Ever.”

His mum sighed. “Don’t take any silly risks, either of you. Bad enough having five daredevils let alone six.”

“I don’t take risks,” Conrad said. “I’m a sure thing sort of person.” He smiled at Arlo.

His mum began to clear away the lunch and Conrad got up to help her.

“I’m looking forward to a quiet afternoon on my own with a book and a drink,” she said. “I bought a bottle of cream sherry for this specific moment. You two go and join them at the toboggan course.”

Darn it!Arlo had other ideas, but if they didn’t have the place to themselves, then there would be no recklessly hurling themselves onto the bed.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can help with?” Conrad asked.

“Absolutely not. Everything that needs to be prepped, has been prepped. Go and have fun.”

By the time they met up with everyone at the toboggan station, Arlo was satisfied that Conrad was okay. When Conrad won the first race, after recklessly hurling himself down the slope, he knew Conrad was more than okay. Arlo still watched him, just in case, but Conrad didn’t fall off once. By accident anyway. He did when he was racing the children. He was lovely with Arlo’s nephews and nieces, gentle and kind, and even Rurik came over to tell Arlo how impressed he was with him.

“I know I said we’re not talking about Dickhead, but Conrad did well this morning when he confronted him. He stood up to him and I know Warner’s not an easy guy to stand up to, especially not in front of his friends.”

“You didn’t mind that some of your firm’s clients were there?”

“No. I’ve spoken privately to all of them and explained the situation. Warner no longer works for the firm and that’s that. I think Conrad will feel stronger by having spoken out this morning. Though there may be repercussions. Depends on whether Warner tries for unfair dismissal, but I think he’s more likely to try and take clients with him when he moves elsewhere. That’s not likely to happen now.”

“Assuming he can get another job.”

“There’s always going to be jobs for people like him. The bad news is I can’t give him the reference he really deserves, not that I think he’d ask me. The good news is that if he does try to find another job with any big firms in the finance industry, he’ll probably find it harder than he thinks. With a bit of luck, we’ll never see or hear of him again.”

“Good.”

“I like Conrad. I liked him at work but I didn’t really know him other than being aware he was a quiet guy, but a hard worker and very smart. Now I really like him. Don’t fuck it up, Arlo. I don’t want him to leave.”

Arlo glared. Rurik ducked as his wife threw a snowball and it hit Arlo.

“Sorry, Arlo,” Lorna called.

“You will be,” Arlo called back.

The tobogganing was turning into a snowball fight. Conrad was building up a huge pile of snowballs for the kids to throw.

“When did you know that Lorna was the one for you?” Arlo asked as he threw a snowball at Benedikt. “Damn, missed.”

“Our first day at uni. Mum and Dad had just driven away from the halls of residence and there was a knock on my door. She asked me for a hammer. I didn’t have one and she was clearly disgusted. I went and bought one, left it by her door with a bow around it and a note asking her if she wanted to go for a drink and that was that.”

“You knew then that you wanted to marry her?”

“I wasn’t thinking of marriage, but I suspected I was never going to look at anyone else the way I looked at her. I saw that in her eyes too. Conrad is a nice guy but don’t rush him.”

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