Heller (43 page)

BOOK: Heller

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A week later I
received a parcel in the mail from the States. Surprised, I opened
it eagerly, having no idea what it could be. I was almost moved to
tears when I pulled out the beautiful tablecloth with the gorgeous
floral border that Mary had been working on during her visit to the
city – the one I had admired so fulsomely. There was a little note
inside.

Dearest Tilly

A little ‘thank you’
gift from the Peachey wives for all your friendship and help during
our visit. We are still very sorry about what our husband tried to
do to you, and have made our displeasure known to him in no small
measure. He has been without our wifely attentions for many nights
now. He is quite humble about his terrible sinfulness and has
become a more respectful and obliging man as a result.

You will be pleased to
hear that we have told him we will no longer wear a conjugal
nightgown and he has accepted our wish and has not sought to
replace the one that you tore up. He has also accepted that we will
not welcome any more wives into our family. We are slowly making
some other changes that I’m sure will benefit us all.

Once again, thank you
so much. We are all so much happier.

Love Martha, Mary,
Elizabeth, Rebecca, Hannah and Sarah xxxx

PS (from Mary).
We all love our special dresses that I have made for us. They are
beautiful. Thank you again for your unnecessary generosity. I was
going to make one for you as well, knowing how much you admired
mine, but I then remembered your high esteem for my tablecloth and
thought you might prefer that.

PPS.
Please
give all our kind regards to Mr Heller. We often speak of how we
only wish we had been given a few moments more to properly make his
acquaintance.

I went into
Heller’s office and showed him the special gift, letting him read
the wives’ note.

“Shame about
the dress,” he smiled, and took my hands in his. He admitted, “You
made the right choice about who to ring, Matilda. And you did set
them free in a small way. You truly are a remarkable woman.”

He squeezed my
hands before returning the note and tablecloth to me. But I didn’t
leave his office, instead I remained standing in front of him,
grinning mischievously.

“What have you
been up to, my sweet?” he asked, with curious trepidation.

“Remember when
I disappeared about a week ago and wouldn’t answer your questions
about where I was?” He nodded, annoyance compressing his eyebrows
together at the memory. “I took what we said the other day about my
commitment to you and your business very seriously, Heller, and I
hope you did too. I wanted to prove my loyalty to you, so I had
this done.”

I lifted up my
left foot and plonked it in his lap, pulling my jeans leg up to
show him my new tattoo that had now healed. It was a small replica
of the
H
logo on my left inner ankle.

“The thistle
on my right ankle represents one of my families and this
Heller’s
logo represents the other,” I explained.

He was
stunned, bereft of words. “That’s so touching, Matilda. I don’t
know what to say.” He bent down and gently kissed my ankle and then
pulled me down into his lap, hugging me tightly.

“Did you mean
it when you said that you would look after me and protect me, no
matter what?” I asked him.

“Yes, I did.
Forever,” he answered seriously. We smiled at each other and I
leant towards him until our lips touched lightly. Daniel walked in
right at that moment and pulled a face.

“Gross!” he
exclaimed. “No canoodling in the office please! Some of us are
trying to work. Not to mention keep our lunch down.”

I poked my
tongue out at him. “I was just showing Heller my new tattoo,” I
explained, and waved my ankle around for him to see.

“Ooh, I want
one of those too!” was his first reaction, and so I ended up back
in the tattoo parlour that afternoon with Niq, watching while
Daniel got his first tattoo, the
H
, inked on his
right arm. Of course Niq wanted one as well, but Heller wouldn’t
let him until he was older. Sid and Clive both had tattoo envy when
they saw Daniel’s and mine, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before
they succumbed as well.

The
H
tattoo craze took off around the office, first among
the security men, then the surveillance men, becoming a must-have
mark of allegiance for every Heller loyalist. It became tribal, a
sign of belonging, being part of the
Heller’s
family. The
security section even established strict rules around it, new
recruits only being allowed to get one after serving faithfully for
a year. A few months after I had my tattoo done, the grateful
tattoo artist sent me a personal letter of thanks and the offer of
a free tattoo anytime for bringing in so many patrons.

Heller himself
regarded the craze with bemusement, possibly ending up as the only
person working in his business without the
H
logo tattoo.

“I knew my men
were loyal, but I never realised exactly how much before. It’s very
humbling,” he admitted to me one night when we were lazing alone
together in the hot tub.

“You inspire
loyalty and respect in your staff. They think highly of you,
because you’re fair and honest with them. That can be rare in a
boss, you know.”

“And what
about you, my sweet? Do I inspire you in any way?”

“Yes, you
inspire me to stay very, very fit.”

He frowned
slightly. “Why?”

“So when I’ve
done something you won’t approve of, I can run away very
quickly.”

He smiled.
“Are you planning on doing something I won’t approve of?”

“I already
have,” I confessed, and for once the enigmatic smile belonged to
me. I leaned back in the hot tub, enjoying its pulsating warmth,
remembering my afternoon phone call to Will. I closed my eyes,
thinking with happy anticipation about my date with him the
following night. He was taking me out to dinner and a movie and
then . . . who knows?

I’d get around
to telling Heller about it.

Eventually.

~~~~~~ ######
~~~~~~

About the author:

JD Nixon lives in
Queensland, Australia writing and editing for a living during the
day, but by night lets a wild imagination run free.

Discover other
titles by
JD Nixon
at
Smashwords.com
:

Heller series

Heller
(free ebook!)

Heller’s
Revenge

Heller’s
Girlfriend

Heller’s
Punishment

Heller’s Decision (due
2012)