Henry wiped his hands on a cloth and looked at the table that was now gleaming in a coat of toffee brown varnish. It had been a brilliant day, working alongside his new colleagues, creating a table almost from scratch, and most importantly he hadn’t seen Clara all day. He hoped that she had got the message the night before and would leave him alone. The factory was closing on Friday for two weeks and this was his last day at work. If he could get through the next ten minutes of work without seeing her then he would be able to have a fresh start after Christmas and hopefully he wouldn’t have to deal with her again. He still had hopes of sharing his designs, but this time he would go straight to Edward or one of the designers.

He heard the click-clack of heels before he saw Clara and his heart sank. He just hoped that she would walk past him. The hope died quickly as the noise of her heels grew louder and closer and then stopped right behind him.

Clara cleared her throat annoyingly and he sighed and turned around.

‘I need a word with you in my office, there’s just some forms I need to go through with you.’ She turned to walk away, clearly expecting him to follow.

‘I thought I’d filled in all the forms,’ Henry said, not moving from his spot.

‘I need to go through some of the details with you,’ Clara snapped, clearly not in the mood to be messed around or fobbed off today.

She stormed off and Henry watched her go. He balled up the cloth, tossed it to one side and followed her. He caught Daniel’s eye as he walked past, who looked at him with confusion.

He climbed the stairs and walked through the office belonging to Audrey. She looked at him as if she had no idea why he would be going to see Clara but she didn’t stop him.

He walked into Clara’s office and deliberately left the door open.

He hadn’t really noticed the night before, presumably because the lights from the factory had been turned off, but one wall was filled with windows overlooking the factory floor, giving her prime viewing of where he had been working moments before. He didn’t like that she had been up here watching him.

‘Close the door,’ she said.

‘I’d rather leave it open if it’s all the same to you.’

She gave a small smug smile and got up from the desk, closing the door herself.

‘Do I scare you, Henry?’ Clara said as she sat back down.

‘Not particularly. But I’m just about to go home so if you can show me the issue with the forms then I can leave.’ He looked pointedly at her empty desk.

‘We need to fix a date for you to take me out for dinner.’

Wow. She wasn’t going to beat around the bush. Well, neither was he.

‘I’m not going to take you out for dinner, Clara. As I told you last night, I have a girlfriend and I don’t think she would take kindly to me dating other women.’

She drummed her long gold nails on the desk watching him carefully, the smug smile turning into something cruel.

‘I don’t care if you are happily married with twelve children. I’m the CEO of White Cliff Bay Furniture Company and trust me when I say I can make things very difficult for you if I so desire.’

His stomach twisted with anger. ‘What are you saying?’

‘Competition for your job was very fierce. You would be very easy to replace.’

Christ. He needed this job. He had moved Daisy across the country to take this job, dragged her away from his parents, her friends. There was no way he was betraying Penny, but even if he wasn’t with her, he would never be blackmailed into sleeping with his boss. The thought disgusted him. Clara was beautiful but he refused to be manipulated like that.

He could feel a rage burning in his gut. He had to walk away now before he said something he would regret.

He turned and stormed out of the office. Audrey stared at him with wide eyes.

‘Mr Travis, I’ve not finished with you yet,’ Clara yelled after him. This was clearly a woman who was very used to getting what she wanted. Not with him.

He turned round and stormed back in. When he spoke, he made sure it was loud enough for Audrey to hear. ‘Let me make this very clear, I am not going to take you out to dinner, I am never going to sleep with you, and if you try to blackmail me into doing so by threatening me with my job I will slap a sexual harassment suit on you so fast you won’t know what’s hit you. I will sue you and this company for every single penny that you have. Now I suggest you get on with your very important work and leave me to get on with the job I was hired to do.’

She went very pale and then stood up. ‘How dare you…’

He walked out and stormed down the stairs, not wanting to hear another word from her poisonous mouth. It was already past five o’clock and people were getting ready to leave, calling out goodbyes to each other as machines were turned off and work areas were tidied up. He grabbed his coat and stormed out.

He had humiliated her in front of her assistant and there was no way he was going to get away with that.

Crap.

He got into his car and slammed his fists against the steering wheel. Manipulative, evil fucking bitch.

He started his car and tore out of the car park.

He’d have to move back to his old town. He couldn’t afford the rent at Penny’s place on the money he got when he was self-employed.

No, he couldn’t move back to where he lived before. Everything was better here, the people, the area, the school. Daisy was happy and he couldn’t uproot her again. And there was his relationship with Penny to think about. He didn’t want to leave her. His throat felt raw at the thought of it.

He pulled up outside the house and rested his head against the steering wheel for a moment. What was he going to do?

He got out and walked round the back of the house, spotting Penny sitting at the kitchen table sketching out one of her designs. Without thinking he walked straight through her back door.

She looked up at him, smiling hugely but her smile quickly fell from her face as she clocked his bad mood. She stood up and he gathered her in his arms and held her tight. She immediately wrapped her arms round him, one hand cupping his head, cradling him against her.

She didn’t ask him why and he was grateful for that. He didn’t want to talk about it. Eventually he pulled away and gave her a brief, quick kiss, leaning his forehead against hers. He was going to fight this with everything he had, because leaving Penny was not something he could even begin to comprehend.

Chapter Sixteen

Henry walked round the outside of the house later, just as Penny came rushing out of her back door. He had calmed down a lot since he had seen Penny earlier; his resolve that Clara wasn’t going to win this had helped. Ice cream in town with his daughter had also helped, she never failed to cheer him up.

‘Hey, you going out for your hot date with Fabio?’ Henry said.

‘Ha, no. I’m going for dinner at my friend Maggie’s house.’

Henry frowned as he followed her round to her car. ‘As in Daniel’s wife?’

Penny nodded and he stopped her with his hand on her arm. ‘He invited me round for dinner too.’

Penny laughed. ‘They’re trying to set us up on a date.’

‘They know about our date the other night though, Maggie was the one that persuaded you to get your legs and everything else waxed.’

‘She didn’t know it was a proper date, she had just heard that we were going out when Jade told everyone in the pub. I told her we were just friends, I think she was just hopeful it would turn out well – she certainly doesn’t know how well it actually turned out for us. She’s obviously trying to push it even more. I can’t believe she invited us and deliberately didn’t tell us the other was coming.’