Christmas with her Boss (3 page)

Letty was always late. She'd threatened her with death if she was late tonight.

She couldn't even phone her to find out where she was. There was no mobile reception out here. And, as if in echo of her thoughts…

‘There's no reception.' Her boss was staring incredulously at his phone.

‘There's a land line at the farm.'

‘You've brought me somewhere with no cellphone reception?'

Hysterics were once again very close to the surface. Meg felt ill. ‘It's better than sleeping at the airport,' she snapped, feeling desperate.

‘How is it better?' He was looking where she was looking, obviously hoping for any small sign of civilisation. There
wasn't any. Just a vast starlit sky and nothing and nothing and nothing.

‘She'll come.'

‘Who'll come?'

‘My grandmother,' Meg said through gritted teeth. ‘If she knows what's good for her, she'll come right now.'

‘Your home is how far from the station?'

‘Eight miles.'

‘Eight!'

‘Maybe a bit more.'

‘It's a farm?'

‘Yes.'

‘So Tandaroit…'

She took a couple of deep breaths. Hysterics would help no one. ‘It's more of a district than a town,' she admitted. ‘There was a school here once, and tennis courts. Not now, though. They use the school for storing stock feed.'

‘And your farm's eight miles from this…hub,' he said, his voice carefully, dangerously neutral. ‘That's a little far to walk.'

‘We're not walking.'

‘I was thinking,' he said, ‘of how long it might take to walk back here when I decide to leave.'

That caught her. She stopped staring out into the night and stared at her boss instead. Thinking how this might look to him.

‘You mean if my family turn into axe-murderers?' she ventured.

‘I've seen
Deliverance
.'

Her lips twitched. ‘We're not that bad.'

‘You don't own a car?'

‘No.'

‘Yet I pay you a very good wage.'

‘We have Letty's station wagon and a tractor. What else do we need?'

‘You like sitting on rail heads waiting for grandmothers who may or may not appear?'

‘She'll appear.'

‘I believe,' he said, speaking slowly, as if she was ever so slightly dim, ‘that I might be changing my mind about travelling to a place that's eight miles from a train which comes…how often a day?'

‘Three or four times, but it only stops here once.'

‘Once,' he said faintly. ‘It stops once, eight miles away from a place that has no mobile phone reception, with a grandmother who even her granddaughter appears to be feeling homicidal about.'

Uh-oh. She ran her fingers through her hair and tried to regroup.

‘Not that it's not a very kind invitation,' he added and she choked. She was so close to the edge…

‘I thought it was kind,' she managed.

‘Kind?'

‘I could have left you in the office.'

‘Or not. It was you,' he reminded her, ‘who got me into this mess.'

‘You could have listened to the news on the radio this morning as well as me,' she snapped and then thought—had she really said that? What little hope she had of keeping her job had finally gone.

‘That's what I pay you for,' he snapped back.

Well, if she'd gone this far… ‘I left the office at eleven last night. I was at your hotel just after six. I don't get eight hours off?'

‘I pay you for twenty-four hours on call.'

‘I'm not fussed about what you pay me,' she snapped. The tension of the last few hours was suddenly erupting, and there
was no way she could keep a lid on her emotions. ‘I'm fussed about the ten minutes I spent washing my hair this morning when I should have been listening to the radio and hearing about the airline strike. I'm fussed about being stuck with my boss, who doesn't seem the least bit grateful that I'm doing the best I can. And now I'm stuck with someone who has the capacity to mess with my family Christmas if he doesn't stop making me feel guilty and if he spends the rest of Christmas playing Manhattan Millionaire stuck here, and it's All My Fault.'

She stopped. Out of breath. Out of emotion. Out of words. And it seemed he was the same.

Well, what could he say? Should he agree? He could hardly sack her here, right now, Meg thought. If he did…she and Letty really could be axe-murderers.

Or they could just leave him here, sitting on the Tandaroit station until the next train came through late tomorrow.

‘Don't do it,' he growled, and she remembered too late he had an uncanny ability to read her mind. He hesitated and then obviously decided he had no choice but to be a little bit conciliatory. ‘It's very…clean hair,' he ventured.

‘Thank you.' What else was there to say?

‘This…grandmother…'

‘Letty.'

‘She's backed up by other family members? With other cars?' He was obviously moving on from her outburst, deciding the wisest thing was to ignore it.

‘Just Letty.'

‘And…who else?'

‘Scotty. My kid brother.'

‘You said no children,' he said, alarmed.

‘Fifteen's not a child.'

‘Okay,' he conceded. ‘Who else?'

‘No one.'

‘Where are your parents?'

‘They died,' she said. ‘Four years ago. Car crash.'

He was quick. He had it sorted straight away. ‘Which is why you took the job with me?'

‘So I could get home more,' she said. ‘Ironic, isn't it?'

But he was no longer listening. Had he been listening, anyway? ‘Could this be Letty?' he demanded.

Oh, please… She stared into the darkness, and there it was, two pinpricks of light in the distance, growing bigger. Headlights.

‘
Deliverance
,' she muttered and her boss almost visibly flinched.

‘Just joking,' she said.

‘Don't joke.'

‘No jokes,' she agreed and took a deep breath and picked up her holdall. ‘Okay, here's Letty and, while you may not appreciate it, we really are safe. We've organised you a nice private bedroom with Internet. You can use our telephone if there are people you need to contact other than over the Web. You can stay in your room and work all Christmas but Letty is one of the world's best cooks and here really is better than camping in the office.'

‘I imagine it will be,' he said, but he didn't sound sure. ‘And I am grateful.'

‘I bet you are.'

‘It's lovely hair,' he said, surprisingly. ‘It would have been a shame to leave it dirty for Christmas.'

‘Thank you,' she managed again. Cheering up, despite herself.

Letty was coming. She could send W S McMaster to his allocated room and she could get on with Christmas.

 

Anger was counterproductive. Anger would get him no where.

Yes, his PA had messed up his Christmas plans but the
thing was done. And no, he should never have agreed to come with her to this middle-of-nowhere place. If he'd thought it through, maybe he could have rung a realtor and even bought a small house. Anything rather than being stuck at the beck and call of one wiry little woman called Letty who seemed to own the only set of wheels in the entire district.

They hadn't passed another car. The car they were in sounded sick enough to be worrying. There was something wrong with its silencer—as if it didn't have one. The engine was periodically missing. The gearbox seemed seriously shot. They were jolting along an unsealed road. He was wedged in the back seat with both his and Meg's gear and Letty was talking at the top of her lungs.

‘I'm late because Dave Barring popped over to check on Millicent. Millicent's a heifer I'm worried is going to calve over Christmas.' Letty was yelling at him over her shoulder. ‘Dave's our local vet and he's off for Christmas so I wanted a bit of reassurance. He reckons she should be right,' she told Meg. ‘Then I had to pick up three bags of fertiliser from Robertson's. Robby said if I didn't take it tonight the place'd be locked up till after New Year. So I'm sorry it's a bit squashed in the back.'

‘I'm fine,' he said. He wasn't.

Anger was counterproductive. If he said it often enough he might believe it.

‘We can swap if you want,' Meg said.

‘You won't fit in the back,' Letty said. ‘Not with Killer.'

Letty was right. The combination of Meg and Killer would never fit in the back seat with the baggage.

Killer looked like a cross between a Labrador and an Old English sheepdog. He was huge and hairy and black as the night around them. He'd met Meg with such exuberance that once more William had had to steady her, stopping her from being pushed right over.

While Killer had greeted Meg, Letty had greeted him with a handshake that was stronger than a man's twice her size. Then she'd greeted her granddaughter with a hug that made Meg wince, and then she'd moved into organisational mode.

‘You in the back. Meg, in the front with Killer. I told Scotty I'd be back by nine-thirty so we need to move.'

They were moving. They were flying over the corrugated road with a speed that made him feel as if he was about to lose teeth.

‘So what do we call you?' Letty said over her shoulder.

‘I told you; he's Mr McMaster,' Meg said, sounding muffled, as well she might under so much dog.

‘Mac?' Letty demanded.

‘He's my boss,' Letty said, sounding desperate. ‘He's not Mac.'

‘He's our guest for Christmas. What do we call you?' she demanded again. ‘How about Mac?'

Do not let the servants become familiar.

Master William.

Mr McMaster.

Sir.

Once upon a time a woman called Hannah had called him William. To her appalling cost…

‘How about Bill?' Letty demanded. ‘That's short for William. Or Billy.'

‘Billy?' Meg said, sounding revolted. ‘Grandma, can we…'

‘William,' he said flatly, hating it.

‘Willie?' Letty said, hopeful.

‘William.'

Letty sighed. ‘Will's better. Though it is a bit short.'

‘Like Meg,' Meg said.

‘You know I like Meggie.'

‘And you know I don't answer to it. We don't have to call you anything you don't like,' Meg said over her shoulder. ‘I'm happy to keep calling you Mr McMaster.'

‘You are not,' Letty retorted. ‘Not over Christmas. And why are you calling him Mr McMaster, anyway? How long have you worked for him? Three years?'

‘He calls me Miss Jardine.'

‘Then the pair of you need to come off your high horses,' Letty retorted. ‘Meg and William it is, and if I hear any sign of Ms or Mr then it's Meggie and Willie for the rest of Christmas. Right?'

‘Okay with me,' Meg said, resigned.

‘Fine,' William said.

Define
fine
.

 

He was expecting hillbilly country. What he got was
Fantasia
. They sped over a crest and there it was, spread out before them, a house straight out of a fairy tale.

Or not. As he got closer…

Not a fairy tale. A Christmas tableau.

The farmhouse, set well back from the road among scattered gums, was lit up like a series of flashing neon signs. It was so bright it should almost be visible from the next state.

‘Oh, my…' Meg breathed before William could even get his breath back. ‘Grandma, what have you done?'

‘We both did it,' Letty said proudly. ‘Me and Scotty. You like our sleigh?'

The house had two chimneys, with what looked like an attic between them. The sleigh took up the entire distance between chimneys. There was a Santa protruding from the chimney on the left. Or, rather, part of Santa. His lower half. His legs were waving backwards and forwards, as if Santa had become stuck in descent. The movement wasn't smooth,
so he moved gracefully from left to right, then jerked back with a movement sharp enough to dislodge vertebrae.

The house was Christmas City. There were lights from one end to the other, a myriad of fairy lights that made the house look like something out of a cartoon movie.

‘It took us days,' Letty said, pleased with the awed hush. ‘When you rang and said there was a chance you couldn't get home tonight Scotty and I were ready to shoot ourselves. We've worked our tails off getting this right.'

‘I can see that you have,' Meg said, sounding as stunned as he was. ‘Grandma…'

‘And, before you say a word, we got it all over the Internet,' Letty informed her. ‘Scotty found it. It was a package deal advertised in July by some lady cleaning out her garage. She'd just bought the house and found it, and she practically paid us to take it away. Some people,' she said, slowing the car so they could admire the house in all its glory, ‘have no appreciation of art.'

‘But running it,' Meg said helplessly. ‘It'll cost…'

‘It's practically all solar,' Letty cut in. ‘Except Santa. Well, there's not a lot of solar Santa Claus's backsides out there. We haven't quite got the legs right, but I'll adjust them before Christmas. Still… What do you think?'

There was suddenly a touch of anxiety in her voice. William got it, and he thought maybe this lady wasn't as tough as she sounded. She surely wanted to please this girl, Meg, sitting somewhere under her dog.

‘You climb up on that roof again and I'll give all of your Christmas presents to the dogs. But I love it,' Meg said as the car came to a halt.

‘Really?'

‘I really love it.' Meg giggled. ‘It's kitsch and funny and those legs are just plain adorable.'

‘What do you think?' Letty said, and she swivelled and looked straight at him. ‘Will?'

‘William. Um…'