‘Hmm. I get the impression there’s a more than a whiff of disapproval coming from his daughter’s camp.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘It was more that I gained a sense of something.’ Stella gnawed on her bottom lip.
Nothing had been overtly said, but the loaded looks that had been exchanged between her mum and Rhys whenever Suzie’s name had cropped up had been hard to ignore. Thinking about it now, it rankled that someone out there should be viewing her lovely, kind-hearted mum in a disapproving way. She wondered if she’d been introduced to Rhys’s children yet; something told her she hadn’t and she made a mental note to put this Suzie straight if things progressed between their parents. There was no way Stella would tolerate anyone being unkind to her mum; any negativity needed nipping in the bud and sharpish. She’d rather got the impression that this Suzie had been more than a little indulged if the warmth in her father’s voice whenever he mentioned her was anything to go by, as well as the number of times he’d brought her up. ‘Suzie thinks this, Suzie wants that, Suzie’s getting the other. Suzie, Suzie, Suzie.’ Granted, the expression Rhys had worn when he spoke of his son Josh had been warm, but it hadn’t matched the one he wore when speaking of Suzie; that had definitely been cranked-up a notch or two. The term “daddy’s little princess” sprang to mind, quickly followed by what felt annoyingly like a stab of jealousy. Ignoring it, Stella told herself that it was just down to feeling irritated; she had no time for women like that.
‘Sounds like this Suzie’s feeling pretty much the same as you, just she’s been a little more vocal about her concerns,’ Florrie said, when Stella had finished.
‘I suppose so, but I was friendly and polite to Rhys. Plus, I haven’t given my mum a hard time about him.’
‘Yes, but if you think about it, Stells, their situation is a little different. I mean, your mum isn’treplacinganyone – for want of a better word. I should imagine it can’t be easy for Suzie and her brother to think about someone potentially…’ Florrie paused, as if considering a suitably sensitive way to express herself. ‘I don’t mean filling their mum’s shoes, but maybe filling a gap in the family dynamic as well as in her father’s heart. It might feel all a little bit too soon after losing their mum.’
Sympathy flooded Stella’s chest. She hadn’t thought of it like that. ‘Oh blimey, that’s a really good point. A year’s not a long time at all, though I should imagine it’s felt a whole lot longer for Suzie and Josh.’
‘Yeah, poor things, must be hard.’
‘It must. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.’ Stella couldn’t even begin to imagine what they were going through. The prospect of being without her mum didn’t bear thinking about. In fact, now she thought about it, growing up with her mum as her only relative, Stella had got to the age of thirty-three without experiencing the loss of anyone close, not even her grandparents, having never met them. She didn’t even know if they were still alive. A shiver ran up her spine, sending a rash of goosebumps pinging up over her skin.Time to move the conversation along.Stella didn’t want to consider a time when her mum wouldn’t be around anymore. It had been her biggest fear growing up; if anything happened to her mum, she’d be on her own. It was a scary prospect for a young child.
‘You okay?’ Florrie’s voice drew her back to the present.
‘I’m fine, there’s just a lot to think about, but most of all, I wish I knew what had changed Mum’s outlook on relationships. Her going all lovey-dovey with Rhys is the polar opposite of what she’s espoused about getting involved in a relationship for as far back as I can remember. I’m just not used to seeing her like this.’
‘I totally get that, and I can’t argue, it is quite hard to imagine but people change. Maybe she’s never felt this way about anyone before. Maybe it was an instant, intense attraction. You know, like a love at first sight scenario? We know it happens, Mags and Bear are a perfect example.’
Love at first sight?That her mum could have been struck by such a concept was something else that hadn’t crossed Stella’s mind.
‘True, they are.’ Even a cynic like Stella couldn’t deny that it had been the case in that relationship. Infuriatingly, an image of Alex Bainbridge sprang from nowhere and into her mind yet again, those deep-blue eyes twinkling at her, making her heart flutter and her face grow warm.What the heck is he doing here?Huffing noisily, she forced his image out of her thoughts. ‘Clear off!’ she muttered angrily.
‘Oh… um…I didn’t mean to upset you by saying that, Stells,’ Florrie said, sounding concerned.
‘Oh, no, flower, I didn’t mean you! I was talking to myself. I’m just annoyed at the suspicion that keeps creeping into my mind, I wish it would stop.’ She shook her head, rolling her eyes at herself. ‘It’ll be because of my job, I’ve developed a habit of assuming the worst of people, or treating them warily until I get to know them.’
‘I’m not surprised, it’s cos you actually do see the worst that people can do. I’d be the same.’
Glad to have smoothed that over, Stella sat up straight, swinging her legs round and placing her feet back onto the floor. ‘Anyway, that’s enough of me wittering on, are you and Ed stillon for the auction night at The Cellar on Wednesday?’ Time to move on to a more positive topic, she didn’t want to put the dampeners on Florrie’s peaceful afternoon.
‘Ooh, too right we are. How about you?’
‘Can’t wait, should be a laugh.’
Bill and Pim, the proprietors of The Cellar, were hosting a charity auction for a local family whose daughter was suffering from a rare illness and they were doing all they could to raise enough funds to send her to the States where she could receive some pioneering treatment that was only available there. Stella made a mental note to pick up a voucher for a meal for two at Oscar’s, the town’s local bistro, as her way of donating an item to be auctioned.
‘It should, Bill and Pim always put on a good do. I think Jazz has managed to get a babysitter so we should all be there.’
‘Fab!’
The friends ended the conversation and Stella glanced across at her desk, her heart sinking as she was reminded of the Dixon family and her dodgy opponent, Vaughan Elliott. Monday morning couldn’t look less appealing if it tried. As a rule, Stella usually tackled her work with vigour and laser-like concentration, but after the week she’d had, it was beginning to feel as if her enthusiasm was slowly draining away. And, much as she was loath to admit it, the look in Gavin Dixon’s eyes as he’d glared at her from the public gallery, and the subsequent words he’d hurled at her as she’d left the court for the robing room, had been bothering her, slowly creeping under her skin and triggering a little voice of anxiety clamouring for her attention. It wasn’t like her to be affected like this at all; she had a reputation for having an impenetrable shell, letting nothing get to her, moving on without a second thought. When her work was finished for the day, she very neatly packed it away in a mental box and forgot about it until the following morning.But there was something sinister about the Dixon family and if rumours were to be believed, their unscrupulous ways had stooped to worrying depths, with talk of them being involved in a particularly notorious gang from out of the area.
‘Ughh!’ Stella flopped back into the sofa. ‘As if I need anything else to think about!’ She found herself beginning to regret not taking a holiday this summer. Instead, she’d got stuck into a run of back-to-back heavy trials which, as a rule, she’d thrive on, the pressure giving her a buzz. But now the thought of a break from the intensity felt suddenly rather appealing. She’d turned down the offer of a week at a villa in Sorrento with some of her single female friends at the bar, which was something a handful of them did each year, letting their hair down, savouring an escape from the stresses that came with their line of work. Having plunged a huge chunk of her savings into the purchase of her new apartment, Stella felt she couldn’t justify blowing money on an expensive holiday in the sun – the villas the group chose were always exclusive and cost a fortune, the argument being that they’d worked for it so they deserved a little bit of luxury. She told herself it would probably be wise to forgo a summer break for this year, especially since she still needed some extra furniture for her new apartment, it being considerably bigger than her old one.
‘Right,’ she said out loud, pushing herself up from the sofa, ‘time to stop dwelling on things. You need to get cracking. The sooner it’s done, the sooner you can treat yourself to a soak in the bath with those amazing bath salts.’ At her trip to the beautician’s yesterday, she’d bought a jar of bath salts that promised to “set you adrift on a cloud of blissful relaxation”. Stella hoped they wouldn’t disappoint.
ELEVEN
Monday morning in court hadn’t turned out to be quite as Stella had expected. Four of the jurors in the Dixon trial had phoned in sick, which had immediately alerted her suspicions, especially since there’d been no talk of stomach bugs or viruses doing the rounds. Judge Hoskinson, who was infamously grouchy at the best of times, appeared most displeased by this turn of events; he’d been keen to crack on with proceedings, get the Dixon trial finished and make a start on the next one in his list.
If pushed, a trial could run with a quorum of ten of the twelve members that made up a jury, but eight was unthinkable. It didn’t help His Honour’s ill humour when it was revealed that there were no courts available to accommodate the swearing-in of a completely new jury, allowing the trial to start afresh. Judge Hoskinson was left with no option but to discharge the remaining jurors and adjourn the trial to a date in the future, grumbling about the “abhorrent” waste of public money as he stormed off the bench.
