Page 45 of Suddenly Mine

“We don’t have to make a big deal of it,” he said gently. “I just want to go with you, that’s all.”

She smiled again, softer this time. “Can I think about it?”

He nodded once, the corner of his mouth quirking. “Of course. But for the record, you’d be the best-dressed person there, even if you came in jeans and your Christmas jumper. And if you do, then I promise to come in my overalls to make you feel less conspicuous.”

“I literally don’t know what I’ve done to deserve someone like you in my corner,” she said, and it was true. “Thank you. Look, I’d better get changed. I’ve already been told off once today, and you never know where Mrs Cradley is going to appear next.”

“Don’t we know it?” said Christian in a hushed voice. “She’s like a ninja.”

“A dragon ninja,” said Merry, watching the door close behind Christian with a smile, wondering if his sprinkling of Christmas magic might just be rubbing off on her.

Chapter 20

CHRISTIAN

He grinned all the way to the janitorial office, and it was about the only thing keeping him awake. He had barely slept at all last night, and not just because he’d been thinking about what he’d have liked to carry on doing with Merry before they were rudely interrupted. No, he’d been so distressed at the sight of the store that he’d started cleaning. At first, he was only planning to do the entrance and the atrium, so that at least it looked presentable in the morning. But then he’d spread out into the wings, vacuuming the carpets and polishing the cabinets, filling rubbish bags with the odds and ends he found lying around. He’d straightened the clothes in all the departments and even fluffed the cushions in Homeware. He’d managed to grab a quick nap in the locker room at around 4 a.m., but he’d woken two hours later feeling worse than he had before he’d gone to sleep.

It was a ridiculous thing to do, he knew. It wasn’t his job to single-handedly clean the whole store, even if he was a janitor. But part of him still loved this place. He’d spent his whole childhood here, pretty much. It was more a home to him than the huge townhouse they’d owned in the Upper East Side. It had made him unfathomably sad to see it so trashed.

It had got him thinking, too, about why he had stayed here. His dad had asked him to solve the mystery of what was going wrong in the store, and while he wasn’t overly keen on doing anything for his father, he understood that he was doing it for the store itself. And hewouldfind out what was going wrong. He was getting close already.

Yawning again, he emptied his bucket, cleaned his mop, and refilled his bottles and sprays. He’d head back out in a moment and carry on his shift, but he wanted to report back to his dadfirst. Splashing some water on his face, he made his way through the staff corridors and past the busy clerks until he reached Lewis Carroll’s office. Knocking twice, he opened the door.

Margot was sitting in his father’s chair, dwarfed by his immense desk. She looked up from a pile of paperwork, swinging the chair from side to side. She looked way too comfortable there, and the smug look she threw at Christian made it very clear she knew what he was thinking. His dad was nowhere to be seen.

“Margot,” he said. “Where’s Dad?”

“Christian,” she spat back. “He’s at home. He wasn’t up to coming in today.”

The words hit him like a physical blow. He couldn’t remember a single time when his dad had been too ill to work. When he’d been a kid he’d prayed sometimes that his dad would get a cold or sprain his ankle, just so that he would stay home and spend time with him.

He walked into the office and closed the door behind him. “What are you doing in here?”

“My job,” she replied, looking him up and down. “Shouldn’t you be doing yours? I saw the security feed from last night. You’re pretty good with a mop. If you like, I can make your janitorial position permanent.”

Christian ignored the bait, walking to the other side of the desk. He would not let her intimidate him.

“I am good at my job,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here.”

“Yeah?” she said. “Like what?”

“Like the fact that people are leaving Carroll’s in droves,” he said. “The store is half empty, there aren’t enough staff.”

“We’ve lost the occasional employee,” said Margot. “But it’s nothing to worry about. The ones who are left will just have to work twice as hard. In the end, it costs us less.”

“It’s costing us business,” he said. “Customers are leaving.”

“It’s nothing to do with you,” she said. “I’m handling it.”

“Are you?” He put his hands on the desk. “Do you know that somebody is paying our staff to leave? Somebody is deliberately sabotaging the store.”

Margot smiled coldly. “That’s what you think?”

“I don’t just think it,” he said. “I know it. Somebody is giving cash payouts to anyone who leaves. Somebody wants this business to die.”

Margot leaned back, chewing her pen. “So it’s another store,” she said. “It has to be. Another company is trying to put us under before Christmas. They know that if we don’t survive the last quarter, then we’re going to be in trouble. Who told you this?”

“A source,” said Christian. “You don’t need to know.”