‘Best I get going’ Nathan says, taking their mugs to the sink in Jessie’s neat kitchen.

‘Just drop them in the bowl.’ Jessie instructs. ‘I’ll sort them out in a minute.’

Nathan smiles the smile of someone who was going to do that anyway and does as he is told. ‘I told Ingrid I’d only be an hour tops. Surprised she hasn’t rung to see where I’ve got to.’

‘She knew where you were going though, didn’t she?’ Jessie sweeps biscuit crumbs from the pine topped table into her hand and with a brief wriggle of her fingers brushes them onto her plate.

Nathan nods. ‘Uh huh.’

‘Well then, she wouldn’t have wanted one of them flipping mobile thingies making a row in the churchyard would she?’ Jessie looks up, the sun glinting on her glasses as it pours through the window above the sink.

‘True but you know Ingrid’ He grins as he empties his ashtray into the waste bin and rinses it under the tap.

‘Indeed I do’ Jessie chuckles ‘You watch yourself!’

Nathan raises his eyebrows and laughs. ‘Me and Ingrid?’ he splutters. ‘Do us a favour!’ He turns the glass ashtray upside down on the stainless steel drainer, momentarily throwing rainbows onto a surface already dappled by the sunlight filtering through the café style net curtain.

‘Nooo, that’s not what I meant and you know it. You’re the son she never had but would like to have. Mmm..’ she nods sagely. ‘Four daughters she’s got to get married off and two of them ripe for the picking…. well, three I suppose…. but daresay third one’s a bit too young, even for you.’ Her mouth twitches.

‘Even for me? Cheeky moo!’ He grins and lifts a hand to wipe the corners of his mouth with finger and thumb.

Jessie narrows her eyes and purses her lips as she points a finger at him. ‘Ah, but we all heard about that whatshername. You were lucky her old man didn’t do for you.’ She clicks her tongue.

For a few moments Nathan stands in silence, leaning against the sink unit, his eyes downcast. ‘I never touched her’ he says quietly. ‘There was a…. misunderstanding’ he finishes as he straightens.

‘Misunderstanding, my eye!’ Jessie chuckles.

‘Yeah, ok’ Nathan says resignedly, raising his hands in submission. ‘Wrong word but you know what I mean.’

‘Hmmm. No smoke without fire, you know.’ she teases but the sparkle in her eyes fades at the look on Nathan’s face.

‘Is that what you think?’ he asks irritably. ‘Is that what you all think? That what the idea of getting me here was, just so you could get the story straight from the horse’s mouth?

Jessie laughs ‘Nath-an! Come on, I was only pulling your leg and you offered me a lift home, not the other way round. Don’t be so touchy.’

‘Think I’ve got a right to be flaming touchy if the gossip’s got this far.’ he says ruefully.

‘Look, none of us know what really went on, only that…’

‘Her Dad found us together and we were both starkers. Is that what you’ve heard?’

‘That’s about the size of it.’ Jessie nods. ‘As the bishop said to the actress.’

Despite himself, Nathan smiles briefly. ‘And that was all.’

‘Oh, come on! There’s more to it than that. I heard…well, never mind what I heard. If you say that you didn’t touch her, then you didn’t touch her but heck, Nathan, that’s not what other people are saying.’

‘I know.’ He closes his eyes and inhales deeply, slowly letting the breath out between his teeth. ‘You want to know the truth of it?’

‘I do, I really do.’ Jessie rests her chin on her hands and looks up at him.

Nathan hesitates, chewing at the side of his thumbnail.

‘Come on then.’ Jessie says and drums her fingers against her cheek. ‘The suspense is killing me.’

He looks at his watch. ‘Ingrid’s going to kill me.’

‘Blow her! You’re the boss. I’ll kill you in a minute. Get on with it.’

With a sigh, he pulls out his chair from under the table and sits down again. ‘I suppose this will be all round the village, will it?’

‘Not if you don’t want it to.’ Jessie says indignantly. ‘I can be trusted, you know.’

‘Yeah, I know… but perhaps it might be for the best anyway’ he sighs ‘I’m fed up of people looking at me sideways.They probably think I’m some sort of lech. Okay…’ He takes a deep breath and hesitates a few moments more. ‘You know I got that job out Wilson’s place out on the margins?'

Jessie nods.

'Well, what with one thing and another, I was there ages, getting the ground levelled and digging out…’

‘I know that bit as well.’ Jessie waves her hand impatiently. ‘Cut to the chase.’

Nathan fixes her with a stare. ‘Yeah, chasing was just about what it was. But not me, the daughter.  Right from the off she was giving me the come on. Dave’ll tell you I had no part in it.’

‘Your word’s good enough for me, Nathan.’ Jessie says firmly with a short nod of the head.

‘Thanks…well…she was out there every five minutes asking us if we wanted tea or something just so she could be where we were and everywhere I went, no matter what I was doing, she’d pop up.'

Nathan lights a cigarette and stands to fetch the ashtray. He grimaces as he sits down again.

'I got a bit embarrassed to tell the truth. You know how it goes, skirts got shorter, tops got lower.' He blows a plume of smoke above his head. 'Christ! I knew she was only fifteen but it was obvious what she was after. I could have had her just like that!’ He snaps his fingers and blushes as Jessie’s eyes widen at his words. He clears his throat. ‘Yeah, well, I didn't and I should have told her straight to clear off but I didn’t want to go upsetting anyone.’ he adds in an apologetic voice.

‘More fool you then.’ Jessie mutters, adding ‘Sorry’ when his eyes flicker at the interruption.

‘It was only a small job sorting the garden. A big garden, granted….and digging a new pool… but there was more work in the offing if we did ok.’ He sidetracks to explain. ‘He’s got ideas of putting a new estate on some land out Woodbury way if he can swing the planning.’ He lifts his head to look at Jessie directly. ‘It’s a good deal, getting hold of that contract when it happens.’

‘Ok, so you kept your gob shut in the hope of making a bob or two later, fair enough. Go on…get to the point.’

‘Yeah, right, okay..’ Nathan stretches and settles again, his cheeks puffed and exhaling through almost closed lips. ’He said we could use the pool house next to where the old one was.... for the loo… and the shower if we wanted to clean up before we went home…He was pretty good like that…We could even use the pool if we wanted.’ He hesitates, his face growing redder.

‘Don’t stop now!’ Jessie urges. ‘It might get interesting.’

‘I know I was bloody stupid but I never gave it a thought. I had no idea she would take it the wrong way..’

‘Take what the wrong way?’

‘The situation.’

‘I do hope you’re going to get to the point soon.’ Jessie sighs, laying her cheek in one hand, her elbow sliding across the table as she feigns sleep. ‘It’s pretty boring so far. I know all that.’

‘Hold your horses, I’m getting there!’

‘Great pity you didn’t hold yours, by all accounts.’ she smirks.

Nathan stares at her stonily. ‘I’m not saying another word if that’s all you've got to say. Forget it. Yeah, I reacted, but what bloke wouldn’t?’ He crushes his cigarette into the ashtray and pushes back his chair. ‘Where did that come from?’

Jessie sits back and looks up, shrugging as he stands. ‘I don’t know. Probably started with her, I suppose. She brags about it to a friend, so and so tells so and so and so it goes on. It’s hardly my fault.’ She dismisses his question with a flick of her hand, grimacing as his eyes flash. ‘Sorry but I thought I’d try and lighten you up a bit. You’d be no good at gossip, you know, it needs to be more zippy.’

‘It’s no sodding laughing matter!’ he glares. ‘I’d have got done in more ways than one if it hadn’t been for some pretty nifty thinking on my part especially  when her mother turned up..’

‘Her mother?’ Jessie’s eyes goggle. ‘Nobody’s ever mentioned her mother in all this.’

‘No, I don’t expect they would.’ Nathan mutters. ‘Whatever. Poor innocent child! I can hear the old crows now. Nothing they like better than a bit of juicy and a hanging.'

‘Now you’re being unfair.’

‘Am I?’

‘Yes, you are. People tend to believe what they hear and you…’

‘Have never said a word.’ Nathan says tightly. ‘Sorry, I gotta go, I’m getting really wound up and I don’t want us to fall out, you’ve been a good friend to me.’

‘I hope I always will be’ Jessie says quietly. ‘I’m sorry, Nathan. Let me try and put things right.’

‘Oh, yeah, how?’

‘I can still listen to your side of things. We can talk. That’s what we were doing before I interrupted.’

‘Nope.’ He gathers up his pack of cigarettes and lighter from the table and stuffs them into the pocket of his sweatshirt, patting the other side to check for his car keys. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ve got a lot riding on this and it’s just not worth the aggro.’

‘Isn’t aggro what you’re getting now?’

‘Yeah, but it’s my aggro. Nobody else loses out.’

‘Ah, I see.’ Jessie gets up from her chair to refill the kettle.

‘You see nothing.’ Nathan’s eyes follow her.

‘I think I do. You keep quiet and you get the contract. Am I right?’ She turns with the kettle in her hand.

‘Just leave it, eh?’  Nathan steps towards her and pinches her chin fondly. ‘Not worth falling out over. I’ll be ok. It’ll blow over.’ He moves sideways and grips the handle to the back door, turning to smile. ‘I’ll catch you soon. Ok?’

‘No, it flipping isn’t!’ Jessie retorts hotly, slamming the kettle onto its base and flicking on the switch. ‘I’ve got half a story, you’re obviously up doodah creek without a paddle, your name is poo but you won’t defend yourself?’

‘That wasn’t the deal’ Nathan says quietly. ‘I know what went on, that’s all that matters.’

‘Then you’re a bloody fool, that’s all I can say!’

‘Maybe I am but I’ve kept my end of the bargain.’

‘Right!’ Jessie folds her arms belligerently. ‘So, as I see it, there was some sort of agreement between you and this bloke?’ Nathan nods carefully. ‘And when you said ‘your’ end of the bargain I can presume that the other end was this promise of another contract. So what was it you were supposed to keep quiet about?’

‘Leave it, Jess, please.’

‘No, I won’t! However whatever happened, it was a case of hushing it up and both you and this trollop..’

‘Jessie!’

‘And both you and this girl’ she emphasises the word girl. ‘Were suppose to keep schtum about it?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Then what the hell are you doing?’

‘What do you mean, what the hell am I doing? I’m doing what I said I would, what I agreed.’

‘But she hasn’t! In my book, that means all bets are off. If she’s spouting her mouth off to anyone who’ll listen, why the heck should you keep quiet?  Does getting that contract matter to you so much you’d let your name be dragged through the mud? Your Dad would turn in his grave!’ Jessie clatters a clean mug onto the worktop as the kettle comes to the boil and rattles cutlery in the drawer as she takes out a spoon.

‘That hurt.’ Nathan whispers as he opens the door. ‘Especially today. See you, Jess.’

As the door closes behind him, Jessie tips her head back, swearing under her breath as a tear of regret slides down her cheek. ‘Oh, damn and bugger it, Tom. Look what I've gone and done now!’

Rose Cottage, Albans Lane

Chapter One