Free Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) by Shalini Boland Page B

the
solicitor.
    ‘ Oh I am feeling so lairy right now. All your talk is winding
me right up.’
    ‘ Mr Johnson, please. Just listen for a moment. You might like
what I have to say.’ Vasey-Smith sat down at the table and gestured
for everybody else to do the same.
    Angie pulled
gently on Trevor’s sleeve. He shrugged her off and sat down,
leaning back in his chair, his arms folded across his chest.
    ‘ Go on then. Talk your talk.’
    ‘ I have a proposition for you both.’ Vasey-Smith looked from
Trevor‘s red-cheeked scowl to Angie‘s wary, slightly scared
expression. ‘Madison has decided she and Ben will live in
Gloucestershire. But has insisted she would like to give you a gift
as a way of thanking you for the past three years. Now, I propose
you both have a good look around some estate agencies and find
yourself a suitable property. She would purchase this for you and,
of course, we would give you a generous lump sum towards its
maintenance.’
    A thoughtful
silence followed. Trevor and Angie looked at each other. Their
sulky and wary expressions gone.
    ‘ This property,’ Trevor said. ‘It would have to be in keeping
with Maddy’s new standard of living. I mean, it couldn’t be any
shabby old dive could it? It would probably be a four bedroom
detached house in a nice part of town with a new car in the
garage.’
    ‘ Of course.’
    ‘ And the upkeep would probably be quite a lot for a property
like that.’
    ‘ Oh, I think the maintenance would be rather steep,’
Vasey-Smith agreed. ‘You’d probably need at least one hundred
thousand pounds to look after a property like the one you’re going
to own.’
    ‘ Probably more like two hundred thousand,’ Trevor said, staring hard at
the solicitor, who didn’t flinch.
    Vasey-Smith’s
eyes narrowed and he fixed Trevor with a look that could have
melted stone. Maddy was unsettled by the mild-mannered solicitor’s
sudden change in character.
    ‘ I think one hundred thousand pounds will suffice,’ he said,
with steel in his voice.
    Trevor paled
slightly and quickly recovered himself with a jokey smile. ‘Course,
course, you’d know best.’ He backed down straight away.
    ‘ What about social services?’ Angie asked. ‘We’re their foster
parents. Maddy’s sixteen and Ben’s only twelve. What about
school?’
    ‘ You don’t need to worry about any of that. As I mentioned
before, we are a powerful firm and with the kind of money Madison
has, we can solve any problems.’
    While this
exchange had gone on, Madison had watched and listened intently.
Earlier, Vasey-Smith had already guessed at her feelings regarding
Trevor and Angie. She hadn’t had to say anything and his solution
had shocked her.
    ‘ This is how it will be,’ he had said. ‘I will offer them some
money to let you go without a fuss, they will accept the offer. I
will then get them to sign a document agreeing to the terms, so
they can never ask for anything from you or your brother ever
again.’
    It was bribery
and she’d had a horrible feeling they’d accept it.
    And now it
seemed Vasey-Smith had been proved right. On the one hand, she was
relieved it had all gone as smoothly as the solicitor had
predicted. But the other part of her felt sick with disappointment
that ‘money’ was all it took for Trevor and Angie to cast her and
Ben aside.
    All that talk
of being their legal guardians, of them only being children was a
load of rubbish. They didn’t really care about Madison and Ben, not
when it came right down to it. Angie and Trevor Johnson had just
traded their foster children for a nice house and a shed load of
cash.
     
    *
     
    The train sped
east to west, grey to green, across the country. It raced towards a
new life in the unknown. But this time, the unknown didn’t produce
the bowel-watering terror Madison usually associated with change.
This time, she experienced a light, flickering anticipation mixed
in with a completely new emotion. Hope.
    Ben sat next
to her,