Free Watching Over You by Mel Sherratt

nothing, she did start to eat her toast, now cold. But then she spotted Ella standing in the window again. She was holding a mug, sipping from it carefully. How dare she, the cheeky madam! Jean had a good mind to go over and tell Ella that she shouldn’t be snooping around in other people’s possessions while they weren’t in. The house might belong to her but she had no right to do that.
    But she wouldn’t tell her. She wouldn’t tell anyone anything. Besides, there wasn’t any point because no one listened if she caused a fuss anyway; she wasn’t going to go through all that again. And perhaps Ella would be capable of twisting the truth regardless. She had seen her looking just then, she was sure.
    Jean wondered, given her own penchant for people- watching , if she would want to snoop around her tenant’s place if she were a landlady. She smiled, only then empathising with Ella. Of course she would. Even now, she wanted to know everything about Charley , too: why she was on her own and why she’d come to live in the flat. She must have some excess baggage not to be married with two point four children by now.
    Jean picked up her notepad and wrote down what she had seen. She might not feel comfortable telling Charley that Ella was roaming around her flat when she wasn’t there but she could still make a note of it.
    She smiled sneakily. If anything happened to her, everyone’s business in Warwick Avenue might be common knowledge. The police would have a field day if they ever saw her notes.

Chapter Nine
    Over the next two weeks, it didn’t take long for Ella to establish Charley’s routine. Always between eight and half past during the week, she would leave the house for work. Most evenings, she was back around six. Twice, on different evenings during the week, she would head out again wearing sports gear and be gone for an hour and a half.
    Apart from her meet ups with One Night Only dates, the weekends dragged for Ella as Charley mostly stayed in except for a trip to the supermarket and another trip to the gym. Ella knew now that she went to Green’s Health and Fitness on the business park at Trentham Lakes; liked to stay for an hour, mainly running on the treadmill.
    By now intrigued to see what kind of work she got up to in the field, Ella decided to follow her on a visit to one of her clients. Staying a few cars behind, she headed across to Meir and down Uttoxeter Road, where Charley parked halfway down. Ella pulled in to the kerb and watched as she walked up a pathway to a scruffy-looking house, saw her knock on the door. Charley’s heels were low, her long hair tied away from her face. She wore a smart two-piece trouser suit that was neither too official nor too casual. In one hand, she held a soft briefcase, in the other her mobile phone.
    The door was answered and she went in.
    Despite hardly any sleep the night before after spending most of the evening with a man who called himself Zavier, Ella had managed to stay awake. It had been an hour and thirty-two minutes exactly before Charley had reappeared.
    It was when she stood chatting on the doorstep that Ella’s heart melted. The woman in the doorway burst into tears and Charley’s compassion came out. A simple touch on the arm before she said goodbye, an encouraging squeeze, made the woman give her a weak smile in return. It was enough to spark an idea in Ella.
    If she could make Charley upset, and offer her a shoulder to cry on, she would be able to touch her too. And then together they could begin to explore the idea of a relationship. After spending a pleasant night with Jayne, already Ella knew that she wanted to do the same with Charley. A ripple of desire flowed through her at the thought that it could lead to far more than a one-night stand.

    After a harrowing morning talking one of her clients through her next appearance in court as a witness, Charley arrived back at the office to a mound of trivial paperwork that she couldn’t face.