Free Licence to Dream by Anna Jacobs Page B

until I've decided what to do with the money.’
    ‘They're bound to find out sooner or later.’
    ‘Let them.’ She had to swallow hard before she added, ‘I'll be gone by then.’
    ‘Gone?’
    ‘Yes, gone. I'm going to do what I've always wanted.’ She spoke in hushed tones, feeling like someone standing at the gates of paradise, scared to tiptoe through them. ‘Rosanna, I’m going to buy myself a little house somewhere in the country and paint.’
    ‘You can't mean that!’
    ‘Oh, I do. I'll phone John Repping tomorrow and give in my notice.’
    After depositing the cheque in her back, she let Rosanna drive her home, where she ate a sandwich to appease her friend then pleaded weariness.
    After the door had closed behind Rosanna, the quietness seemed to fold itself around Meriel and the rocking chair beckoned to her like a dear friend.
    ‘So,’ she said to it, stroking the silky wood of the arm-rest, ‘I really did win Lotto.’ She wished this had happened while Grandpop was still alive. She'd have taken him on a world trip. He’d always wanted to travel.
    And why she should suddenly remember Ben Elless again, she couldn’t imagine, except that he had walked in and out of her thoughts all weekend. Sure, he was a good-looking guy, but he wasn’t the first attractive man she’d ever met. Only, none of the others had haunted her like this.
    Perhaps she should have accepted his dinner invitation. That might have got him out of her system. He probably had a million faults which would have put her off him if she got to know him better.
    She remembered how he had questioned her capabilities as an accountant. It was a long time since anyone had made her so angry. Then she grinned as she suddenly realised that someone else would now have to work on the Elless account. Someone else would have to put up with that man's rudeness.
    Her grin became a beam of delight and she forgot Ben Elless and accounting completely, as she bounced to her feet and began to dance around the room. Her childhood dreams were about to come true.
    Well, she amended mentally, her dreams were going to come true if she had enough talent. That remained to be seen, but her tutors had praised her and the publisher had already talked of giving her other book cover commissions.
    And now – now she would have all the time she needed to develop her skills. She smiled wryly. She’d thought she wanted to paint, but the course had taught her that what she really wanted was to become a commercial artist and work on a whole range of different things that stretched and challenged her imagination.
     

Chapter 9
     
    Meriel went in to see her boss the next day to tell him what had happened.
    ‘Goodness me! Well, er, congratulations.’
    ‘I want to give notice, to leave as soon as possible.’
    ‘Oh dear. We’d be sorry to lose you. Are you quite sure?’ Then he snapped his fingers. ‘Of course! Your art. Well, why don’t we go through your client portfolio and see where you stand, then you can start passing your client list on to others here. I’ll take one or two of them as well until we can find a replacement for you.’
    ‘Thank you. I really appreciate your being so understanding about this.’
    He began to fiddle with his pen. ‘Did you ask to remain anonymous about your win?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘That’s good. We don’t want the firm linked to gambling and games of chance.’
    She finished work two weeks later, endured a going-away party and then went back with relief to the quiet of her villa. The only work she had now was designing the book covers and she enjoyed that enormously, but it wouldn’t bring in enough to live on and she didn’t want to fritter away her winnings.
    She tried to remember when last she’d had so much time to herself but couldn’t. She seemed to have been rushing to get things done ever since her father left her mother, first at school, then at university and then looking after Grandpop.
    Now she could do