Free Under New Management by June Hopkins Page A

off the ground. Nope, he needed to stay away from Mollie; let her rekindle things with Jack. Jack wasn’t the face of the McLaren Group. Jack was the artistic one; Jack could, as usual get away with murder with very little consequence. Bloody Jack!
    Jack and Lou are chatting animatedly now and Mollie is watching Kieran strangely. He puts his pint on the bar decisively. Realising he is being rude, he regains eye contact with Mollie.
    Mollie feels her heart sink. He has clearly had second thoughts about her. Still, no big deal and the last thing she is prepared to do is let him know that he has got to her in any way.
    Taking an inward breath of calm she decides to tackle it head on and get in there first. He isn’t having the satisfaction of walking away from her. Oh no, if there is any walking away to be done she would be the one doing it.
    “You OK?” she asks him. “You look fed up. Do you still want that drink, or are you having second thoughts about the blonde who was ruined by the dastardly cousin and whose husband has just left her for another bloke?” Kieran’s head snaps up and he stares at her. Mollie sighs sadly.
    “Ah you are, what a shame. We could have had fun. Just so you know, I was over Jack many years ago. Just a slight embarrassment remains at my foolishness, but that’s youth for you. As for the husband, well what can I say? In one way the gay thing makes it better. At least I know it wasn’t really my fault. I am sad at the waste of time and angry about his behaviour, but I’ll survive. People do, don’t they? I may even take a leaf out of Jack’s book and bugger off abroad for a while. After all, I am now officially unemployed into the bargain. Bloody hell, they’ll be sending the men in white coats for me soon. How will I cope?” She says with a sarcastic edge to her voice and smiles knowingly at Kieran. Reaching past him she picks up her cocktail from the bar and serenely turns on her heel, walking away from them all.
    Kieran feels a whoosh of something in his stomach. Wow, that was weird. She knew exactly what he was thinking and he now feels embarrassed and ashamed, and that doesn’t often happen. She didn’t even give him time to answer, but then again what would he have said? He could hardly deny it. Not to mention the job thing; Lord John had gone on and on about Mollie and how amazing she was. He hadn’t made the connection until she told him her name earlier and at that point he had been too wrapped up in thoughts of getting into her knickers to give it much attention.
    He knew that the dramatic change to the Hall since last week had been down to her considerable organisation skills. He had been impressed, so impressed in fact with tales of the unidentified Mollie that he had sneaked a look at her personnel file. All relevant paperwork regarding the Hall had been left in files in the study and Lord John had taken him through it all earlier that afternoon. The meticulous filing and the precise accounting system were, it appeared, also down to Mollie. He had been equally impressed by her qualifications. At no point would he have ever connected the sparky wronged wife he had watched a week ago, or the sexy Jessica Rabbit of this evening, with the methodical, intelligent, co-ordinating mastermind who clearly ran the entire estate.
    Bollocks. And now he had just fucked it up spectacularly. After her little speech, he didn’t have her down as someone who would be knocking at the door begging for her job back. Kieran wasn’t stupid; he was going to need her advice. Based on her file, the evidence and the very strong recommendation from Lord John, Kieran had planned to re-employ the mysterious Mollie. Another very good reason why a casual shag would not be a good idea.
    Kieran takes a large swig at his lager and grimaces at its warmth. Turning to the bar to order another he is confronted with the now smug looking barman who obviously thought his luck was back in with Mollie. Kieran asks