Free Persuading Annie by Melissa Nathan

fountain pen and, as he unscrewed the lid, sat tall in his chair. He wouldn’t let anyone say he’d lost his pride at the end.
    ‘How much?’ he asked, with as much bile in his voice as possible. That should shake him up a bit. Bribery didn’t become a gentleman.
    ‘Well, let me see …’ Alfred did some slow mental arithmetic. ‘Thirty years service without one day’s sick leave, no pension, no holiday taken this year …’
    George started sweating. Why hadn’t Susannah warned him this might happen?
    He started filling in the rest of the cheque while Alfred did his sums. He wrote quickly, so that his hand wouldn’t shake quite so much.
    * * * * *
    Alfred managed not to smile until after he’d shut the door quietly behind him. And then he smiled so much, his features temporarily realigned themselves into some sort of order. George would have been impressed, if only his own features weren’t so temporarily unaligned at the same time.
    Alfred kissed the cheque in his hand and headed straightout of the house for the bank. He’d learnt a lot from his time with George Markham. But his most precious lesson had been to keep quiet when in the company of an idiot. He’d had no intention of staying with George once he’d heard that Victoria and Charles’ spoilt little brats were moving in. He had almost resigned immediately, but something had told him to sit it out. And always let the idiot speak first.
    It was a lesson that would help him start up his own business of valet training. And George would be his leading example to all his future students.
    * * * * *
    The gym smelt of floor wax, as usual. It was a smell that had, after four years, become synonymous to Annie with channelling her aggression. Or rather, letting rip.
    She swore at herself as Daniel’s size 10 swiped past her head for the third time.
    ‘Aim at me!’ she shouted at him. ‘Stop patronising me just because you’re a blackbelt!’
    Daniel smiled at Annie as her two bunches bounced furiously up and down.
    ‘Temper temper,’ he said softly and then chopped her in the face.
    ‘I WASN’T READY!’ she screamed, livid.
    But Daniel had already stepped back to kick her in the stomach.
    With a surge of aggression, Annie blocked her stomach, stepped back and kicked her right leg higher and wider than Daniel could ever manage. It got him in the face and he fell backwards on to the mat.
    Hah! Thought Annie, standing victoriously over him.Female flexibility wins every time. Sex, karate and childbirth. That’s what little girls were made for.
    The karate instructor ambled over as Daniel rolled left and right moaning softly.
    ‘For God’s sake, Annie, you’re supposed to be channelling your aggression, not killing your opponent.’
    Daniel blinked.
    ‘I’m all right,’ he mumbled from the mat. ‘No harm done, mate.’
    Annie smiled sweetly.
    ‘I was channelling my aggression,’ she explained. ‘Into his face.’
    As the instructor wandered off, she picked Daniel up.
    ‘Sorry Dan,’ she said. ‘Are you okay?’
    ‘Ever wondered why you’re single?’ he asked, his hands covering his nose.
    ‘Yeah,’ she said, letting go of him. ‘My standards are too high.’
    Daniel fell messily back on to the mat.
    ‘They’re average.’
    * * * * *
    ‘New York? How delicious! You know Brutus had family out there, don’t you? I can’t believe you’d rather stay in boring old Hampstead,’ gushed Cass.
    She looked round for a stray waiter. She was dying for a glass of wine.
    Annie smiled gently. She might have expected this reception to her news.
    She had never got over the fact that Cass had married a man called Brutus. She didn’t think she ever would. She watched Cass catch the attention of the waiter, wonderingaimlessly if she was going to have the bottle, or energy, to tell Cass about Jake today. Maybe …
    ‘Why don’t you pop out and visit your folks for Thanksgiving?’ continued Cass, ‘We’ll be able to meet up – Brutus and I go