Nick growled with irritation as the doorbell sounded again. Whoever was out there was an impatient bastard. He was not in the best of moods as it was. Goodie had taken him at his word when he said she wouldn’t have to socialize with his family if she didn’t want to. Everyone had asked after her (other than Clive, that is), but when Tilly and his mum had been about to literally search the house, he’d had to have a word. He told them she had a job to do and that she needed space to do it. He thought a strategic retreat was the best way to go, but now, after not laying eyes on her for the last ten hours, he wasn’t so sure. Nick had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t going to see her at all until they went back to London. So as he approached the front entrance he was already pissed off, and the fact that the doorbell sounded twice more as he crossed the large hall didn’t help.
‘How about for once you follow protocol?’ he heard Goodie’s voice say just before he was about to wrench open the front door. He stopped in his tracks and turned towards the sound, seeing her emerge from the shadows under the stairs. Instead of her usual black, she was wearing a soft cream jumper, which hung off her shoulder on one side to reveal a white vest, with a pair of faded and slightly frayed jeans. He did a double take when he looked at her feet, clad in the most incongruous items of clothing he had ever seen her wear. She had slippers on. Slippers. They were bright purple and they were fluffy. His previous annoyance was forgotten as he pressed his lips together to suppress a smile, his eyes dancing.
‘You find something to amuse you?’ Goodie asked, her arms folding over her chest. Nick shook his head but couldn’t hold back his smile any longer.
‘I –’ The doorbell pealed again, cutting him off. He sighed, back to feeling annoyed, and strode to the entrance. Glancing back at Goodie who had both eyebrows raised expectantly, he rolled his eyes and checked through the customized peephole that had been installed along with the alarm system.
‘There’s nobody there,’ he muttered, and heard Goodie start to move behind him. She might be his protection officer but there was no bloody way that she was answering this door instead of him if there was a question as to what was behind it and whether it was safe. He didn’t care what training she had, what she could do or how deadly she was; he was not letting her put herself in harm’s way for him. He wrenched open the door and stared straight forward, still seeing nothing.
‘Oi!’ Nick looked down. There was a boy standing on the stone steps. He had scruffy blonde hair and looked about nine or ten years old. ‘Took you long enough, didn’t it?’ Nick frowned down at the defiant little snot. ‘I’m Benji,’ the boy said, putting his hands on his hips and standing as straight as he could in order to gain some much needed height.
‘Right,’ Nick said slowly, crossing his own arms over his chest and assuming the most intimidating scowl he could muster (one that usually worked at board meetings or international negotiations, but which this kid was wholly unaffected by), ‘okay. I’m Mr Chambers and I’d like to know what you’re doing on my property.’
‘I know who you are, Nick,’ the child said, his confident stance not wavering for a moment. ‘Big shot, change the face of the energy industry, yada yada yada … who cares. I’m here to see Goodie.’ Nick felt the door being pulled from his grip as Goodie widened it and then ducked under his arm to squat in front of the blond kid.
‘There is a difference, Benji, between confidence and insolence,’ he heard her say; but the kid just smiled, shocking Nick by leaning forward and giving her a hug around her neck. She smoothed his hair as he pulled back, and then very briefly laid her hand over the centre of his chest and encircled his wrist with her other hand.
Nick’s mouth dropped open in shock.
‘Where are your parents?’ Goodie asked whilst she straightened to stand.
‘In the Maldives.’
‘Then who … oh, derr-mo.’*
‘I know that means shit in Russian,’ the Benji kid said through a wide grin. ‘You were the one who taught it to me that time you showed me how to throw a kni –’
Benji was cut off by Goodie’s hand over his mouth, and then she started pushing him down the steps and away from the doorway. She was focused on something out of Nick’s eye line, further up the drive. Nick of course followed her. She shot him an irritated glance and said in the most urgent tone he had heard from her: ‘This is none of your concern. Go back inside.’
Nick smiled at her.
‘She’s bossy,’ Benji put in helpfully. ‘But you get used to it.’ Nick then heard the crunching of the gravel and saw a small woman wearing a bright purple coat with matching stripy earmuffs and scarf making her way down the drive. She had on her hip an equally purple-clad and wrapped-up little girl. Both had dark curls in various states of disarray and both were almost startlingly pretty.
‘Benji for goodness sake, cariad,’* the woman scolded in a thick Welsh accent. ‘I cannot run all the way up the sodding drive, not with Anya on my hip, you lunatic.’ When she’d finished scowling at the child her attention was transferred to Goodie. She gave a squeal of delight on seeing her, stepping up her pace until she was toe to toe with her and could engulf her in a tight hug, toddler and all. For her part the toddler latched onto Goodie’s neck so that she was forced to take her from the smaller woman. Now that she was closer Nick could see the open buttons of her purple coat around her midsection; he was guessing she was at least five months pregnant.
‘Preeveet,* Anya,’ Goodie said through a smile.
‘Good Good Good!’ shouted the excited toddler.
Benji laughed and said something in Russian to Goodie.
‘Benji!’ the purple-clad woman said sharply, ‘I’ve told you it’s rude to speak in a language other people can’t understand. How you managed to pick up Russian at Llandough Primary and not the Welsh you’re actually taught I’ll never understand.’
‘Goodie’s teaching me.’
‘How can she teach you? You barely see her.’
‘We skype.’
‘I’m not sure you two skyping is a good idea.’ The woman narrowed her eyes at Goodie, who just shrugged.
‘I don’t encourage the boy and I haven’t taught him anything dangerous since Sarah got a little excited.’
‘Goodie, you taught a seven-year-old how to take apart and reassemble a semi-automatic weapon; you have to see why that might not have gone down well.’
‘Came in useful in the end though,’ Benji said, then muttered something under his breath in Russian to Goodie, who laughed again.
‘Good, Good!’ the little girl called Anya cried again at Goodie’s laughter.
‘Preveet,’ Goodie said again to her.
‘I told you she’s a lost cause, she can barely speak English,’ Benji said, shaking his head.
‘You little bugger,’ the Welsh woman said, punching Benji on the arm. ‘That’s why I don’t want you talking in Russian. She is not a lost cause.’
‘Ben, Ben, Ben!’ Anya shouted at Benji, and he looked at the woman, raising his eyebrows, his point apparently made. Nick’s feet crunching on the gravel of the drive as he came to stand next to Goodie alerted the woman to his presence, and she stopped scowling at Benji to openly gape at Nick.
‘Uh … hello,’ she managed to say, tipping her head back to look up at him (she couldn’t have been much more than five feet tall). She looked at Goodie, who simply pressed her lips together and ignored him.
‘Hello,’ Nick returned, smiling down at the small woman and extending his hand. ‘I’m Nick.’
‘Of course you are.’ The woman smiled, reaching for his hand and shaking it vigorously. ‘I know about you,’ she continued, still shaking his hand and showing no sign of releasing it any time soon. ‘I read them all, see: Heat, Hello, Now, all of them. Sam thinks I’m a twp* bugger for poring over them, but what would he know … he doesn’t even really watch Gogglebox.’ She’d widened her eyes at the last sentence as if the disregard for the brilliance of whatever Gogglebox was were as good as being declared criminally insane, and would therefore negate all other opinions about other media outlets. ‘I’m Katie by the way.’
Nick concluded that even though this woman was a little nuts, very difficult to understand (her thick accent was tricky enough to decipher without her throwing in words he had never heard of), and slightly over familiar, he liked her. It was as if the universe had conjured up Goodie’s complete opposite and dropped her at his doorstep.
‘Now, I know you’ve probably got a lot to be getting on with seeing as you’re an important businessman and you’ve probably got all sorts of … um … businessing and such like to be doing, so we’ll just get out of your hair. Come along, Goodie, honey.’ Katie bustled over to Goodie and extracted Anya before walking around her to give her a little push from behind. To Nick’s satisfaction Goodie held her ground.
‘Katie, I cannot go with you,’ she said, stepping away from the gentle shoving. ‘I am the close protection, remember?’ For some reason Katie’s face went soft at this statement and she circled around Goodie to stand in front of her again. To Nick’s surprise Katie’s eyes then filled with tears and she moved forward to give Goodie yet another hug.
‘I know you are,’ she said in a choked voice, and followed up with a loud sniff. ‘I’m so grateful.’ Goodie rolled her eyes and tolerated the hug briefly before pulling away.
‘We’ve been through this. You have nothing to be grateful for.’
‘Oh!’ Katie shouted as Goodie moved back. ‘You wear them! I knew you would wear them. Sam thought I was crazy but I knew you would. Everyone needs warm feet.’
Goodie rolled her eyes. ‘I’m wearing them because I was hoping not to have contact with any actual human beings today, Katie. Not because I need warm feet.’
Katie just looked at her through her tear-filled eyes and gave Goodie’s arm a squeeze. ‘Whatever you say, cariad,’* she told her in an indulgent tone that you might use with a lying child. The fact that she would take that tone with Goodie, of all people, was so comical that Nick had to stifle a laugh. ‘But look, see, you don’t have to worry about that close-protection business; Geoff’s back from Somalia and he’s going to take over for a couple of days. You can come and stay at The Coach House.’
Nick stiffened. He knew one thing that would not be happening and that was Goodie leaving, even if it was just to The Coach House at the end of the drive. ‘Do you mind me asking exactly what’s going on here?’ he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and straightening to his full height.
Katie flashed him a nervous smile as she took in his combative stance with a look of some confusion. ‘Well, we’re just switching up your close protection officer for a couple of days so that Goodie can spend Easter with us; it’s kind of become a family tradition to dig her out of the woodwork at this time of year. She absolutely refuses to be found at Christmas, you see. We’ve had to get quite sneaky with it, haven’t we, Goodie; what was the excuse we used to get you down to Wales last year?’
‘I believe you told me that Sam wanted to debrief me on a very lucrative private contract but the only time he could see me was on Easter Sunday.’
‘Ah yes! That was funny, wasn’t it?’
‘Hilarious,’ Goodie deadpanned, her hands going to her hips.
‘Well, you shouldn’t be so stubborn, should you? You little tinker.’ Katie risked life and limb to chuck Goodie playfully under the chin. Nick had the feeling that if Goodie hadn’t held herself back she would be reaching for her knife again. ‘Anyhoo, Geoff’s … ah, here he is!’ A Land Rover pulled up next to them on the drive and a giant of a man unfolded himself from it. ‘Great,’ Katie said brightly as the large man approached the group.
‘Jif, Jif, Jif!’ shouted Anya, squirming in Katie’s arms and practically leaping into Geoff’s massive arms. Nick heard Benji mutter ‘lost cause’ under his breath, earning him another scowl from Katie.
‘Right – Geoff, Nick; Nick, Geoff Rodgers. He’ll be replacing Goodie,’ Katie flashed Nick a smile, took Anya back from Geoff, and made a grab for Goodie’s hand.
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ Nick said, stepping in between Katie and Goodie. ‘Goodie’s not going anywhere.’ He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled down at Katie.
Katie frowned. ‘If you’re worried about Geoff’s credentials I can assure you that he –’
‘I don’t care if he’s protected the Queen for the last decade. Goodie’s staying here. Who are you to her, anyway?’
‘Well, I’m your far guard Sam’s wife, and we’re Goodie’s … well, we’re her friends.’
‘You didn’t say you wanted to spend Easter with your friends,’ Nick said, turning to Goodie. ‘What about your family?’
‘I have no family,’ Goodie told him in that emotionless voice that she did so well, ‘and I didn’t tell you about spending Easter with my friends because I had no idea Katie was coming here.’ She turned to Katie. ‘You know I do not celebrate holidays, Katie. It does not matter where I am.’ She turned back to Geoff. ‘Go back to Swansea and spend Easter with your wife, for God’s sake.’ With that she turned and walked away from them all, slamming the front door behind her as she stalked into the house.
‘Well, that went well,’ Katie muttered, frowning after Goodie and shifting Anya onto her other hip.
‘What did you expect Katie,’ Benji said, ‘she’s ornery.’
‘What’s ornery mean?’ Katie asked. ‘Don’t tell me you’re speaking Russian again; it really annoys me when you slip into other languages.
‘It’s not Russian, it’s Texan; it means “stubborn and difficult to deal with”. I learnt it off that American bloke who helped Dad out with the film-set security.’
‘Wow, that’s perfect for her,’ Katie said, ‘and for you in fact,’ she carried on, nodding towards Benji. She sighed and looked over at Nick. ‘You weren’t much help. Thanks for nothing, Mr Important Business Man. Now she can hide out and brood to her heart’s content in your vast mansion. Come on, Geoff, this has been a waste of time.’
‘Wait,’ Nick said as she started to walk away. If there was a chance that even a small chink of light could be shed on Goodie’s background he was going to be grabbing onto it. ‘Where are you staying?’
‘We’re all in The Coach House,’ Katie told him. ‘Sam had to stay so we decided to invade.’ She looked panicked for a moment and rushed on. ‘He did check that it was okay, and The Coach House is bloody huge and so far away you’ll barely know we’re even here.’
Nick smiled slowly and shook his head. ‘I think you’ll find we can do better than that.’
* derr-mo – shit
* cariad – sweetheart
* twp – stupid, simple-minded
* preeveet – hello, hi
