A Debt of Honour – Episode 35
A Debt Of Honour
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- 1. A Debt of Honour – Episode 35
From the depths of utter despair to the heights of happiness, Shauna thought, from her seat in the boss’s chair in the office of the shop; how could it happen so quickly and completely?
She had set off back into her past on a mission, to repay the man she had once loved for his kindness.
That mission had faltered when she discovered that she loved that man even more than before.
And that he loved her, too, enough to change all his plans and pursue her back to Australia.
Now the bleak future she had seen without him in her life had changed for ever.
They were together now and she knew this was how it was meant to be.
This togetherness was the solution within which both she and Neil would play out the rest of their lives.
She sighed. Her daft mission had brought her happiness.
The door opened and Mandy came in.
“You wanted to see me, Shauna?”
“Yes. You first, and then the rest.”
Mandy frowned.
“I don’t like this. Feels too much like a final handshake and thanks before you close the shop.”
Shauna smiled.
“You couldn’t be further from the truth. I want to shake your hand, yes. But for a totally different reason.”
Mandy perched uncertainly on her usual corner of the desk.
“Which is?” she asked.
Shauna had forgotten how much she liked the in-your-face directness of Australians – her adopted people.
They were every bit as important as the ones she had left behind, back in Scotland.
“Trish’s idea,” she said. “About us testing the water with a small online project. I like it. I’m going to do it.” She paused.
“We are going to do it, but on a totally different basis. As partners.”
Mandy’s frown deepened.
“Me and you?”
“All of us,” said Shauna quietly. “As partners, sharing profits as well as covering wages.
“As reward for all the work you guys have done for me – and with an axe of my own to grind.
“I won’t always be here from now on. I will probably be away now and then . . . for personal reasons.”
Mandy’s eyes lit up.
“They wouldn’t be connected with how you took off like a prize racehorse when Trish brought in that scrap of paper?”
“They are,” Shauna said. “I’m marrying a . . . a long-term friend.”
Mandy came round and hugged her.
“About time, too!” she said.
Then she sat back on her corner of the desk, as practical as ever.
“It’s not fair,” Mandy said. “The partners thing.
“You have put a pile of money into the business – right from when Old Bessie left it to you, with all its trade debts.”
“I’ll draw part of that back, by payment in kind,” Shauna said.
“In the form of freedom to take some weeks off, now and then.”
She smiled wryly.
“I’m marrying a globetrotter. He wants to take me with him, and I don’t want to let him out of my sight.”
“Take you where?” Mandy smiled.
“Who knows?” Shauna said. “I didn’t ask.”
The office door opened and Charlie’s head popped round.
“Need you out – and soonest, Mum,” he said. “Or else we will be late.”
“Where have you been, the two of you?” Shauna demanded.
Charlie’s sunburned face took on an expression of extreme innocence.
“We took him out for a drive,” he said.
“Took him out in what?” Shauna was already fearing the worst.
“Our rally car. We wanted to test it anyway. In the forest stage that we sometimes use.”
Shauna saw a kaleidoscope of mental images of trees flashing past: clouds of dust as the car broadsided round tight bends; certain death waiting in every tree trunk if the rally driver got it wrong.
“And who were ‘we’?” she asked.
“Me and our top driver. I stayed behind and timed the run.”
“And Neil?”
Charlie grinned.
“He came back three stages of suntan lighter.
“But Jimmy said he’s a bonzer bloke. Never screamed once, or closed his eyes.”
She looked at him accusingly.
“You were testing him out?”
“So what? He came through real good.”
Shauna guessed that this was as close to approval as any Aussie would ever risk.
“Come on. We’re late,” he urged.
“Late for what?” she asked, being hustled out.
“A surprise. Neil’s in the car, waiting.”
Shauna was thrust into the back seat.
“Where . . .?” she began, then subsided. “I know, it’s a surprise.”
To be continued…
