An Accidental Shroud Read Online Free Page A

construction business was, to put it mildly, in the doldrums. He didn't know why Matthew had bitten off the comment – it was too much to believe that he was having qualms of conscience, or even beginning to realize that all this constant sniping was hardly the best way to get round his father.
    Matthew had, in fact, hastily broken off the careless words because he knew it was all too easy, these days, to trigger off one of Jake's right royal rages. Admittedly, they never lasted long, but it was smart to avoid them, or to keep your head below the parapet while they did last.
    This present site was Phase One of a development of thirty luxuriously fitted, executive-style homes. One or two were actually occupied, a few more spoken for, but despite massive reductions on the original price, most remained unsold. Yet the real fly in the ointment, as far as Jake was concerned, was the other, adjoining site. The ten acres – and on it the derelict house, unoccupied for dozens of years – which Jake had bought with the intention of demolishing, and which had then, by some fancy footwork on the part of local conservationists, had a preservation order slapped on it. So there the old house still stood, where the new Save All hypermarket, which would have been Jake's saviour, should by now have been rising. Save All were becoming restive, there was every prospect they'd pull out of the deal. Jake, the great Jake, had come unstuck. Instead of being one step ahead, as he always prided himself on being, he'd been two steps behind.
    But no way was Matthew going to start feeling sorry for Jake! He'd plenty of other irons in the fire. He drained his coffee and said suddenly, standing up, 'Well, as far as Nigel goes, I'm not staff, I'm one of the family. And anyway, it's what I want to do, right?'
    'Is it? Is it really?'
    They stared at one another, Matthew uptight and aggressive at what he took to be his father's sarcasm, Jake trying so hard not to be that the cords stood out on his neck.
    'I have to go. What was it you wanted?' Matthew asked abruptly, carefully avoiding the use of Jake's name. It was as if 'Dad' had become a dirty word lately.
    'It can wait. Oh, all right, then,' Jake added as Matt raised his brows. 'I only wondered if it's such a good idea coming on site to see young Graham – maybe it would be better to arrange to see him outside working hours.'
    Jake thought he'd couched this as a suggestion rather than an order, but Matthew stiffened. 'I only called in for a minute because he's co-driving for me this weekend and I wanted to fix things up.'
    And here they were again. Back to the real crunch point. Rally driving, which was Matthew's current obsession. If he'd had the money he'd have defied Jake and gone for it, not only as the hobby which it presently was, but as a full-time career, which was what he was naive enough to think it could be. It was the root cause of all the trouble between them. Jake had the upper hand at the moment because he held the purse strings, but he knew that was no real answer.
    'Fair enough,' he said, for the moment defeated. He was enough at loggerheads with Matt without adding to it over this. He could hardly complain about him coming to the site, when it was the one thing he tried to encourage. Nor could he grumble about his association with Joss Graham, seeing that he approved of so little else about Matthew these days. He liked Joss, with the reservation that he considered he was wasting his training as a microbiologist, working on a building site. But that was his own affair. He was at least willing to work at whatever he could find, and not content to live on the dole, like so many with his educational achievements these days, unable to find a suitable position when they'd qualified. He had an open, friendly manner, he was a hard worker and, as far as Jake could see, no bad influence on Matthew – though Jake had made it plain enough that he didn't consider it wise for them