Christmas with her Boss Read Online Free Page A

aftershave…
    â€˜Ooh, I hope you two have a very happy Christmas,’ the lady she’d been sitting near said, beaming up at them in approval. ‘No need for gifts for you two, then. No wonder you’re taking him home for Christmas.’ And then she giggled. ‘Youknow, I married my boss too. Best thing I ever did. Fourteen grandchildren later… You go for it, love.’
    And Meg, who’d never blushed in her life, turned bright crimson and hauled herself out of her boss’s arms as if she were burned.
    The train was shuddering to a halt. She had to manoeuvre her way through the crowds to get out.
    She headed for the door, leaving her boss to follow. If he could. And she wouldn’t really mind if he couldn’t.
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    The train dumped them and left, rolling away into the night, civilisation on wheels, leaving them where civilisation wasn’t. Nine o’clock on the Tandaroit rail head. Social hub of the world. Or not. There was a single electric light above the entrance, and nothing else for as far as the eye could see.
    â€˜So…where exactly are we?’ William said, sounding as if he might have just landed on Mars, but Meg wasn’t listening. She was too busy staring out into the night, willing the headlights of Letty’s station wagon to appear.
    Letty was always late. She’d threatened her with death if she was late tonight.
    She couldn’t even phone her to find out where she was. There was no mobile reception out here. And, as if in echo of her thoughts…
    â€˜There’s no reception.’ Her boss was staring incredulously at his phone.
    â€˜There’s a land line at the farm.’
    â€˜You’ve brought me somewhere with no cellphone reception?’
    Hysterics were once again very close to the surface. Meg felt ill. ‘It’s better than sleeping at the airport,’ she snapped, feeling desperate.
    â€˜How is it better?’ He was looking where she was looking, obviously hoping for any small sign of civilisation. Therewasn’t any. Just a vast starlit sky and nothing and nothing and nothing.
    â€˜She’ll come.’
    â€˜Who’ll come?’
    â€˜My grandmother,’ Meg said through gritted teeth. ‘If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll come right now.’
    â€˜Your home is how far from the station?’
    â€˜Eight miles.’
    â€˜Eight!’
    â€˜Maybe a bit more.’
    â€˜It’s a farm?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜So Tandaroit…’
    She took a couple of deep breaths. Hysterics would help no one. ‘It’s more of a district than a town,’ she admitted. ‘There was a school here once, and tennis courts. Not now, though. They use the school for storing stock feed.’
    â€˜And your farm’s eight miles from this…hub,’ he said, his voice carefully, dangerously neutral. ‘That’s a little far to walk.’
    â€˜We’re not walking.’
    â€˜I was thinking,’ he said, ‘of how long it might take to walk back here when I decide to leave.’
    That caught her. She stopped staring out into the night and stared at her boss instead. Thinking how this might look to him.
    â€˜You mean if my family turn into axe-murderers?’ she ventured.
    â€˜I’ve seen Deliverance .’
    Her lips twitched. ‘We’re not that bad.’
    â€˜You don’t own a car?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Yet I pay you a very good wage.’
    â€˜We have Letty’s station wagon and a tractor. What else do we need?’
    â€˜You like sitting on rail heads waiting for grandmothers who may or may not appear?’
    â€˜She’ll appear.’
    â€˜I believe,’ he said, speaking slowly, as if she was ever so slightly dim, ‘that I might be changing my mind about travelling to a place that’s eight miles from a train which comes…how often a day?’
    â€˜Three or four times, but it