Chapter 4: Desk Work

“So, how did you get on?” Vivienne Fulbright was smiling for once as I got back to the office. It was an unexpected occurrence but a big improvement on the scowls and looks of general disapproval that I had been used to.

“I have these,” I said showing her the files that Mrs Braddock had given me. “A corporate acquisition project and...”

“Not with the work, silly boy,” Ms Fulbright chided. “She isn’t the easiest of women to get on with, is she?”

I wondered for a moment if Ms Fulbright was fully aware of what Andrea Braddock had expected of me. “To be honest, it was a bit embarrassing,” I said. “In fact, I was going to ask you if someone else can handle this.”

“I don’t think so.” Ms Fulbright shook her head. “Mrs Braddock seems so pleased with what you have been doing. I would be very foolish to take you off this client. In fact,” she said with chilling calmness, “I’m not even sure I could find another project for you at the moment.”

I must have looked glum.

“You really don’t know which side your bread is buttered do you? You ought to be pleased that you’ve got the chance to redeem yourself. So what is it exactly that Mrs Braddock wants this time,? From a legal perspective, I mean.” Ms Fulbright smiled leaving me further confused as to the extent of her knowledge of Mrs Braddock’s predilections.

Grateful to move the discussion onto legal matters I was happy to explain. “It seems Mrs Braddock wants to acquire a company. It’s the business being run by her ex-husband. There’s a small group of private investors – her husband is only a minority shareholder. She would like us to handle the contract work obviously. She seems to think she has shareholders with a majority of the stock in agreement.”

“Good, that seems straightforward. A nice little project. Well done. There is obviously a benefit in keeping Mrs Braddock happy.”

I could see the benefit to the firm but not really to me – apart from apparently allowing me to stay employed. Putting aside my personal concerns, I thought I should raise one issue with Vivienne. “I do have one worry. It does seem like her motive is really just to buy the business so she can sack him and his secretary.”

“And your point is?”

“Well, that doesn’t seem very, err, ethical. Does it?”

“I’m not really sure ethics come into it but I suppose not if you worry about that sort of thing. On the other hand it is business, which is, in my view, what matters.”

And so, a few days later, with the contract arrangements concluded, I found myself heading back to Mrs Braddock’s again.

Her front door was answered by a blonde girl of about nineteen, I guessed. Another darker girl, maybe a year older, was looking over her shoulder.

“You must be Lawson,” the first girl said. “Mummy said you’d be coming. She said Marcie and me should look after you until she gets back.”

“Yes, come on in. Mummy told us everything about you.”

“Oh,” I said in a worried tone as I went inside. I was concerned by what Mrs Braddock’s daughters may have understood by ‘look after’. “Everything?”

We went into the living room. Marcie curled up on the couch, her legs tucked up underneath her and her short skirt showing a disturbing amount of thigh. The other girl sat on the arm of the couch with her legs crossed. She wasn’t showing off much less flesh. The girls could tell I was uncomfortable. It didn’t worry them in the least.

“Oh, you don’t need to be embarrassed, silly. Mummy has always been very open about sex with us. She thought that was much the best way, so that we wouldn’t end up so desperate for it that we’d put up with any old nonsense from men.”

“Ah. Well. Don’t worry. No nonsense from me.”

“No problem. Mummy taught us well. Marcie’s got a boy friend and she keeps him locked up. That seems to be working.”

“What in a cupboard or something?” I was shocked by the thought that some poor boy was, as we chatted, helpless in some corner of the house.

Marcie giggled. “No – his thingy. You know. Down there.” She pointed to my crotch. Obviously, her mother’s straight talking hadn’t yet been adopted by her daughter when referring to the male sexual organ. “I got a little cage for it. With a padlock. Look here’s the key.” She showed me a small key on a chain hanging around her neck so that the key dangled in her cleavage. “It makes him ever so attentive and well behaved. He’ll do anything to keep me happy.”

“Well. Yes. I can see he would.”

“Janice hasn’t got a boyfriend.” Marcie looked towards her sister and then back to me. “Have you got a girlfriend? Does mummy keep your thingy locked up?”

“No, and no of course not. Why should she? I’m just helping her with some legal things to do with her divorce and her business interests.”

Marcie and Janice both laughed. “Of course you are! We don’t believe you! Don’t worry, we know how much Mummy likes cock and after daddy got away she’ll have been absolutely gagging for sex. How many times has she had you so far.”

“Not that it’s any of your business but absolutely none,” I answered, sort of truthfully.

The girls thought this was uproariously funny. “She must be saving you up. I mean she’s very keen on the whole ‘Reach In To Reach Up’, so she’s bound to be thinking about the things she’ll need to help her get over daddy.”

“I don’t think I’m really able to help her get over your father.”

“She’ll work it out, don’t worry.”

It was the fact that Mrs Braddock was going to work things out that worried me more even than her predatory daughters. She arrived at the house a few minutes later, looking as though she was in a good mood.

“Ah,” she said, “Lawson. Good. I hope the girls haven’t been teasing you too much. Come through to my office.” She swept past me and into the room beside the stairs where she had her desk. I followed her. The room was light and airy. On the far side, a pair of French doors that gave out onto a terrace overlooking the garden. Books lined the walls. It looked altogether more like an academic’s study than I had been expecting.

“Sit down, young man,” Mrs Braddock said pointing to a chair beside her desk. I did so, not at all sure of what was going to happen next. “Well, I’ve had a very amusing day,” Mrs Braddock went on. “Thank you so much for sorting out the company acquisition, that all went very smoothly. I’ve just come from their offices. My ex-husband is absolutely livid. And his secretary – sorry should say ex-secretary - is furious with him too – apparently she thought he should have foreseen that I might do this. So it turns out it was his fault that she’d lost her job, not mine. And now I think that she’s pretty much ex-everything else as far as Mr Braddock is concerned. So, all in all, a very satisfactory set of outcomes. I think we should celebrate.”