The Toymaster's Castle

Chapter Nineteen - Tricky Meetings

So, the following morning, I wasn't surprised when Mary was called into Daniel's office. A few seconds later, a security guard appeared and took his place outside the door.

Ten minutes later, she emerged. She looked pretty tearful but she made her way to her desk to collect her personal stuff and then went around the office to say her goodbyes. She even managed to thank me for my help before she left which I thought was pretty nice... until I worked out that, knowing Mary, she probably hadn't even realised that I'd been involved in her getting chucked out.

Then Bianca was summoned. She looked absolutely furious and there was the sound of raised voices from within. After a couple of minutes, she stormed out and she had to be escorted towards the door by the security guard. But as she drew level with my desk, she started screaming vile abuse at me, basically saying that I'd got her sacked so that I could have a free hand with Daniel.

I was so glad that I had Helen's lessons to fall back on. I didn't try to argue with her or even defend myself - there just wasn't any point... and it wasn't as if she was in any sort of state to listen. I just looked on with my best sad face and shook my head gently as she raged on at me.

After a couple of seconds, the guard placed a hand on her arm and encouraged her to keep moving. He didn't quite use force but he made it very clear that force was an option.

"I'm going to make damn sure you regret this," she snarled back at me over her shoulder as the guard hustled her towards the door. "I've got powerful friends, you know!"

I did vaguely wonder whether they were more powerful than the head of the local Mafia but of course I didn't say anything.

As she was shuffled out towards the lifts, a stunned silence fell over the whole office. "Should we go and put coffee on?" I suggested to Mandy.

We went along to the little kitchen but she gave me a funny look when I started preparing the cafetière rather than just using the instant. "After that tricky meeting, Daniel is going to need one too," I explained. "And it's no more trouble to make three than one."

She looked around to make sure that we were on our own then asked, "If you don't mind me asking... is there anything going on between the two of you?"

"Sort of, yeah," I answered. Luckily, I'd already thought about how to deal with that question. "We're seeing each other outside the office."

"And was it you who got Mary and Bianca chucked out?"

I had to think about how to answer that one. "You know Daniel made me team leader for the office management group... well, he asked me to prepare a report on everyone... but he was the one who made the decisions."

"Then thank you, I suppose."

"I really did try to be as fair to everyone as possible. D'you think I got anything wrong?"

She was quiet for a bit but then shook her head. "Not really, no. I know Mary was completely useless but I still feel a bit sorry for her. I mean... she's going to have a terrible time finding a new job with things the way they are."

"That might be why the company has to save money," I replied, kind of thinking out loud.

She gave a little nod. "But I can't honestly say I'm sad to see the back of Bianca, though. She seemed to think she was better than everyone else just because she has a thing going with Angus... and she just loved stirring up trouble... and she loved playing us off against one another... and the worst thing was, I found myself going along with her bitchiness just to keep her off my back..."

I sort of smiled to myself when I realised that... completely by accident... she'd just basically apologised for the nasty things i'd heard her saying about me!