Captive

Chapter Twenty Seven

The bar wasn't the disgrace she had feared it would be but the deep clean still took her the better part of a day. Jim was sat at a table with a cup of tea for her when she was done and he had opened the tub of cookies she had brought him as well and was already munching on one when she sat down with a smile.

"Thank you," she said and he glanced at her red hands.

"Was it really that bad?" he asked and she shook her head, taking a biscuit.

"No, but I gave my hands a good wash when I was done. It'll be easier to keep on top of now it's had a good clean everywhere and if I come in three nights a week like I did before and then do a good clean one day a month I'm sure it'll be fine. Have you had much interest from someone taking it on longer term?"

Jim shrugged and sighed.

"Problem is the unsociable hours. Really it's a perfect job for a student but they'd sooner be behind the bar than cleaning or at the front drinking. Cleaning up after drunks isn't all that appealing I guess. But I'll keep advertising. Maybe if someone comes to look at it now with you having given it a good clean first they'll see it's manageable."

"It wasn't all that bad Jim, not like the first time I saw it," she commented and he laughed.

"Well you set a pretty high standard," he replied.

"How's the ankle today?"

"Like a freight train ran over it after physio yesterday. It'll get there but injuries take longer to heal as you get older; that's why I packed up with the wrestling when I did. I've got fifteen years on Bret and I really feel em some days." At the mention of Bret her expression clouded a little and Jim gave her a curious look. "So what happened with you two? I mean one minute you're working off your old man's debts and the next minute Bret comes back from Texas alone and tells me you're done."

"I suppose we came to an understanding," she said, a little uncomfortably. Jim sighed.

"He misses you, you know? And not for the cleaning and the cooking and stuff, just for you. I hadn't realised you knew each other when you were kids."

"Only a little," she replied, looking away from him as the memories of her childhood meetings with Bret flooded her mind briefly. "And when you're younger I suppose you see the world through rose tinted glasses."

"You're still very young," Jim said, with a smile and she shrugged.

"I feel old as the world sometimes Jim," she said and the corners of her mouth tugged down briefly and inexplicitly she felt tears forming in her eyes. She tried to hide them but Jim saw them and sighed, reaching a hand across the table to squeeze hers.

"You've been through a lot Juliet what with your old man and Rebecca passing. Then all that with Bret... I know you thought you were doing the right thing and probably he did too but it was a harsh contract, not the way we should be doing business. Don't get me wrong, if it had been your old man working off the debt it would have been anything goes to my mind but you're innocent in all this. You didn't deserve the way Bret treated you."

"He wasn't cruel," she said, with a sigh. "Not exactly. I suppose he just wanted to make Dad pay, but I doubt Dad really noticed I was gone other than there was nobody to deal with everything for him. He spent his time inebriated while I wasn't there. I'm not sure that was any better than when he was taking the drugs." Her hand came to her heart in an involuntary gesture which Jim noticed.

"Do they know at the hospital how much you do that?" he asked and she dropped her hand.

"My test results were all ok," she said quickly and he sighed.