Reforming Bill

Chapter Four

 Chapter Four

Although Bill said as little as possible about Lila but it soon became clear that the village had heard about their fight and his servants were severely reprimanded for their loose tongues. People continued to ask about her and Bill came up with an endless list of excuses for why she hadn't been to the village again.

She was in London, she had a terrible cold, she was visiting her family. The last excuse would do for at least a month and eventually they stopped asking him.

He wanted to see her though. Although he had barely known her for two days, she had got under his skin and that made him even more irritable than usual. If he didn't care for her, he would quite happily have accept her offer of 'having fun'. The trouble was he wanted more than that, he wanted to possess her, mind, body and soul.

Against his better judgement, a month after their disagreement he found himself passing through her village on his way up to London and calling into her pub.

He didn't see her immediately so he sat at the bar and ordered a bitter. He continued to wait but she hadn't shown herself by the time he had finished his half so he asked the barman where she was.

“It's 'er day off,” he said. “She's gone into town.”

Bill felt like a fool for showing up.

“Want me to give 'er a message?”

“No, no message.” He pulled his coat on and left, continuing on his way. The drive to London was a long one and he'd been stupid to waste time calling on someone like her. What had he expected anyway? That she'd drop everything and follow him up to London?

He shook his head and accelerated away from the Inn so hard that he left a spray of gravel in his wake and didn't see the motorbike that rode in behind him, with a familiar, black clad rider.

Lila took off her goggles to better see who had just driven off but then she chided herself for her foolishness. Now she was even imagining him! She needed to get him out of her system.

She headed inside and popped her head into the bar to see if there had been any problems while she was out.

“Nah, boss, been a quiet morning.”

She turned to leave when Pete spoke again.

“That fella that were 'ere a few months back, that one that got rat arsed, he came in looking for you.”

“Did he? When?”

“Not five minutes ago I'd say.”

“What did he say?”

“Not much. Ordered half a bitter and when he were done, asked where you were. I told 'im it were your day off and you were in town. Asked if I could take a message but he said no.”

“Did he say where he was going?”

“No, sorry.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Nope, but he looked right put out to 'ave missed ya.”

Lila turned and headed to up to her rooms, wondering what this meant. Had he come to offer the olive branch? That thought excited more than she might have wished and she wondered how she could find out what Bill had come for.

III

When Bill got home he was tired and irritable. Business everywhere was bad and his meetings hadn't gone as well as he might like. He was far from being on the breadline, of course, not like some poor working class sods, but he wished that there were better returns on some of his investments.