Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 7

'New job same old rubbish.'
[KIRK ATTWOOD]

We eventually went to bed with Cheryl resting an arm across my chest. I have to say that it felt good after the day I had just had and I fell asleep immediately not waking until I heard my wife's voice hours later coming from downstairs.

'Danielle, will you get down here this minute! You're going to be late and don't make a noise because your father is trying to get some sleep.'

I walked into the dining room dressed only in my pyjamas.

'Are you ready for school?'

'Yes miss,' I said meekly.

'Very funny; do you know what time it is, and I thought you were having a lie in. Elizabeth! Did you finish your homework because you know it has to be in today and Danielle, how many times do I have to tell you ... will you get down here this minute!'

My wife could hold a conversation, load the washing machine and make up a shopping list all without breaking sweat while I on the other hand would struggle to even tie my own daughter's shoelaces.

I sat down and poured myself a cup of coffee happy for once to be that island of serenity in the midst of a raging storm. The noise by volume was no different to that at sea; I worked in a crowded environment, but the voices around me were those that I cherished and it was times like this when I wondered why I ever chose to work away.

I guess it was because I was ambitious. Because at sea I could earn a standard of living that would see my family financially secure and while it was not the way everyone saw life, it was how I viewed it for now.

That last statement turned my attention to my new job. I had applied because it was the challenge I needed, it was progress against years of stagnation in the same rank but part of me was still nervous as to whether I had made the right choice.

It caused a frown.

Does anyone really know? It all sounds lovely and rosy on paper but until you have actually started on any new adventure it's still all guesswork.

That word 'adventure.' hung for a moment in front of me.

If my interview for this new job was anything to go by then I had definitely made the right choice and what an adventure I was going to have and I only had to look back at my time down in London to feel excited.

To say it was surreal would be an understatement.

'Do you play golf?'

'No. I'm sorry. I don't.'

I had taken the early morning train down to London. Rain had been forecast but as I was in the city and would spend the whole of my interview indoors I had opted to arrive in just my suit and tie.

Their office was on the tenth floor in one of the buildings along the docklands. It was grand and I had only been sat for less than ten minutes when a rather eccentric forty plus year old man came to greet me. He was wearing a white shirt, red tie and a dazzling blue waistcoat and I quickly found out that he was to be my new director of personnel.

Inside rows and rows of desks filled a space the size of two indoor football pitches while along the near wall intricate models of buildings of all kinds stood majestically side by side next to one very old fashioned paddle steamer.

Patrick McCormack talked as he walked.

'Well I wouldn't worry. Golf's not a hard game. You have a ball. You put it down and you hit it with a club. The hard part is trying to watch where it lands! Mr Stamford sir! Have you met our new boy?'