Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell [39]
`Beautiful, Bruce. Really beautiful. Wherever did you find them?'
This was purely for Florence's own amusement; did he seriously think she didn't know?
`Spotted them in a little shop down in Covent Garden.' Bruce looked pleased with himself.
`You should track down their supplier. This kind of thing would sell well in your shop. How's business, by the way?'
`Oh, pretty good. Pretty good.'
`And Chloe?'
Bruce's expression changed. He shook his head.`Ah well, bad news there. She's pregnant.'
`Oh dear. Chloe's husband left her only a few weeks ago,' Florence briefly explained to Miranda. `My word, what a muddle. Poor Chloe.'
`Never mind poor Chloe,' spluttered Bruce. `Poor me, more like.'
Florence kept a straight face.
`Oh Bruce, what have you been up to? Don't tell me the baby's yours.'
Now it was Verity's turn to splutter.
`Florence, of course it isn't his!'
`Joke,' said Florence.
`It's not a joking matter,' Verity declared vehemently. `How can Chloe do this to Bruce? She'll be wanting maternity pay, for heaven's sake! Months and months off work, money for doing absolutely nothing-'
`She won't be getting it, of course,' Bruce interrupted. `I'll have to sack her. But it's not going to be pleasant… and as for the inconvenience it's going to-'
`Oof!' gasped Miranda as Jason kicked her.
`Darling,' Verity cooed, `how many times have I asked you not to do that? People don't like to be kicked.'
`You can't sack Chloe just because she's pregnant,' Florence protested. `That's awful. Anyway, aren't there laws against that kind of thing?'
`I can see up your skirt,' Jason told Miranda.
Miranda beckoned him towards her.
`And I can see right through your head.' Peering through one ear, she said, `In here and out through the other side.'
`You can't.' Jason was outraged.
`Oh, I definitely can. Hang on, give me that drinking straw. If I slide it in, it'll go all the way through-'
'Miranda's teasing you.' Verity's tone was stiff with disapproval. `Come over here, darling, and sit by me.'
`I won't be sacking her because she's pregnant,' Bruce was explaining with exaggerated patience. `I'll come up with something else.'
Florence thought how much she disliked his habit of treating her like a seven-year-old.
`But I thought Chloe was a model employee.'
`She was. But now she's pregnant, she'll have to go.' He shrugged. `Money's money. We're a small business, not a charity.'
Bruce had it all planned. Since he may as well get maximum use out of her, he would allow Chloe to work right up to the birth, but keep a diary recording anything that could count as a black mark against her. When the baby arrived, the chances were she'd change her mind about coming back to work anyway, Bruce privately thought. But if she didn't - well, he'd have enough ammunition by then to prove to any tribunal that he was within his rights to sack her.
Jason was practising violent karate chops on the edge of the coffee table. Glancing across at Miranda, Florence caught the reproachful look in her eye. You lied, the look told Florence, you promised I could put him in the microwave if he kicked me.
`Darling, aren't you in a hurry to leave?'
The moment she said it, Miranda perked up. As she bent to give Florence a hug, she whispered, `Cheer up, soon be over.'
Verity pointedly looked away as Miranda's abbreviated pink and white polka-dotted skirt rode up her smooth brown thighs.
`I can see your pants,' Jason crowed.
`Have a good time.' Fondly, Florence patted her arm. 'Miranda's found herself a nice young man,' she explained to Verity and Bruce when the door had closed behind her.
Verity, who disapproved mightily of Miranda's indecently short skirts and iridescent highlights, said coolly, `Has she indeed? And what colour is his hair… mauve?'
Chloe hated it when her mother was right and she was wrong, but this time there was no getting away from it.
No matter how hard she tried to juggle the figures, they simply wouldn't balance.
`You see, that's you all over,' Pamela Greening declared, `living in cloud-cuckoo land. If this is how much