Page 51 of The Mad Marchams

“If you’re going to do that, you might as well be on the team,” Joss insisted. “This is just pure laziness on your part.”

Iko gently cleared his throat. “Joss, stop bullying her, okay? She doesn’t owe you or any of us a thing.”

Joss ignored him and continued, “I mean, why are you even staying in England? They aren’t even tech worthy.”

“If you don’t stop shouting at me right now, I’m ending the call,” Mabel said evenly. “You’re behaving like a spoiled brat.”

“I’m not the one being⁠—”

His voice suddenly cut off and Iko spoke instead.

“Hey, Mabel? I shut off his link. He’s being a jerk. If you want to send me that info, I can put it to good use. Do you remember my friend Shakira? She’d be brilliant in this role.”

“Thank you, Iko,” Mabel said. “I’d be happy to do that.” She paused for a second. “You and Deepak don’t hate me, do you?”

“Nope.” Deepak joined the chat for the first and probably last time.

“Of course, we don’t,” Iko said. “Joss is out of line. I’ll deal with him. You’re okay with me mentioning the project to Shakira?”

“Please go ahead. And if she needs to chat, just send her my way.” Mabel blew out a breath and sat on the edge of the massive bathtub. “Is anything particularly weird going on with Joss right now?”

“In my opinion, he’s hanging out with too many billionaires and getting jealous of their piles of money,” Iko said. “And he insists Sammy deserves nice things, and that their wedding will cost millions, but she doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who wants any of that. I think it’s all Joss.”

Mabel raised her eyebrows, interested in Iko’s take. He rarely strung so many words which weren’t in code together at once.

“I agree,” she said. “Sam’s very down to earth. I wonder if Joss has run all this by her? I can’t exactly text and ask her.”

“Why not?” Iko asked with all the confidence of a person who’d never been in a relationship. “You’re a girl. It would be better coming from you.”

“I’m Joss’s ex.”

There was a longish pause.

“I still don’t get it.”

“Because—” Mabel considered her options and how long she wanted this call to last. “Trust me, it wouldn’t work.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll send that blueprint to you,” Mabel said. “Let me know what you think and whether Shakira would be interested.”

“Will do.” Iko had obviously exceeded his conversational limits.

“Speak to you soon,” Mabel added.

“Okay, bye.”

She spent a few moments attaching the files to Iko’s email and sending them before turning off her phone. Silence settled around her like a warm winter fleece. She closed her eyes and wallowed in the quietness and comfort. There were no streetlights destroying the beauty of the night sky, no sirens, and nothing more sinister than the occasional hoot of an owl.

Mabel wandered over to the large window and looked at the almost full moon. Colin never seemed to bother to close the blinds or drapes, and she’d soon followed suit. She couldn’t imagine being back in Santa Clara, meeting with investors, trying to climb the increasingly fraught and narrowing ladder to success. She’d succeeded more than once. Looking up at those dangerous heights from where she stood now, she didn’t want to risk it again, and more importantly she didn’t need to.

There. Mabel let out a breath. She’d finally admitted it to herself. Now all she had to do was find the courage to tell her old team she’d made her last concession to them. She had to stop caving into Joss. It wasn’t helpful.

Colin had asked her to stay on for a while and she was more than happy to do so, but would he stay himself? His grandmother didn’t seem to think so, and he did have an actual job, which would surely require him to return to work at some point? Freddy had suggested the job wasn’t real, but from her late-night discussions with Colin, Mabel knew how hard he worked. The pride he took in completing projects for his clients matched her own.

The rattle of metal drew her attention to the stable yard behind the dower house where Freddy fought a never-ending war against the local wildlife—especially the foxes who got into everything. A flash of orange in the moonlight as a fox jumped the wall made her smile. Despite being told that foxes were a massive problem she was still on their side. Her love for the cartoon Robin Hood would always win out.

She was considering returning to bed when an almighty screech rent the night air, making her clutch her phone to her chest and gulp. It happened again and she ran into the bedroom and flung herself onto the bed.