Chapter Forty-Eight

‘There was really no need for you to do this.’

Jason tutted. ‘No need whatsoever, Martha, but I’m doing it all the same.’

‘You were just terrified I might go into premature labour and make a mess on the office carpets, weren’t you?’

‘If I was worried about that, do you think I’d have you in my car, running the risk of ruining the leather seats?’

Martha smiled. ‘It’s a nice car.’

‘So it bloody well should be for the price.’

‘Not much room in the back though,’ she said, twisting her head round to look at the minuscule space where there was just enough room to put a small overnight bag; that’s if you only needed a toothbrush.

‘One doesn’t buy an Audi R8 for space,’ said Jason. ‘It’s all about the performance.’

‘Obviously.’

In spite of her determination to remain at the office after being rescued from the lift, Martha was now reluctantly grateful that Jason had effectively taken her hostage and bundled her off the premises. She’d made it through the first meeting of the day, but when it was over and she’d risen to her feet to return to her desk, she’d suddenly felt dizzy and had felt herself falling.

When she came to, and in her befuddled light-headed state, she was vaguely aware that she was on the floor and Jason was barking out orders to give her space and for someone to fetch a glass of water. Within a few minutes her head had cleared, and she was being helped to her feet. Feeling acutely embarrassed at the commotion she had caused, she’d apologised, but Jason told her to be quiet, and what was more, he was taking her straight home. In vain she’d protested that she was perfectly all right, but he was having none of it.

‘We’ll call your husband from my car and explain that you’re on your way home,’ he’d told her.

The worst of it had been when she’d stepped into the lift and had experienced what she could only think was a mild form of a panic attack. The baby must have picked up on her reaction and had started jumping about inside her like a gymnast performing backflips.

‘Yeah, I know, a scary prospect getting stuck a second time in the lift, and with me for company,’ Jason had quipped, taking her arm. ‘But let’s work on the theory that rarely does lightning strike twice in the same place. Especially on the same day.’ He’d kept his hand on her arm all the way down to the underground car park.

Now, as she sat in the passenger seat of his car as he drove at speed out of London, she said, ‘You realise you’re going to have to shoehorn me out of this seat, don’t you?’

‘Don’t worry about that; if needs be, I’ll use a crowbar, then sling you over my shoulder.’

‘With the extra weight I’m carrying on board, you’ll give yourself a hernia.’