Damage by PJ Adams Read Free Book Online Page A

Damned. Rent .
    “Oh, Dad.”
    She glanced down at the letter again, and that was when she saw the signature.
    The Estate. Half the village was owned by the Estate, and it was all part of the Hall.
    That name.
    Nicholas Blunt.
    §
    “What is it, hun? What’s the matter?”
    She’d put a brave face on it, tried to get on with things. She’d left her father with his pot of tea, and now she stood at her cousin Karen’s door, trying desperately not to cry.
    “What’s happened?”
    It was no good. It just burst out. One moment she was standing there, and then she was in Karen’s arms, sobbing her heart out. All of it in one big flood. Everything that had built up over the last few days.
    “I’m sorry,” she sobbed, into her cousin’s shoulder. “I...”
    Karen shushed her and held her, and eventually the heaving sobs began to ease.
    “It’s him,” Holly said, finally able to talk. “Blunt. Up at the Hall.”
    “He shouldn’t have fired you,” said Karen. “I told him that, and I charged him your hours for the rest of the week.”
    “No, it’s not that. It’s... he’s kicking us out. Dad hasn’t been paying the rent and Blunt’s kicking us out, Karen.”
    §
    “So what do you want to do about it?”
    Karen had skipped her evening class, refusing to leave Holly when she was so upset. Harry and Beth were in the front room with a DVD and freshly popped corn, and Karen and Holly were at the kitchen table with big mugs of tea.
    “What can we do? They’re kicking us out. Dad hasn’t been paying the rent. The letter said we’re seven months in arrears.”
    “They can’t just kick you out like that,” said Karen. She was a small woman, easily overlooked, but she had more fight in her than an angry bulldog when she got set off the wrong way. “There are laws about eviction. You need to call Citizens’ Advice, talk to one of their lawyers. You’ve lived in the village all your life, you’ve been in that cottage over four years – you have rights.”
    Holly couldn’t focus. Her mind kept leaping from thought to thought. Karen had already offered them one of the holiday lets for as long as they wanted. “It’s off season,” she had said. “There’s always room outside the summer.”
    “He tried to kiss me,” Holly said now, mug raised in two hands, as if she could hide behind it. Tried to . He’d more than tried to.
    Karen’s eyes narrowed. “Is that all he did?” she said. “Or did he do anything more? We’ll have the bastard.”
    “No, just that,” said Holly, hurriedly. “I stopped him.”
    “You think that’s why he’s evicting you? Just because you gave him the brush off?”
    Holly shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t even think right now.” All the work, the long hours, all the horrible jobs that no-one else wanted to do so you just put on a brave face and took the money. Scraping to get by and keep her studies going and now this . It felt like her whole world was being torn apart, just because of one stupid letter. One stupid man.
    “You’re not going to do anything foolish, are you, hun? No stomping up there and confronting him. Are you listening? You’ve got to do things properly: talk to people who know the law, get them to put a stop to it. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
    “Oh yes,” said Holly. “I’ll do it properly. I don’t ever want to see that man again.”
    §
    He called her, of course.
    She should have known that a man like him – Blunt by name and clearly blunt by nature – would not give up easily.
    Tuesday evening, one of her rare free evenings, and Holly’s phone buzzed in her bag. As soon as she pressed ‘Answer’ to the unknown number, he launched straight in.
    “Nicholas Blunt, from the Hall. Look, I’m not happy with how we left things the other day. I’m not used to apologizing and I bet you could tell. Can we talk? Can I try and do it properly this time? I’m outside. Let me take you for a drink, or maybe a bit to eat, and start