Protection Read Online Free PDF Page A

was certain to have his butcher’s apron on under his tux.
    But she had the jacket and she was ready. Aside from one, last thing.
    The ritual.
    A solution Carmichael had come up with after Carrie, on the eve of a phenomenally, glamorous party, had suddenly got cold feet. The function hadn’t been anything she hadn’t done before. In fact, she’d been to hundreds of the things, but for some strange reason, on this occasion nerves had got the better of her and bursting into tears she had begged Carmichael to turn the car around and take her home.
    A request Carmichael was more than happy to fulfil, on the condition she gave him a very good reason why first.
    Still crying, Carrie had done just that. It was, she wept, because she felt she didn’t deserve any of this. Why was she being invited to this party? What had she ever done to warrant such a grand invitation? One, piddly, little soap and a supporting role in a single film. That was all. Hardly enough to deserve rubbing shoulders with famous movie stars and legendary singers. She should go home. Right now. Before someone decided it had all been a huge mistake and she was turned away at the door.
    They didn’t turn round. Instead, Carmichael held her hand and gave her every reason why she did deserve to be there and on arrival at the party he skillfully guided her from guest to guest, effortlessly including Carrie in their small talk before pointing out their genuine smiles and words of congratulations the moment they’d moved on. Proving, he hoped, how much she was liked and respected.
    Unfortunately his spirited words only lasted until they were out of the door and back inside the car, then the doubts came flooding back, and Carrie was crying again, leaving Carmichael to try and come up with a solution. A task he quickly discovered had to be completed in record time, especially after Carrie told him she felt this way before every occasion of note and even more especially as he knew Carrie was about to embark on a promotional tour for her new film, ‘Avenging Angels’. The long awaited sequel to ‘Angels with Attitude’ which in a single weekend was set to catapulte Carrie’s career so high they were both in danger of nose bleeds, and which promised to be so stressful that not only were Carrie’s nerves in grave danger of being torn to shreds, but for the first time in her life she was considering wearing false finger nails. Her own already gnawed to the quick as she sought desperately to overcome her terror.
    Terrifed himself that Carrie might pull out altogether, Carmichael organised a distraction in the shape of a house hunt, a search that culminated in the discovery of her current home - a twelve bedroom manor house set in nine acres of Surrey countryside. Delighted with it, Carrie’s mind had finally settled on something other than stress and the best way to chew on plastic fingernail replacements, and it was while they touring the recently re-decorated property that Carmichael had come up with the ritual.
    â€œThis is just lovely.”He’d enthused, running an appraising eye over the sweeping staircase in the grand entrance. “Pleased with it?”
    â€œOf course.”Carrie had replied. “I love it. It’s spacious, it’s modern, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”
    â€œOkay, so, tell me then. How did you manage to afford it?”
    â€œWhat do you mean how did I afford it? You know how. I used the money I made from the movie.”
    â€œExactly! You used the money you made from the movie. Money you earned. No one gave you this place, Carrie. No one handed it to you on a plate. It was your own, hard work that made it all happen and you should remember that. And next time you get an attack of the wobbles, and start thinking that you don’t deserve all the recognition and praise, walk round this house and just remind yourself that without all those long, tedious