Sinners and Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

walk away – that’s if she turned up, and he wasn’t at all certain she would. But he had no intention of spending the interim with Thora Robertson.
    â€˜Thank you for arranging for the coat to be brought here, Miss Robertson.’ He’d intended the remark as a dismissal but she continued to hover in the doorway. ‘Is there anything else you wish to discuss?’
    â€˜There is, Mr Evans.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I hope you don’t think that I am talking out of turn, but you know what gossips the girls are.’
    â€˜I trust you to put a stop to their idle talk, Miss Robertson.’ As she was blocking the doorway, he set down the carrier bag, thrust his hands into his pockets and leaned against his desk.
    â€˜It’s rule number eight, Mr Evans. Staff are only allowed to buy goods for their immediate family, especially sale goods, which are in high demand by our regular customers.’
    â€˜If you are referring to the coat, I bought it for my sister-in-law, Miss Robertson,’ Joey lied glibly.
    â€˜But Mrs Evans works for the company.’
    â€˜I have two sisters-in-law, Miss Robertson. My eldest brother’s wife, Mrs Sali Evans, does indeed work for the company. But I thought that my other brother, Victor’s wife, Mrs Megan Evans, would appreciate a present after her confinement.’
    Thora Robertson’s cheeks flamed crimson at his reference to pregnancy. ‘Please accept my apologies for raising the matter, Mr Evans.’
    â€˜Who did you think I bought the coat for, Miss Robertson?’ he challenged.
    â€˜I didn’t know …’ Her voice trailed off in embarrassment.
    He turned to the window in his office that overlooked the shop floor. Tonia was standing behind the ladies’ underwear counter and he recalled asking her to relay a message about the coat to his assistant manager, Sam. She had seen him with Rhian, guessed that the coat had been for her and no doubt told the entire staff that he was buying a coat for Rhian Jones.
    The displays, glass-fronted drawers and cupboards in Tonia’s section were immaculate. Her hair was neatly combed, her black dress and white lace collar prim and businesslike. She was the embodiment of the highly trained, efficient Gwilym James assistant, yet less than two weeks after she’d begun to work in the store, he was sorry he’d allowed her to talk him into taking her on. And not just because she was overly familiar with him during working hours.
    The four-year age gap between them had led him to treat Tonia in much the same way Lloyd and Victor did; as an immature and occasionally annoying little sister. If they were closer than most cousins, it was simply because they lived in the same town and their respective families always celebrated birthdays, Christmas and Easter together. But since her first day in the store, Tonia had volunteered for every errand that brought her near his office, used every pretext to dog him and deliberately hung back when the store closed because his path to his father’s house took him past her mother’s shop.
    Her crush on him was embarrassing and exasperating in equal measure. But the one thing he couldn’t understand after being subjected to her increasingly blatant flirting was the request she’d made for a transfer to the Pontypridd store soon after she’d started work. She’d informed Miss Robertson that she wanted to leave Tonypandy because too many people knew her in the town and came in to talk to her without any intention of buying anything.
    It was an excellent excuse – if excuse it was – because the supervisor was continually shooing Tonia’s old school friends away from her counter. But he couldn’t help suspecting that another reason lay behind Tonia’s application. However, if there was one, he couldn’t fathom it. He would have gladly sent her to Timbuktu if it meant she’d leave him