Fall From Grace

by Nora Kay

Genres: Sagas

Synopsis

Tim Morrison seems to be a model of respectability - until the day he comes home to tell his devoted wife Felicity that he is no longer the trusted partner in a solicitors' firm. He has been fired - and may go to jail - because he has been caught 'borrowing' the money his clients trusted him with. At first there seems to be hope: Tim's mother will give him enough money and more to pay back his partners. Against her better judgement, Felicity agrees to cope with her shame - and Tim's broken-hearted mother - without sharing his secret with their daughter. But then the truth begins to come out - about Tim's other secrets and lies. Soon it seems that no matter what Felicity does, Tim's dishonesty will ruin the lives of all three women.

Release date: April 11, 2013

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Print pages: 496

Sample

It was the sound of the car stopping that made Felicity Morrison raise her head. Getting up from her knees she removed her gardening gloves, straightened her skirt and walked quickly down the drive. There was a surprised but welcoming smile on her face. Tim wasn’t alone, he had brought someone home.

‘Hello, dear.’

There was no answering smile. ‘Felicity, give me a hand with these, will you?’

‘Of course.’

The young man, a stranger to her, was taking cardboard boxes from the boot of the car. He looked up briefly, gave Felicity an uncertain smile, then carried on. When the boot was emptied and the boxes on the pavement, he looked to Tim as though for instructions.

‘Take that lot up to the front door and leave them there. Then you had better get on your way,’ he said curtly.

Felicity felt embarrassed. Surely there was no need for that tone of voice. Giving Tim a questioning look which he ignored, she went ahead with two of the smaller boxes. The front door was wide open, it usually was when the day was sunny and warm, and after putting her load inside the vestibule she went back.

‘My briefcase, take it with you,’ Tim said handing it over. It was bulging with papers.

‘Tim,’ she began.

‘Not now.’ When the pavement was cleared he turned to his helper. ‘Thanks,’ he said.

The young man nodded but it was obvious he was uncomfortable and anxious to get away. The car door shut and a moment later the car moved off.

This was becoming more puzzling by the minute. ‘Where is he going with your car?’ Felicity asked.

Tim didn’t answer and they walked in silence up to the front door, Felicity with Tim’s briefcase and he with an armful of folders. The briefcase was heavy and Felicity was glad to put it down beside the boxes.

‘Tim, what is going on?’

‘You’ll know soon enough,’ her husband said grimly. ‘Meantime I suggest you help me carry these to the foot of the stairs. They can remain there for the time being.’

In a short time they had the boxes neatly stacked.

‘What now?’ she said, straightening up and looking at him.

‘Nothing more for you to do, but before I take these to my study I need a drink, a stiff drink, and I suggest you have one as well.’

If Felicity was uneasy before she was scared now. ‘Stop this, Tim, and tell me what has happened. Tell me now, this minute,’ she said her voice rising.

‘Something has happened, you’re right about that,’ he said going along to the sitting-room. Felicity followed. Tim went straight to the drinks cabinet and taking out the whisky bottle poured himself a generous measure.

‘What can I get you?’

‘Nothing, thank you.’

‘Sure?’

‘Quite sure.’ A cup of tea would have been very welcome but it would take too long to make.

‘Then I suggest you sit down.’

She did. This was unbearable. Felicity swallowed nervously and clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking. With every passing moment she was becoming more fearful and angry too. It was cruel of Tim to do this – keeping her in suspense. Was it so awful that he was afraid to tell her? She shivered.

Tim took his whisky with him and sat down in the deep leather armchair. First he swallowed more of the amber liquid then put the glass down on the rosewood table close to a bowl filled with fresh flowers picked that morning from the garden.

‘As from today,’ he said slowly, ‘I am out of a job.’

She stared at him. He had to be joking, though it didn’t look or sound like it.

‘You have to be joking.’

‘I only wish I were.’

‘Why are you home at this time of day and with half the office with you?’ She wasn’t going to take him seriously.

‘I’ve just told you. My employment with Paton & Noble ceases as from today.’

‘Tim, none of this is making sense. You are a lawyer, a good one. Why would Paton & Noble want to terminate your employment?’

‘Because, my dear, certain irregularities have come to light,’ he said very quietly.

‘That can’t have anything to do with you.’

‘I’m afraid it has.’

‘No, Tim, I won’t believe this.’ Her eyes widened in shock. ‘No, not you, you wouldn’t.’ She was shaking her head and pleading with her eyes, yet knowing from the look on his face that he wasn’t going to deny it. ‘Why? Just tell me why?’ she said spreading her hands.

‘What I did wasn’t stealing, Felicity.’

‘No? What would you call it then?’

‘Borrowing. It goes on all the time.’

‘I find that hard to believe.’

‘Believe it or not as you wish but I can assure you it does. I was unlucky, things happened too quickly and I wasn’t prepared.’

It was early afternoon and the bright June sunshine was streaming in the window making the crystal vase on top of the china cabinet sparkle. The day was warm and Felicity wore a thin cotton skirt in a floral pattern with a short-sleeved white blouse open at the neck. Her long, slim, bare legs were tanned to a golden brown and on her feet she wore an old pair of Scholl’s sandals. The day hadn’t suddenly turned cold but she had. Felicity wrapped her arms around herself and waited for her husband to go on. He was taking his time.

‘I don’t intend going into the details,’ he said at last. ‘Suffice it to say I needed a fairly large sum of money quickly.’

‘How much? What does a large sum mean?’

He carried on as though she hadn’t spoken. ‘The money would have been’ – he appeared to be searching for a word – ‘returned if only things hadn’t happened so quickly.’

She could guess what that meant. Felicity hadn’t been married to a solicitor for twenty years without learning something. It did happen but never to a law firm like Paton & Noble.

‘You were using a client’s money,’ she said accusingly.

‘A temporary loan, Felicity, I keep telling you,’ Tim said from between clenched teeth.

‘There are other ways of getting a loan.’

‘And paying through the nose. No thank you.’

‘Better paying through the nose than losing your job I would have thought.’

‘True, but I never expected this to happen. We are all wise after the event.’

Felicity moistened her lips. ‘Did some poor old soul catch you out by passing away without giving you time to juggle with—’ her voice broke and she put her hand to her mouth.

He shrugged, reached for the whisky and drained the glass. ‘Something like that,’ he said.

‘Tim, I am trying very hard to keep calm but I am not making sense of this. What you haven’t explained to me is why you should want a large sum of money.’

He sighed and remained silent.

‘Tim, if you are in trouble I need to know about it.’

When he still remained silent she felt anger boiling up.

‘This doesn’t just concern you, it also concerns your wife and daughter.’

‘I’m aware of that.’

She swallowed. ‘Where has the money gone? What have you been doing? We enjoy a good standard of living but we don’t live beyond our means.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘I am very sure.’

‘You have your own car, a beautiful home and you and Joanna don’t want for anything.’

The unfairness of it almost rendered her speechless.

‘Tim, you have a very convenient memory. My car, since you brought that up, was bought to replace the old banger I had been driving for years and came out of the money Aunt Jean left me. And let me add that the little I earn from my illustrations keeps the car on the road.’ She didn’t add, not wanting him to know, that what was left went into her own bank account. There was something reassuring about having a few pounds in one’s own name. It wouldn’t go far but it gave her a little independence. A thought came to her. ‘Your car—’

‘That’s gone.’

‘I see.’ She looked about her at the tastefully furnished room remembering the time and care spent on the house to have it looking as it now did. ‘The house, will it have to go?’

‘We can’t stay here, we will have to move.’

Felicity took a deep, shaky breath. ‘Maybe, Tim, you could get your job back . . .’

‘Not a chance, not a hope in hell.’

‘Don’t give up so easily. Listen,’ Felicity said urgently, ‘you’ve worked very hard, long hours, ridiculously long hours and you’ve brought work home with you. All that should be—’

‘Taken into consideration. I made that point myself and it didn’t do me any good.’

‘What you did was very wrong and it is small wonder that everybody is shocked and disappointed.’

‘Don’t preach, for God’s sake.’

‘I wasn’t but it is better to face the truth.’ She worried her lower lip. ‘There has to be a way of you getting your job back.’

‘There isn’t.’

‘You seem very sure.’

‘I am.’

‘Well, I’m not. I’m trying to be supportive, Tim, but it isn’t easy when you are not being open.’

‘I made a mistake, I’m paying for it, leave it at that.’

‘We are paying for it,’ she corrected him.

‘If you want to be supportive then think about getting yourself a job, a proper job I mean, not fiddling about with little drawings that nobody wants.’

Felicity felt outraged that her illustrations should be treated with such contempt but she kept her temper under control.

‘I’ll start looking at the jobs vacant columns in the newspaper. Who knows, they may actually have something I could apply for.’

He smiled. ‘No need to take up that attitude, it was merely a suggestion but if you don’t want to help out—’

‘I do.’ Her eyes filled.

‘I’m sorry and I’m afraid I haven’t told you everything.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Paton & Noble are going to make a case of it.’

‘A case of it,’ Felicity repeated stupidly.

‘A court case,’ he said bitterly, ‘I could go to jail.’ Getting up abruptly he refilled his glass and she saw that his hand was shaking.

A look of horror crossed Felicity’s face. ‘No, Tim, she whispered, ‘not that, please not that.’

‘Better that you should be prepared.’

Until then Felicity had felt mostly anger and disbelief. It was seeing his hand shake that brought a rush of pity. Tim had been foolish, criminally foolish, but she was his wife. He would need her now as he never had before and he wouldn’t find her wanting. She would stand by him.

‘Tim,’ she said softly, ‘we’ll get through this. And don’t worry too much about Joanna, she is a sensible girl–’

He looked up sharply. ‘There is no need for Joanna to know anything.’

‘I don’t see how we can keep it from her.’

‘She doesn’t have to know now is what I meant.’

Their daughter, Joanna, was a first-year student at Edinburgh University and that was far enough away from her home in Hillhead, a village a few miles from Dundee, to make only the occasional visit to see her parents.

Felicity was smiling. ‘No, you are absolutely right. This will all blow over. Heavens above, Ralph Knight wouldn’t do that to you.’

‘He has.’

‘That would be to give you a fright and make sure the seriousness of the matter was brought home to you.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

Why did he always manage to make her feel foolish?

‘Ralph is a friend, a friend of both of us,’ she said defensively.

‘Past tense. Our so-called friend was at pains to explain that the matter is out of his hands.’

Another door closing.

‘Have you been gambling, is that it?’ Felicity shook her head vigorously and answered her own question. ‘No, that can’t be it. I’ve never known you to take any interest in gambling. Heavens! You don’t even have a bet on the Derby.’

‘Very true but for everything there is a first time, Felicity.’ When lying, he told himself, it was safer to stay within the shadow of truth. She was off on the wrong track but in a sense it had been a gamble and he’d lost. Playing around with a client’s money wasn’t as easy as it had at first appeared.

So that was it, Tim had been gambling. It was hard to believe but he had admitted it himself. She watched him get up.

‘I’m going up to my study and I would be grateful, Felicity, if I was not disturbed.’

‘That’s all right, Tim, I won’t disturb you,’ Felicity said quietly.

Sitting crouched in the chair, Felicity wished she had someone to confide in. A close relation, perhaps, but she had no one, no sister, no brother. Her father was a blurred memory of a kindly man who had sat her on his knees and told her stories and at other times had held her high up until she was squealing half in fright and half in excitement. Then the noise would have brought her mother through from the kitchen to scold him but she would be laughing. If only her mother were here now and she should have been, Felicity thought with the familiar ache. When it was only a slight discomfort she should have gone to see about it, not waited until she was in agony and it was too late to operate. From then on it had been downhill and in six weeks her darling mother was dead. That had been fourteen months ago yet the pain was still there, dulled but still very much there.

Felicity dragged herself back to the present and her worries. Tim made all the decisions, always had. She was seldom consulted about anything, her agreement taken for granted. Why hadn’t she asserted herself before this and demanded her say? She could only answer that by saying it hadn’t seemed to be important, not in the early days. Tim, clever Tim, would see to everything while she put all her energies into keeping the house the way it should be kept. That and seeing to her husband’s needs as well as her daughter’s and when necessary acting as the charming hostess.

She had been happy with her life and any spare time she had was spent working on her illustrations. Tim had always been slightly mocking about her funny little drawings as he called them but she didn’t let that bother her. Any small success she had was kept to herself. Felicity had done well at art school and at one time had dreamed of success in the art world. That had all changed when tall, handsome Timothy Morrison had walked into her life. Her friends had envied her. Six years older than Felicity, Tim had qualified as a lawyer gaining distinction and great things were expected of him. She thought herself so very, very lucky. Tim was everything she could have asked and more. As well as his good looks he had great charm. Only later did the little flaws appear. He could be very selfish and he could be jealous. It would anger him if he thought her over-friendly with a colleague and accuse her of flirting. It would appear to be all right for him to flirt with a pretty secretary at the Christmas party or some other function. Felicity never felt threatened. It all ended when the party finished and it was time to go home.

Tim went slowly upstairs and before going into his study went into their bedroom. The window was open and a light breeze was blowing the curtains. He took off his jacket and put it over the back of the basket chair. Then he loosened and removed his tie and undid the top button of his shirt. It was a relief to get the pressure away from his neck. Felicity, he knew, would give him a hand with the boxes if he asked but he wouldn’t. It would mean more talk and he couldn’t face any more of that. Better to bring the stuff upstairs now then he could close the study door and be alone.

It had been exhausting carrying the boxes upstairs. Tim wasn’t used to manual work but he found the physical effort helped to keep his mind off his troubles. When the task was completed he shut himself in the study and sat down behind his desk. The clutter was now in front of him which offended his eye. In a while when he could face it, he would have to sort through the papers and decide what should be kept and what could safely be thrown away. Some of the files should have been left behind in the office and he would have to find some way of returning them. Given more time it wouldn’t have happened. The speed of his departure, the unnecessary haste to get him off the premises, had been humiliating and deeply wounding.

Timothy Morrison groaned out loud and dropped his head in his hands. There was no escape from this nightmare. He only had to close his eyes and he was reliving the scene in Ralph Knight’s office. They had always got on well, he and Ralph, and there had been a small hope that his lapse would cost him no more than a severe reprimand. The matter would be left for the senior partner to deal with in his own way.

That way became clear the moment Tim stepped into Ralph Knight’s office and he saw his superior’s expression. All hope of clemency faded. Worry was etched on the older man’s face but so, too, was disgust.

‘Ralph, believe me, I am desperately sorry.’

‘Are you? I wonder. Sorry you have been found out would be nearer the truth,’ Ralph Knight said harshly. A hand waved him to a seat. Tim sat down.

‘I’ve been all kinds of a fool.’

‘You’ve been a damned fool and a whole lot worse.’

Both men were dressed in the obligatory dark suit and white shirt and on their feet each wore well-polished, black leather shoes. Ralph Knight was a small stout man with bushy eyebrows and around the eyes he was heavily wrinkled.

Tim, sitting opposite, looked shaken and apprehensive. He should have known that Ralph would take a very serious view. He was, after all, an Elder and a pillar of the church. They were nearly always the most unforgiving, he thought sourly.

‘Ralph, I can only repeat that I very much regret what has happened.’

‘You used your position of trust for your own ends. I was about to say that you are no better than a common thief but in my book you are worse.’

Tim flushed. ‘None of us is perfect,’ he mumbled.

‘True, but few of us stoop that low.’

‘No second chance?’

‘Did you expect one?’

He shrugged. ‘I haven’t spared myself as you know. I’ve worked very hard for Paton & Noble and I hoped, I still hope, that it would be taken into consideration.’

‘You were well paid for the work you did.’ He paused and Tim flinched at the cold contempt in the light blue eyes. ‘Unless I am very much mistaken this shocking business is going to cost the firm a few clients. Our reputation will suffer and that, I may tell you, I find more distressing than anything else. As for you, Tim, I have absolutely no sympathy, none whatsoever, you knew what you were doing.’ He paused and looked long and hard at the younger man. ‘It will be up to the court to decide your punishment.’

Tim’s handsome face turned a sickly white and his stomach clenched with fear. The threat had always been there but he hadn’t believed, not for a single moment, that they would take it that far. Not for his sake but to protect the good name of Paton & Noble, that old established and prestigious firm of solicitors.

‘Why take it to court,’ he said shakily, ‘when that can only damage the firm?’

‘Too many people already know or suspect and that in the long run could be more damaging. We have to be seen to get rid of the bad apple.’

‘For God’s sake, one mistake. You wouldn’t do that – you couldn’t do that to me?’ He was almost spluttering.

‘It is out of my hands.’

‘You are the senior partner, you make the decisions.’

‘I do and as the senior partner I did my duty as I saw it.’

Which meant, Tim thought despairingly, he hadn’t raised a finger to help.

‘My sympathy goes out to your wife and daughter. I am very sorry that Felicity and Joanna are to suffer.’ Ralph knew that Joanna was finishing her first year at Edinburgh University and he just hoped that this wouldn’t jeopardise her chance of graduating. With a need to end this here and now, Ralph got to his feet and Tim felt obliged to do the same.

‘You are finished here, Tim, and all that remains for you to do is clear your desk and hand over your car keys.’

‘Surely – I mean, I need the car,’ Tim said desperately.

‘You don’t, one of the clerks will drive you home.’

It was the final humiliation and Tim’s face went a dull red. He couldn’t fail to notice that rumours were circulating among the clerical staff, not a lot missed that bunch and now this would give substance to the rumours. As if that mattered – in a short time everybody would know. Tim almost stumbled from the room.

When he had gone, Ralph Knight sat down heavily and taking a folded white handkerchief from his pocket, mopped his brow. The whole, unpleasant business had taken its toll on him. Retirement had never looked more inviting. In all his years with Paton & Noble nothing like this had ever happened before. What, Ralph wondered, made a man do something like that. Was it greed or more likely in Tim’s case, had he got himself into some kind of trouble? He shook his head in perplexity. Such a waste. Timothy Morrison had appeared to have everything going for him. He had a good brain, handsome looks and a tall, athletic figure. His ready smile and that ease of manner never failed to charm his female clients. What would those same ladies think of him when it all came out?

In marriage he had chosen well. Felicity was a lovely woman with thick, blue-black hair and wonderful eyes. There was a warmth about her smile and it was for everybody. Ralph Knight was happily married to Lily, had never strayed, never wanted to, but that didn’t stop him from admiring a lovely woman. Joanna was very like her mother in appearance and from all accounts she was enjoying university and the freedom of living away from home. Too much freedom for our young wasn’t such a good idea, he often thought. This was 1965, the middle of the swinging sixties they were calling it. Today’s youngsters were pulling away, no longer willing to listen to the voice of experience. The ‘we know what is best for you’ ignored or ridiculed. Even the tinies were taking advantage. Children needed freedom to develop so said the experts and climbing on and over furniture was no longer frowned upon by young parents. Grandparents suffered in silence rather than risk being called old-fashioned. The price to pay if the visits were to continue.

Tim drew his hand across his tired eyes as though to rid himself of that scene with Ralph Knight. The wonderful career he had mapped out for himself was over. The dream of one day occupying the senior partner’s chair, shattered and gone. This would all be lost too, he thought, looking about him. When he had declared his intention of making the best bedroom – the master bedroom had been the description in the house details – his study, Felicity had tried to talk him out of it but his mind was already made up. The size of room was just right and it had the added advantage of being square-shaped. Tim was picturing the handsome desk and leather chair which had once belonged to his father and used by his mother, positioned to get maximum light from the double window. The walls would lend themselves to sturdy fitted shelves for his many books and files. A bedroom on the other hand was merely for sleeping in and provided there was enough space and there was to take a double bed and the essential furniture, that was all that was required. Holmlea, the name given to the house by the previous owner, had five bedrooms, four since one was now a study. The guest room and Joanna’s bedroom were similar in size and the smallest, which could only take a single bed, became a boxroom. Felicity had thought about making it her own, a place to work on her illustrations instead of making do with the kitchen table, but it had never come to anything.

Downstairs, Felicity couldn’t settle to anything and kept wandering about the kitchen like someone in a daze. She was forever lifting things up then putting them down again. Her brain was working but kept jumping from one thing to another. What would they do now that Tim had lost his job? How would they manage? Where would they live? With no reference how would Tim get another job? Who would employ him? A voice dug up from long ago answered her question. She remembered Tim saying in happier times how a good lawyer need never be without a job. There were always those shady concerns willing to turn a blind eye to any wrongdoing. In return they had that person’s considerable expertise to use as they wished. Tim’s fall from grace needn’t hold him back, not with his grasp of the law. Felicity went cold with dread. Would desperation make Tim go down that road? Her throat went dry and she crossed to the sink to fill the kettle, then stood watching as though that would help it come to the boil all the sooner. After she made the tea she wondered if she should take a cup up to Tim then decided against it. He might not thank her for it. Sitting down at the kitchen table she nursed the cup and began to take little sips from it.

This was the day she took the car and did her weekly shopping in Dundee. There was still time but she wouldn’t do it. They would have to make do with what was in the house. The remains of the cold ham served with lettuce and tomato and fried potatoes would take very little time to prepare. The lettuce would be limp though the heart might not be too bad. How nice to pop out of the back door and pull a fresh one from the garden. She had wanted a small vegetable garden but Tim had not been in favour. He thought it would be untidy as well as unnecessary. Most of what was grown would be surplus to requirements and end up being given to neighbours or left to rot. Far better to buy what she needed.

At six thirty Felicity put out the place mats on the dining-room table and arranged the cutlery. At seven o’clock when the fried potatoes were turning a golden brown, she went to the foot of the stairs and shouted to Tim that the meal was ready. Maybe he hadn’t heard her voice through the thickness of the study door and she went up. When she was halfway there the study door opened.

‘I thought you hadn’t heard me,’ she said turning round and going down again. He grunted something.

Felicity served the meal and for the first few minutes there was silence apart from the ticking of the clock which seemed louder than usual. Neither of them finished what was on their plate.

‘Nothing else for me, just coffee,’ Tim said getting up.

‘I’ll bring it through to the sitting-room.’ She cleared the dining-room table, put everything away in its place then collected the coffee pot from the kitchen and joined Tim. The cups and saucers were already on the small table with a small bowl of brown sugar and a jug of milk. They both preferred milk to cream.

‘Thanks,’ he said when she handed him a cup.

‘Tim, we need to talk.’

‘Yes, I suppose we do.’

She swallowed. ‘How soon before the case—’

‘Comes to court? Hard to tell. With some there is a long delay while others,’ he shrugged, ‘perhaps two or three months.’

‘If it should be a hefty fine will your mother help?’

‘Felicity, you don’t seem to understand or you are refusing to do so. There is a strong possibility that I could go to prison.’

She raised scared eyes. ‘No, Tim, it won’t come to that.’

‘I wish I could believe that.’

‘Joanna, what is this going to do to her?’ she whispered. ‘How do we tell her?’

‘We don’t.’

‘She will have to know some time.’

‘Some time in the future. I told you all this before.’

‘I know, but what if she finds out? There is bound to be talk.’

‘Hereabout yes but she isn’t likely to hear anything in Edinburgh.’

Felicity was shaking her head. ‘The risk is there, I would rather she heard it from us.’

‘So she shall when I consider the time is right. Why distress Joanna now? She can go on enjoying herself or is it that you would rather she was made miserable now?’

‘Of course not.’ Why did he always put her in the wrong or make it look as though she were?

Somehow Felicity got through the rest of the evening. Tim had returned to his study and she ironed two shirts and a blouse. The rest were damp enough to be left until the morning when she might feel more like doing them. She put the iron on its heel to cool and after folding the ironing board put it away in the cupboard under the stairs.

When eleven o’clock struck Tim came downstairs. Felicity thought he looked terrible but didn’t say so. They each drank a cup of tea and ate a Rich Tea biscuit. When Tim suggested he should sleep in Joanna’s bedroom Felicity merely nodded. Sleep wouldn’t come easily but in separate rooms they could toss and turn without disturbing the other. If this was to go on for more than a night or two Felicity decided she would make up the bed in the guest room. Joanna might arrive unexpectedly and not take too kindly to finding that her room had been occupied. She would wonder why her parents had ceased to share a bedroom.

Felicity thought she should keep as much to routine as possible though there would be nothing to hurry for in the morning. She set the breakfast table with the blue and white china and put out a clean white napkin for Tim. That done she put the empty milk bottles on the back step ready for the milkman. Tim usually saw to the locking up but he must have forgotten. Felicity checked that both front and back doors were securely locked and all the downstairs windows shut. With that taken care of she climbed the stairs and went into the bedroom where she was to sleep alone. After undressing she slipped a nightdress over her head and got into bed. She lay on her own side of the bed and prayed that sleep would come quickly. It didn’t and, thr