I never meant to let this lie for so long, and I'm so sorry about that. This is just a filler chapter, but it kind of wraps things up a bit. We'll continue with Dr Clarkson in the next chapter.
The elevator doors dinged as they opened to reveal the office exactly how she left it. Anna was on the phone to a client, while Elsie and Charles were at his desk bent over some paperwork. She could see Joseph Moseley carrying a box down the hallway, and several of their staff were working at their desks, while several more seemed to have taken over the conference room. She glanced over at Sybil's cubicle to find that it was empty, the light switched off and the computer displaying its screensaver. She swallowed the unpleasant feeling that welled up in her throat and headed to her office. After dumping her bag behind her desk and firing up her computer she swung by her friend's office.
"Anyone fancy a cup of coffee?" She asked, causing her friends to look up.
Elsie grinned at her and threw down her pen. She stretched like a cat before getting to her feet. Her husband merely moved Elsie's discarded pen and carried on making notes on the side of what looked like a bank statement.
"I can't think of anything better." Elsie said, "Charles here insisted we come in early to get a headstart on all this, so I feel due for a break."
"Charles?" Isobel asked, "How about you?"
"I'm alright thank you, Isobel." He answered, barely looking up "It's good to have you back."
Isobel frowned at his less than warm welcome, but Elsie just rolled her eyes, and headed towards the kitchen, pulling Isobel along behind her.
"Is he upset with me over the Kruger case?" Isobel asked watching as Elsie reached for the cups. She knew that Charles was a man who was professional at all times, but she had assumed that their friendship and years of knowing one another might have bought her a little leeway. Elsie sighed and turned to face her friend.
"Not exactly." she said "He doesn't understand why you did it, and he's upset that we look foolish in front of Violet. You know he has a soft spot for her. But he knows that it's not usually how you...conduct yourself, so if anything he's a little confused."
Isobel felt her heart sink. She had now lost the respect of one of her oldest friends.
"Hey, don't take it to heart." Elsie said, laying a hand on her friend's arm "Believe me when I say you're the last thing on his mind right now."
Something about her tone made Isobel frown.
"What do you mean?" she asked, as Elsie turned to pour the hot water into their cups.
"Well, his current case isn't going too well. The opposition has pulled in a last-minute witness that is threatening to undermine everything. I've barely seen him this last week, he's been working so late. Thomas and William had a fistfight in the hall the other day, I'm not sure what over, so Charles had to wade in and pull them apart. Thomas has taken leave, so we don't have our investigator at the moment, and he received a call from Robert last night."
Elsie handed Isobel her cup and leant against the sink.
"Robert Crawley?" Isobel asked, "Why?"
Elsie took a sip from her mug and refused to meet Isobel's gaze.
"Elsie," Isobel said in a warning tone "What aren't you telling me?"
"Well. Sybil got married on Saturday." she said, still deliberately not looking at her friend "To Tom Branson."
"What?!" Isobel spluttered "Our Tom Branson?" she strode to the door of the kitchen and looked over at the cubicles. Sure enough, his cubicle was also deserted.
"Our Tom Branson." Elsie confirmed, "They had a court wedding on Saturday, and didn't tell the family until last night."
"I didn't even know they were dating," Isobel said in a wonderous tone
"No one did." Said Elsie with a shrug "I mean yes, we all knew he fancied her, but apparently it's more serious than just a crush. Robert accused Charles of keeping it from him, claiming that Charles should be keeping an eye out on her here."
"Charles would never keep anything from Robert."
"Well, he did keep us from him until we were officially engaged, and I don't think Robert has ever fully forgiven him for it. You know what he's like, he was on the phone for over an hour last night ranting about how Sybil has ruined her life, and it doesn't help that Tom has threatened many times to give up being a paralegal and become a journalist instead."
"But," Isobel said "married."
"I know," Elsie replied shaking her head. "No one knows how long they've been seeing each other. Robert is threatening anything he can think of, ranging from castration to the loss of everything he holds dear, and Cora is trying the placate him. It's not working though. Surprisingly, the only one who doesn't seem to have lost her head is Violet. She's offered Tom and Sybil her cottage in the country for their honeymoon, best she could do at such short notice. If nothing else its kept them out of Robert's reach."
"And you wonder why I never take leave." Isobel commented, "I leave and the world goes up in flames."
"Speaking of which, Violet has been trying to get hold of you to discuss that case."
Isobel groaned, the last thing she wanted was to start her Monday morning with a gloat session from Violet.
"Don't ignore her, she's been driving Ethel mad. She hasn't stopped calling, even though she was told that you were on leave." Elsie told her, seemingly reading Isobel's mind.
"Elsie!" Charles called from the office door "Can you take a look at this? I think I've found something."
"Coming!" Elsie called, turning to place her cup in the sink. She winked at her friend as she left the kitchen. "No rest for the wicked eh?"
Isobel lingered in the kitchen for a few moments to finish her own cup of coffee and headed back to her office. She found a note stuck to her computer screen from Ethel. 'Phone Violet' it read and had been underlined several times.
Isobel plucked the note off her screen and scrunched it up in her hand. She plopped down in her chair and picked up the phone, dialling Violet's office.
After a few moments of being transferred by reception, Isobel finally heard Violet's voice on the other end of the line. She immediately lobbed the crushed note into the bin.
"Violet Grantham."
"Hello Violet, its Isobel. I got a message to give you a call?"
"Well look who's finally decided to come back to work. Have a pleasant break?"
"It was lovely thank you," Isobel replied, refusing to give Violet the satisfaction that she had taken leave because of her. "How can I help you?"
Violet sighed on the other end of the line, and Isobel could hear papers being shuffled.
"Well I doubt you've heard, as I know Elsie locked you out of your own emails, but after you left there was a fight at the courthouse. My client-"
"Mr Kruger?"
"Yes, Mr Kruger, got into a fight with the man who was his alibi. There was a lot of shouting and blaming one another, which resulted in my client suffering a heart attack. He's currently in hospital, under guard I promise you that, but he's still in a critical condition."
"And the alibi?"
"He immediately lawyered up, with Richard Carlise, if I'm not mistaken." Violet snorted "I had hoped that someday he'd retire to his snake house, yet here we are. We're waiting on tenterhooks to see if my client pulls through to see if we pursue anything further, but I wanted to give you a warning."
"I appreciate that thank you, Violet," Isobel replied. There was a slight pause on the line as neither of them knew what to say next. "I hear congratulations are in order." Isobel eventually said, "Elsie tells me that Sybil got married over the weekend."
"Yes, but I wouldn't say congratulations are in order just yet." Violet responded "Wait till they back to the office in one piece. Robert is being totally unreasonable as usual. He gets that from his father you know."
Isobel smiled to herself, she had only met Violet's late husband once and she had found him to be quite a docile fellow.
"You should message her." Violet said, "She'd appreciate it."
"I very much doubt Sybil wants to hear from me right now," Isobel said, "I don't blame her for it, but I think I'll leave her in peace."
"Nonsense, Sybil is very fond of you. You're one of her heroes. She'll get over the disappointment of realizing ones heroes are human too. We all have had to do it."
"I...I... well thank you, Violet." Isobel spluttered, not sure if Violet had just given her one hell of a compliment or one hell of a put-down.
"I'll keep you updated on the health of my client," Violet said, not acknowledging Isobel's obvious shock "Enjoy being back at work."
With that she dropped the phone, leaving Isobel sitting there in shock.
She replaced the phone gently into the receiver and let out a long breath. She had barely been at work for an hour, and already it felt like the world had been turned upside down.
She picked up her cellphone, and scrolled through her contacts, pausing on Sybil's name. Should she send her a message? As certain as she was that Sybil didn't want to hear from her, she did genuinely wish the girl well, even if the marriage had come on a little suddenly.
She opened the messaging option and quickly typed out a short but sweet message, and hit send before she could regret it. She then tucked her phone away into her drawer and turned her attention to her computer where she planned to spend the next few hours catching up on all the emails she had missed while she had been at Beryl's, as well as going over the cases she knew she had coming up. She cursed Elsie again for locking her out of the system before gritting her teeth and starting. Thankfully she had had the presence of mind to ask Ethel not to book any meetings for this morning, so at least she didn't have to worry about a client dropping in. She only had a staff meeting late this afternoon, purely to reorganize who was on what now that Thomas was on leave, and Tom and Sybil were both out of the office.
About an hour after she got started her phone pinged and she glanced down to see a text from Sybil.
'Isobel, thank you for your wishes. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but with everything that happened, I didn't get the chance.'
There was a photo attached of Sybil and Tom's hands clasped, showing off their wedding rings.
Isobel responded by sending back a plethora of emojis and immediately set about ordering them a wedding gift. She told herself that she would do the exact same thing for any one of the employees at the firm, but a nagging voice reminded her that Sybil had always and now always would be that tiny bit more special to her.
Feeling happier that Sybil didn't absolutely hate her, she tackled the rest of her paperwork with renewed energy.
"We are absolutely stretched thin, and if it doesn't get resolved soon one of us is going to have a nervous breakdown!"
"And that person is going to be me! I have worked after hours every night this last week, plus most of the weekend as well. I don't recall seeing you in the office after sundown."
"That is because I have a life Rob, it is hardly my fault that you don't."
"Alright enough!" Charles Carson bellowed from his seat at the head of the conference table. "You two standing there hurling insults at one another is not going to help the situation." He added quietly once everyone in the room had turned to look at him.
The two men glared at one another and sat back down in their chairs, both wearing matching sour expressions. The meeting had already been going on for over an hour, and everyone was tired and fractious. Tempers were running thin, and even though she had only just come back from leave, Isobel was dying to go home and have a long bath.
"Where are we stretched most thin?" Shel asked, running her fingers through her hair "and what can we put off until next week?"
A chorus of voices swelled up, each trying to be louder than the other in an effort to be heard. She winced and held up a hand "One at a time please!"
"Family law we can delay most of it. The one pressing one is the Thackeray custody case, but I can handle most of that myself." Joseph Moseley said quietly, running his pen down the sheaf of papers in front of him.
"Criminal law is struggling, we have two bail hearings tomorrow, the Robertson case which we won't get a continuance on, and the Fry case which is starting on Wednesday." William added, "Sybil worked on the Fry case, so I have to admit having her not here for the start is going to be a challenge, not to mention we rely heavily on Thomas, and who knows if he's coming back"
"Well maybe you shouldn't have punched him on the nose then should you?" Jefferey said sarcastically. Isobel narrowed her eyes at him. He was a short man with brown hair that seemed to flop into his eyes on a regular basis and a thick neck that Isobel could quite happily wring the longer this meeting went on.
"One more comment like that from you Jefferey, and I will personally throw you out of this boardroom" Charles muttered darkly, earning himself an amused glance from his wife. It was unlike Charles to ever make threats, so Isobel knew that this meeting was taxing even to him. She noticed Elsie reach under the table to pat his leg and smiled to herself when she saw Charles take a deep breath in response.
"I'm not trying to be difficult Mr Carson, but who the hell approved this leave anyway, knowing all this was happening?" Jeffery asked tiredly. Isobel almost felt sorry for him.
"Sybil and Tom are taking this as unpaid leave, so there wasn't much we could do," Elsie answered before Charles could "and as for Thomas, he did have a broken nose so there isn't much we can do there either. He will be back by next week, and in the meantime, we're considering hiring Lloyd and Levingsons second investigator on a temporary basis. He'll be here tomorrow, but obviously, there are only certain cases he can work on due to conflict of interest."
"And what about Mrs Crawley last week?" Jefferey asked, pointing a finger in her direction.
"Isobel hasn't taken a day off in over two years, not to mention the fact that last week we weren't down two associates and an investigator," Charles said
"Four associates, Madge and Gwen are both out with the flu." Elsie added
"Madge was on the Thackeray Case with me." Joseph chimed in "But I do still have Phyllis, so as I said I can manage."
"Gwen was with Elsie and I in the Ebenhauzer case, which has taken a turn for the worse." Charles sighed and steepled his fingers "But I dare say we can manage between us."
"What's a late night at the office between husband and wife anyway?" Elsie sighed, rubbing her temples. She looked like she wanted to crawl under a desk and sleep for a week, her face was drawn and she had dark circles under her eyes.
"Tom is a loss in property law." Rob pointed out "But I will do my best to reshuffle where I can. I can't believe it's only Monday and the week is already like this."
"The problem with this firm is sex." a small blonde woman said from where she was helping herself to a cup of coffee. Her statement was met by silence in the boardroom, as they all absorbed what she had said.
"I beg your pardon?" Charles spluttered, surprisingly being the first to recover.
"Yes Edna, I think you better explain what exactly you mean by that?" Elsie added. Gone was the tired woman of a few moments ago. Instead, she had been replaced by the ice dragon that Isobel would have given her right arm to get away from.
"Well no offence, but if Mrs Crawley hadn't had a fling with a witness from the Kruger case, you would still be knee-deep in proceedings, and Sybil wouldn't have run off to get married. William and Thomas wouldn't have had a fight over the girl from the shop over the road, and we'd still have an investigator. And if Madge and Gwen hadn't been out partying in the rain on Friday, maybe they wouldn't have caught the flu."
"No offence might have been meant but I can guarantee you that offence is taken." Isobel snapped. "It was not a fling, and I'll thank you to keep comments like that to yourself in the future."
Edna opened her mouth to argue but closed it again that the identical expressions Charles, Elsie and Isobel had on their faces.
"Yes Edna, I know we've only been with us a few months, but we work together here. We're a family if you will, and no matter what we do not throw one another under the bus." Charles added, before closing his notebook with a snap. "I don't think any of us are going to achieve anything more with this meeting. Go home all of you, and we'll muddle along tomorrow."
"Anyone who is feeling shorthanded, please feel free to bring Isobel on, her cases were delayed until next week anyway, so she has offered to assist where she can when she can. Make use of the paralegals, and make sure nothing is left lying around for the investigator to use against us in a later case." Elsie added as the scraping of chairs filled the room. The three partners waited until the room had cleared before daring to look at one another.
"Who knew that sex could cause a staff shortage?" Elsie asked, collapsing into giggles.
"I wonder if the other firms are aware of this?" Isobel asked, her own laughter joining that of her friends. Charles allowed himself a smile before adding
"I know she's new, but can we all agree on one thing? It doesn't have to be now, but she has to go."
"Oh yes," chimed Elsie."She has to go. Having said that, we need to go as well." Charles nodded and gathered up his things.
"Charles has agreed to dinner with Robert and Cora this evening, and tonight is not a night we wish to be late," Elsie explained. Isobel nodded
"Good luck. Perhaps Robert will have calmed down after a glass of wine."
"I highly doubt that, but what he expects me to do about it I have no idea," Charles said gruffly. Elsie pulled a face behind his back and disappeared into their office to retrieve their coats.
"Charles," Isobel said, "For what it's worth, I am really sorry for my part in this mess."
Charles fixed her with a long look before sitting back down next to her.
"I'll admit that I was upset when it first happened." He told her, his eyes downcast. "But Elsie reminded me of a case we once worked on together. It was just after we started officially seeing each other, before we told anyone, even you. We were trying to keep it hush-hush, but the client who's case we were working on at the time caught us. He threatened to leave, taking all his business with him, which would have devastated the firm."
"Who was the client?" Isobel asked, a frown on her face as she tried to remember who they had as clients at the time.
"Larry Grey, of Grey's internet solutions," Charles told her. Isobel's eyebrows shot up in surprise, the Grey case had been one of their biggest earners last year.
"Thankfully we managed to calm him down, and we won the case which helped. But we were reckless that day, and it nearly cost us."
"Nearly, but it didn't."
"Very nearly. What I'm trying to say is that yes your actions were wrong, but you're also human. As my very intelligent wife tells me, we must all have our hearts broken once or twice before we're done, and each hurt is a lesson. I think this was your lesson."
"Charlie? Are you ready?" Elsie popped her head around the door and held up his coat.
"Coming Els," he smiled, getting to his feet again, "oh, and you're not to blame for Sybil either. Apparently, Tom had always planned to ask her as soon as the Kruger case was over, and from what Violet tells me, she was always going to accept no matter what the timing was. Goodnight Isobel."
"Good night the Carsons" she called after them as they left before relaxing back into her chair.
Maybe everything would be okay in the end after all.
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