Thank you for all the nice reviews. Here's another one...
"That was definitely my best silk celebration," Clive panted nearly an hour later. It had been a very passionate encounter with each taking the time to explore every inch of the other after many months of tension.
"I should hope so," replied Martha who was also out of breath. "I definitely enjoyed it much more than that gathering this evening,".
"I'm glad," murmured Clive as he rolled onto his back and pulled Martha into his side. "It's nice to know Nottingham wasn't a one off,". Martha pulled back to look him in the face, not quite sure what he meant. "We're very compatible in bed it would appear," he clarified with a small grin on his face.
"I was going to say it wasn't anything like last time. We're both sober, and we used contraception. Plus we've admitted we both love each other," Martha argued. "But it was as satisfying as last time," she agreed with a slight blush although she did roll her eyes when she noted Clive puffing out his chest a little in pride at her last comment. She settled back down on his chest suddenly feeling tired.
The couple lay in silence for a while, Martha trying to sleep, whilst Clive lay thinking about the change in their relationship, trailing a finger up and down her arm. "Marth, Liv will be alright about all if this won't she?" He asked after a while.
"Course she will. Why wouldn't she like spending even more time with her daddy?" Martha replied.
"She won't be upset having to share you with me?".
"More like she's going to have both of our undivided attention more often!".
"What about chambers?" He asked next.
"Maybe they don't have to find out right away. We could keep this a secret for a while, whilst we get used to it ourselves. We can tell them later," Martha again replied but this time with a little yawn. "Now I don't know about you, but I'm not used to all that strenuous activity. I'm worn out and need some sleep,".she finished whilst trying to get comfortable. It didn't take long for either to fall asleep.
It was almost midnight when Martha's mobile phone started ringing. Forgetting where he was, Clive responded first and answered the phone without thinking. "Hello?" He said sleepily whilst rubbing his eyes, wondering who on earth would be phoning at this time. There was silence on the other end for a while.
"Sorry Sir. I thought this was Miss Costello's phone," Clive heard Billy say. He took the phone away from his ear to look at it before realising he had answered her phone in error. 'Bollocks' Clive mouthed. Martha was going to kill him. She hadn't long mentioned keeping their relationship a secret before he had let the cat out the bag to Billy, only a few hours later. "Perhaps she has your phone then?" He heard Billy continue. Clive could tell he was fishing for information as he was always doing.
"Billy, I think you know she's right here," he admitted. "Hang on,".
Billy heard a rustling of sheets and Clive trying to wake Martha gently before he heard her voice down the phone.
"'Lo?" Was all he heard. She sounded still half asleep.
"Sorry to wake you Miss but there's been an incident," Billy started.
"What sort of incident?" Martha asked over a yawn.
"David Cowdrey's been arrested for attempted murder," Billy revealed.
"WHAT?" Asked Martha as she sat straight up in bed suddenly fully awake.
"Alan and David would like you to represent him," Billy continued.
"Sure," agreed Martha.
"Thing is David isn't talking. Would you be able to come down and maybe help?" asked Billy.
"Of course. Give me half an hour," Martha finished after Billy had given her the address of the police station.
"Oh and Miss," Billy managed to get in before they hung up. "We'll be talking about what it means that Mr Reader answered your phone in the middle of the night, at a later date,".
"Yes Billy," responded Martha before ending their conversation. "I've got to go," Martha told Clive who had been listening in on the conversation. "David Cowdrey's been arrested for attempted murder and apparently I'm now his barrister,".
"Shit!" Was all Clive could say. "Want me to call you a taxi?" He offered as Martha headed for the shower.
"That would be great, thanks,".
Alan was in with David when Martha finally arrived at the police station. She found Billy quickly and he filled her in on events over an instant coffee purchased from a nearby machine. Martha was desperately hoping it would help her start to focus on the case. When he had finished all he knew, the two colleagues looked at each other over the brims of their polystyrene cups with a grim acknowledgement of how serious a situation David Cowdrey now found himself in.
"I can't believe it,". Martha stated. "All I remember of David is a very shy boy whenever we had chambers' parties. It was so hard to ever get more than two words out of him whenever you tried talking to him. Of course there was that time when you landed me and Clive with babysitting duty for him one day at work, not long after Alan's wife had died. He was so well behaved for most of the afternoon until we left him alone for five minutes. I can still picture Alan's face when he saw David with my makeup all over his face. I really thought Alan might fire me!" Martha recalled. The story was familiar to both and raised a small smile to both their faces. "Boarding school can't change you that much. I know Clive hated it. He had an argument with his father when he brought up boarding school for Olivia last time we visited. He's absolutely insistent she isn't going to one which is fine by me. I'd never let her be away from me for that long...What?" Broke off Martha when she noticed Billy give a wry smile.
"You're mentioning Mr Reader a lot," Billy observed.
"Alright. Let's hear whatever it is you have to say about me and Clive," Martha demanded just wanting to get this conversation over with.
"Fairly new development is it, you and Mr Reader?" Billy enquired.
"Yes, very," was the very truthful reply but she wasn't going to elaborate further.
"Miss. You shouldn't keep secrets from me. I need to know everything for chambers to work like the well oiled machine it usually is" Billy argued.
"Billy! It only happened about four hours ago," Martha revealed looking at her watch. So much had happened since then it felt a lot longer. She really wished she was back in bed with Clive instead of this cold, sterile police station. "We were going to tell you," she lied, "just a bit later on today,".
Billy didn't really have an answer to that. Instead he told Martha he was happy for them both, but that she should let Clive know he wanted 'a word' with the male barrister at some point as well.
"Billy, we would really appreciate it, if you could keep it a secret for a little while. We haven't even told Liv yet. We will let everyone know, but we just want to get used to it first," she confided.
"Of course Miss," agreed Billy when a sudden thought crossed his mind. "So Harriet doesn't know?" He asked to which Martha replied with a shake of her head. "Please let me be there when you tell her. It will make my day!" He teased.
"Billy," Replied Martha with a very warning tone. He could act like such a little boy sometimes.
Any further conversation ceased as they saw Alan enter the room from the cells with such a sad expression on his face.
"Hi Martha," he said. "David says he'll only talk to you about what happened," he continued, obviously hurt his son wouldn't open up to him. These last few hours had shown Alan how bad his relationship with his son had become since he had sent David away. He had told himself it was for the best when he had done it after just being made head of Shoe Lane. He really wouldn't have been able to look after his son on his own as well. Maybe it hadn't been the best decision for David. He made a vow to himself that if David was found not guilty, he was going to do everything possible to make sure their relationship improved.
"Let's hear what he has to say then," said Martha decisively as she stood up and headed to the cells.
It was the early hours of the morning when Martha arrived home, being extremely careful not to wake the sleeping occupants of the flat. She poked her head in her daughter's bedroom to see her fast asleep on her back with one arm flung above her head. She closed the door quietly before she was disturbed and headed into her bedroom, a small smile on her face when she saw Clive was sleeping in exactly the same position as his daughter. She undressed as quickly as she could and tried to creep into bed without waking him, anxious for more sleep before a full day of work ahead. The dipping of the mattress however alerted Clive to her presence and he woke up immediately.
"How are they?" He whispered into the dark.
"Not good," was all Martha could reply.
"Come here," Clive said and Martha gratefully went into his embrace. "God you're freezing!" Clive exclaimed but didn't let go. "How are you?" He asked once she had settled in.
"What's going to happen if I lose this case Clive? I'll never be able to speak to Alan again," Martha voiced the thoughts that had been crossing her mind since leaving the police station.
"Never going to happen so you don't need to worry about that," comforted Clive.
"You sound so sure,".
"I am. Want to know why?" Martha nodded, hoping to catch some of his optimism. "Well I've been lying here thinking about how I can help Marth. I was thinking I could move in for the next few weeks, look after Liv and the house whilst you concentrate on the trial. After she's gone to bed we can work on the trial. I can look at it from a prosecutors point of view. Make sure you're ready for anything they might throw at you,".
Martha smiled. "That's so sweet, but Clive you're going to be in Manchester," she reminded him.
"Forget about Manchester. This is much more important," Clive retorted. "I'll speak to Nicola at the CPS myself. Make her understand why I can't go,".
"I hope she does because I won't let you ruin your career over this," warned Martha, "but I'm not going to say no because I could use all the help I can get with this one," she continued as she leant up and started to kiss him to thank him for his offer. The kiss quickly got out of hand and she soon found herself on top of Clive.
"You are still cold," mentioned Clive after the kiss had concluded. "Your feet are like icicles by the way,".
"You better warm me up then," instructed Martha with a flirty tone. Clive needed no further encouragement and rolled them over so she was now under him, and proceeded to carry out her orders to the best of his ability.
It was a little after four in the morning when the door to Martha's bedroom opened and Olivia entered her mother's bedroom, one hand wiping the sleep from her eyes, the other arm holding a stuffed elephant tightly. It was her new favourite toy her grandmother had bought her, after their recent trip to the zoo, and a compromise for not being able to buy the real thing. She padded over to her mothers side of the bed as was her usual routine after waking from a bad dream. Neither Clive nor Martha were aware of her presence, both spooned in bed, Martha against Clive's chest, fast asleep after their early morning lovemaking.
"Mummy," Olivia whined, making her presence finally known. Martha opened her eyes wearily, not quite sure what had caused her to wake, but soon caught sight of her daughter standing by the bed looking a little upset. She looked at her alarm clock and noted the early hour. This was not going to go down as one of her better nights sleep which was unfortunate considering her workload later in the day.
"Hey Liv. Did you have a bad dream?" She asked her daughter who nodded her head. Martha lifted up the quilt, knowing what her daughter wanted. Olivia quickly crawled in and settled down in her mothers arms. "Was it monsters again?" enquired Martha as she ran one hand through her daughters hair, trying to tame her riotous mass of blond curls. Her daughter had definitely inherited her hair although a stranger wouldn't know it as Martha had been using hair straighteners almost daily since becoming a QC.
"Uh huh," replied her daughter. "Mummy can you move over a little bit. I'm getting all squished," she continued.
"I can't," replied Martha. "There's someone behind me in bed and he's hogging all the space,".
"Who is it?" Asked Olivia her eyes wide with concern. This was a new turn of events. She had never had to share her mothers bed with anyone else before.
"Have a look," Martha instructed and Olivia peeked over her shoulder.
"It's Daddy," Olivia proclaimed a little loudly but she was excited to see her father. "What's daddy doin' in your bed?" She then asked her mother. Clive had now woken up after hearing his daughter and she saw this and started asking him the question."Did you have a bad dream too, Daddy? Is that why you're in mummy's bed?" She started asking as Clive stretched awake.
"That's right," replied Clive choosing to let Olivia believe what she thought. "Now come here Missy. We've got to let Mummy have her sleep ok. She's got a busy day ahead of her,". He reached over Martha, picked his daughter up and deposited her on his chest, hoping she would let them both sleep a little longer.
"Daddy you forgot your pyjamas," Olivia suddenly stated as she landed on her fathers bare chest. Clive froze hoping she hadn't seen anything below the covers. They had yet to talk about the differences between girls and boys downstairs as Billy would say, with their daughter, and this wasn't the time. "Why aren't you wearing your pyjamas Mummy?" She asked Martha now realising her mother wasn't wearing anything either.
"I didn't want Daddy to feel silly," replied Martha quickly hoping there wasn't going to be any further questions on their lack of bed clothes. Her answer seemed to please their daughter however and she settled down and the family were able to sleep for a couple more hours.
The next thing Martha was aware of was being woken up by Clive and a steaming cup of coffee. She saw the time and jumped up thinking she was extremely late, but was stopped by Clive. "Relax," he instructed. "I've got Olivia up and dressed and we've had some breakfast. I'll drop her off at nursery before going back to my flat, changing and heading to work via the CPS," he informed Martha. "All you have to do Marth is drink your coffee, shower, and head to Shoe Lane,".
"Morning Mummy," they both heard from the doorway as their daughter appeared. "Did you sleep ok? Daddy said we had to be quiet. Was I quiet enough?" She asked as she climbed onto the bed and greeted her mother.
"You were perfect," Martha praised, kissing her daughter on the head causing her to giggle. She slid off the bed again and left the room informing her parents she was going to get her coat.
"Have I told you I love you?" Martha asked once Olivia had disappeared.
"Not this morning," Clive informed her.
"I love you," Martha whispered before leaning forward to kiss Clive.
"Daddy come on! We be late otherwise," Olivia shouted from the hallway.
"That told me," Clive said to Martha as he got up and walked towards his daughter.
"Have a good day Liv," Martha said to her daughter before they left. "It might be Aunty Bethany or Uncle Jake or John that picks you up from nursery ok?" She informed her so she knew it wouldn't be one of her parents doing the usual job.
"Ok Mummy. See you later," she called out as she followed her father down the hallway.