condensed master

Will Bonner
Tensions rose another notch, the man was now sitting up. The two men were
staring at each other and it looked as though things were about to get violent. The
woman entered the conversation for the first time. "You're not rejecting things out
of hand then?"
"No, I've always been able to work something out with Ed or Tony, but this
man is crude, I want no more discussion with him. Either he leaves the room and
we carry on, or we leave and start afresh elsewhere. I'd prefer that we left, the
atmosphere in here is tainted."
Tony scrambled in the confined space to allow Will to get by. With the door
half open he spoke to the man on the bed before leaving. "One move toward
upsetting my family and you'll wish you'd never been born."
Finding himself back on the fourth floor landing Will walked over to a recess
nearby and leaned into the corner, his body reacting like a giant spring, unwinding.
He was expecting to wait for some time as there would no doubt be some
discussion by the others but within the minute Tony and Margaret appeared.
She was much taller than he had envisaged standing several inches above
Tony. At first they didn't see him because he was out of their line of sight and it
appeared that they were at a loss, probably thinking that Will had left permanently.
Stepping into view, Tony ran forward, a look of relief on his face.
"We thought you'd left to find your own way home."
"No, I wouldn't leave you up in the air."
"There's a coffee shop five minutes walk from here, could you spare some time
for Margaret? There was so much confrontation back there that she didn't get the
chance."
"I'm sorry Tony, but I did warn you what could happen."
The mere act of walking out of the building and into the fresh air was like a
tonic and Will began to feel better with every stride. There was only one customer
in the coffee shop and he was seated at the counter.
Tony went over to order as Will and Margaret found a booth in the corner and
sat opposite each other. She looked across at Will a wry smile on her face. "That
was quite a performance back there, are you always that aggressive?"
"No, only to people that I think deserve it, but I'm glad about one thing."
"What's that?"
"If you had joined in with your friend I don't think I could have coped."
248