Passion from the Past
Carole Mortimer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘WHEW!’ Janice collapsed down into the chair opposite Laura, her notebook dropping on to the desk in front of her. ‘I think my fingers are going to fall off!’ she groaned.

‘Rough, was it?’ Laura sympathised.

‘Rough!’ Janice leant back wearily. ‘I didn’t think so many people could all talk at the same time, and so fast too. I’ll be glad when Dorothy gets back,’ she moaned.

Dorothy Palmer was James Courtney’s personal secretary, and Janice and Laura were her secretaries. But Dorothy had gone down with ‘flu yesterday morning and had unwillingly been sent home, her last instruction being for Janice to sit in on the board meeting today and take the notes she usually took herself.

‘She only went off yesterday,’ Laura pointed out.

‘She’ll be back tomorrow, you can depend on it. In all the time I’ve been here I’ve never known Dorothy to take more than two days off, no matter how ill she is.’ Janice bent over her notepad, grimacing. ‘Now I’ve got to get these notes typed up before Mr Courtney starts screaming for them.’

‘Would you like me to do it?’ Laura instantly offered.

‘No—thanks,’ the other girl sighed. ‘I’m going to have trouble reading it back myself—and I wrote it! I’ll tell you what you could do for me, though. Mr Courtney would like a tray of coffee taken through to his office. Could you do that for me?’

Laura instantly stood up, smoothing down the straight skirt of her tailored black suit, a pale green blouse worn beneath the fitted jacket, her shoulder-length auburn hair secured with a tortoiseshell slide at her nape. She had taken to wearing the more mature clothing and severe hairstyle after being turned down for several jobs because of her youthful appearance. The clothes and hairstyle made her feel older than her nineteen years, giving her the confidence to try for this job at Courtneys. As her application and interview had been successful the image must have worked.

She had only been employed at Courtneys for three weeks, and so far she had had little to do with James Courtney himself, and the prospect of taking in his afternoon coffee, tea being preferred in the morning, filled her with apprehension.

‘You know where to go, don’t you?’ Janice asked absently, her attention still on her hastily scribbled short-hand notes.

‘I—Yes, I know.’ Laura turned to go down to the executives’ restaurant.

‘I should call down first,’ Janice advised. ‘That way they’ll have the coffee ready for when you get down there.’

‘Oh yes, of course.’ She picked up the telephone and dialled the number.

‘Two cups,’ Janice murmured, biting the end of her pencil. ‘Mr Courtney has someone with him.’

Laura put the order in, hearing the flurry of activity when she told the girl the coffee was for Mr Courtney and smiled to herself as she went down the two floors in the lift. James Courtney had the effect of putting most people in a state of confusion, including herself, and she had no doubt the women in the canteen were even now rushing about preparing the fresh ground coffee Mr Courtney preferred, and putting a plate of his favourite chocolate biscuits on the tray too.

The first time she had collected his coffee tray she had been surprised by the presence of the biscuits, but she had been assured by Doreen in the canteen that Mr Courtney had a weakness for them. Laura found it difficult to think of that tall, distinguished man having any weaknesses at all; he always seemed like a very cold individual to her.

‘Got a visitor today, has he?’ Doreen asked conversationally as she handed over the tray.

‘Yes,’ Laura smiled.

‘Dorothy not back yet?’

It was amazing how gossip spread about this firm. ‘No,’ she shook her head, not one who liked to gossip herself.

‘Like working for Mr Courtney, do you?’ Doreen probed.

‘I—Yes.’

‘Nice man,’ Doreen nodded. ‘A bit abrupt, but he knows what he wants. I like a man who knows what he wants.’

‘I—Yes, he seems very nice,’ Laura evaded; she found James Courtney more than ‘a bit abrupt’. He frightened the life out of her every time he barked an order at her. But she didn’t usually have a lot to do with him personally, thank goodness! If she worked directly for James Courtney she might not even have lasted the three weeks she had been here, Janice was senior, next to Dorothy, and so her own dealings with James Courtney kept to a minimum—and that was the way she liked it.

‘I should take that up now,’ Doreen advised curtly, obviously deciding she wasn’t going to get much information out of Laura.

Laura flushed, making a hasty exit. Doreen had obviously expected to have a cosy little chat with her about Mr Courtney, most of his employees seeming to find this haughty man an interesting topic of conversation. Although what Doreen thought she could possibly relate about the man she just didn’t know, James Courtney barely acknowledged her existence, let alone confided in her!

Janice glanced up as she entered their office. ‘I should take it through, he’s buzzed for it twice already.’

Her face showed her dismay. ‘But wouldn’t you rather—–’

‘Don’t ask me to take it in, Laura,’ the other girl sighed impatiently. ‘I’m up to my eyes with this typing. And he can’t eat you,’ she added derisively.

‘He can try,’ Laura grimaced.

‘Go on in,’ Janice laughed. ‘If you let his coffee get cold he just might eat you at that!’

Laura swallowed hard, taking a deep breath before moving to knock on the inner office door. The abrupt ‘enter’ was not welcoming, and her hands shook as she picked the tray up to enter the room.

The two men inside instantly stopped talking, the one sitting in front of the desk rising politely to his feet, James Courtney remaining seated, obviously not considering his junior secretary worth the act of politeness. Laura eyed him nervously, finding him as daunting as she usually did, not sparing a glance in the other man’s direction. James Courtney looked back at her broodingly, not welcoming her interruption at all.

In his early sixties, James Courtney was nevertheless still an attractive man, his thick hair iron grey, his face ruggedly lined, the eyes a pale blue, his mouth set in its usual thin line. Laura couldn’t ever remember seeing him smile, although surely no one could be this grim all the time.

She looked down at the desk, searching for a space to put the tray down. There didn’t appear to be one.

‘Let me,’ a deep voice remarked from behind her, and the man moved forward to move some of the papers aside.

Laura gratefully put the heavy tray down, and turned to thank the man. The words caught and held in her throat, as she found herself looking at the most devastatingly handsome man she had ever seen in her young life, his slate grey eyes widening as she continued to stare at him.

But she couldn’t have looked away if her life had depended upon it, feeling almost mesmerised, caught in a spell she had no will or wish to break. This man was taller even than James Courtney, being at least a foot taller than her own five feet two inches. He was a man in his mid-thirties, with a lean ripcord body that oozed power and determination, his face even more powerful as he continued to meet her wide-eyed stare. His eyes seemed to be constantly changing colour, at one moment a light silver, at others almost black. His nose was long and straight, his mouth jutting out determinedly above the strong jaw, his skin deeply tanned. The dark suit fitted him perfectly, the snowy white shirt emphasising the deep tan on his face and strong, tapered hands.

Laura couldn’t ever remember noticing so much about one person on first sight before, finding herself fascinated by the deep cleft in his chin, the way his dark hair grew thickly over his collar, styled casually back from his face, the face she couldn’t look away from. It was as if time suddenly stood still, allowing her to look her fill of this man she felt captivated by. And she didn’t ever want to stop looking at him.

She knew it was stupid, knew that a man of the thirty-five-thirty-six she guessed him to be was probably married with a couple of children, that he wouldn’t be interested in her even if he weren’t married, and yet her attraction to him was so strong the rest of the world had ceased to exist.

But her silent admiration of him couldn’t last, she had known it couldn’t, and finally he was the one to break it.

‘Thank you, Miss—–?’ He looked at her enquiringly.

His voice was as fascinating as the rest of him, deep and husky, and she shivered with excitement as she wondered how it would feel to have such a man make love to her. She blushed scarlet at the intimacy of her thoughts, groaning inwardly as she realised how the tide of red colour would clash with her auburn hair.

Heavens, she must be making a prize idiot of herself, standing here goggle-eyed about a perfect stranger. ‘Jamieson,’ she supplied jerkily, cursing herself for the way her voice quivered.

‘Jamieson?’ he echoed softly.

‘I—er—Yes, sir,’ she licked her lips nervously, ‘Laura Jamieson.’

‘That will be all, Miss Jamieson.’ James Courtney spoke to her for the first time since she had entered the room, his voice curt.

She blushed anew. ‘Er—yes, sir.’ She turned to flee the room, aware that she had made more of a fool of herself in front of the older man than she usually did.

‘And tell your colleague to hurry with those notes,’ he snapped. ‘Dorothy doesn’t usually keep me waiting this length of time.’

‘Er—no, sir.’ Now she was sounding like the idiot she was acting! But James Courtney couldn’t know that Dorothy didn’t usually keep him waiting because she had Janice and herself do the typing for her.

She liked Dorothy immensely, and found the older woman kind and helpful, the three of them working very well together in their spacious office. As James Courtney’s personal secretary it was only right that she should pass on the more mundane task of typing to her juniors, her other duties time consuming enough.

She hurried from the room, aware that the two men had already dismissed her from their minds as they resumed their conversation. She closed the door behind her with a sigh, realising that she was trembling, her hands shaking almost incontrollably. That man, a man whose name she didn’t even know, had affected her more deeply than any person she had ever met.

Janice looked up from her typing. ‘All right, love?’ she asked concernedly. ‘You’re looking a little pale—you aren’t coming down with the ‘flu too, are you? I’ve heard the whole company is getting it.’

‘I—No, I—I feel fine.’ She moved to the seat behind her desk. ‘That man—the man with Mr Courtney, who is he?’

Janice shrugged. ‘One of the board members, I suppose. At the end of the meeting Mr Courtney just said coffee for two in his office, I couldn’t tell you who was going to be with him. What does he look like? I should be able to tell you his name if you describe him to me.’ She grimaced. ‘Most of them are distinguishable.’

That strong, arrogant face instantly came back into her mind, each sharp angle, each hard feature vividly imprinted in her memory—and her heart?

She pushed that disturbing thought to the back of her mind. She had made enough of a fool of herself for one day without imagining that mind-shattering attraction she had experienced was love. Love came slowly, with familiarity, not in a fraction of a second, and not with a complete stranger.

‘Well?’ Janice prompted, eager to get on with her work.

Laura forced herself to make the description rationally. ‘Very tall, dark, with grey eyes. Oh—and he has a deep tan, as if he’s just been on holiday.’

Janice smiled, nodding. ‘He has.’

‘He has?’

‘Mm,’ the other girl nodded again. ‘He got back the day before yesterday, from the Bahamas. The man you’ve just described is Gideon Maitland.’

Gideon—his name was Gideon. ‘Oh?’ She tried to sound casual in her interest, but knew she had failed when Janice smiled sympathetically.

‘Don’t worry,’ she consoled, ‘we’ve all been through it.’

‘Through what?’ Laura asked resentfully.

‘Falling in love with Gideon Maitland.’ Janice sighed. ‘Not that it got any of us anywhere. He just isn’t interested, not in the likes of us anyway.’

‘I’m not in love with him,’ Laura said indignantly. ‘I just—Well, he—I just wondered who he was. Does he work here? I’ve never seen him before.’ She would have remembered him if she had.

‘I told you, he’s been in the Bahamas. And he more than works here, he’s being groomed to take over as chairman when Mr Courtney retires next year.’

Laura couldn’t help her look of surprise. ‘Isn’t he a little young for that? Surely Mr McNee is next in seniority?’

‘Next in age, you mean,’ Janice grinned. ‘But Mr McNee isn’t Mr Courtney’s son-in-law, Gideon Maitland is.’

‘I didn’t know Mr Courtney had a daughter,’ Laura gasped. She hadn’t even realised he had been married, let alone that he had children. With this knowledge Gideon Maitland moved even farther out of her orbit—if he had ever entered it!

‘He doesn’t, not any more.’ Janice shrugged. ‘She died a couple of years ago.’

‘Oh, how terrible!’ Laura’s sympathy was sincere, even though a few seconds ago she hadn’t even known the other woman existed. It was always tragic to hear of a death, especially as the other woman couldn’t have been all that old, mid-thirties at most. She shook her head. ‘No wonder Mr Maitland isn’t interested in women.’

‘I didn’t say that,’ Janice snorted. ‘I just said he wasn’t interested in office girls. Now actresses are a different matter.’

Laura looked startled. ‘Actresses?’

‘Well, one actress in particular, actually. You’ve heard of Petra Wilde, haven’t you?’

A mental image of the sultry actress instantly sprang to mind. Tall, with hair the colour of ebony, her eyes the aquamarine of a clear sea, the other woman was spectacularly beautiful, admired as much for that perfect beauty as she was for her splendid acting.

‘When she won her Oscar last year,’ Janice related with relish. ‘Guess who was there with her?’

‘Gideon Mailtand,’ Laura said dully.

‘Mm,’ Janice nodded excitedly. ‘There’ve been rumours of them going to marry for months, although I doubt it will happen now. Maybe she isn’t the maternal type. After all, not many women would be willing to take on another woman’s child.’

‘What child?’ Laura frowned her puzzlement, feeling as if she had lost Janice somewhere in this conversation.

‘Gideon Maitland has a little girl. Didn’t I explain that? No, I don’t suppose I did. Well, Gideon and Felicity—that’s Mr Courtney’s daughter—were married for ten years before she became pregnant. I think Mr Courtney had just about given up on them. Anyway, she finally became pregnant, and then she died during the birth. The baby almost died too.’

‘But Felicity—Mr Maitland’s wife died?’ It sounded a terrible tragedy to her.

‘Yes,’ Janice nodded; she was a pretty blonde in her late twenties, just waiting for the right man to come along so that she could give up work and have his children. ‘I think Natalie is about eighteen months old now, so Felicity died that long ago. I can still remember Mr Courtney’s face when he came in to work the next day. He looked as if his whole world had fallen apart. He lost his wife the same way, you know.’

‘And—and Mr Maitland? How did he react? He must have been shattered, losing his wife like that when they’d waited so long to have a child.’

‘Hard to say,’ Janice shrugged. ‘He didn’t come back to work for a couple of months, and by that time I suppose the worst of it was over. Although he had changed,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘He became even more withdrawn into himself. Not that he’d ever been the chatty type, but at least he used to say good morning once in a while. Now he barely notices your existence.’

‘It must have been hard for him,’ Laura excused, feeling Gideon Maitland’s pain as if it were her own. ‘I’m sure it can’t have been all that easy bringing up a baby on his own, especially as it’s a little girl.’

Janice gave a scornful snort. ‘Men like Gideon Maitland can afford to pay people to bring up their children for them.’

‘Oh, but surely—–’

‘Natalie has a nanny to take care of her, a friend of the family, so I’ve heard. Gideon Maitland is reputed not to have a lot of time for her.’

‘He probably blames the little girl for the death of his wife.’

‘Probably,’ Janice agreed. ‘But I—–’

‘Miss Lawson!’ James Courtney’s voice came clearly over the intercom.

Janice pulled a face at Laura, moving to answer him. ‘Yes, sir?’

‘Are those notes typed up yet?’ he rasped.

‘Er—almost,’ she invented.

‘Bring them in as soon as they’re finished.’ The intercom was switched off.

Janice wrinkled her nose. ‘What does he think I’m going to do with them?’ she said dryly.

Laura laughed. ‘He just isn’t a patient man.’

‘Neither is Gideon Maitland,’ Janice was obviously enjoying talking about him, especially to the newcomer Laura was.

Laura looked down at her desk. ‘What’s his daughter like?’

The other girl shrugged. ‘I’ve never seen her. But if she’s anything like her mother then she’s lovely. Felicity Maitland was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.’

Laura’s eyes were wide. ‘More beautiful even than Petra Wilde?’

‘Much more,’ Janice nodded. ‘She was tall and blonde, and very sophisticated. She used to make me feel like a dowd every time she came to the office.’

Considering how attractive Janice’s blonde beauty was Laura knew that the other woman must have been exquisite. She always felt inadequate when in the company of such women, her childish features set in a heart-shaped face, her huge green eyes seeming to dominate her other features, her nose small and snub, her mouth slightly tilted at the corners, her little chin had a determined tilt to it, a determination that was rarely asserted, although once she was roused to temper anything might happen. No doubt Felicity Maitland had had a good dress sense too, whereas she dressed to look efficient at the office in an effort to make up for her obvious youth, the tailored suits and fitted blouses worn for effect rather than style or elegance.

Right now she felt the dowd Janice said she usually felt, even the brightness of her hair dulled by its confinement. A man like Gideon Maitland wouldn’t even spare her a second glance, if indeed he had spared her a first one, and she was a fool for wishing he would.

She bent over her typewriter as she heard him taking his leave of James Courtney, the two men obviously arranging to meet at Gideon’s house later that evening, possibly for dinner.

She couldn’t stop herself, she just had to look up, to catch one last glimpse of him. After all, there was no saying when she would get to see him again, he had been back two days already and this was the first she had seen of him. He was just striding past their open office door, those grey eyes flickering over her coldly before he looked away again, James Courtney’s little mouse of a junior secretary dismissed from his mind—if she had ever entered it!

‘Miss Lawson!’ James Courtney had obviously reached the end of what little patience he possessed, his voice over the intercom chillier than ever.

‘God, what a bear!’ Janice frantically collected up the disordered typewritten sheets.

‘I’d better get on too,’ Laura grimaced. ‘He’ll want these letters for signing before he leaves at five.’

But her mind wasn’t on what she was doing, her usually faultless typing having a few errors today. Her secretarial qualifications were excellent, she wouldn’t have been employed at Courtneys if they weren’t, but when she had attained these qualifications she hadn’t had to contend with piercing grey eyes looking back at her from the keyboard of her typewriter, or to see Gideon Maitland’s hard face every time she glanced at her notepad.

The man was haunting her, his hard face was constantly on her mind. And it just wasn’t like her. She very rarely dated, spending most of her evenings at home, usually with her widowed mother, both of them missing her brother Martin. He had gone to America to work two years ago, claiming that there were more opportunities over there. And there did seem to be, his rapid advancement in the advertising company he had gone to work for seeming to prove his point.

Even through her preoccupation with Gideon Maitland Laura could see her mother’s excitement when she got home later that evening, guessing the reason to be the long-awaited letter from Martin. Her brother was notoriously bad at writing letters, and their mother couldn’t understand why she only received replies to one in every four letters she wrote him. Laura was more inclined to make excuses for him, continuing to write to him even though he rarely replied, knowing that he had a demanding job, and an even more demanding social life, a constant stream of girls seeming to pass through his life.

‘Yet another girl-friend!’ her mother tutted disapprovingly. ‘I don’t think he’ll ever settle down and give me grandchildren. You’ll probably marry before he does.’

Laura snorted at the unlikelihood of that, looking about sixteen now that she had changed out of her work clothes and released her hair. It splayed across her shoulders in natural waves, the colour now a deep rich red, her loose-fitting tee-shirt a pale green, her denims old and faded.

‘How’s his work going?’ she asked interestedly.

‘You know Martin,’ her mother dismissed, obviously reading the letter for about the tenth time. ‘Ever the optimist. He thinks there’s a chance he could be made a partner in the near future.’

That sounded like Martin. He was very like their father had been, always craving change, new excitement. He had worked for Courtneys a couple of years ago, and it was because he had said what a good company they were to work for that Laura had applied for the job there. And he had been proven correct; Courtneys were a good company to work for, very good to their staff.

They needed to be over the next few days, as the majority of the staff went down with ‘flu, Janice among them.

The day she worked for Mr Courtney on her own was the worst day she had known since her employment here. He was a brute of a man to work for, and how Dorothy coped with him all the time she had no idea. He allowed no respite for the fact that instead of his usual three secretaries he was now reduced to just his very junior secretary, demanding the same efficiency from her that he usually got from a full staff.

Her coffee-break went by the board as he dictated letters to her in his quick decisive manner; luckily her short-hand speed fast enough to keep up with him. Her lunch-break had to be given a miss too, as the telephone rang constantly and prevented her typing the letters.

‘Not finished yet, Miss Jamieson?’ he came back from his own lunch to bark at her.

‘Er—no—–’

‘Then it’s about time you were,’ he snapped.

‘Yes, sir—–’ Her fingers hit three wrong keys in succession as he stood glowering over her.

James Courtney scowled at her mistakes. ‘At this rate you won’t finish before the end of the week, let alone the end of the day!’

‘I—Oh dear!’ Laura groaned as she made yet another mistake. If only he wouldn’t stand over her like this, completely unnerving her.

‘Good God, girl,’ he exploded, his craggy face lined with anger, ‘you can’t even type!’

‘Of course I can type,’ she heard herself retorting. ‘You wouldn’t have employed me if I couldn’t. It’s just that—–’

‘Excuses, excuses,’ he dismissed tersely. ‘If you aren’t up to the work, Miss Jamieson, then perhaps I ought to employ someone who is.’

Normally she would have agreed with him and got on with her work. But it had been a hard, difficult week, and she was feeling tired and hungry, the toast and coffee she had gulped down for her breakfast seeming a very long time ago.

So James Courtney had chosen the wrong day to take his temper out on her, and the temper that went with her shade of hair, and was so rarely used by her, for once got the better of her. She looked up at him with sparkling green eyes. ‘I’m up to the work, Mr Courtney,’ she told him tautly. ‘My work,’ she added with emphasis. ‘It may have escaped your notice, but I happen to be working alone here.’

His eyes widened, obviously unaccustomed to his employees answering him back in this way. ‘Where’s Miss Lawson?’ he demanded tersely.

‘She’s off with the ‘flu,’ Laura blushed as she realised how she had just spoken to her employer. She couldn’t ever remember talking to anyone like that before. But then she couldn’t ever remember anyone being that rude to her before either. She looked down at her hands, slender, capable hands, the nails kept short for her work. ‘I did tell you this morning, Mr Courtney,’ she added huskily.

He scowled heavily, his dark brows low over his icy blue eyes. ‘Half the damned company is off with ‘flu. I suppose you’ll get it next,’ he snapped accusingly, before going into his office and closing the door firmly behind him.

Considering he had more or less told her she was incompetent she was surprised that the prospect of her being off work should bother him. What a bad-tempered old man he was!

Tears filled her eyes, and she buried her face in her hands as she wept. She had been trying so hard to please him, had thought she was succeeding, and with a few biting words he had shown her exactly what he thought of her efforts.

‘Is there anything wrong?’

She looked up with a start, to find herself looking straight at Gideon Maitland, the dark brown suit and cream shirt he wore seeming to make his tan appear even darker. She gulped as he came into the office, reaching frantically into her handbag for a tissue to blow her nose, wiping away the telltale tears at the same time.

‘ ‘Flu?’ he enquired softly, his voice as rich and deep as she remembered.

He was all just as she remembered him, every virile inch of him!

And once again she was making an idiot of herself. Why couldn’t she just act normally about him for once? ‘I—er—no.’ She took her compact out of her bag, viewing her reflection in the mirror with distaste. Heavens, no wonder he thought she had a cold, with her puffed eyes and red nose that was exactly what it looked like! She hastily closed the compact, knowing she couldn’t make the necessary repairs to her face in front of this man. ‘I think I must have had something in my eye,’ she invented.

Gideon Maitland’s mouth twisted, as if he knew very well that the ‘something’ had been tears. ‘Is James back from lunch yet?’

She nodded, glad he didn’t pursue the subject of her tears. ‘He came back several minutes ago,’ she confirmed.

‘I see.’ He pursed his lips. ‘And would he be the—er—reason you had something in your eye?’ Dark eyebrows rose over light grey eyes.

Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘I—er—Yes.’ The question came as too much of a surprise for her to prevaricate.

His handsome mouth twisted with humour. ‘His lunch obviously didn’t sweeten his temper.’

Laura licked her lips nervously. What was she supposed to say to a comment like that! ‘I wouldn’t know, Mr Maitland,’ she replied demurely.

He didn’t seem surprised that she knew his name; he leaned back easily against her desk, his arms folded across his chest. ‘That’s very loyal of you,’ he drawled. ‘Your lunch obviously agreed with you.’

‘I didn’t—–’ She bit her lip, her lashes fluttering up, only to lower quickly again as her green eyes clashed with clear grey ones.

‘Didn’t what?’ Gideon Maitland probed sharply.

‘Nothing,’ she shook her head. ‘I’ll tell Mr Courtney you’re here,’ and she moved to press the intercom.

Long tapered fingers came out to stop her. ‘Didn’t what?’ Gideon Maitland requested firmly.

Laura extracted her hand from his, her heart fluttering wildly in her chest from the contact. ‘I—I haven’t had time for lunch. You see—–’

He stood up. ‘Go and have some now,’ he ordered briskly.

‘There’s really no need—–’

‘There’s every need, Miss Jamieson,’ he told her coldly. ‘Lack of food is apt to lower your resistance to infection. The last thing James needs is to have no secretary at all.’

That put her firmly in her place—even an incompetent secretary was better than none at all! ‘I’ll go now,’ she said jerkily. ‘If you’ll just explain to Mr Courtney …’

He nodded curtly and moved impatiently to the door that connected her office to James Courtney’s. ‘I’ll do that,’ he told her abruptly.

She grabbed her handbag and almost ran out of the office, having once again found Gideon Maitland completely overwhelming.

Her hand trembled as she sat alone in the canteen drinking her coffee. There had been a coldness about him, a bitter twist to his beautiful mouth. And no wonder, he probably still missed his wife very much.

And Petra Wilde? Well, he was a man, she shrugged, and men had—appetites, especially if they had been married. Her cheeks coloured delicately as she realised her thoughts had taken her to Gideon Maitland’s bed. A shiver of delight ran down her spine as she imagined those strong, sensitive hands making love to her.

Heavens, she was acting like an infatuated adolescent, fantasising about the latest pop or film-star! But it was more than that, she knew it was. She felt so attracted to him, so aware of him, as if she had always been waiting for such a man. A pity he hadn’t always been waiting for a redheaded, green-eyed nineteen-year-old!

It was good that she could still laugh at herself, as no doubt Gideon Maitland was laughing at her. He was experienced enough with women to know what her reaction to him meant. If only she could stop this childish trembling every time he came near her, and the way she stuttered and stumbled over her words was so juvenile.

She didn’t even know if he was still in with James Courtney when she returned from eating her sandwich lunch, as the walls of the inner office were soundproofed. Her own office still contained the aroma of the cheroot he had been smoking, and the tangy smell was pleasant to the senses, his aftershave masculine and spicy.

Was there nothing she disliked about the man! Yes, of course there was, she told herself crossly, she just didn’t know him well enough to say what they were. His eyes were cold, for one thing, cold and assessing, and he had a cynical twist to his lips constantly, mockery or boredom seeming to be his two main expressions.

She shouldn’t be thinking about him now, she should be thinking of the work she still had to do before she could go home tonight. And goodness knows, there was enough of it!

She was pounding away on her typewriter when the communicating door opened and Gideon Maitland strolled out of the main office. Laura sighed heavily as she hit the wrong key. Her typing teacher would have a fit if she could see the mess she was making of her work today—first James Courtney unnerving her and now Gideon Maitland! She back-spaced and corrected her mistake, half listening to the two men’s conversation without really meaning to. But when Gideon Maitland mentioned her name she found herself more than half listening.

‘I’ll see your Miss Jamieson on Monday morning, then,’ he drawled.

‘First thing,’ the other man nodded.

That perfect mouth twisted derisively. ‘I’m sure Miss Jamieson is never late.’

Chilling blue eyes swept over her rigid figure as she could only make a pretence of typing. ‘Are you, Gideon?’ James Courtney clipped. ‘I can’t say keeping an eye on Miss Jamieson’s timekeeping has exactly occupied any of my thoughts.’

Her mouth tightened as the two men seemed to taunt her without actually talking to her directly. And what did Gideon Maitland mean, she would see him on Monday morning?

‘I’m sure it hasn’t.’ He was smiling openly now, his teeth very white and even against his tan, suddenly looking years younger than the thirty-five years she knew him to be.

James Courtney gave him a considering look. ‘Has it occupied any of yours?’

The other man’s expression at once became bland. ‘Not that I recall,’ he replied distantly.

‘Sure?’ Once again those light blue eyes flickered over Laura.

‘Very sure,’ Gideon Maitland said tightly. ‘Will you be over to see Natalie tomorrow?’ he firmly changed the subject.

‘Of course.’ The other man’s voice was gruff.

Gideon Maitland nodded curtly. ‘I’ll tell her to expect you.’

‘I thought I might take her to the Zoo.’

‘She’ll like that,’ he nodded.

Laura tried to envisage James Courtney entertaining his granddaughter at the Zoo, and failed miserably. She couldn’t see him anywhere other than seated behind his huge mahogany desk, master of all he surveyed.

She chided herself for being unfair. The man obviously thought a lot of his daughter’s child—he had to if he was willing to take her to the Zoo!

‘Finished yet, Miss Jamieson?’

Lord, she wished he would stop pouncing on her like that! She had been trying to imagine him in the role of doting grandparent, and during that time Gideon Maitland seemed to have taken his leave.

‘Almost,’ she was relieved to be able to answer.

He continued to stare at her, not moving back into his own office as she had expected him to. ‘My son-in-law tells me I’ve been working you too hard,’ he said mildly.

Colour flooded her cheeks. ‘Oh no,’ she shook her head. ‘You—–’

‘Oh yes,’ he insisted. ‘What do you have to say about that?’

‘Why, nothing,’ she gasped. ‘I—–’

‘Nothing?’ he pounced. ‘Then you don’t agree with him?’

‘Well, I—I—–’

‘You do!’ A grim smile of satisfaction lightened his features.

‘Not really,’ she evaded his piercing eyes. ‘I—We’ve all been busy lately, I’ve worked no harder than anyone else.’

‘Exactly what I told Gideon,’ he nodded. ‘Well, we’ll see which one of us you consider a slavedriver after Monday.’

‘Sir?’ she eyed him questioningly.

A ghost of a smile lightened his harsh features. ‘I can assure you that Gideon is even more difficult to work for than I am.’

Laura frowned, having no idea what this man was talking about. Whatever it was it seemed to amuse him.

‘Dorothy will be back on Monday,’ he informed her curtly, obviously tiring of being amused at her expense. ‘You’re to report to Gideon at nine o’clock Monday morning. His secretary has gone down with this damned ‘flu bug—and you’re to be her replacement.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘IT’s a wonderful opportunity for you!’ Laura’s mother exclaimed when told of the arrangements for Monday morning.

‘But I already work for the chairman of the company,’ Laura sighed. ‘I can’t get any higher than that.’

‘You’re only his junior secretary, dear,’ her mother said dismissively. ‘And besides, you said this Gideon Maitland is going to be made chairman next year when James Courtney steps down.’

‘Steps down’ didn’t quite apply to the way Laura expected James Courtney to relinquish his control of Courtneys. She had no doubt that he would be about for years to come, that although he might be willing to appear to give control to his son-in-law that there would one day be quite a power struggle between the two men. James Courtney would still be capable of running the firm when he was eighty, she had no doubt of that.

‘He is,’ she confirmed her mother’s statement. ‘But filling in for his secretary when she’s off sick isn’t exactly what I’d planned for my future.’

‘Don’t be silly, dear!’ Her mother’s tone was impatient, the red of Laura’s hair a deep chestnut on the older woman, her face and figure still youthfully attractive. ‘When he’s made chairman, if you’ve made enough of an impression on him, then he may just make you his personal secretary.’

Laura knew her mother was ambitious for her, in fact it had been her mother’s promptings that had made her apply for the senior position she already had at Courtneys, but surely even she couldn’t imagine she could be made personal secretary to the chairman of a company as big as Courtneys at the age of twenty, as she would be next year? It appeared she could.

‘There are plenty of other girls more qualified for the position,’ she pointed out to her mother. ‘The girl I’m standing in for on Monday, for one.’

‘I’ve no doubt she is.’ Her mother’s eyebrows rose. ‘But you’ll just have to make yourself even more—indispensable to him, won’t you?’

Laura frowned, looking at her mother disbelievingly. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, don’t be naïve, Laura!’ Her mother stood up to pace the room impatiently. ‘No girl gets anywhere these days on qualifications alone, there are just too many talented women. I’ve no doubt Gideon Maitland’s present secretary makes more than her secretarial attributes available to him.’

‘Mother!’ Laura gasped her indignation on the other girl’s behalf. ‘Diane Holland is happily married.’

‘So?’

‘Mother, really!’ And Laura left the room in disgust, going upstairs to her bedroom before she lost her temper.

Where her mother got these ridiculous ideas from she just didn’t know, but this one about Gideon Maitland was the most ridiculous yet. Her mother couldn’t really imagine she would enter into an affair with a man just to get on in her career. No woman had to do that nowadays. It was the time of equality, wasn’t it?

Besides which, she had no reason to suppose Gideon Maitland had even realised she was female, let alone that he was attracted to her. Goodness, a man like that, with his looks and money, could take his pick of any woman in the world. Hadn’t he chosen the beautiful and famous Petra Wilde to be his girl-friend?—and they didn’t come any more exclusively beautiful than that. Gideon Maitland had no need to indulge in needless affairs with his secretary. Why cause complications like that in his office when he had the lovely Petra Wilde in his life—in his bed?

Nevertheless, her mother had put the thought in her mind, and consequently she felt awkward about facing Gideon Maitland on Monday morning. Not that he could possibly know about the embarrassing suggestion her mother had made, but she knew, and she could hardly bear to face him.

She arrived early on Monday morning, her intention being to explain the work of the past week to Dorothy before she had to go down the corridor to Gideon Maitland’s office. Dorothy always arrived at eight-thirty, so Laura had decided to do the same this morning, spending the next half an hour going over every detail of the work she had done in the other woman’s absence.

When she had finished she gave Dorothy a shy smile. ‘It’s good to have you back.’

The other woman smiled, a woman in her mid-forties who had been with James Courtney for the last twenty years. It was rumoured that she had been in love with her boss years ago, but her sudden marriage at the age of forty seemed to have put an end to that. But her loyalty to James Courtney remained constant even during his cruellest of moods—and he had plenty of those.

‘Mr Courtney doesn’t like his routine disturbed,’ Dorothy excused, as if guessing that he had been unbearable to work for the last few days. ‘You’ll find Mr Maitland a lot less—strict about the rules.’

In other words he wasn’t such a swine to work for! Even guessing how impossible their bad-tempered boss had been the last few days Dorothy could still defend him. And no doubt his mood would mellow now that his efficient, almost mind-reading secretary was back.

Laura stood up reluctantly. ‘I suppose I’d better go along to Mr Maitland’s office now, it’s almost nine.’

Dorothy was sorting through the pile of mail on her desk, already back in command. ‘Good luck, dear,’ she said absently. ‘And if you run into any problems don’t hesitate to call me for help, although you should find the work more or less the same as here.’

‘I hope so,’ Laura said fervently.

She had no choice but to go to Gideon Maitland’s office now, remembering his comment about her not being late.

The door to the inner office was closed, so she assumed he was already in there. Now what did she do? His secretary’s desk seemed to be clear of all visible work, but she couldn’t just sit here doing nothing.

‘Good morning.’

She turned with a start, blushing as she saw Gideon Maitland standing casually in the doorway of his office. ‘Good morning—er, sir,’ she returned awkwardly.

He straightened, very dark and attractive in a navy blue three-piece suit, the waistcoat fitted against his taut stomach. Most men of his age, seated behind a desk all day, would have run to fat by now, but this man obviously had some way of keeping fit. The memory of Petra Wilde and his relationship with her instantly flashed into Laura’s mind, and she blushed at her own awareness of this man’s attraction. He made her quiver all over just to look at him, and how she was going to work with him she had no idea.

‘Call me Gideon,’ he invited smoothly.

‘Oh no,’ she shook her head, wishing she had more confidence in her appearance. Once again she was dressed to look cool and efficient, the brown tailored suit and cream blouse were smart if not exactly attractive. ‘I—I couldn’t.’

‘Of course you could,’ he insisted briskly. ‘I have every intention of calling you Laura.’

She flushed with the pleasure of him actually being aware of her first name. ‘That’s different.’

His mouth twisted. ‘Because I’m the boss and you’re the secretary?’

‘Well, I—Yes.’ She looked down at her hands.

Gideon looked at her steadily, his piercing grey eyes taking in everything about her. ‘We may not always have just a business relationship,’ he drawled.

Laura swallowed hard, looking at him with wide eyes. Goodness, her mother couldn’t be right, could she? This man wouldn’t expect more than secretarial duties from her, would he? Not that she wasn’t attracted to him, but she didn’t approve of those type of relationships. Besides, he had Petra Wilde, hadn’t he? No, he must just mean that perhaps they could become friends. She would like that.

‘What would you like me to do, Mr Maitland—er—Gideon?’ It didn’t feel right calling him that, and she doubted she would be able to do it again.

The morning rushed by in a haze of work. Gideon Maitland was as dynamic as James Courtney, although he wasn’t so aggressive to the people he worked with, making sure she went to lunch even though they were really busy. Laura enjoyed working with him, and found him decisive and accurate, quick to put people down if they made a mistake but equally quick to give praise if praise were due.

For all the wall of harshness that surrounded him he was popular with the other staff, male and female alike, and most of them could hardly wait for the time he took over as chairman.

‘I wouldn’t mind being his secretary,’ one of the girls at Laura’s table remarked as she ate her lunch in the staff canteen. Gideon Maitland was up in the executives’ dining-room—and not, Laura felt sure, eating a ham salad either.

Laura shrugged. ‘He’s very nice to work for.’ She wasn’t going to get into a discussion about him, feeling a loyalty towards him after only one morning of working for him.

‘Who wants to work?’ the other girl laughed; she was secretary to one of the department managers.

Laura blushed. ‘Mr Maitland works very hard,’ she defended, and gulped down her coffee, anxious to leave.

‘He plays very hard too,’ Susan grinned. ‘There’s a photograph of him in my magazine this week,’ she bent to take it out of her handbag. ‘He’s with Petra Wilde.’ She found the appropriate page and spread the magazine out in front of Laura.

Laura didn’t want to look, hadn’t wanted to see how well Gideon and the beautiful actress looked together. And they did look good, as she had known they would. Petra Wilde was almost as tall as her escort, her flaming red dress daring in the extreme as the two of them attended the premiere of the actress’s latest film. Gideon Maitland was laughing down at the other woman, looking happy and relaxed, completely unlike the harsh man he was during working hours. He looked so tall and distinguished, the photograph showing the wings of grey at his temples, his magnificent physique shown to full advantage in the black evening suit and snowy white shirt.

No wonder Petra Wilde gazed up at him so adoringly, her blue eyes sparkling with some secret message. The couple’s whole relationship looked intimate, Gideon’s arm firmly about the actress’s waist as he held her at his side.

‘Very nice,’ Laura pushed the magazine back across the table to Susan. ‘It’s a very good photograph,’ she added as she saw the other girl’s disappointed expression at her reaction.

‘You don’t seem very interested, I must say,’ Susan said in a disgruntled voice.

If the other girl knew what a wrench the photograph gave to her heart she wouldn’t say that. Laura had expected to have her romantic illusions about Gideon destroyed once she began working for him, had thought the familiarity would show her how silly her infatuation was, but if anything she had fallen more under his spell, gazing at him longingly when he wasn’t looking at her.

‘I have to get back.’ She stood up, knowing that she still had twenty minutes of her lunch-break left, but not prepared to sit and answer questions about Gideon for all that time.

As she had thought, her new boss was still out at lunch when she got back, but she could use this time to finish her typing.

‘That’s what I like to see.’

She looked up to see Nigel Jennings, the Personnel Manager for the company, standing in the open doorway. She returned his smile as he came over to her desk. ‘What’s that?’ she asked.

‘Well, I must have made the right decision when I employed you,’ he grinned, sitting on the edge of her desk. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be working for Gideon.’

‘It’s only temporary.’

He nodded; he was a man of about thirty, with boyishly blond good looks. He looked too young to carry the responsibilities he did, and yet Laura knew James Courtney valued his work, that he trusted his judgement implicitly. The only time he seemed to have doubted his judgement had been in Nigel’s employment of her!

‘Diane’s off with ‘flu.’ He picked up the paperweight from the desk. ‘But then so is almost everyone else.’ He grimaced. ‘That’s why I’m here to see Gideon, actually. It’s the firm’s annual dinner-dance next week, and if half the company isn’t going to be able to go it might be better if we just cancelled it.’

‘I suppose so.’ Laura had forgotten all about the dinner-dance, and in any case had not intended going even if she did manage to evade catching this ‘flu bug that was running rife in the company.

Nigel quirked an eyebrow at her. ‘I suppose you’re bringing your boy-friend along?’

‘Well, actually—–’

‘You aren’t?’ he cut in eagerly.

Laura viewed him with something like dismay, guessing that his reaction when she told him she wasn’t thinking of going would be to invite her to go with him. Not that she didn’t like him, on the few occasions when they had spoken together she had found him a very agreeable companion. But she knew from experience what these company dinners were like, knew the romantic speculation that would go on for days afterwards if two employees spent any time together at all.

‘I’m not going. You see,’ she added firmly as he made to protest, ‘I don’t like to leave my mother alone in the evenings. She’s a widow, and—–’

‘Surely one night isn’t going to hurt,’ Nigel protested, his open features clearly showing his disappointment. ‘It isn’t as if it happens every night of the week. And I’d like you to come. Laura—–’

‘Hello, Nigel.’ Gideon Maitland had miraculously appeared in the office, not that he could possibly know the embarrassment he was saving her if she had had to turn down Nigel’s invitation. Grey eyes flickered coldly, over them both, and Nigel slowly stood up. ‘Anything I can do for you?’ Gideon asked politely enough. ‘Or did you just come to see my secretary?’ His voice hardened perceptively.

The other man flushed, obviously as unnerved by this tall imposing man as everyone else seemed to be. ‘I came to see you, actually, Gideon.’ He had obviously recovered his composure. ‘But—–’

‘But while you were here you thought you’d chat up my secretary,’ Gideon drawled.

‘I—Well—–’

‘Come through to my office,’ Gideon instructed briskly. ‘Are you back from lunch, Laura?’

‘Er—yes, sir.’

He nodded, his face darkening at her formal way of addressing him. Laura waited until the two men had gone through to the other office before restarting her typing. It felt strange to hear Gideon keep referring to her as ‘his secretary’ when all she was doing was filling in for a few days. As soon as Diane was back she would return to James Courtney’s tyranny.

Gideon had been angry about her talking to Nigel, and he had every right to be. She might still have been on her lunch-break at the time, but the conversation had taken place in the office, a social conversation that he had every right to object to.

Nigel came out of the office about ten minutes later. ‘About next week, Laura—–’

‘Laura, could you come in here, please,’ Gideon requested curtly from behind him. ‘Was there anything else, Nigel?’ he looked calmly at the other man.

Nigel shrugged his defeat in the face of a determination stronger than his own. ‘No, nothing. Perhaps I’ll see you for lunch tomorrow, Laura?’

‘I—Perhaps.’ She was already gathering up her short-hand pad and pencil, one look at Gideon’s face telling her that he wasn’t in a mood to be kept waiting.

She walked proudly past Gideon as he pointedly held the door open to his office, and sat down in the chair opposite his, her pencil poised expectantly, looking up uncertainly as he seemed in no hurry to begin dictation.

‘Are you in the habit of spending time with Nigel Jennings?’ he asked suddenly.

Laura blinked dazedly at the unexpectedness of such a question, her notepad slowly lowering to her knees. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she frowned.

‘Out of working hours you’re free to see who you want,’ he continued harshly. ‘But while you’re working for me I would prefer it if you saw your boy-friend away from my office.’

‘Nigel—I mean, Mr Jennings isn’t my boy-friend!’ she gasped indignantly.

Gideon raised dark eyebrows. ‘He isn’t?’

‘No. He came up here to see you, not me.’

‘I see. Do you have a boy-friend?’

‘Why?’ she asked the question without thinking, blushing at the look of irritation that passed across his handsome face. ‘I mean—–’

‘You mean why do I want to know about your personal life,’ he drawled, relaxing back in his chair. He shrugged. ‘I like to know something about the people who work with me.’

Of course—how stupid of her to think his interest was personal. A lot of the work he gave her was confidential, he couldn’t just reveal those sort of things to anyone. Although James Courtney had never expressed an interest in her private life.

She shrugged. After all, what harm could it do? ‘No, I don’t have a boy-friend.’

He raised surprised eyebrows. ‘You’re very attractive.’

With her hair free about her shoulders, and younger, attractive clothing, she was perhaps passable, but she certainly wasn’t ‘very attractive’.

‘When you look the nineteen you are,’ he seemed to guess her thoughts. ‘And don’t try to look and act ten years older.’

Colour flooded Laura’s cheeks. ‘When did you—I’ve never—When did you see me looking nineteen?’ she asked almost defensively.

He shrugged, a pen held loosely between his long fingers as he played with it idly. Laura found her gaze mesmerised by the way he seemed to almost caress the cold metal, blushing even more as she looked up to find him following her line of vision, his mouth twisting mockingly.

‘I can’t remember,’ he dismissed easily. ‘Somewhere.’

She couldn’t imagine where, she never appeared anything but the more mature person she was at work. Still, Gideon seemed very certain, and he wasn’t a man who would very often be wrong.

‘Your mother is a widow, I believe.’ He seemed in no hurry to begin dictation; he was completely relaxed, his grey eyes narrowed.

‘Yes.’ Laura frowned her puzzlement, once again wondering why he needed to know about her private life.

‘And you have a brother.’

‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘He lives in America now.’

‘I didn’t realise that. He used to work for us, didn’t he?’

‘Yes,’ she acknowledged eagerly. ‘It was because he liked working here so much that I—But you don’t want to hear about that.’ She bit her lip.

‘On the contrary,’ Gideon prompted.

She shot him a nervous smile; his interest seemed genuine. ‘Martin—that’s my brother—liked working here—–’

‘We try to please,’ Gideon put in dryly.

‘Oh, you do! I mean—Courtneys is a good firm to work for. And—–’

‘Will you have dinner with me this evening?’ he asked quietly.

She raised startled green eyes, her lashes fluttering nervously. ‘I—Sorry?’ She couldn’t have heard him correctly, men like Gideon Maitland didn’t ask little nobodies like her out to dinner!

‘Dinner. With me. Tonight,’ he repeated patiently.

Laura gulped, searching his hard face for some sign of the mockery that never seemed to be far away, but he gazed steadily back at her as he waited for her answer.

But he couldn’t really mean it, not her.

‘Laura?’ he prompted at her continued silence.

‘I—No. I mean, yes. No—–’ She was totally confused, the invitation had been totally unexpected.

Gideon gave a tight smile ‘Don’t use your mother as an excuse to me,’ he more or less confirmed that he had been listening to her conversation for some time before making his presence known. ‘I happen to know that your mother is only fifty years old, and that she has more of a social life than you do.’

It was true. Her mother had joined a Widows, Widowers, and Divorcees Club after Laura’s father had died, and the friends she had made there were always going out for the evening in a crowd, even on the nights the club didn’t meet.

‘So?’ he prompted again.

‘I—–’ She licked her lips nervously, wondering frantically at the reason for this sudden invitation. Maybe he had argued with Petra Wilde and felt in need of amusement—and she certainly seemed to amuse him. ‘You don’t mean it.’

‘But I do. I never say anything I don’t mean.’

‘N-never?’ she faltered uncertainly.

‘Never,’ he confirmed.

She swallowed hard. ‘You—you really do want to take me out to dinner tonight?’

‘I do,’ he nodded.

‘Why?’ Laura frowned.

‘Why not?’ he gave a tight smile.

‘Because—–’

‘Gideon—Oh,’ James Courtney came to a halt just inside the room, looking searchingly at the other man. ‘Have you forgotten we have a meeting with Crewe at two-thirty?’

‘Not at all,’ Gideon denied smoothly. ‘Laura and I were just—talking.’

‘Indeed?’ The older man looked even more puzzled.

Gideon continued to look at Laura, uncaring of his father-in-law’s presence. ‘You haven’t given me your answer.’

She was aware of James Courtney’s speculative looks even if Gideon wasn’t, and stood up to leave. ‘The answer is no, Mr Maitland,’ and she hurried past the surprised James Courtney into her own office.

‘Laura!’ She hadn’t realised Gideon had followed her until he swung her round to face him. ‘I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty.’

Her embarrassed gaze passed to James Courtney, and then back to Gideon. ‘No—–’

‘Yes!’ he insisted firmly, his fingers painful on her arm.

‘No …’ But even she was aware that her denial sounded weak this time. How could he do this to her in front of James Courtney! Wasn’t he in the least embarrassed himself in admitting he had invited out his own secretary, a girl far below him both in sophistication and socially? Heavens, one look at Petra Wilde was enough to tell her he must be playing with her—and it was a cruel joke to play on anyone.

‘Laura!’ Gideon shook her.

‘I said no,’ she looked away from him, ‘And I meant no.’

His hand dropped away from her arm. ‘I don’t have the time to argue with you now, I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty.’

‘You—–’

‘For God’s sake give in gracefully, girl,’ James Courtney put in tersely. ‘Don’t you know when you’re outmatched?’

She looked at him rebelliously, feeling like a mouse caught between two tormenting cats. ‘I don’t need any advice from you,’ she flashed resentfully. ‘As Mr Maitland told me shortly before you arrived, what I do in the evenings is my own affair. And I don’t choose to be any rich man’s amusement!’ She didn’t wait to see either James Courtney or Gideon’s reaction to her outburst, but ran out of the office and into the ladies’ room further down the corridor. She leant back weakly against the door, hardly able to believe the scene that had just taken place, from Gideon Maitland’s dinner invitation to her angry outburst to James Courtney.

Oh God, what had she done! The least she could expect from her outburst would be a verbal or written reprimand, the worst could be instant dismissal. And after her behaviour just now she probably deserved the latter.

She took a deep controlling breath, the ravages of that unpleasant scene on her white shocked face, the eyes staring back at her in the mirror greener than ever. She couldn’t stay in here all day, she had to go back to the office, if only to collect her handbag and leave. But she dreaded having to face either of the men again.

Her reflection showed her face to be colourless, her youth showing through in that moment, showing her what Gideon Maitland must have seen, a child dressed up to be a woman.

Well, she didn’t work at Courtneys any longer, so the pose of maturity was no longer necessary. She would be just plain Laura Jamieson when she walked out of here, her head held high. The removal of her hair pins was the first move, and she fluffed the auburn waves loose about her shoulders. Undoing the top two buttons of her severely fastened blouse was the next move, folding the collar back over the jacket of her suit. She instantly looked younger, and she felt it too.

Her legs began to shake as she reached her office door. She couldn’t hear any explosive voices, but then that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be verbally chewed to pieces as soon as she walked in the door. James Courtney could be chillingly polite until he exploded at his victim, and this time she was it. She had seen experienced businessmen quake at the thought of a run in with James Courtney, so what chance did she have of getting out of the building unscathed?

She couldn’t believe it—the office was empty! She quickly checked Gideon Maitland’s office, just to make sure. Of course, it was almost two-thirty, the two men had an appointment then, and they weren’t likely to miss that just for the satisfaction of sacking her personally. No, they would just expect her to go.

She would finish off her work first; she had been halfway through typing a letter. She could leave the completed work on Gideon Maitland’s desk—along with her resignation. If they hadn’t actually sacked her then she was perfectly within her rights to hand in her resignation. This way she wouldn’t have it on her record that she had been sacked.

Her fingers fumbled on the typewriter keys, her eyes opening wide as she looked at the destruction of her letter. It had been quite a lengthy letter too, very technical, and she had prided herself on the fact that she hadn’t made a single error, not even on the parts where she didn’t understand a word, and now Gideon Maitland had wilfully destroyed her painstaking work. Directly under her neatly laid out letter he had typed ‘SEVEN-THIRTY, LAURA’.

She ripped the sheets out of her typewriter, her eyes sparkling with anger. How dared he! How dared he do that to her work? And probably in front of James Courtney too. Well, he could think again, she wouldn’t be seeing him at seven-thirty or any other time. And if he wanted this letter retyped then he could damn well do it himself!

Her head was held at an angry angle as she went down in the lift, sparing not a glance for the young receptionist as the other girl shot her a puzzled look.

And no wonder, with this angry sparkle in her eyes, two bright spots of colour in her otherwise pale cheeks Laura could never remember losing her temper as much as she had today, the combined arrogance of Gideon Maitland and James Courtney inflaming her in a way that nothing else ever had. And it was an uncomfortable feeling, not in the least pleasant or exhilarating, and she hoped it didn’t happen too often in the future.

In the future? What future? She had left her letter of resignation on Gideon Maitland’s desk, propped up against the pictures of his wife and little girl. He seemed to spend quite a bit of his time looking at those photographs, so she knew that he wouldn’t miss her letter when he got back from his business appointment.

Janice hadn’t understated Felicity Maitland’s beauty. Laura had been bedazzled by the other woman’s flawless features as soon as she saw the photograph, at once seeing why Gideon Maitland and James Courtney missed her so much. Felicity Maitland had looked full of life, a gay teasing smile to her pouting lips, her deep blue eyes laughing with a gaiety that must have been infectious. No wonder Gideon Maitland rarely smiled; when his wife had died she had taken all the laughter out of his life.

And the photograph of his daughter Natalie perhaps explained the reason Janice claimed he had little time for his daughter. Natalie Maitland already showed signs of being as beautiful as her mother had been, her eyes huge and deeply blue, her hair a mass of golden curls.

But for now Laura had to worry about facing her own mother, knowing how furious she would be when she told her she had lost her job—and for such a reason. Her mother would think she was mad for refusing to have dinner with Gideon Maitland—and maybe she was!

‘What a day!’ Her mother collapsed wearily into a chair, her work at the shop involving being on her feet all day. ‘If I have to sell just one more pair of shoes to one more screaming child I swear I’ll scream with them!’ she sighed.

‘Bad as that?’ Laura handed her mother a cup of tea.

‘Worse,’ she grimaced, sipping the refreshing brew gratefully. ‘You’re home early, love.’

‘Yes, well, I—–’ Now was the time to tell her mother of her resignation. But she couldn’t do it! The words just wouldn’t come out.

‘I wish I could come home early,’ her mother groaned, leaning back in the chair. ‘Although the way things are going at the shop at the moment I might be home, full stop.’

Laura frowned. ‘Business is bad?’

‘Well, it isn’t good.’

She bit her lip. ‘How not good?’

Her mother shrugged. ‘Gerry thinks he might have to make redundancies.’

Gerry Blake was the manager of the shoe shop her mother worked in, and if he thought there would be redundancies, then there would be. Oh dear, how could she tell her mother now, the two of them barely managed the flat on two wages, and it would be a tight squeeze to get through until she found another job, but if her mother were to lose her job too …!

‘How did your day go, love?’ Her mother shrugged off her own worry, eager to hear about Laura’s day with Gideon Maitland.

‘I—It was—interesting,’ Laura said lamely.

‘Interesting! Is that all?’

No, it had been disastrous! And now she was going to have to try frantically to get herself another job before her mother realised she had lost the one at Courtneys.

Her mother gave her a worried look. ‘You didn’t upset Mr Maitland in any way, did you?’

She hadn’t upset him at all, he had upset her. ‘No, of course not,’ Laura reassured her.

‘Well, how did you get on with him, then?’

‘All right,’ Laura shrugged. ‘Just like a secretary should, I suppose.’

Her mother shook her head. ‘Maybe if you stopped wearing those clothes and looked like my pretty Laura …’

‘Maybe I should,’ she agreed, to divert her mother’s attention. ‘We could go out on Saturday and look at some new things.’ Although where the money would come from now that she didn’t even have a job she had no idea.

And it didn’t seem to have diverted her mother’s attention at all. ‘So you like Mr Maitland now?’ she teased.

She blushed. ‘I—He’s very attractive.’

‘Oh, I’m so glad, Laura,’ her mother beamed. ‘It never does any harm to have an influential man like him behind you.’

‘Mother—–’

‘I know, I know, I’m being pushy. But I want the best for you, Laura. And there’s no reason why Gideon Maitland shouldn’t—like you. Men like him have to marry someone.’

So her mother had progressed to marriage now! ‘He’s already been married, and as far as I know he has no intention of being so again. He loved his wife very much. Besides, men like him only have affairs with their secretaries—–’

‘Don’t be such a snob, Laura! You’re a very pretty girl, and—–’

Fortunately it was the night for her mother’s club, so she was able to cut short her questioning by reminding her that she had to get ready to meet her friends.

Her mother certainly had high ideas for her! It had been impossible to tell her mother she was out of work when she had such plans for her. Her mother hadn’t had a very easy life, bringing up two children, with her husband away most of the time, and Laura knew she only meant it for the best when she said she wanted more for her—but Gideon Maitland was certainly not for her!

She paced restlessly up and down the room once her mother had left, wondering what she was going to do about her jobless state. Jobs weren’t so easy to come by nowadays, although secretaries always seemed to be in demand. She would just have to go to an agency tomorrow and hope for the best.

If only she hadn’t been antagonised! Turning down Gideon Maitland’s invitation wasn’t reason enough to sack her, she was perfectly within her rights to do that, but telling her employer to more or less mind his own business was hardly something that could be overlooked, and James Courtney wasn’t the most forgiving of men.

When the doorbell rang some time later she was glad of the interruption, her thoughts all worrying ones. It—good heavens! She looked dazedly at the clock on the mantel-piece—seven-thirty exactly!

Gideon Maitland had turned up at seven-thirty as he had said he would!

CHAPTER THREE

LAURA’s first instinct was not to answer the door. But Gideon knocked again and again, and living in a block of flats as they did, she would be getting complaints from the neighbours if she didn’t soon answer the door.

She furiously wrenched the door open, ready to do battle with him, her anger dying in her throat as she saw how handsome he looked in the black fitted shirt and black trousers, the tan jacket tailored to his powerful shoulders and narrow waist. He took her breath away, appearing even more magnificent in the ordinariness of her home. Devastating, that was the word to describe him. He looked devastating.

Laura could only stare at him open-mouthed, not raising any objections when he brushed past her into the flat, closing the door before following him dazedly into the lounge.

‘I didn’t think you’d be ready to go out to dinner,’ he told her, ‘so I dressed casually.’

‘Yes, I—er—No.’ She was doing it again! She took a deep breath, steadying her nervous stuttering. ‘Those clothes don’t look very casual to me,’ she said defensively, knowing that just one of his shirts must cost a fortune, being silk. He probably had them hand-made, as he did the rest of his clothes.

He shrugged dismissively. ‘Your mother is out?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then you may as well have this.’ He reached into his breast-pocket, pulling out a white envelope. Her resignation!

She made no move to take the proffered envelope from his strong fingers. ‘Mr Courtney—–’

‘—Liked the way you stood up to him,’ Gideon half-smiled.

Her eyes widened. ‘He did?’

‘Mm,’ he nodded. ‘James was beginning to wonder whether he’d hired a mouse or a woman as his secretary.’

Considering both men made her feel like the former this wasn’t in the last surprising!

‘Can I sit down?’ Gideon asked mockingly.

Laura flushed at her lack of manners. ‘I—er—Yes. Yes, of course. Please do.’

He stretched his legs out in front of him, completely dominating in one of the flower-patterned chairs of their suite. The white envelope containing her resignation was placed on one of the arms of that chair.

Laura eyed it nervously. ‘Did you mean it about giving me back my—er—letter?’

He held it out to her once again. ‘Here.’

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.