Trail Of Love

‘What was the question you wanted to ask me, Miss Napier?’ There was a reserve in Sir Charles’s voice now, and she found that strangely upsetting. His innate courtesy remained, but Ben Radford’s insidious cynicism had poisoned his mind against her—and for no good reason that she could see. Her emergent dislike of him intensified.

She shook her head, unable to blame Sir Charles. ‘It’s not important,’ she temporised, and she should have known she wouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

‘It was important enough to bring you here. Why don’t you ask it and let us be the judges?’ Ben Radford commanded in a tone that brooked no argument.

She produced a smile that was every bit as cynical as his. As a judge he had already shown that his impartiality was seriously compromised. The tension now filling the room was awesome, and Kay had no idea what it was she had done to produce such a reaction. Surely not just the fact of having red hair? There was more here than met the eye, and she wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t wanted to know what it was. The way to find out was to ask the question she had come here for.

‘Very well, though it’s a waste of your time because I already know I was a fool,’ she declared pointedly. ‘You’ll think so too.’

‘Oh, I doubt very much if that will be our reaction, Miss Napier,’ her antagonist drawled with heavy irony.

She bluntly ignored him, turning instead to the older man, who had sunk down into his seat. However, voicing the question was no easier now than it would have been five minutes ago. ‘Sir Charles, my name is Kay Napier—well, it’s Sarah really, but everyone calls me Kay. I’m twenty-four years old. I have my birth certificate here telling me all this. But...’ She really didn’t want to mention the letter in the other man’s hearing, especially as she had destroyed it. ‘My mother died not long ago, and in among her things I found her diary. This is the crazy part. In the diary she used “K”, you see, just the initial. I thought it stood for Kay, but what if...?’ Helplessly she floundered to a halt, then, with eyes as much angry as unconsciously confused, added, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous. Just tell me this—could I be Kimberley Endacott?’

CHAPTER TWO

WHATEVER reaction she had expected to receive, the total silence that followed wasn’t it. She would have anticipated anger, or even dismay, at her intrusion on a subject so personally tragic. It was Ben Radford whose deep blue eyes registered withering contempt.

‘Who sent you, Miss Napier?’ he demanded in a voice that could cut through three-quarter-inch steel.

Already made uncomfortable by her own sense of betrayal and confusion, she found his insinuation doubly distasteful. Consequently her voice dripped ice. ‘Nobody sent me. I came here because...’ Her hesitation was fractional as she veered once more from the full truth. ‘Ever since I saw that programme I’ve been unable to think of anything else.’ She answered him, but her eyes were on the still silent older man, who now appeared lost in thought.

Ben Radford laughed harshly. ‘You and thousands like you! Have you any idea how many claimants have beaten a path to our door since Kimberley disappeared?’

She shot him a glare. ‘I don’t care about them!’ she gritted, so angry at him that she entirely missed the point of his question.

His smile grew wolfish. ‘You should. They all had the same idea as you—getting their hands on the Endacott fortune.’

Now that did get through. Kay blinked like a startled owl, the colour draining from her cheeks. ‘What?’ She was shocked, her thoughts so far removed from the fiscal. He couldn’t possibly be thinking...

Ben Radford rounded the desk in two purposeful strides, to loom over her like some threatening bird of prey, and against her will she backed away. But only one step before stiffening her spine and squaring up to him. Not at all an easy thing to do, because his potency at the width of a room seemed to treble at such close quarters. He was not the sort of man you could ever ignore, even if he weren’t as handsome as sin. Battling regrettably capricious senses, she forced herself to concentrate on his words, and not the attractive curve of his mouth.

‘Had she been here, Kimberley Endacott would have been twenty-four and shortly to come into possession of a substantial amount of money. Which, naturally, you didn’t know,’ he finished scornfully.

She held her ground, her body trembling. She told herself it was anger—only anger. Because she had never been so insulted in her life before. ‘No, I didn’t, and it’s not why I’m here!’ she protested her innocence gamely. He didn’t believe her, and, in fairness, if what he said was true, why should he? Desperate to remove her gaze from one that had almost an hypnotic effect, she turned to the desk. ‘Sir Charles, just tell me there’s no possible way I could be Kimberley, and I’ll leave.’

A snort echoed behind her. ‘That’s certainly a novel angle. I don’t believe anyone else has used it,’ Ben Radford drawled nastily, and Kay, pushed to the limit, lost her temper.

She swung round, eyes flashing fire, hands balled into fists at her sides. ‘Shut up!’ she ordered, then balked at her nerve.

His brows rose. ‘Well, well. To use an overworked cliché, you’re magnificent when you’re angry.’

It could have been a compliment, but it wasn’t. She had never come so close to actually hitting a man, but the temptation was great. It successfully negated her sense of contrition at her behaviour towards him. ‘I came here because I was concerned, not to hear your ridiculous accusations.’ Once more she turned her back and appealed to Sir Charles. ‘Please, look at me. I can’t be your granddaughter, can I? The whole idea is ludicrous, isn’t it? Just tell me so, so that I can stop thinking these terrible thoughts about someone I loved very dearly.’

Sir Charles glanced up at that and heaved a deep sigh. ‘I’m afraid I cannot do so. I’ve no more idea than anyone as to whether my granddaughter is alive. As to what she would look like now—you could be her. The colouring is right.’

This wasn’t what she wanted to hear at all. ‘You can’t be serious!’ she gasped in dismay.

There was a flicker of compassion in the old grey eyes as he pushed himself rather tiredly to his feet. ‘I can sympathise with your problem, Miss Napier. You’re being made to doubt where only trust had been. You want that trust restored. However, you’ll appreciate, too, my own dilemma. I could walk past Kimberley in the street tomorrow and not know her.’

The unspoken anguish in that soft statement moved her terribly. Beside it, her own doubts seemed selfishly trivial. ‘I’m sorry. I never meant to revive bad memories for you. It was simply that I didn’t know who else to ask,’ she apologised stiffly, voice tinged with regret.

Sir Charles circled his desk and laid a large, comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘You haven’t upset me, if that troubles you. One doesn’t ever forget. One simply goes on living.’

To one side, his partner snorted. ‘Charles, you’re letting a pretty face undermine your judgement. Any minute now you’ll be offering to take her to lunch!’

‘Don’t be so damned cynical, Ben. The girl’s upset. Any fool can see that,’ Sir Charles countered irascibly.

Bed Radford dragged an irate hand through his hair. ‘And there’s no fool like an old fool!’ he rejoined, then held up a placatory hand as he saw the older man bristle. ‘OK, I’m sorry. You’ll do as you please, but just don’t forget she probably knows all the angles, and I know what she’s angling for.’ His blue eyes flashed a warning at her that made her shiver. It said: You may fool Charles, but you don’t fool me for one minute. ‘As I seem to be an unwanted third in this little drama, I might as well be on my way.’ However, at the door he halted. ‘But I will offer you a small piece of advice, Miss Napier. You’d do well to look up the law on blackmail. I’m sure you’ll find it fascinating reading.’ His pithy parting shot made her go cold.

‘You mustn’t mind Ben, he’s only looking after my interests. I’m afraid you aren’t the first young woman to turn up, but you are the only one who wanted us to prove you weren’t Kimberley.’

Regaining her composure now that the other man had gone, taking the tension with him, she looked serious. ‘Please believe me, I never once thought about the money.’

He smiled. ‘No doubt Ben would call me a fool again, but I do believe you.’

Kay smiled back. He really was a very nice man, unlike his younger partner. ‘Thank you,’ she said, and would have taken her leave, only a thought occurred to her. ‘If I had come here, claiming to be Kimberley, what would you have done?’

‘Called the police,’ he proclaimed, not mincing his words.

‘Oh!’ she responded, disconcerted, realising he might be kind but he wasn’t a fool. She had got off very lightly. Far more lightly than his partner would have liked.

‘You mustn’t forget my granddaughter was kidnapped and my family blackmailed for a very large sum of money. Both of which, and to our continuing sadness in one case, we have never seen again.’

Kay knew an enormous sense of guilt at bringing the whole tragic episode to the fore again. ‘I’m sorry, I never meant to cause you any distress. It was selfish of me, and stupid, too. I know who I am, and I shouldn’t have allowed a string of coincidences to undermine that. Please forgive me.’

Sir Charles escorted her to the door. ‘Of course I will, my dear. What are you going to do now?’

She hoped he wasn’t about to offer her lunch as Ben Radford had so cynically suggested. She gave a tiny shrug. ‘Go back to Winterbourne and Stonely, and put this entire episode behind me.’

Sir Charles looked impressed. ‘They’re very sound. A good financial reputation. What do you do there?’

There had been times in her life when explaining her work had been a complete turn-off, but she didn’t fear that from this man. ‘I’m an actuary. Basically I’m an investment analyst, managing portfolios and such.’

He whistled soundlessly. ‘If I say I’m impressed, it is sincerely meant. That’s quite a position for one so young.’

Kay grimaced. Her comparative youth, combined with her sex, did have its drawbacks. After failing to get jobs she was eminently qualified for, it had dawned on her that her looks were decidedly against her. Which was why she now dressed in very businesslike suits and drew her hair back. Experience had taught her it inspired confidence in her clients, and her employers.

Sir Charles opened the door, and Kay stepped outside, finding herself back in the corridor. She smiled up at him ruefully. ‘I’m working on getting older,’ she quipped, then sobered with a sigh. ‘You must think I’m a very ungrateful daughter who could think such things of my mother.’

‘A minute or two in a lifetime is no crime. We’re all human, and make mistakes. Good luck to you, Miss Napier.’

‘And to you,’ she said, and on a rare impulse, reached up to brush a swift kiss on his weathered cheek. Then, a little embarrassed, she turned and walked back towards the lift. She had made rather a fool of herself, but she would recover from it. At least there had been one positive result—common sense had returned at last, despite the lack of confirmation, and it was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, giving a spring to her step.

‘Very touching!’

The sarcastically drawled comment brought her head round and she found herself confronting a stony-faced Bed Radford.

‘Laying claim, were you?’ he went on, joining her as she waited for the lift to arrive.