Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

‘Wow.’ John dazedly echoed her sentiments. ‘So that’s the long-lost son.’ He shook his head as he sat down in the chair opposite Juliet. ‘Not quite what I expected,’ he said speculatively.

He wasn’t quite what Juliet had expected either, which was why she hadn’t initially made any connection between Edward Carlyle and the Liam she had met in Majorca. She wished she still hadn’t!

And there was still the puzzle of why he wanted the Walters file. Of course he had still been here himself then, and might have been involved in the project, but even so it still seemed a very strange request to her.

She was curious to see that file now herself, and fully intended looking through it thoroughly before passing it on to Liam. She had quickly learnt that Liam Carlyle didn’t do anything without purpose. There had to be a reason why he wanted that specific file. And she doubted very much that he intended telling her what it was!

CHAPTER SEVEN (#ulink_ab71ed99-97c4-5a16-a1b5-3f183e603ce0)

NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. The store-room downstairs had been checked, double-checked, and then checked again. By John Morgan. There was no Walters file.

But Liam had sounded so definite. And, as Juliet was learning, he was rarely wrong. So finally, out of desperation, she had gone down to the storeroom herself. After half an hour’s fruitless search she had to concede that John was right—there was no Walters file.

But if there had been a client called Walters then there had to be a file, and if, as Liam had said, the account was ten years old, then the file would be down in the store-room; any file over five years old was automatically put downstairs at the end of the financial year. It was what William had always done.

But there was no Walters file downstairs!

A search of the filing cabinets in her own office had revealed no such file either, and quite frankly Juliet was at a loss to know what to do now. The first thing Liam asked her to supply him with concerning the company and she couldn’t even find it. Wonderful!

Over an hour had passed since he had made the request, and, being Liam, he surely wouldn’t wait much longer for the file to materialise in his office. Should she attack, by going to him and telling him that he must have made a mistake, or should she sit in her office and wait for him to come to her? The latter choice put her at a definite disadvantage where a man like him was concerned. And there was always the possibility that he might have made a mistake. A remote one, she inwardly acknowledged heavily, but it was a possibility.

Two golden heads were bent over William’s green leather-topped desk when Juliet entered the room after a brief knock, but not on opposite sides of the desk, as one might have expected; Diana and Liam were sitting close together behind it. Diana looked up and smiled as Juliet entered. Liam just scowled at the intrusion.

And that was exactly how Juliet felt—like an intruder! These two were obviously very close—and not just by locality. Juliet couldn’t help wondering how Liam viewed ‘that sort of thing’ out of the office!

He sat back in the high-backed leather chair, looking across at Juliet with narrowed eyes. ‘Yes?’ He looked pointedly at her empty hands.

She moistened her lips. ‘Er—there doesn’t seem to be a Walters file.’ Very dynamic! So much for attack; she sounded like an apprehensive schoolgirl. She straightened her shoulders determinedly. ‘Are you sure you have the right name?’

Liam’s mouth tightened. ‘Positive.’

She had thought he might be! ‘We can carry on looking, of course. There’s always the possibility that it might have been mis-filed.’ She gave a rueful shrug.

‘How convenient!’ His mouth twisted bitterly.

Juliet frowned. ‘Look, it was ten years ago, Liam,’ she reasoned impatiently. God, she hadn’t even worked for the company then. ‘You could have the wrong name—’

‘No,’ he cut in harshly, ‘I couldn’t. Did my father keep any of the paperwork anywhere else? At the house, perhaps?’

Her frown deepened at his persistence. After all, the account was ten years old anyway, was dead and buried. Literally so, it appeared. But things like this happened in a company as big and strong as Carlyle Properties had once been. No doubt the file would turn up some time—William had been too thorough in his records for it to be any other wayout at the moment she just couldn’t find it.

‘William occasionally worked from the house, yes,’ she began slowly. ‘But——’

‘Then we’ll look there,’ he interrupted curtly.

What was so special about the Walters file that he was so determined to find it? Before he had walked out on the family and the business Liam had worked for the company, Juliet knew that, so perhaps it had been a pet project of his and he wanted to see how it had worked out. But, even so, surely they had much more pressing matters to deal with just now than a project that was ten years old!

‘What exactly was the Walters account?’ She was still frowning at him.

‘A six-storeyed office building,’ he bit out grimly.

Juliet looked at him expectantly, thinking there had to be more. But he said nothing else, just met her gaze with a steady challenge. But Juliet was puzzled. Carlyle Properties had put up lots of office blocks in the eight years she had been with the company, either under contract, or building them themselves for selling. What was so special about this one building?

Oh, God, she had given up trying to sort out the workings of Liam’s mind; she just had to find this file as quickly as possible. Maybe it was at the house, although she couldn’t for the life of her understand why it should be.

‘I see,’ she nodded, but, of course, didn’t see at all. But it was a minor point as far as she was concerned. ‘John and I are ready to move the other files back in here now,’ she added.

‘I’ll help you,’ Diana offered warmly.

There was no such offer forthcoming from Liam, Juliet noticed, tensing warily as he stood up to cross the width of the office to her side. She tensed even more as one of his hands was raised towards her.

‘A cobweb,’ he drawled mockingly as he removed the gossamer web from her hair, lightly brushing her temple with his fingertips as he did so.

Juliet felt colour warm her cheeks. What had she thought he was going to do, especially with Diana Gilbraith as their audience?

‘Thank you,’ she said huskily, pushing her hair back from her face, wondering if there were any other signs of her search of the basement.

His mouth twisted derisively as he looked down at her with amused eyes. ‘You’re welcome,’ he murmured softly.

Juliet turned away abruptly, looking across at the other woman, inwardly wondering what Diana was making of all this. Probably she was too discreet where her employer was concerned to think anything of his behaviour!

‘See to those letters for me, Diana.’ Liam spoke to his assistant in a businesslike tone. ‘I’ll see you later. Both of you,’ he added drily.

Juliet frowned as he strode from the office. It was too early for lunch; surely he hadn’t gone off for the rest of the day? Left alone with Diana, she didn’t like to ask the other woman, and Diana, being the sort of discreet personal assistant Liam was likely to have chosen, didn’t volunteer any information concerning her employer’s movements either.

By lunchtime they had moved the bulk of the files back into William’s office. And Liam still hadn’t returned. Maybe he wasn’t going to, Juliet thought as she took a working lunch in her own office. Actually, it was an apple and half a cheese sandwich which she had bought from the cafeteria in the building. Unlike Liam, she didn’t have time to go out for leisurely lunches.

As usual, her office door stood open, and she looked up as Diana came to stand there. She had come to like the other woman more and more as the morning had progressed, had found her to be cheerful and hard-working, with infinite patience for getting things right. No doubt she would need that, working for Liam!

Diana looked disappointed as she saw the remains of the cheese sandwich on Juliet’s desk. ‘I thought perhaps you might like to come to lunch with me,’ she said ruefully. ‘But I can see you’ve already eaten.’ She shrugged. ‘You could always sit and have dessert with me?’ she added hopefully.

Juliet was about to refuse, and then changed her mind. She hadn’t taken a break all morning, and even if she only had a coffee with the other woman it was better than nothing. If Diana and Liam were going to be around for any length of time, it would be helpful if she could get on with at least one of them! Besides, it couldn’t be much fun for Diana either, just being thrown in at the deep end here. No doubt the other woman was more than capable of taking care of herself, but it would still be rather rude of Juliet to refuse her invitation.

‘Dessert sounds good.’ She returned the other woman’s smile, standing up to collect her jacket from behind the door. ‘There’s a nice French restaurant around the corner that used to serve lovely pastries.’ She and William had occasionally gone there to reward themselves if they had been working particularly hard.

The restaurant was very busy, as usual, but they managed to find a table for two, and as they sat down Juliet started to wonder what they were actually going to talk about. Liam was obviously off limits, and Juliet had never been particularly forthcoming about her own background, so that really only left Diana’s family.

‘Were your family pleased to see you home last week?’ she asked the other woman conversationally; most women, she assumed, would be quite happy to talk about their children, although never having had any herself, she didn’t really know.

‘Actually they’re my stepchildren—a boy and a girl from Tom’s first marriage—so we usually only have them at weekends,’ Diana supplied easily. ‘I left it rather late in life to get married—too much of a career woman,’ she added with a grimace.

‘You and Tom don’t want any of your own?’ Juliet asked curiously.

‘Well, actually—’ Diana broke off as the waiter

came to take their order. ‘Just coffee and pastries, isn’t it, Juliet?’ she prompted, nodding confirmation to the waiter once Juliet had given her tacit approval.

‘Wouldn’t you like more than that?’ Juliet frowned once they were alone again. ‘Don’t not have anything just because I’ve already eaten.’