Passion From The Past

‘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 (#ulink_2be18871-a9d2-587b-b98d-4527a11b6451)

‘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.