Charade Of The Heart

‘Laura,’ Beth said bluntly, ‘what the hell has been going on in that office with you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean the man laid into me the minute I was in his office. He said that you had been shirking your job, coming late.’

‘Oh.’ There was a sheepish silence at the other end, then Laura burst out defensively, ‘It only happened a couple of times.’

‘A couple?’

‘Well, four or five.’

Beth sighed. ‘Well, he found out about the four or five times and he was livid.’

‘Oh, dear. I wonder who told him? I had morning sickness. Honestly, Beth, I just couldn’t drag myself into work on time, and I could hardly tell anyone, could I? I’m sorry. Although it’s kind of a relief that you were there to handle him. I’ve heard that he can be positively scary when he’s crossed. I would have just burst into tears, I know it. I’ve been very emotional since I got pregnant.’

‘Thanks,’ Beth commented wryly. ‘But I can tell you I wished I’d never been talked into this insanity.’

‘You’re not going to back out, are you?’ There was a hint of tears already in Laura’s voice.

‘No, but I want some honesty from you. This David character. Was he the only one? I mean…’

‘Beth! How could you even imply…!’

‘You can be a bit of a flirt,’ she stated flatly, ‘so don’t play the innocent with me, my girl. Don’t forget, I know you better than anyone else in the world. You’ve spent a lifetime mastering the art of getting yourself into scrapes with men, so don’t act as though you’re shocked by the question.’

‘I haven’t been sleeping around, if you must know,’ Laura said with asperity. ‘The minute I met David, that was it.’

‘Good.’ At least that was one less problem to worry about, Beth thought. She couldn’t have coped with an entourage of men beating a path to the top floor whenever the coast was clear.

‘What do you think of Marcos?’ She heard her sister’s voice and it was brimming over with curiosity.

‘I’ve met more pleasant people in my time,’ Beth answered firmly. ‘He’s every bit as arrogant as I expected him to be.’

‘But attractive, wouldn’t you say?’

‘I suppose so,’ Beth confessed grudgingly, remembering the feeling of hostility he had evoked in her, ‘though not my type. He’s too self-confident for his own good and he acts as though when he says jump he really expects the rest of the world to obey.’

‘Oh, they do.’

I can believe it, Beth thought. She changed the topic. She didn’t like talking about Marcos Adrino. It made her think of him, and thinking of him made her skin begin to prickle.

They chatted about what the weather was doing, Beth reminded Laura not to forget to water her plants and to collect a dress from the dry cleaners down the road, and it was only as she got into bed that she suddenly remembered Angela.

She had completely forgotten to ask Laura who the hell Angela was, and how she was supposed to handle her.

Then she decided that she didn’t care anyway. As far as she could see, it wasn’t part of her job description, or rather her sister’s, to deal with Marcos’s personal life, and if he didn’t like it, then he could lump it.

She put it to the back of her mind and there it remained the following morning as she busied herself with her twin tasks of briefing herself on the company, including the project in Santo Domingo, and typing up the reports that had been left on her desk after she had gone home.

Marcos had obviously put in an appearance at the company, and it must have been late because he had been nowhere to be seen when she had left. He must run on overdrive, she thought.

She was relaxing over her fifteen-minute lunch break comprised of a cup of black coffee and an apple, when the door to her office was flung open and Marcos swept in, bringing with him that feeling of restless energy that she had seen the day before.

‘I’ll have one of those,’ he said without stopping at her desk, ‘in my office.’

He strode into his office, slamming the door behind him and Beth winced. A very good afternoon to you too, she mouthed, gulping down her last bite of apple and moving over to the percolator.

He was poring over some paperwork at his desk and he barely glanced up when she entered.

‘Your coffee?’ she reminded him of her presence.

He stared at the cup, then he stared at her. ‘What the hell is that?’

‘It’s a cup of coffee,’ she answered. What else could it be? A jug of orange juice?

‘I don’t take my coffee black. I take it white, with one teaspoon of sugar.’ He leant back in his chair and scrutinised her. ‘Surely you should know that by now?’ he asked softly. ‘You’ve really changed, and more than just your hairstyle. Am I missing something here? Am I being a bit dense?’

Beth retrieved the cup from the desk, steadying her nerves. She had automatically poured him the same coffee as she had herself. Stupid. Little oversights like this made this dangerous game as glaringly obvious as if she had committed some larger, more noticeable mistake.

‘I’m sorry. My mind must have been elsewhere.’

‘Either that, or you left it behind in Cambridge.’

‘What?’ Beth asked sharply, smiling to hide the sudden tension she felt.

‘You went to stay with your sister, didn’t you? Jane told me.’

‘My sister?’ Her mind was working furiously. Who, she wondered, was Jane? The office spy from the sounds of it, and office spies could be extremely dangerous.

‘Something wrong with your hearing today, Laura?’ he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Beth smiled again. ‘Of course I went to stay with my sister. In Cambridge.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘I would have gone somewhere more glamorous, but my funds were a little low at the time.’ She would have to stop being so jumpy every time she thought that he was edging towards the truth. After all, there was no way that he could even suspect that Laura was miles away in her little flat, while she was here pretending to be someone she was not.

‘Where would you have gone?’ he asked curiously. ‘I would have associated you a few weeks ago with somewhere on the French Riviera, close to a few nightclubs, but perhaps I misread you completely.’

Beth shrugged non-committally. She didn’t like this sudden digression on to personal topics. There could be a lot of unexpected traps here. For a start, she didn’t know what Laura had told him about herself, if anything, and he wasn’t likely to dismiss another slip-up like the coffee. He was altogether too shrewd. His clever, calculating mind probably stored information that most normal people would forget within seconds. Stored it and had it quite handy to recall at a moment’s notice.

‘I’ve never been to the French Riviera,’ Beth finally volunteered, as he continued to look at her from under his dark lashes. ‘And I’ve never felt any particular wish to go, if you must know. In fact, I haven’t done a great deal of travelling at all.’

‘But you’d like to?’ he prompted.

Beth fidgeted uncomfortably. She didn’t like this. She was sure that he couldn’t give two hoots whether she hated the idea of planes, or else saved madly to go on one. Laura had said that he barely noticed her except in her capacity as secretary. So why the sudden interest now? She wondered whether he suspected something odd, a little thought hovering somewhere at the back of his mind. A little thought that he was beginning to explore.

‘Wouldn’t everyone?’ she answered distantly.

‘No. I personally have seen enough of airports to last me a lifetime. Hotel life, you know, outstays its welcome very quickly.’

‘Does it? I wouldn’t know. Anyway, I’ll make you a fresh cup of coffee now, if you like.’