Fugitive Wife

‘You wanted to work on the Courier?’ Logan set down his glass so sharply that some of the liquid splashed out of it.

‘Is it so surprising?’ she enquired defensively.

‘Amazing would be a better word.’ He gave her a long speculative look. ‘Now what could have put such an unlikely idea into your decorative head, Miss Trevor?’

‘Kindly don’t patronise me,’ she said unevenly. ‘And don’t reduce me to the level of another mantelpiece ornament either.’

‘Is that what I was doing?’ He smiled drily. ‘I can assure you it’s a very different item of furniture which suggests itself when I look at you.’

‘Oh!’ A faint flush rose in her cheeks as she absorbed the implication of what he had said, and she hated herself for blushing like a fool at his teasing. She said hastily, ‘Nevertheless I did apply for a job on the Courier, but Mr Mackenzie unfortunately seemed to share your incredulity.’

Logan said coolly, ‘He also possesses a well-developed sense of self-preservation—an excellent asset for anyone hoping to make progress on one of your father’s newspapers. Apart from your youth, and your total inexperience, I imagine that went a long way towards your rejection by him.’

‘I really don’t see what my father has to do with it,’ Briony said, nettled.

‘Oh, come on, love.’ His eyebrows rose. ‘You’re surely not trying to make me believe you’re that naive? Your father tends to shed his newspaper personnel like autumn leaves, and you know it, or you should do. Besides, if Mac had given you a job, he’d probably have had trouble with the union to face, as well as your father. The Courier isn’t a training school for beginners.’

She said in a stifled tone, ‘Well, he didn’t give me a job, so there’s very little point in discussing it.’

‘Yet it still rankles.’ He shot her a look. ‘Was it this job that was so important to you, or any job?’

‘I wanted to work—to be of some use.’ She shrugged. ‘I thought journalism would suit me, that’s all.’

He gave her an amused glance. ‘And to start at the top would suit you even better? Nice try, sweetheart. But if you really wanted a job, why didn’t you apply to Vic Hargreaves in Personnel? There are usually vacancies of sorts somewhere in the group.’

‘I didn’t think of it,’ she admitted. ‘You see, I’d met Mr Mackenzie, and he seemed kind, so I thought I’d take a chance …’ Her voice tailed off a little as she saw he was laughing quite openly now. ‘What have I said?’

‘Your reference to Mac’s apparent kindness. I doubt if it’s the image he has of himself. Anyway, here comes the food. I hope you’re hungry.’

At that particular moment, Briony felt as if she could not have forced a morsel past the tightness in her throat, but it was odd when the steaming plate was placed in front of her, how her appetite suddenly returned. The shepherd’s pie was deliciously savoury, flanked by lavish spoonfuls of carrots and peas, and she finished every forkful with real appreciation.

‘Would you like something to follow?’ asked Logan.

‘I couldn’t eat another thing.’ She leaned back with a little sigh of satisfaction. ‘Some coffee, maybe, that’s all. I don’t want to get fat.’

‘I don’t think there’s much danger of that.’ His cool gaze wandered over her, lingering deliberately on her slender waist and the flatness of her stomach. ‘A few pounds wouldn’t hurt you.’

She laughed, finishing off the wine left in her glass. ‘This must be my day for being put down! I hoped you’d say I was perfect as I was.’

‘But perfection doesn’t appeal to me,’ he said. ‘A few failings add humanity.’ He signalled to the waitress and ordered the coffee, while Briony sat beside him in silence, her thoughts whirling. Once the coffee was drunk, then this all too brief lunch would be over, and how was she ever going to see him again? She couldn’t hang about outside the U.P.G. offices every day on the offchance of meeting him. And this meal hadn’t gone quite as she’d hoped. Last night he had made no secret of her attraction for him. Today he had teased her a little, but his manner had generally been wary, even a little aloof at rimes. There had been moments when his mouth had looked almost grim, and it was difficult to remember how it had felt when it had touched hers. All that she knew was that she longed for him to remind her what it had been like.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘Where did you work before you joined the Courier?’

‘I was on a provincial daily in the North, doing mostly investigative work. But I’d always wanted to work abroad and when I heard there was a vacancy on the Courier’s foreign news department, I applied for it.’ He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Does that satisfy your curiosity, or do you want the story of my life? It isn’t very interesting.’

‘Well, it can’t possibly be as dull as mine,’ she said rather ruefully. ‘And of course it interests me. I’d hardly …’ She paused.

‘You’d hardly be here with me now, if you weren’t—interested,’ he finished for her.

She hunched a shoulder. ‘If you don’t want to tell me—–’ she began, but he cut across her impatiently.

‘It isn’t that, Briony. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but I must admit you puzzle me.’

‘Do I?’ She sent him a dazzling smile. ‘Well, that’s a good start.’

‘I wasn’t aware that we were starting anything!’ He paused to pay the waitress as she brought their coffee and the bill. When she had gone, he said quietly, ‘Now let’s have the truth. Just why are you here—and please don’t feed me any more nonsense about having heard rave reports of the food.’

She said blandly, ‘I saw you coming in here, and I didn’t want to have lunch alone. Satisfied?’

‘Not entirely. I could name at random at least half a dozen young executives that you met last night who would give a large proportion of their handsome salaries to take you somewhere fashionable to eat for a couple of hours. Why me?’

She shrugged. ‘Perhaps none of them forced themselves on my attention in quite the same way, Mr Adair.’

‘So you decided to employ the same tactics?’ That reflective, considering look was back.

‘Why not? Last night I got the impression you found me attractive. If I’m wrong, you can always claim this lunch back off your expenses.’

‘Attractive isn’t quite the appropriate word,’ he said slowly. ‘I find you both desirable and exasperating—not always in equal or even the same proportions.’

‘How very odd,’ Briony said sweetly. ‘I find you exectly the same. But you were going to tell me about your early life.’

‘Yes, I was, wasn’t I?’ he said pleasantly. ‘It’s perfectly simple. I’m thirty-four, unmarried, and my parents are both dead. I was educated at a grammar school, and from there I went on to Oxford where I read politics, philosophy and economics. I came into journalism as a graduate entrant, which isn’t a bad way to start. In my time, I’ve covered every type of story from funerals and flower shows to murder hunts and corruption. Is that what you wanted to know?’

‘You know it wasn’t,’ she said in a low voice, and for a moment there was silence between them. When she looked up at him again, she was smiling, and her eyes under the deep sweep of lashes were deliberately provocative. ‘Your past wasn’t very productive,’ she murmured. ‘Perhaps I’ll have better luck with your future.’ She reached out and took his hand, turning it palm upwards for her inspection. ‘Hmm.’ She bent over it, pretending absorption, one pink-tipped finger tracing the various lines on his hand as she spoke. ‘A strong headline, but then I’d expect that. A long lifeline, and quite steady too, except for your middle years which could hold some danger for you …’

‘Never more than at this moment, I suspect.’ His tone was dry. ‘Briony, what are you trying to do.’

‘Tell your fortune,’ she said with mock innocence. ‘Now your heartline is really fascinating. I would say you could get any woman you wanted, merely by asking.’

‘Now that is fascinating,’ he said gravely. ‘Your coffee’s getting cold.’

‘You don’t think I know what I’m talking about,’ she accused.

‘I think I know exactly what you’re talking about,’ he said. ‘And it has nothing to do with palmistry. Tell me something, Briony. When we leave here, what are your plans for the rest of the afternoon?’

Her heart suddenly seemed to miss a beat at the question. ‘I—I don’t have anything planned.’

‘No?’ His hand closed round hers, opening it palm upwards. ‘Now it’s my turn, and I’ll tell you what I see. I see the heartline dominating the head. I see a mixed-up girl who doesn’t know what she wants. I see a dangerous craving for excitement in the lifeline, but this evens out before too long into steadiness and security and a suitable marriage.’

Briony snatched her hand away. ‘But that isn’t what I want,’ she said unevenly. ‘And you know it. What—what are your plans for the rest of the afternoon?’ She died all kinds of small deaths while she waited for him to answer.

‘I think they could best be described as fluid,’ Logan said slowly at last. ‘But they certainly begin with more coffee—at my flat, I think. Shall we go and find a taxi?’

She had thought that he would kiss her in the taxi, but he didn’t, and she felt dashed by this. He hardly spoke either, and his face was suddenly remote as if his thoughts had travelled a long way from her, and she did not dare make any attempt to recall them. But by the time the taxi drew up in front of the small block of flats where Logan lived, she was feeling thoroughly nervous and on edge.

He didn’t put his arm around her either as they went up the stairs to the first floor, and she felt oddly chilled as he fitted the key into the lock and admitted her to a small cramped hall. There were a couple of letters lying just inside the door and he bent to retrieve them, slitting them open carelessly with his thumbnail and running his eye over the contents while she stood, waiting. He was being so casual, she thought, as though this happened all the time, as maybe it did with him, but not with her as he surely must realise.

She wasn’t just nervous any more either. She was definitely panicky, and suddenly and paralysingly shy at the thought of what she was doing. She had never dreamed she could behave in this way, but she’d thought that Logan would somehow make it easy for her. After all, it was last night’s kisses which had set off the chain reaction which had brought her to the flat today, she thought.