Glass Ceilings (23 page)

She
stare
d
eye-to-eye with her angry assailant.
‘John
, I
will
not
be spoken to like this. Calm yourself or I’ll have you removed
from this office
.’ He glared
at her
menacingly
but didn’t speak
, so she
indicated a chair in front of her desk
. ‘Si
t down and let’s talk about it
.’

Reardon
threw hims
elf into the chair.

Verity took her time resuming her seat
, saying,
‘
Now,
I
don’t know what you’ve heard—’

B
ut
again,
he cut her short.
‘Yeah, I
bet
you’re wondering
how I found out about
this
little
plan
of yours.’ He
stared
at her
with
a jubilant look in his bloodshot eyes
,
before
leaning
his irate, pinched face
over her desk
again
and spitt
ing,
‘
Whe
n are you going to realise you have no friends here
?
Did you delude yourself
that
once in the crystal tower you’d have all the clout AND
the love and loyalty of all and sundry
? Well, l
et me
shatter those illusions for you. You need
a few home truths,
Miss Parker
—’ H
e broke off,
aware
Verity wasn’t looking at him anymore.

Her shocked eyes were staring past him towa
rds the doorway
. When h
e glanced over his
shoulder,
Reardon
saw Microbelle’s representative
, Brenda Sharpe, standing there,
and she wasn’t al
one. A group
of people
was
standing behind her
, peering
inq
uisitively over her shoulders. S
ome
held cameras and others had
note pads in their hands.
Journalists!
They all appeared very interested in what was going
on
in Verity’s office
, with only a few having the grace to look awkward.

Verity groaned
inwardly
.
Oh, great,
the media
.
What are
they
doing here?

Reardon
turned
to fix accusing eyes
on her
again
. Barely managi
ng t
o keep his voice low
,
he snar
l
ed, ‘Looks like your cham
pion has saved you once more
. But don’t think this is over,
because it’s not. Not by a long shot. You’re looking down the barrel of some big trouble
,
lady
.’
With a menacing
slap on her desk and
a
final glare in her direction
,
he
rose and
stalk
ed
out.

Verity win
ced
when
Reardon
push
ed
roughly through the
group gathered in her doorway. They
watched him go
and
then turned their
curious
eyes
back
on
to
her.

Scarcely recovered
from
stumbling into
world war three,
Brenda
ushered
the entourage
into the outer office
. B
y the time she’d
returned,
Verity had man
aged to regain her equilibrium.

Brenda
came over
to lean both arms on
the
back of the
chair Reardon had
so abrup
tly
vacated
. She
gave Verity
a hard look
,
be
fore bursting out with, ‘T
hat was
great
.
Not
the b
est
way to open
a
PR session.’

Trying her best to ignore the sarcasm
, Verity replied, ‘
PR session?
I wasn’t expecting
one
...
or
that confrontation with John
.
’

‘N
ot that it matters now, b
ut
this
visit
was
all teed up with your PA. We sent her the
full
itinerary
over a week
ago
. S
o you
sho
uld’
ve
been
prepared. Quite obviously, you were not.’

You can say that again,
Verity
moaned
to herself
.
‘
You mean Kerry’s known about your visit
for over a week?
She didn’t
note it in my schedule, or
mention it....
’ Her eye
s quickly searched
her in-tray
’s contents
.
A new document
close to the top caught her attention
,
and she pulled it from the
pile.

Brenda’s keen eyes flicked over it and she exhaled with a grunt.
‘Yep, there it is. Well
, it looks as though you can’t blame your PA for this blunder. Our itinerary was right under your nose all the time. It might
pay to check your in-
tray
and talk to your secretary
more often
in future.’
Her
words held a cutting edge
.
‘By the way, you
do
know how big a blu
nder this has been, don’t you?’

Verity scan
ned the page
in her hand and once again, her
heart sank. The journalists,
now
waiting impatiently
in the outer office, were
here to interview her for a front page article on RCL’s feted new female CEO.

‘Oh hell, what an auspicious start.’ S
he looked appealingly at Brenda.
‘How much did they hear?’

‘Not the whole conversation, thankfully, but enough to give them a less than perfect impression of our new CEO.’

‘What can we do to save face?’

‘Well, this will need some seriou
s and swift damage repair.
’ Brenda
sat in the chair
and regarded Verity consideringly
.
‘
Right, we
’ll begin
with.
...
’

Verity was relieved the recriminations were over, at least for the time being.
Now they could
implement
strategies to
mend her reputation, and RCL’s
.
‘Miss Sharpe’ was liv
ing up to her name
, but Verity’s
mind was
in turmoil.

Firs
t John Reardon finds out about something
meant to be
hush-hush
,
which is bad enough, b
ut
then
, without warning,
Brenda arrives
with a bunch of journos, to
witness the subject of their
front page
article in full-blown confrontation with a furious senior manager.

W
hat’s going on here?

Verity was certain
the
i
tinerary hadn’t been in her tray
earlier.
She took care to sort
through its contents
regularly,
knowing
important
paper
s could
easily
get buried and forgotten, only to rise again later
with guns blazing.

Kerry must’
ve slipped
it
in there
just
a short while ago, some time
when I was away from my desk for a few minutes.
But why would she be so sneaky about it? And why hadn’t she
warned me
when the visitors
arrived
, instead of letting the group barge into the office while Reardon was mouthing off?
S
he could’
ve
at least
diverted
them,
and saved all this additional embarrassment.

All these questions and more were spinning around Verity’s head, but she had to put them aside so she could co
ncentrate on the immediate task—improving
her
tarnished reputation with the journalists
, and with her sponsor
.

As Brenda watched
Verity
swiftly
put
ting
their
damage repair
strategies
into action
,
she
thought about the
snatches she’d overheard of the
super-
heated conversation between her protégé and Reardon
. She
suspected somethi
ng untoward was going on,
and
that Verity
was being tested
.
Brenda had
known
this would happen
, but it had come sooner than she’d expected
.
T
he timing
didn’t matter
though
; what was important was
how
Verity managed
the situation
.

Brenda reminded hers
elf of the qualities she’d admir
ed in her younger counterpart—the professionalism, intelligence, enthusiasm and natural authority—
which
had led her to back Verity’s ap
plication for the CEO position.

So if I’m right,
she mused,
and I usually am,
she
should have what it takes to win the battles I know she’
s go
ing to face.

But if
I’m wrong
....

Chapter Eleven

Royce was feeling the
after-
effects of h
is quick turn-around trip. E
xhaustion was dulling his thoughts and shortening his fuse. He barked an impatient reproof at the driver
when
the shuttle
was
a few minutes
late
collect
ing
him from the airport, and fumed with im
patience at the congested inner-
city
traffic.
When they were finally on the h
ighway heading towards RCL, h
e
rolled down his window
to let in some fresh air
. The wind felt good against his face, and he rubbed a hand over his stubbly c
hin. He needed a shave. I
t would have been b
etter to go home first, have a shower
and maybe catch up on some sleep
, b
ut his impatience
wouldn’t allow him the
luxury.

He
felt an itch
to get to RCL
, to
see how the land lay.

He leaned
back
against the headrest
and
closed his eyes. What would Verity’s
reaction be to his proposal? Would she give it proper consideration?
Or, with the way the grapevine was
thriving
,
had she already heard about his attempt to
go over her head
for
approval?