Singing in the Wilderness (9 page)

She was amused to find she had summed up Gloria Lake with an accuracy that would have appealed to her mother’s ironic sense of humour. The other girl was obviously appalled to be presented with a plateful of fluffy white rice and the chicken, simmering in the pomegranate sauce, brought a look of such acute distaste to her face that Stephanie felt quite sorry for her. However, by burying most of her chicken under the rice, Gloria did what she could to put a good face on things. She even managed a sheepish smile as Stephanie cleared away the plates, excusing her own with an apologetic, ‘Leave some for Mr. Manners!’

Stephanie suppressed a delighted giggle and almost ran into the kitchen. She could only hope that Gloria would like the second course of fresh fruit salad better than she had the first. But Gloria hastily refused anything further, claiming that she had always had a very small appetite and that Stephanie was not to mind if she didn’t eat as heartily as Stephanie obviously did.

Fortunately, Stephanie was saved from the impossible task of having to answer that by an imperative knock on the door. Excusing herself with a lighthearted smile which she hoped concealed the unholy joy she felt at the interruption, Stephanie went to the door and opened it wide. She was astonished to see Cas’s enormous frame on the other side, smiling at her quite as widely as she was at him.

‘Where’s Amber?’ she said before she had thought.

‘I mislaid her on the dance floor about half an hour ago.’

‘How—how careless!
’

‘Wasn’t it?’ His smile grew into a complacent grin. ‘Aren’t you going to invite me in
?
’

She stood back to allow him to enter. ‘Gloria Lake is here,’ she warned him in an undertone.

‘Is she now?’ His eyebrows shot upwards in comic disbelief. ‘I hadn’t realised you were friends?’

‘She came to supper,’ Stephanie said more loudly. ‘Did you want something, Mr. Ruddock?’

The appreciative look he gave her made her blush scarlet, but he said nothing, and she thought she would love
him for ever when he met the naked curiosity in Gloria’s eyes with a pleasant nod and turned straight back to Stephanie.

‘What I need is a beer, honey,’ he said, dropping into the nearest chair. ‘It’s been a long, hard evening.’ He surveyed his secretary with a very masculine look and stood up again. ‘On second thoughts, you look a bit frayed yourself. I’ll go and forage in the ice-box for my own beer. Okay with you
?
’

‘Yes, of course,’ she said quickly.

‘I’d better go,’ Gloria hissed across the room as he disappeared into the kitchen. ‘I had no idea things were like that between you. Why didn’t you tell me
?
’

‘There’s nothing to tell!’ Stephanie said weakly.

‘No?’ said Gloria. ‘I’ll go anyway.’ She gathered up her things with a disapproving sniff and walked quickly towards the door. ‘I don’t like this sort of hole and
corner
business, but it won’t do any harm to wish you good luck. Having seen the opposition, I think you’re going to need it!’

CHAPTER V

Cas emerged from the kitchen triumphant, a can of beer in his hand.

‘Just testing your domestic organisation,’ he teased her. ‘You’ve underrated my capacity, though. I can get through your whole supply in a single evening.’

‘I didn’t get it in for you!’

His confidence was undaunted. ‘No
?
Are you a secret beer drinker, my love?’

‘I had it for my father,’ she said repressively. How like him, she thought, to walk in on her when she was least expecting him and to take command of her arrangements as though he had every right to do so and without so much as a by your leave! Didn’t he know that he had set the office tongues gossiping about the two of them, for the chances were thin that Gloria would keep such a spicy item to herself?

‘I never doubted it,’ he drawled. ‘Want some?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t like it.’ She sounded as stuffy as she felt, b
u
t she didn’t care. If he didn’t like the coolness of her welcome, he could always go back to Amber!

‘I came for a reason,’ he said. He folded his length into the corner of the sofa and patted the vacant seat beside him. ‘I started to think about you, honey, and I don’t think you’re the sort to cry about nothing. What was it all about?’

‘Nothing.’ Now she sounded sulky as well as everything else, she thought in despair.

‘There’s nothing you want to tell me about?’

He patted the seat beside him again and she sat down quickly, almost collapsing on to the sofa, because her knees felt suddenly weak and quite unable to support her. The dreadful thing was that if she didn’t make an effort now he would
know
—Only there was nothing to know, because she wasn’t sure herself, at least, she wasn’t completely sure. How could she be? Nothing like this had ever happened to her before!

She cast him a confused glance from beneath her lashes and as promptly wished she hadn’t, for the look in his bright blue eyes had a chaotic effect on her mental processes, sending her into a delicious panic. She should have sat further away from him,
anything
rather than betray to him the effect he was having on her.

‘What did you really do with Casimir’s dreamboat?’ she asked him, no longer sounding either stuffy or sulky.

‘With
what
?’

She lowered her eyes, looking demure. ‘That was Gloria’s name for her. Did you really lose her on the dance floor?’

‘She isn’t the kind to be short of partners,’ he answered dryly. ‘I’ll take you to see her act one of these days, if you like? She’s quite something!’

Stephanie could imagine! ‘I suppose you’ve known her a long time?’ she said carefully.

He put a finger under her chin and turned her face towards him. ‘A couple of years. I met her first in Beirut, and I’ve seen her from time to time ever since. Anything else you want to know?’

Yes!
She passionately wanted to know what Amber meant to him. She wasn’t the sort of person that any man could contemplate with only platonic friendship in mind. She was far too beautiful for that! Too beautiful and too exotic by far!

‘I suppose not,’ she said.

He picked up his can of beer and poured some of the frothy fluid straight down his throat, without troubling to pour it into a glass. ‘Amber would be flattered,’ he said.

She didn’t know what he meant by that. She watched, fascinated, the smooth, tanned column of his throat as the beer disappeared without his seeming to swallow even once.

‘How do you do that?’ she demanded.

‘It’s an old college trick.’ He smiled at her, his eyes bright. ‘You shouldn’t tempt me to show off. If you look at me like that, I might be tempted to try out another trick or two I have up my sleeve.’

She looked away hastily, her breath catching in her throat. ‘Like what?’

He grinned. ‘I think it’s a bit soon to give you a demonstration. Besides, if you don’t like beer, I’ll drink something else before I show you what I mean. I don’t want to give you a distaste of me!’

She was unaccountably disappointed. The colour came and went in her cheeks as she made a determined effort to pretend that she hadn’t understood him.

‘You shouldn’t have come here!’ she burst out with a petulance of which she had not known herself capable. ‘Gloria will spread it all over the office that you’re interested in me!’

‘So I am.’ He frowned. ‘Are you ashamed of being seen with me?’

‘Of course not!’

‘Then I don’t see your problem.’ His very gentleness disturbed her more than his anger would have done. ‘Do you want me to go?’

‘No,’ she admitted.

‘Good.’ He relaxed completely, with his long legs stuck out in front of him, and shut his eyes. ‘Gloria would gossip about us whatever we do, partly because she’s the type, and partly because she’s jealous of you. If I were you, I shouldn’t get too friendly with her. She’ll make your life a misery if you let her. I’ve seen her kind before.’

S
he opened her eyes wide, deliberately mocking him. ‘In America?’

‘You meet the same types all over the world, my dear,
especially
in America, and especially on the distaff side.’

‘I suppose you’ve met my type before too,’ she said huffily.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her, watching the colour edge up her neck and face. ‘Not quite like you,’ he drawled. ‘And believe me, I’d have noticed if I had!’

‘No English roses
?
’ she pressed him.

He studied her thoughtfully. ‘Are there honey-coloured roses? I think you’re a less obvious flower altogether. Perhaps not a flower at all, but a sheaf of co
rn
, like one of those delightful corn-dollies that country people make. Highly decorative!’

She made no effort to hide her pleasure at the compliment. ‘Perhaps I’m more complicated than you think,’ she murmured.

‘Corn-dollies come in some very intricate designs,’ he answered.

She hesitated, feeling unaccountably guilty. ‘Cas, do you ever wonder if you’re doing the right thing
?
I mean, do you always put your loyalty to your work first?’

‘I put it before my own comfort.’

That gave her a jolt. Was it more comfortable to
think
she was being loyal to her father, when perhaps she ought to trust him more? Was she only afraid of the hornet’s nest she might stir up by telling Cas about the letters? But supposing, just supposing her father had written the letters and she were the one to bring it to the company’s attention. Would she ever be able to forgive herself?

‘Well?’ he prompted her.

She shook her head. ‘I have to work it out for myself,’ she said.

‘But you’d tell me if you told anyone
?
’

‘Yes—yes, I would!’

‘Okay,’ he said, ‘I’ll be content with that. I can wait.’

‘But how do you know you can trust me?’ she fretted. ‘Half of me doesn’t think I’m right at all! Only—’

‘I’d trust you against pretty long odds. You’ll tell me when you’re good and ready.’

She didn’t know how he could be so certain. ‘I may never tell you. I hope I won’t have to!’

‘If it concerns your father, so do I! You look tired, my dear. How about leaving everything for now and getting an early night?’

‘I haven’t done the washing up!’

He stood up immediately. ‘I’ll give you a hand,’ he volunteered. He pulled her to her feet, combing her fringe into position with his fingers. ‘I wonder if I ought to make you tell me now, away from the office,’ he mused. ‘It may be that Cas can be a great deal more sympathetic to your cause than Mr. Ruddock will be able to be. I’m not my own master when I’m on duty, my dear.’

‘I shouldn’t expect any favours from you—
ever
.’
she insisted.

The smile he gave her was decidedly wry. ‘You might not expect it, but I should find it very hard not to do my best to protect you, no matter what the circumstances.’ He took her hands in his, looking down at her neatly shaped nails and the network of little lines that crisscrossed her palms. ‘You have more power than you know,’ he said finally. ‘Use it wisely, little one.’

Stephanie wasn’t accustomed to having anyone to help her with the washing-up. Cas gave the impression of filling the whole kitchen as he stood beside her at the sink, accepting the soapy dishes from her hand and drying them carefully before placing them on the table for her to put away.

‘You ought to rinse them if you want to stay healthy,’ he told her. ‘The best way is to have a double sink, like we have back home, then all you have to do is to slip the dishes out of the detergent and into the plain water to rinse them.’

‘You sound as though you wash-up all the time,’ she said.

‘Why not
?
I eat all the time too!’ He sniffed appreciatively at the remains of the chicken dish, sticking a finger into it and tasting it thoughtfully with his head on one side. ‘Not bad at all!’ he commented. ‘It’s a darned sight better than the mess Amber and I were served tonight.’

‘At your hotel
?
’

‘No, not there! I moved out of there this morning and into your erstwhile apartment. No, Amber feels she might be recognised if she goes anywhere anyone has ever heard of. Tonight’s retreat was an all-time low!’ His eyes met hers with a flash of amusement. ‘You didn’t miss a thing!’

She turned on both taps so that she wouldn’t have to answer and was hardly surprised at all when he reached over and turned them off again. ‘I’m washing! You’re supposed to be drying!’ she rebuked him.

‘Very unhygienic! One ought really to leave them to drain!’

‘I haven’t the space! Besides, I didn’t ask you to help! I’d just as soon you went and sat down and left me to it. It would feel a lot less crowded, if you want to know. I might even have room to breathe!’

He turned her round forcibly to face him, taking first the plate she was holding and dropping it into the bowl of water and then the cloth which he threw into the corner of the sink.