Kitabı oxu: «The Latin Affair»

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE morning, of course, things looked different. They always did, thought Nicky. There was a job to do, her brother to meet for lunch, the last sunshine of autumn to savour. The small things, as always, would carry her through.

‘I will survive,’ Nicky told her mirror.

The gorgeous reflection stared back, only partially convinced.

Why on earth do I look like this? she thought. Andrew was right when he said she was a fraud. Even in her sober business suit she looked the original party blonde. What was more, she always had. Nicky winced at the thought.

Of course, there had been changes over the years. When she was sixteen her skin had been golden with a Caribbean tan; her untamed hair used to be a sun-streaked lion’s mane. These days she was city-pale and her daffodil hair shone. But, in spite of her best efforts, it was never quite immaculate. Soft tendrils always escaped to lie enticingly against her long neck. Add to that a kissable mouth and wide, longlashed blue-grey eyes and it was not surprising that men looked at her and thought they had found their dream babe. Nicky bared her teeth at her reflection.

‘Some babe,’ she said bitterly.

She was still brooding when she got to work.

‘Hey, what did I do?’ said Martin de Vries in mock alarm.

Nicky jumped, conscience stricken. Martin was the boss of Springdown Kitchens and she was late for work. Now she’d compounded her sins by glaring at him. She shook her head ruefully.

‘Nothing. It’s just one of those Monday mornings, that’s all.’

Martin nodded briskly. ‘That’s a relief. I need to get off to the exhibition hall soon.’ But he hesitated. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’

Damn, thought Nicky. Martin was an old friend of the family. Of course he could see right through the last twenty years to the six-year-old with scabby knees and pigtails. It gave him an unfair advantage.

She summoned up a bright smile. ‘I’m fine.’

Martin knew how to interpret that. He had daughters of his own. He nodded. ‘Boyfriend trouble,’ he diagnosed.

Nicky winced theatrically. ‘You sound like my mother.’

‘No, I don’t. I sound like a caring employer.’

‘My next job is going to be with a hard-hearted tycoon who doesn’t know a thing about his employees. And cares less,’ Nicky muttered.

Martin ignored that. ‘What’s happened, Nick? Did he do something unforgivable, like want to marry you?’

Nicky smacked her conscience back in its box and glared at him for real.

‘That’s my business. Get down to the Lifestyle Fair and sell some kitchens,’ she retorted.

Martin was torn. He was fond of Nicky. On the other hand he ran a vulnerable small business and the fair was the showcase of the year.

‘As long as it isn’t a crisis,’ he said, patently anxious to be reassured.

Nicky gave a small huff of fury. But then genuine affection took over.

‘No crisis,’ she said more gently. ‘Just something that’s been building up a long time. All under control.’

‘OK,’ said Martin, relieved. He went

Squaring up to the work on her desk, Nicky found that he had left her plenty to do. It was a relief. It took her mind off the uncomfortable truths Andrew had exposed last night.

Besides, she knew that what she was doing was worthwhile. Martin was an inspired salesman, whereas Nicky liked practical organisation. She had her head down over the specifications of a small hotel kitchen when a cup appeared in front of her.

‘Coffee,’ said Caroline Leith, Martin’s newest and most sophisticated assistant. ‘You’re going to need it.’

Nicky looked up. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Martin refused to take any phone calls before he left.’

Nicky’s heart sank. That meant clients who would already be annoyed when she called them back.

‘Who?’

Caroline consulted her notebook. ‘Two from Mr Tremain’s secretary. One from Weber Hotels. Three from Mrs Van Linden. All of them only wanted to talk to Martin.’ She grinned. ‘Mrs Van Linden positively refused to talk to you under any circumstances. What happened? You told her what you thought of her horrible kitchen? Or she’s seen how you look?’

Nicky raised her eyes to heaven. ‘What’s wrong with how I look?’ she said dangerously.

‘Nothing as long as you aren’t a trophy wife worried about the competition.’

Nicky frowned. Caroline chuckled, unabashed.

‘What do you expect, with a figure like yours?’ she said frankly. ‘It may be unfashionable to have all those curves but it sure as hell presses all the right male buttons.’

Nicky tensed. That was more or less exactly what Andrew had said last night. To say nothing of a man called Steve under a Caribbean moon… But the phone rang and broke that particular unwelcome train of thought.

Caroline answered it, listened, then put her hand over the receiver. ‘SOS. Sally’s in trouble. Sounds like she’s going to cry.’

Nicky frowned blackly. Sally was the ideal receptionist, unfailingly sunny even with the most difficult clients. Anyone who reduced her to tears needed to be put in their place without delay. She held out an imperative hand.

‘It’s Tremain,’ Caroline warned.

It gave Nicky pause for a moment. ‘Who?’

‘Tremain. Martin knows him personally. From the yacht club.’

Nicky scanned her memory. Nothing. She said so. ‘But he’s not going to bully Sally.’

‘Kid-gloves time,’ advised Caroline, surrendering the phone.

Nicky knew the warning tone was justified. She squared her shoulders and tried to remember the bit in her management course about dealing with difficult clients.

‘I’m sorry to keep you waiting—’ she began, uncharacteristically soothing.

‘Then don’t.’ It was impatient and very male. At once she knew why Sally had not been able to calm him down. Mr Tremain did not want to be calmed down. Mr Tremain wanted blood.

And, true to form, it made Nicky want to fight right back. She curbed her combative instinct but it was a close-run thing.

‘How can I—’

He did not let her finish. ‘Where’s de Vries?’

‘—help you?’ Sweet reason was not paying off. Well, then, she would give him a taste of her real reaction to a man who interrupted her twice. ‘What can I do for you?’ she finished, the frost showing.

Caroline did not go. Instead she propped herself up against a drawer of files and waited, prepared to be amused.

Mr Tremain was not impressed by Nicky’s chilly formality. ‘You can get me de Vries,’ he said grimly. ‘Now.’

‘I’m afraid that’s not poss—’

‘Now.’

Nicky could feel her fuse shortening. Caroline grinned. Nicky frowned her down and raised her voice. ‘If you would just let me finish—’

‘I haven’t got time to waste talking to lieutenants.’ Even allowing for the distortion of the telephone, the dismissive tone was an insult. Nicky’s fuse suddenly became very short indeed. And her frost dissolved into simple temper.

‘Then try listening,’ she flashed. ‘Martin de Vries is not here. I can ask him to call you when he gets back or you can talk to me now. Your choice. Frankly I don’t care which—but make up your mind. I haven’t got time to waste either.’

Across the office, Caroline raised her eyebrows. Oh, hell, thought Nicky, remembering the management course too late.

But at least her outburst seemed to give Tremain pause.

He said slowly, ‘Work closely with de Vries, do you?’

Nicky was all dignity. ‘Of course.’

‘So you’re fully briefed on everything that’s gone wrong with the blasted kitchen he sold me?’

‘Well, I would have to look at the file…’

‘And of course you’re empowered to agree on compensation?’ he went on sweetly.

Nicky knew quite well what he was doing. Silently she ground her teeth.

‘I would have to consult Mr de Vries,’ she conceded stiffly.

‘Quite.’ His tone was suddenly a lot less sweet. ‘So let’s stop playing games. We both know de Vries is ducking and weaving. Cut the feeble excuses, dig him out of wherever he’s hiding and put him on the line now.’

If Nicky did not like being dismissed, she positively hated being patronised.

She yelled, ‘I do not play games. I do not tell lies. And Martin isn’t here.’

And banged the phone down.

Caroline gave her a slow, mocking hand-clap. ‘That showed him.’

Nicky was steaming. ‘So it should. Bully,’ she threw at the phone, as if the man were there in person.

‘Esteban Tremain must be shivering in his shoes,’ murmured Caroline.

‘Quite right too,’ Nicky announced, militant. ‘He shouldn’t have tried to bully Sally. And he shouldn’t have talked to me like that I haven’t got the time to take a lot of rubbish from people who don’t listen. It’s too close to lunchtime.’

She glanced at her watch as she spoke. She had a date with her brother and Ben had been known to leave a restaurant if people kept him waiting.

‘Tell that to Martin when you explain how you handled his biggest problem client,’ Caroline said with feeling.

Nicky stared. ‘Biggest problem client? What are you talking about?’

‘You mean you don’t know who Esteban Tremain is?’

‘Never met the man in my life,’ said Nicky, adding darkly, ‘And, on present showing, I’ll be quite happy if that’s the way it stays.’

‘Stately home?’ prompted Caroline. ‘Cornwall? Try, gorgeous.’

‘Oh, please!’

‘You can’t have forgotten him. A Savile Row suit with muscles. When he came in to the showroom every woman in the place wandered by for a look.’

Nicky shook her head. ‘None of us is that sex-starved,’ she protested, trying not to laugh. ‘What is he? A film star?’

Caroline said in a practical tone, ‘No. Just tall, dark and smouldering with sex appeal. And threatening to sue Martin for every penny he’s got’.

‘What?’

She cocked a mocking eyebrow. ‘Come on, Nicky. The kitchen at Hallam Hall must have cost us more grief than any other contract this year.’

‘Hallam Hall!’ gasped Nicky, enlightened at last.

Now she knew exactly who Esteban Tremain was. And how much he could cost Springdown Kitchens if he put his mind to it.

‘Oh, my Lord,’ she said. ‘Get the file into my office now.’

Caroline ran.

Esteban Tremain looked at the suddenly buzzing telephone with disbelief. Nobody cut him off. Nobody. He began to punch buttons savagely. The door opened. ‘Er—’ said his secretary.

One glance was enough to tell her that he was in a temper. She did not think much of Francesca Moran’s chances of getting in to see him when he looked like that.

Esteban glared at her across the telephone.

‘What?’

‘Miss Moran,’ said Anne fast. Her tone was strictly neutral. ‘She’s been shopping. She wondered if you would like to take her to lunch.’

Esteban breathed hard.

Anne held her breath. When she’d come to work for him three years ago there had been plenty of people to warn her that Esteban would be impossible. He was a heart-breaker; he was a workaholic; he had a fiendish temper. She had learned that it was all true. Only he did not take any of it out on his secretary. Normally…

With an angry exclamation, he threw the telephone from him and flung out of his chair. Anne quietly restored the telephone to its cradle and waited.

Esteban strode up to the floor-length window. He thrust his hands into his pockets and glared out at the rain-lashed lawns. A muscle worked in his cheek.

Esteban wrestled with his temper. None of this was Anne’s fault, he reminded himself. He gave an explosive sigh and swung back to the room.

‘My regrets to Francesca,’ he said rapidly, not sounding regretful at all. ‘Anything else?’

Anne, the perfect secretary, did not protest. She just said carefully, ‘I’ll go along and tell her you’re too busy to see her, shall I?’

There was a small, sizzling pause.

‘She’s here?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘But I told her last time—’ He remembered again that it was not Anne’s fault and stopped. ‘Damn. ’

Esteban thought, then took one of his famous lightning decisions. ‘OK. You’d better wheel her in for a bit But not long.’

He reached for his jacket.

Esteban never received visitors in his shirt sleeves, Anne thought. Not even a lady he regularly spent the night with. Though she was not sure that Francesca Moran was in that category these days, in spite of the gossip or, indeed, the hints that Miss Moran herself let fall so heavily.

‘I’ll just clear a space,’ murmured Anne, again the perfect secretary, advancing on a tower of papers.

Esteban looked around his room in faint surprise. Apart from the papers that covered his desk, there were two large books open on the floor beside him and piles of more papers that needed his attention on every one of his comfortable chairs. He looked amused suddenly.

‘Don’t bother.’

‘But she’s got to have somewhere to sit.’

‘Why? It will only encourage her,’ said Esteban wickedly.

He flicked his lapels straight. Looking up, he gave her a conspiratorial grin.

‘Buzz me in five, max. Right?’

‘Right,’ said Anne.

Francesca Moran, she thought with satisfaction, would be back in the rainy garden a lot sooner than she expected. Anne did not like Francesca.

It would have been impossible to tell from Esteban’s manner whether he liked her or not. He kissed her on both exquisitely made up cheeks in welcome. But he adroitly avoided her move to deepen the embrace and retired behind the bulwark of his desk. Francesca accepted the rebuff as gracefully as if she had not recognised it. She took up a perch on the arm of an ancient leather chair and gave him a sweet smile.

‘We need to talk,’ she said caressingly.

Esteban raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh?’

Francesca’s myopic grey eyes made her look vague and fragile. It was misleading.

‘Yes. I was thinking all the time I was in Cornwall. It’s stupid for us to be like this. We ought to let bygones be bygones and pool our resources.’

Esteban’s poker face was famous. But for a moment he could not contain his astonishment. At once, he controlled his expression. But one corner of his mouth twitched.

‘Are you proposing to me, Francesca?’ he asked politely.

She was not disconcerted. She batted her eyelashes and gave him a smile of calculated charm.

‘Well, you’re not going to propose to me, are you?’

Esteban was surprised into laughing aloud. ‘You’re right there,’ he agreed, watching her with fascination.

Francesca shrugged. ‘So it’s up to me,’ she said with no sign of rancour. ‘You need a wife. It would be ideal.’

‘I’m afraid I don’t, you know,’ said Esteban. He was gentle but quite firm.

But Francesca, as he had learned in Gibraltar last year, did not recognise firmness when it meant someone not doing what she wanted.

‘It would be perfect,’ she said, unheeding. ‘The time is right for both of us.’

Esteban leaned back in his chair and surveyed her in disbelief. She smiled back, not discouraged. He decided to try another tack.

‘What makes you think I need a wife?’ he drawled.

She gestured round the untidy room. ‘You’re in a complete mess. You need someone to run the practical side of your life so that you can get on with your career.’

‘That’s what Anne does,’ he objected.

‘Don’t be ridiculous, darling. That’s not what I meant and you know it.’

‘Then explain,’ he said blandly.

Francesca refused to be annoyed. ‘You’re being silly,’ she said in an indulgent tone. ‘What about your private life? Where would you have been if I hadn’t gone down to Hallam Hall and sorted out those workmen?’

‘Ah. I wondered when that would come up,’ said Esteban with satisfaction.

Francesca frowned. ‘You would have been lost without me’, she said, her tone sharpening. ‘You were out of the country and those cowboys were getting away with murder.’

‘And I was grateful for your help but—’

Francesca regained her good humour. ‘I bet you haven’t even talked to the kitchen people yet.’

Esteban looked at the telephone. His expression darkened. He was not going to admit to Francesca that the woman had hung up on him. Why did women always have to play games?

‘I’ve got it in hand,’ he said brusquely.

Francesca got up and came over to him. A faint hint of expensive scent wafted as she settled herself on the corner of the desk beside him. She crossed one leg over the other and smiled down into his eyes.

‘Don’t you see, darling? Marry me and you would never have to deal with kitchen designers again.’

Her high-heeled shoe tapped at his thigh to emphasise her point

‘An alluring prospect,’ said Esteban drily.

He pushed his chair back, removing his immaculate suit out of range.

‘And you need a hostess,’ Francesca went on, her smile unwavering. ‘Someone to organise the dinner parties, make sure you meet the right people.’

He almost shuddered.

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Of course you do.’

She would have gone on but Esteban put an end to it. He stood up and looked down at her, all vestige of amusement gone.

‘I thought I had been clear, Francesca. If you misunderstood me, I’m sorry. But the truth is that my stepfather needs a housekeeper. You said you wanted a job. A job is all that’s on offer.’

‘But—’

‘If you remember,’ Esteban said drily, ‘I said at the time I thought you would find Hallam very isolated. But you wanted to give it a shot’.

Francesca’s mouth thinned. For a moment the pretty face looked almost ugly.

‘Are you saying you used me?’

Esteban stiffened imperceptibly. ‘Excuse me?’

There were people—witnesses for the prosecution, say, or opposing counsel—who would have run a mile when he spoke in that soft tone. Francesca did not read the danger signals. She tossed her head.

‘Of course I adore Patrick,’ she said unconvincingly. ‘I was very willing to help—’

Esteban said quietly, ‘You wanted a job.’

Francesca did not like that. ‘You know quite well what I wanted,’ she said sharply.

It was a moment of total self-betrayal. There was a nasty silence. Francesca bit her lip.

Esteban said heavily, ‘I seem to have been very stupid. I thought you knew that all that was over. I told you so last year.’

‘Darling, just because of a silly article in a magazine—’

He stopped her with an upraised hand. ‘It was not about the article. I don’t care what some tinpot journalist writes about me.’

‘Well, then—’

‘But I care that someone I trusted talked to a tinpot journalist,’ Esteban went on softly. ‘About stuff I told you in confidence.’

There was another nasty silence. Francesca watched him, frunstrated.

At last she burst out, ‘It’s such a stupid waste. I could really help your career. Daddy’s contacts—a bit of networking—’

‘And what about love?’ he said wryly.

‘Love?’ Francesca sounded as blank as if he had broken into a foreign language. ‘Grow up, darling.’

‘You think love’s an irrelevance?’

“Oh, come on. We’re talking real life here.’

Esteban gave an unexpected laugh. ‘We are indeed. And we seem to have different views on it.’

‘Are you saying you’re looking for love?’ Francesca sounded disbelieving. ‘You?’

‘I don’t think you need to look for it,’ Esteban said coolly. ‘In my experience it tends to sock you in the eye.’

Francesca snorted. ‘Your experience? So now you’re the last of the great romantics?’

Esteban gave that his measured consideration. ‘No,’ he said at last. ‘I wouldn’t call myself a romantic.’

‘Thank God for that, at least,’ Francesca muttered.

‘On the other hand, I’m not fool enough to marry anyone I’m not in love with.’

Francesca pulled herself together. She moved close to him, though she did not quite dare to touch him again. She gave him a winning smile.

‘But if both parties agree—’

He bent towards her so fast she took a step backwards in simple shock. At once she could have kicked herself. He had not come so close to her voluntarily for over a year.

But it was too late. Esteban had seen her alarm. He gave her a mocking smile.

‘Agree to change my nature? How?’

Francesca recovered fast. ‘But you’ve just said you aren’t romantic,’ she reminded him.

‘No, but I am passionate and possessive and I have a nasty temper,’ Esteban told her evenly. ‘Believe me, you wouldn’t like being married to me.’

‘No woman would,’ snapped Francesca, unexpectedly shaken.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘I’m glad we agree on the matter.’ He sounded amused.

The telephone rang. He reached behind him, not looking, and swept it up to his ear. ‘Hi, Annie. Now? Yes, of course.’ He put the phone down. ‘Sorry, Francesca. Busy morning. Goodbye.’

Francesca was looking poleaxed. His court opponents would have recognised the feeling. Esteban gave her an enigmatic smile and held the door open for her. She did not move.

‘You’re not going to treat me like this. I’m no little boat chick,’ she jeered.

Esteban went very still. Francesca knew she had made a bad mistake. That was one of the few confidences she had not spilled out to the handsome young journalist in the quayside café last year.

She nervously touched her hair but said defiantly, ‘It just slipped out. You told me about it yourself, after all. I couldn’t help it. You upset me so much I forgot I wasn’t supposed to mention it.’ A thought occurred to her. She lowered her lashes. ‘If you go on being nasty to me, it might happen again—and who knows who could be listening?’

Esteban’s watchfulness dissolved into unholy appreciation.

‘Threats?’ he said, his eyebrows flying up. ‘Very attractive. Just the stuff to get me to marry you. You’re really one on your own, Francesca.’

There was nothing she could say. Once again Esteban Tremain had taken her well thought out strategy and turned it on its head. Francesca was determined but she was not an idiot. She recognised defeat, at least for the moment.

“I’ll go.’ She gathered up her handbag and elegant serape but was not leaving without the last word. ‘Call me when you’ve got your head together. You need me.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Esteban said quietly.

‘Oh, but you do.’ She had gone back to her caressing manner. She gave him a sweet smile. ‘You just don’t know how much yet. But you will.’

She left.

Immediately Esteban banished her from his mind. He flung himself back into his chair and reached for the Hallam file again. He picked up the telephone, his voice coming alive with the anticipation of battle.

‘Annie, get me that kitchen place again, will you? And this time I want to talk to de Vries in person.’

But when Anne put the call through it was the lieutenant again.

‘Hello?’ She did her best to sound composed but Esteban was used to reading the smallest nuance in his opponents’ voices and he recognised nerves. It was a lovely voice, Esteban noted, warm with an underlying hint of laughter. Currently, of course, the laughter was almost extinguished. Good, he thought.