Heart On Fire Part 20

"Oh, this dress will be ruined!" She leapt up, almost knocking Claudia over, and brushed the clinging strands from her silk skirt, while her companion got to his feet, scowling at Ellis.

"Now look what you've done! That dress is real silk--it cost me a fortune."

"I didn't lay a hand on the lady," Ellis said coolly. "I wouldn't dream of it."

The woman gave an offended squeak, and her companion snarled.

"Do you want a punch on the nose?"

By now, n.o.body was eating--everyone was watching with open fascination and enjoyment, and, realising that another big scene had developed, Annette intervened hurriedly, grabbing Claudia by the arm and tugging at her.

"Go into the kitchen, I'll deal with this."

Ellis was still confronting the other man, ready for a fight if one broke out. Annette gave him an impatient look.

"And take him with you," she told her sister, who took hold of Ellis and pulled him, reluctantly, out of the -restaurant into the kitchen. Pierre gave them a sideways look, then went on with the veal he was cooking, turning his back deliberately.

"Every time you come here, there's a big scene," Claudia said and Ellis bent to kiss her quickly on the mouth.

"I'm sorry. I didn't start a scene deliberately, I just got angry when I saw that woman staring at us, bolt-eyed."

"I know," she said, ruefully, looking at the hard angles of his face and realising that he was always going to be aggressive and hard to manage; that was his nature. Then she remembered what they had been talking about before the little scene happened, and she asked him, "You didn't make love to me just to get me to take that job with your father in Switzerland, did you?"

It wasn't a serious question--every instinct she had told her that Ellis hadn't been acting when they made love. It had been too real to be phoney, 182 the feeling in him--but he was capable of using his own emotions to win an argument, all the same, and she still didn't trust him.

"What a devious mind you have," Ellis said, watching her in his turn.

"No, Claudia. If you really don't want to take the job with my father, then don't, but I want you in Switzerland, because I spend more time there than anywhere else, and I want you with me as much as possible. You know how much I travel. I don't like doing it, but it is necessary, and I'm going to miss you badly when I'm away. I can't keep coming to London, we would hardly ever see each other if you lived here. You must come with me back to my home, in Switzerland." He paused, grinned.

"Of course, you might be bored when I wasn't there, so it might be a good idea for you to work for my father?

"Oh, yes?" she said, her face wry.

"You call me devious What do you call yourself?."

"In love," he said, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her nose.

"Not in my kitchen!" growled Pierre from the other side of the room.

Annette appeared, gave them a scolding look.

"Well, I got rid of the other couple, but it cost us the price of their meal so far, and they won't come back here, so we've lost their custom for good.

You really are a nuisance, Mr. Lefivre. Every time you come here there seems to be a scene."

"Put the price of the other couple's meal on my bill," Ellis said.

"I'm sorry, Annette, and call me Ellis, please. We are going to know each other very well in the future, you might as well get used to that."

"Oh," Annette said breathlessly, signalling wild enquiry to Claudia with her eyebrows.

Ellis looked amused.

"Shall we go and eat?" he asked Claudia, who was blushing, and looking hara.s.sed, and she nodded gratefully, glad to escape from her sister's rampant curiosity.

They took a long time choosing their meal and ate it at leisure, absorbed in their own company and unaware by then of everyone else in the room. There was so much to ask, so much to tell each other.

Claudia wanted to know everything about him, and he seemed to feel the same way; he asked question after question, listening with intent interest to her answers.

One thing she had to know about was his relationship with Estelle, although she knew he would immediately suspect her of being jealous.

Since she was, she admitted it almost defiantly, and Ellis gave her an amused, smiling look.

"Estelle and I had a brief fling some years ago," he admitted.

"It wasn't me who ended it, actually, it was her. She suddenly dumped me.

I wasn't expecting it. and it hurt. It was a bad time for me. Shemet a Texan billionaire and went off to the States with him, but thatdidn't work out, and she came back and rang me up again. " He pulled awry face.

"By then, though, I'd got over her and was bus'dy engaged elsewhere andI wasn't interested. Oh, we stayed friends, I've known her for years,her and her whole family. We move in the same circles, have the samefriends, we meet all the time. But as far as I was concerned ouraffair was over."

"I didn't get the impression Estelle felt the same," she said.

"And you just took her to Germany! If your affair was over, why did you do that?"

184 "I didn't," he said.

"Her father did. He was going, toomdidn't you realise that? There were half a dozen of us--five men, and Estelle, and she was only along for the ride. I barely set eyes on her while I was there, I was much too busy working."

"She made it sound as if..." Claudia began, relieved and yet still not entirely certain of him.

"I know," he grimaced.

"That's her technique. Estelle never gives up hope of wearing me down.

After hll, ~I haven't married, which makes her think I might still be carrying a torch for her. She's not the only one. If you are a single male, that makes you the target for every husband-hunting female around. Estelle knows I was interested in her once, and she hoped she could get me again if she hung around long enough. She's persistent and tenacious, and I can't avoid seeing a lot of her since her father has a lot of business contact with me, but I am not in love with her, nor have I been her lover for years, Claudia."

She believed him then, slackening in relief, and he put a hand across the table to seize hers.

"There is no other woman in my life, I promise you, there hasn't been for some time. There is only you."

They sat in silence for a moment, looking into each other's eyes, and then Annette's shadow fell across the table and they both started, looking round.

"More coffee? Or have you finished? But don't let me hurry you," she said, and that was when they realised that everyone else had gone and they were the last customers in the restaurant.

Claudia gave a gasp.

"I promised your father I'd be back in time to get some work done before dinner!" she said, looking at her watch and seeing that it was nearly four o'clock.

'i'll drive you back," Ellis told her, and to Annette said, "Can I have my bill?"

"It's on the family," Annette expansively a.s.sured him, all smiles.

Claudia could see what was in her mind. Annette heard wedding bells.

How was she going to break it to her that a wedding was not being discussed?

"Why, thank you," Ellis said gravely.

"Perhaps you and Pierre will let me return the hospitality very soon? We'll be in touch."

Annette focused her insistent gaze on her sister. "Give me a ring soon," she said with a hidden touch of menace, and Claudia inwardly groaned at the questions she could see in her sister's excited eyes.

Ellis got up and held out a hand to Claudia.

"Shall we go, then? We have a lot to tell my' father "You have a lot to tell me," Annette pointedly said, following them to the door, but Ellis just laughed and a moment later they were out of the restaurant and climbing into the blue sports car. Pierre had joined Annette at the door; both of them gazed enviously at the car as it shot away.

Claudia waved, feeling her sister's furious vibrations at her back. Annette was dying to get her on her own, to ask endless questions, but Claudia wasn't going to know what to say to her.

Come to that, what was Quentin going to make of their new relationshipmwould he be shocked, angry, disapproving? She knew how old-fashioned he was about some things;' he had often made disapprovin~ comments about his son's way of life.

She sat in silence most of the way out of central London, worried about what might be said when they got back, and Ellis seemed wrapped in thoughts, too, much happier than her own, it appeared, since he was whistling as he drove, and smiling to himself. He apparently did not dread his father's reaction, but then he must have had so many affairs in the past which Quentin knew about.

She had never had an affair before. She had had boyfriends, but she had never deliberately begun a love-affair which she knew could never end in marriage. Of course, she hadn't ever felt she wanted to marry anyone before, that hadn't really entered into any relationship she had hadgbut she wouldn't have ever imagined herself getting involved with someone like Ellis. She wasn't the sophisticated typegshe didn't know how she would cope with being his lover. He was always in the public eye, everyone would know, and there would be so much talk, a spotlight on them. Could she bear it?

When they arrived, Ell. is parked his car, took her hand and led her like a lamb to the slaughter into the house. Celeste met them in the corridor, immediately stared at those linked hands, her eyebrows going up. "E is waiting for you, in 'is study," she said, her accent thickening as usual when she was surprised.

Claudia was flushed and uneasy; she couldn't meet Celeste's curious stare, and was half tempted to run away, to her own room, to hide, but Ellis didn't slacken his grip of her, he strode away towards his father's room, pulling Claudia reluctantly after him.

He flung open the door and they both stood there looking towards the desk behind which Quentin sat, a Braille book open in front of him, his fingers busy on the raised dots.

He looked up at once, his blind face intent.

"Yes? Who is it?"

IO /.

Ellis answered.

"Ellis, Papa." He paused, lifting Claudia's hand briefly to his mouth to kiss it, smiling at her, then said, "I've brought you my future wife, Papa."

It was hard to tell who was most surprised. Claudia was too shaken to say a word; she just stared up at Ellis, trembling. Quentin stood up, his gnarled hands gripping 1;he edge of his desk, looking as shaken and incredulous as Claudia did.

"Your future wife..." he repeated huskily.

"Ellis, I couldn't be more pleased... But who...?"

"Claudia," Ellis said quietly, and she watched the old man anxiously, not knowing how he would react. He must have been expecting his eldest son to make some grand, magnificent marriage. He might be appalled at the prospect of welcoming his own temporary secretary as his daughter-in-law.

Quentin sat down abruptly, his face blank. There was a long silence and Claudia wanted to cry. He was furious, he was horrified. He was not going to welcome her.

Then Quentin got to his feet again and shakily made his way around the desk.

He stopped a' few feet away from them, and held out both hands, a smile curving his mouth.

"Claudia..." he said huskily "My dear, dear girl..."

end.