Man Hater Part 16

CHAPTER TEN.

'okay, so it was too misty to see the island, but couldn't you have gone back? One or two of us are getting concerned, Kelly--both about you and the future of the company. Things aren't looking so good.

We're in the middle of a recession and naturally enough the first thing people cut down on are the luxuries: the PR work and advertising. That contract was something we needed! "

Kelly stared disbelievingly at her oldest and most senior fellow director. Alan had said nothing to her of this when she left for Edinburgh. It was true that things were a little difficult at the moment, but surely nowhere near as serious as he was intimating?

"Look, Kelly, perhaps some of the blame lies with us. A few of us have seen what's coming, but we haven't wanted to worry you. In the last month we've had four cancellations--three while you were away in Corfu."

Picking up the implied criticism Kelly replieddrily , "That was my first holiday in two years, Alan, but I take your point, even though I don't agree that you were right to conceal things from me. But now I do know we'd better call a board meeting to see how best we can put things right."

"If they can be put right," AlanCormont said gravely.

"I don't want to be a wet blanket, Kelly, but I think we've a tough time ahead of us, the only consolation--if it is a consolation--is that we won't be alone.

"You look tired," he added with belated consideration, his voice suddenly gruff as he added, "You haven't seemed yourself for a while now, Kelly--ever since you came back from Corfu, in fact. Nothing wrong, is there?"

If only he knew! Kelly thought bitterly. She had left Edinburgh almost immediately the pilot had put down after the short flight back from the island, endured in a cold, gripping silence which left her too much time to think; to wonder what had possessed her, and worse, what Jake must have thought of her wildly abandoned response to him.

They had parted with brief, conventional words, and her heart had felt like a lump of lead in her chest ever since her return. And now Alan was berating her for not working harder to get the contract--a contract it seemed her company badly needed. The company, once the totally absorbing raisond'etre , had taken second place in her life.

She was worried about it, naturally, but nothing like to the extent she would once have been.

The headache which had been hovering all morning struck ferociously after lunch--a sandwich, eaten hurriedly at her desk and washed down with cold coffee--and on impulse Kelly decided to go home. She would worry just as efficiently there, she decideddrily , gathering her bag and papers.

She was crossing Bond Street when she felt the hand on her shoulder.

As she spun round quickly, her first thought was that someone was about to s.n.a.t.c.h her bag, but instead she found herself looking into the smiling face of the girl she had last seen at Corfu Airport with Jake.

"I thought it was you," the girl exclaimed eagerly.

"I hope you don't mind me stopping you like that. You may not remember me--Corfu, a party..."

"Yes, yes, I do remember you," Kelly told her. Her lips felt like cottonwool, her mouth unpleasantly dry as she tried to form the words without letting her lips tremble.

"You were ... talking to Jake."

"Yes, he was pouring out his troubles to me," she agreed with a grin.

"Quite a role reversal! Look, have you got time for a cup of tea? I'm Lyn, by the way. I've heard all about your visit to Edinburgh from Uncle Richard and I'm dying to know what happened. Oh, I know you. must think it frightfully inquisitive of me--but you see, it was me who told Jake not to give up. I was pretty sure you cared for him. A woman can always tell better than a man, can't she, and I was over the moon when my G.o.dfather. Uncle Richard, wrote to say that Jake had persuaded him to get you up there on some pretext or other. Oh. " She stared uncertainly at Kelly, who was motionless on the pavement, her face totally devoid of colour.

"Oh dear, have I said something wrong? You see," she rushed on, "I was so sure you loved Jake, despite what he told me. Oh..."

"I think that cup of tea was a good idea," Kelly interrupted firmly, trying to gather her wildly disordered thoughts.

They found a small cafe off Bond Street, blessedly quiet after the lunch-time rush, and Kelly ordered for them, wondering as she did so if she was going mad, or had simply stepped into some sort of Looking Gla.s.s world.

"Now," she said quietly when they had been served, 'let's start at the beginning. I saw you in Corfu, with Jake. "

"With Jake? You mean you thought Jake and I... Oh, no wonder you wouldn't have anything to do with him! Jake is almost an older brother to me. His father is my G.o.dfather and Jake has beenmarvelous , always helping me out of jams, you know ... I got heavily involved with someone last year, I won't go into details, but when it all fell apart Jake was there to help me pick up the pieces. Every time we meet I always tease him, you know, ask him if he's met " the One" yet. This time he said " yes"." Lyn looked at Kelly.

"He told me how you'd met--all about you thinking he worked for the escort agency--oh, you mustn't mind, he let something slip by accident and I dragged the rest out of him. What a joke! I told him it was high time he realised how ordinary mortals live. Because his father is so rich a lot of women see him as a good catch, you know. I wanted him to introduce us, but he said he didn't want to panic you. He told me you didn't share his feelings." She pulled a face and glanced hesitantly at Kelly.

"I thought differently, and I told him so. I was leaving Corfu in the morning and Jake promised to see me off. I told him then not to give up. He rang me a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him about you then. He told me things hadn't worked out. He was using that voice that says don't dare ask anything more, but I told him he was a fool if he let you go so easily. Was I right?"

Kelly managed a wan smile.

"Right and wrong," she said shakily.

"Are you sure that..."

"That he loves you?" Lyn rolled her eyes heaven-wards and laughed.

"Straight from the horse's mouth," she confirmed.

"You know what Jake's like, close as the grave when he wants to be, but he did admit that he was worried about your reaction to the discovery that he wasn't some out-of-work actor and that he'd deliberately deceived you." She grinned reminiscently.

"He actually unbent enough to admit to me that he fell in love with you on sight. He was just about to tell you that the agency had closed down and that he'd taken over the offices when he realised that if he did you would probably walk out of his life. He told me it was the most impulsive thing he's ever done." She gave a gurgle of laughter.

"Poor Jake, you've certainly given him a run for his money! Not that it will do him any harm. Much as I love him there's no doubt about it-so far Jake hasn't had to try very hard when the feminine s.e.x is concerned. But here I am prattling on without giving you a chance to say a word!

"Everything went well in Edinburgh and Jake got a chance to put his case. When he saw me off at the airport, he was so withdrawn and worried that I didn't want to ask him if he told you the truth."

"When he was telling you about the agency," Kelly asked her slowly, 'was anyone else with you? "

The other girl frowned.

"No. We were by the pool at the time, people all around us but no one actually with us--why?"

Perhaps something of her confiding manner had rubbed off on her, Kelly thought wryly, half amused and half alarmed by her own need to admit her doubts.

-"It's just that a friend of mine told me that Jake had told him the truth; had in fact boasted of how he'd deceived me quite deliberately, and how..." Kelly fought to steady her voice, 'how amusing it would be to. "

"No! None of that's true," Lyn cut in ruthlessly.

"I know Jake.

He'wouldnever do anything like that. I'm not saying he can't be prettymiffy when the mood takes him, but he's never cruel or vicious. He's too male a man for that. But surely Jake himself explained. "

"I left Corfu on the same plane as you," Kelly told her levelly.

"Oh, you mean you don't love Jake? I've really gone and put my foot in it, haven't I?" Lyn groaned.

"I do love him," Kelly admitted huskily, 'and that was one of the reasons why I left. You see, I thought you and he--and then. "

"But you went to Edinburgh," she interrupted.

"Yes," Kelly agreed on a sigh. Was this girl right? Did Jake love her?

According to the younger girl he had admitted as much to her, and Kelly knew enough of Jeremy to guess that he could have overheard their conversation and twisted it to his own ends. He was bitter and envious enough to have found pleasure in lying to her, but Jake? Why hadn't he come after her when she left Corfu? Why had he waited so long and gone to such lengths to get her to Edinburgh? And he had been so bitter. There were too many ends that just didn't tie up, Kelly thought, chewing at her bottom lip, but she already had an idea where she could unravel some of them.

"Look, do you mind if I rush off?" she asked quickly.

"There's someone I have to see."

"And Jake?"

"Er..."

"He's due to arrive in London tomorrow. He has an apartment in the new Hartland block-more of a penthouse really. I was going to have dinner with him, but I can't make it."

"I'll have to go," Kelly told her, 'but thanks for telling me. everything. "

"Jake would probably kill me if he knew. I can't understand why he hasn't told you himself."

"Perhaps he's decided he doesn't love me after all," Kelly suggested in a shaky voice.

Lyn shook her head vigorously.

"No way," she laughed.

"He loves you all right and, knowing Jake, it's a forever kind of love. That's the way he is."

Jeremy's secretary answered the phone, putting Kelly through within seconds, and Jeremy's voice oozed satisfaction and self-esteem as he murmured her name.

"Has Sue been in touch?" he asked her.

"She's pregnant again, but this time the doc has told her to take things easy. I'm staying in town during the week to take some of the pressure off her."

"Bully for you," Kelly muttered sardonically under her breath.

"Look, Jeremy," she told him curtly, "I have to see you. There's something I want to ask you."

"Well, well, and to think I thought you were never going to get round to it!"

Kelly had to grit her teeth to stop herself from bursting the bubble of self-a.s.surance that surrounded him.

"Your place or mine?" Jeremy asked her.

"Neither," Kelly told him, thinking quickly.

"What about the Savoy Bar?"

As she had suspected, Jeremy leapt at the suggestion of meeting her somewhere so prestigious and she managed not to retort when he said smoothly, "Oh, of course, I was forgetting, it all goes down to expenses, doesn't it?"

"Look, Jeremy, do you want to meet me or not?" Kelly demanded, forcing herself to hold on to her temper.

"I'll meet you."

Ten past seven. Kelly glanced impatiently at her watch. Where was Jeremy? Five minutes later she saw him walk into the bar, stopping to preen in the mirror. As different from Jake as chalk from cheese.

Kelly felt a familiar stab of pity for her friend combined with contempt for Jeremy.

"Ah, there you are." He bent his head and, guessing that he intended to kiss her, she sidestepped swiftly.

"This isn't a social occasion, Jeremy," she said crisply.

"At least, not entirely. Cast your mind back to our holiday in Corfu if you will."

She watched him frown as the waiter took their order and waited for him to leave before continuing.

"At that time you told me that you'd discovered that Jake had lied to me, pretending to work for an escort agency, while all the time he was an extremely wealthy man. You intimated that I represented some sort of challenge to him."

"So?" Jeremy was watching her sulkily.

Kelly studied her drink for a few seconds. Her heart was thudding heavily--so much depended now on the gamble she was taking.

"So what, I wonder, did you tell Jake about me?"

She knew immediately that she had been right to gamble and that Jeremy had indeed said something to Jake.

"Oh, come on, Jeremy," she pressed home her advantage.

"When Jake returned from the airport and found I'd gone he must have asked you where and why."

"He may have said something," Jeremy agreed.

"I told him we weren't your keepers. Sue was pretty upset--too upset to talk to him really, what with you rushing off."

"So what did you say to Jake? Did you tell him I wasn't interested in him?" Kelly demanded, making a wild stab in the dark.

"Did you, Jeremy?" she demanded fiercely, watching the muscle twitch in his jaw and the nervous tic beneath his eye.

"He was like a madman," Jeremy admitted sullenly, 'demanding to know where you were, what we'd said to you. I told him it was nothing to do with us. "

"Did you tell him what you said to me before I left?" Kelly asked sweetly.

Jeremy's face told her the answer.

"I ought to hate you, Jeremy, but you're simply not worth the effort.

Poor Sue! What on earth has she done to be landed with a contemptible creep like you? "

"b.i.t.c.h," Jeremy muttered thickly.

"He's welcome to you!" He slammed his gla.s.s down and got up, shouldering his way through the press at the bar, leaving Kelly alone.