by Emma Darcy
CHAPTER THREE
CAITLIN set out everything that might be required on the boardroom table, then zipped back to her office to put in a call to Paul Jordan before heading to the kitchen to load up a traymobile with the usual refreshments.
The call to Jordan was deferred by the arrival of a delivery boy with another gift basket for her.
Caitlin was stunned by the contents. Nestled in a froth of red ribbons were a heart-shaped box of hand-made Swiss chocolates, and an enormously expensive set of Beautiful toiletries by Estee Lauder. These included perfume, skin lotion, bath oil and talcum powder. Most amazingly and endearingly of all, there was also a soft toy puppy.
Of all the soft toy animals David might have chosen, that was the second-best. The perfect choice for her would have been a pony, but Caitlin couldn’t remember having ever talked about Dobbin to him. Therefore he wouldn’t, couldn’t, know any better.
Surprises were certainly coming thick and fast this morning! Caitlin’s head was spinning with them. It was the way David did things, turning situations around so quickly. He was leaving her breathless and utterly enthralled by what he could do when he set his mind to it.
She suddenly realised time was slipping by. She postponed the call to Paul Jordan and raced to the office kitchen. Coffee, tea, milk, cream, plain and fancy biscuits and mixed sandwiches from catering were mandatory. By five minutes to ten it was all in the boardroom, ready for her to serve when needed. She had barely returned to her office when Jenny called to announce the arrival of the German delegation. Caitlin buzzed David, then went to meet the visitors at reception and escort them to the boardroom.
She carried out her duties with the charm David expected of her. Once everyone was settled around the table, she was free to prime Paul Jordan with what was expected of him. She would drag the Sutherland contract out of the filing system. Paul might as well take that with him.
David smiled at her as she left the boardroom. She hugged the smile to her heart, drifting back to her office on a cloud of happiness.
She couldn’t resist dabbing some Beautiful on. It was wonderful perfume, well named. She hadn’t been in the mood to bother with perfume this morning. She was now. She hoped David would recognise and appreciate the scent when she sat near him to take notes of the meeting. This was turning out to be a lovely morning, a really beautiful morning.
The phone rang just as she reached for it. Caitlin lifted the receiver, intending to take a very quick message so she could call Paul Jordan straight afterwards.
‘Caitlin?’ Her mother’s voice.
‘Hi, Mum! Happy wedding anniversary! How’s everything going for the party? Anything you need?’
The sound of sobbing. ‘Mum, what’s wrong?’
More sobbing. ‘Mum, please, please, please tell me what’s happened.’
‘There isn’t going to be a party.’
Caitlin was staggered. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. ‘Why?’ she asked, then collected her wits sufficiently to enquire, ‘Why not?’
‘Your father...’ Her mother’s voice quavered. She burst into more tears.
Caitlin’s worst fears were aroused. Her father had a history of heart disease. ‘Tell me the worst,’ she said bravely.
‘He...he...he...’
‘Yes, yes, yes?’ Caitlin prompted.
‘He walked out on me!’
Caitlin’s head spun. This wasn’t making sense at all. ‘What do you mean—he walked out on you?’
‘I mean what I said!’ her mother replied, a touch of asperity in her voice. She didn’t like to be contradicted or have her communications misunderstood.
Caitlin used her most sympathetic voice. ‘He couldn’t do that to you.’
‘Thirty years of looking after him hand and foot,’ her mother wailed. ‘I’m disgusted at what he’s done. I’ll never forgive him. Never! Even if he is your father.’
‘There must be a reason,’ Caitlin soothed gently. ‘Perhaps if I talk to him.’
‘You can’t do that,’ her mother snapped peremptorily.
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t know where he’s gone to.’
‘He can’t go too far without money,’ Caitlin suggested.
‘Oh, he’s got money. Too much of it, if you ask me. He’s been secretly hoarding everything I gave him without telling me what he was doing.’
‘Mum, there has to be a way.’
‘Oh, there’s a way,’ her mother said grimly between sniffles. ‘He’s done this as a symbol. When I catch up with him, I’ll give him a symbol. I’ll kill him!’
‘Mum, let me think about this.’ Caitlin had the feeling that time was passing very rapidly. She still had to get in touch with Paul Jordan. ‘Can I get back to you?’
‘There’s no need, Caitlin. I’m on my own. After thirty years of suffering through your father’s moods, this is all the thanks I get. There isn’t going to be a wedding anniversary party tonight. There’s nothing for you to do. There’s nothing anyone can do.’
Caitlin had had no idea that her parents’ marriage had been cracking up. On her recent visits home, her father had occasionally been somewhat withdrawn about her mother’s current projects and plans, but there had been no indication of a serious falling out. After all the years they had spent together, surely there was some meeting ground left?
‘Mum...Mum...’ Caitlin tried to catch her mother’s attention.
‘Everything’s ruined. It’ll be the talk of the town!’ her mother cried.
And that, Caitlin thought, was probably the crux of the matter. Her mother had always worried too much about what others thought. ‘I’ll do my best to patch things up,’ Caitlin said on a rueful sigh.
‘My life is in tatters, Caitlin. Totally and irretrievably ruined.’
Caitlin tried to give a glow of hope. ‘Somehow it will turn out right.’
‘No, it won’t.’ Her mother gave another wail of absolute distress and despair, and hung up.
Caitlin ran through a mental list of places where her father might have stormed off to. Before she recollected the important business tactic she had to set in motion, the door to her office opened and in strode David Hartley, emitting enough sparks to start a conflagration.
Caitlin’s mind exploded in horror. Time had passed too quickly. It was now too late to call Paul Jordan!
David came to an abrupt halt. He glared at the splendid arrangement of red roses. He glared at the beribboned basket containing the puppy and the chocolates and the luxurious toiletries. His glare swung back to the roses, fastening even more fiercely on the elaborate Valentine Card. Finally, he fired bolts of blue fire straight at Caitlin.
‘What the hell is going on out here?’
Caitlin started guiltily from her chair. ‘Nothing.’
‘Well, something has been going on in there.’ David pointed to the boardroom. ‘The delegation is not only muttering about alleged design flaws, they’ve been talking to Crawley.’
Michael Crawley was David’s main rival. The mere mention of his name was enough to set David aflame. There was litigation pending between the two companies over patent infringements.
‘I’m sorry...’
‘I’ve been trying to contact you for the last twenty minutes,’ he grated. ‘Your line has been tied up. You’ve made me look like a first-class idiot.’
She flushed. ‘My mother called.’
He looked at her incredulously. ‘Where’s Jordan?’
Caitlin tried to think of an appropriate reply.
His gaze flashed savagely to the roses, then back to her fiery cheeks. ‘Did your mother send the roses?’
‘No. You did,’ she reminded him.
He looked at her as though she had gone stark raving mad. ‘I did no such thing. What do you mean...I gave them to you?’
A great bottomless pit formed in Caitlin’s stomach. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She fought down the feeling of emotional panic. ‘If you didn’t send
them, who did?’
‘Ask your mother.’ His voice dripped acid. His eyes raked hers with scathing disbelief at her dereliction of duty. ‘In the meantime, can we get back to running this business?’
Her chin came up in fighting mode. Everything had to be done to the beat of his drum. He didn’t listen to her. He didn’t understand that she had problems as well as he. He didn’t give her roses or consideration or caring. She had duped herself into thinking David had relented in his tyrannical attitude towards her. He had not bent one iota.
‘David, I think we’re finished,’ she said tightly.
‘Damned right!’ he agreed. ‘Get Jordan up here. He might do the job required of him.’
A stinging rebuff.
She watched him as though from a far distance as he swung on his heel and headed back to the boardroom.
Cold, hard and ruthless. As his competitors saw him. As Michael Crawley must see him. As the German delegation must see him. As Caitlin now saw him.
With a heavy hand, she lifted up the phone. There was no answer from Jordan’s office. She rang Jenny.
‘Where’s Paul Jordan?’ she asked bleakly.
‘He stepped out for half an hour. Call that the rest of the morning. He thinks he’s got a potential deal with the Kirrawee Business College.’
Caitlin’s hand was even heavier as she replaced the phone. She had done a thoroughly comprehensive job in stuffing up both her personal life and professional life.
She couldn’t rescue the former. That required the impossible to happen. As for the latter, there was only one thing left to do. She went to the filing cabinet and dragged out the Sutherland contract.
She would give the presentation herself.
Not Jordan’s way.
Not David’s way.
Her way.
CHAPTER FOUR
DAVID, of course, sat at the head of the table in the boardroom. The four men from Germany were spread on either side of him, two on his right, two on his left. Herr Schmidt, the leader of the delegation, was pointing out something in the documents in front of him when Caitlin entered. The attention of the five men swung to her.
David glowered at her. Herr Schmidt frowned at the interruption. The expressions on the other men’s faces ranged from interested spectator to a deadpan weighing of what her unheralded appearance meant. They all looked tough, experienced, executive businessmen. None had the magnetic charisma that David could exude so effortlessly.
To Caitlin he dominated the room, just as he had dominated her life for the last four months. The thought spurred her to renewed determination.
No more domination.
This was her swan-song. She would use David’s tactics and give them her own twist. She might not be special to him, but he wouldn’t forget her in a hurry. Not for what she was about to do. She hoped it would make him burn. In the right places.
She walked briskly to the end of the table, facing David down the length of it. ‘Mr Hartley, we have chaos in the office,’ she announced, showing no perturbation at all at dropping bombshells in the boardroom.
‘I know that.’ His voice had the low rumble of an incipient earthquake.
‘You’ll be pleased to hear that the Sutherland contract has arrived. All signed, sealed and delivered,’ she stated wearily, as though it was one more chore to deal with on top of everything else.
‘Good.’ He gave her a frozen smile.
‘How we’re going to get that amount of product out on to the market in time, I do not know.’
‘Miss Ross...’ he looked sharply at the German delegation ‘...please take control of yourself.’
‘Fifteen hundred units,’ she burbled on. He knew as well as she knew how grossly exaggerated that figure was. The German delegation did not.
‘Miss Ross,’ he said sharply, ‘this is confidential information. Please be careful what you say. Where’s Jordan?’
She aimed a sigh of exasperation at him. ‘Mr Jordan left to clinch a huge deal with a string of business colleges,’ she went on, treating his warning about confidentiality as totally irrelevant in the circumstances. ‘Sell, sell, sell. That’s all he can do. The man is like a robot.’
‘I didn’t know he’d gone.’ David looked vexed. ‘He’s supposed to be here.’
‘I haven’t had a moment to tell you.’ Caitlin put some vexation into her voice. ‘As you’re aware, the phone-lines have been engaged all morning. All the other salesmen are out, too. Every blasted one of them. We can’t cover the volume of work that’s pouring in. For one thing, we need more phone-lines...’
David passed a weary hand over his face. ‘What point are you coming to, Miss Ross?’
‘There’s an overload of work. I’m needed elsewhere. The matter is urgent,’ she stated emphatically. ‘I require permission to leave the office. It’s mandatory. I need to take the afternoon off to attend to what has to be done.’
Danger signals glimmered in his eyes. ‘I have guests here from a foreign country who have to be attended to and looked after with the proper courtesy and respect, Miss Ross. Permission refused!’
Caitlin set her mouth into a long-suffering line. She threw a glance at the heavens as though praying for patience. She had seen him do the same action this morning, so had no trouble in duplicating it. It didn’t work any better for her than it did for him.
Patience was not bestowed on her.
She dropped her gaze to David and gave him a long, glittering glare. Then she tossed her hair in defiance, flounced around the table to where he sat, and slapped the Sutherland file down in front of him.
‘Sir!’ She took a deep breath. Her breasts lifted, drawing every eye on either side of the table to the lace inserts of her blouse. Her hands planted themselves on her hips. ‘Something has to give,’ she declared with passionate conviction. ‘It’s prob-ably me!’
Everyone was quite fascinated by now. She had their full attention. Including David’s. Especially David’s. She hoped he was getting the underlying personal message loud and clear. She was not going to go his way any more.
‘Something is going to give,’ he said grimly, ‘and I agree that it’s likely to be you.’
‘You need to employ more staff.’
‘I’ll certainly be dealing with that, Miss Ross.’ The purpose behind those words was unmistakable. She had not only crossed the Rubicon, she had committed hara-kiri on every level by not staying in the pigeonhole he’d built for her.
‘Can we go into recess on this?’ She would give him one last chance to be reasonable.
‘Not at the present moment.’
Green eyes sizzled into blue, giving him her message in no uncertain terms. ‘Very well,’ she snapped. ‘Please understand I can no longer handle all you require of me. I cannot meet the standards you demand of me. The overtime is excessive and unrewarding. We have come to the end of the line, you and I. Finis. Full stop. Goodbye.’
He was rising to his feet. ‘Miss Ross!’ he cried out hoarsely, obviously shaken to his bootstraps. Such antics had never been seen in this boardroom before.
‘Stay where you are, Mr Hartley. There’s no need to say or do anything. Business comes first. Remember this morning.’ She hoped he did.
With another toss of her hair she turned to march away from him. There was one last thing she could do. She would do it and end this farce. She took three steps, stopped, then swung back to address the head of the German delegation. Herr Schmidt was a big, burly man with sharp grey eyes. He had a poker face, revealing nothing of his thoughts.
‘There are no design defects in our products, Herr Schmidt. You are wasting our time. Mr Hartley is simply being too polite to tell you that to your face.’
The implication was clear. If he chose not to buy the licence, the loss was his, not theirs. She gave him a full eyeful of scorn, then resumed her march from the room, her hair swinging, her hips swinging, and the deal with the German delegation swinging.
Five pairs of eyes followed her o
ut of the room. No one broke the silence which enveloped them.
Win or lose, Caitlin didn’t care any more. If David didn’t want to play the hand she had dealt him, that was too bad! As best she could, she had made up for her lapse in carrying out his instructions. The dance with the devil was over. She closed the door behind her with finality.
That action did nothing to fill the aching void in her heart. Why do women love so foolishly? she wondered. They hurt only themselves.
Back in her own office, the strong scent of the roses mocked the secret dreams and desires she had so fondly nurtured. The irrational hope she had so blindly fostered in her heart was dead. David Hartley was never going to change. The romance in his soul was encased in concrete surrounded by barbed wire and porcupine quills.
But it was best not to think about him now. She had to act on the decision she had made. No wavering. No waiting. There would be no softening coming from him. If she took nothing else away from her association with David Hartley, she would take her self-esteem and self-respect.
Tears pricked her eyes as she walked around her desk and flopped listlessly into her chair. She had been so happy to receive such lovely gifts. Why couldn’t it have been David asking her to ‘be his Valentine’? She had no idea who else might be declaring his interest in her. She wasn’t interested in anyone else. Someone had wasted an awful lot of money on nothing.
Maybe it was a mistake. Perhaps the Valentine gifts were meant for someone else. A mistake could easily be made because there was no name on the card. She was probably the recipient of mischance and some other woman was missing out on the pleasure meant for her.
With a heavy sigh, Caitlin rolled her chair around to face her computer. She switched it on and brought up the Microsoft Word program. It wouldn’t take long to type up an official letter of resignation to end her employment by David Hartley. She would leave it on his desk and go.
