Infatuation

by Charlotte Lamb

  She glanced back at the little group and saw that Caroline Rendell had walked away and Luke was facing her now. His face was blank, but Judith watched those grey eyes of his and she almost felt sorry for Caroline Rendell; that was the look Judith had first seen when her bank was engaged in attempting to put together a take-over bid for one of Luke Doulton's companies. He was hiding his rage better at the moment, forcing it out of sight by an effort of will, but Judith felt it coming across the room in waves. Caroline Rendell had made a bad mistake. Whatever had been going on between her and Luke Doulton he hadn't chosen to marry her; making some sort of public scene, however discreetly, had been stupid. It wouldn't alter his decision, it would merely make him angry; Caroline must have been beside herself with temper not to understand that.

  Suddenly Luke's grey eyes actually focused on Judith; she felt a leap of attention inside him, he was looking at her, his eyes narrowing, and for a brief second she stared back, wondering why he was looking at her like that, then she looked away because, even at this distance, Luke Doulton was overpowering, she felt the room shrink so that she almost seemed to be standing next to him.

  Not long afterwards he and Baba came over to join them, bringing a small group of people in their wake. Judith and Robert politely stepped back while Luke introduced his sisters and their husbands to Ruth and David. Everyone kept smiling, but the talk was stilted. Luke's sisters were younger than their brother. The eldest, Pauline, was in her early thirties but looked younger, her smooth hair a definite red, her skin a heavy white and her green eyes slanting under fine dark brows,

  'Gracious, what a daring little dress,' she said to Baba. 'How do you manage to walk in it?' Judith suppressed a smile; it was her own question, but she had not cared to deliver it so bluntly.

  'It's a fabulous dress,' the other sister said quickly before Baba could answer. 'Who made it for you?' Judith had already decided she preferred the younger sister; Angela was more like Luke in her colouring, her hair the same dark brown and her eyes wide and grey. She was pregnant, she had told Baba a moment ago, wasn't it sickening to have to wear tents for months on cad? Baba had asked: 'It's your second baby, isn't it?' and Angela had said ruefully: 'Third, darling, third.' Pauline, it seemed, had one son aged twelve who was away at boarding school, and she told Angela that one was enough. 'Three is ridiculous!' Angela made a wicked face at her, eyes defiant, and Judith laughed, which was a mistake because Luke glanced at her across the circle and decided to introduce her.

  'An investments expert?' queried Pauline, brows rising. 'Really? I didn't know women did jobs like that. You must be horribly clever.' She made it sound like an accusation. Judith felt Luke watching her, waiting to see how she would reply.

  'Oh, I am,' she said with bland indifference to Pauline's opinion, and Luke laughed softly. 'We're not all pinbrains, you know,' Judith added, and Pauline stared at her in apparent stupefaction while she worked that out. Well, at least, thought Judith, she was getting some fun out of the evening.

  CHAPTER THREE

  THE following Monday Judith had lunch with Luke Doulton at a small and very fashionable restaurant in Mayfair. She had come armoured, with a very shrewd idea of why he wanted to talk to her. After the occasion when Schewitz and Quayle put together the take-over bid for his company Luke had a grudge against the bank; Judith would be very surprised if his interest in her did not have something to do with a long-term hostility for her old firm. She was going to listen to him, mainly out of curiosity, but she had no intention of allowing him to use her in whatever conspiracy he was planning. Her years with the bank had left her with a good deal of private information about their dealings, their clients, their staff. If Luke Doulton was planning something connected with Schewitz and Quayle he would no doubt find her a very useful tool; but Judith's hackles rose at the thought of being used for any such purpose. She had a strong loyalty towards the New York house; she might be irritated with the managing director in London, but her annoyance did not extend to a backstairs intrigue with Luke Doulton.

  He was sitting in the small, circular bar attached to the restaurant and rose as she appeared. She shook hands, noting the firm warm clasp. He had good hands; strong and long-fingered, the backs of them lightly dusted with dark hairs. Today he was wearing one of those formal grey lounge suits and a blue-striped shirt with a pale grey silk tie; he looked elegant and businesslike.

  'What can I get you to drink?' he asked as she sat down and the waiter appeared with two menus.

  Judith took one of the menus and thought briefly; better not to drink too much, she might need all her wits about her.

  'I'll have a Lillet,' she said, and the waiter bowed and vanished to get her a glass of the lightly flavoured wine.

  'I hope you weren't too bored at the party; I saw that you'd met a friend. How did you meet Robert Gordon? Through the bank? One of their clients, is he?'

  'Yes,' said Judith, opening the menu. 'Gracious, how does one find one's way through a list this long? Is the food as good as it sounds?'

  She felt his quick glance, the narrowed eyes with which he registered her evasion of his question, but he accepted the change of subject without comment and they read the menu while they sipped their drinks and talked very little. Judith had already seen Robert again; he had rung her on the Saturday morning after the party and asked her out to dinner. 'Not business,' he had said, and laughed. It had been a very enjoyable evening, they had mainly talked about the States, swapping stories about hotels they knew and cities they had either loved or hated. Robert travelled a great deal; he was an entertaining companion.

  When she and Luke had ordered they finished their drinks and went through into the restaurant. Judith was aware of heads turning, eyes following them. Luke was well known and his engagement party had made the gossip columns the day afterwards; in print it had sounded far more glamorous and exciting than it had been in actual fact. Reading about it, Judith had wondered if she had gone to a different party. The gossip columnists had apparently seen a lot she missed.

  She knew she wasn't going to be mistaken for one of his girl-friends; she was dressed today in a very businesslike russet wool dress. Nobody was going to have dark suspicions about Luke's interest in her, the last thing she wanted was to try to compete with girls like Baba or Caroline Rendell.

  Over their first course Luke told her: 'I've just lost my personal assistant.' His tone was dispassionate and calm; if Judith hadn't witnessed the little scene at the party she would never have guessed that anything lay behind his sudden announcement.

  So much for Caroline Rendell, she thought, her mouth indenting and her dark eyes lowered to hide their amusement. Before you throw stones you should make sure you don't live in a glasshouse. Luke hadn't lost any time in despatching Caroline; when he used a knife he did so with ruthless speed and efficiency, no doubt.

  'Did I say something funny?' he asked, taking her by surprise.

  She looked up, eyes startled, then recovered and said blandly: 'I'm sure you would never do that.'

  He regarded her for a moment in silence. 'You have a very interesting mind,' he said, surprising her again.

  'Thank you,' she said demurely.

  'Do you want the job?' The question was a frontal assault; although she had guessed it might be coming she hadn't expected it so fast and with so little preliminaries or window-dressing.

  Her eyes widened further, she quickly looked down. 'What exactly would it entail?'

  'A salary twice whatever you've been getting,' he said drily.

  When he offered temptation he certainly did it in style, Judith decided. Aloud she asked: 'Shall we discuss the job before we talk about money?'

  'You've got all the qualifications I need; you have a brain or you wouldn't have been doing the work you have been doing. You're obviously capable of working on your own, which is what you might well be doing a good deal when I'm away from my desk. I'd want you based in London, I have to fly around the world most of the time and I'd
rely on you to keep me posted with what was happening over here while I was gone. The work would be far more varied than you have been doing; although you would be working with investments part of the time there's a great deal more to it than that. You'd be expected to make confidential reports on companies I'm interested in; I'd want those daily, wherever I was. To put it briefly, you'd be my eyes and ears in London and, to some extent, my brains as well.'

  He hadn't so much as mentioned Schewitz and Quayle; she wondered whether to bring them up and see his reaction, but decided to wait a while and listen to whatever else he had to say. She went on with her strips of beef cooked in wine and cream while he talked and, somehow, managed to eat his filet mignon at the same time. Judith asked questions and got concise and clear answers, but the subject of her old firm never came up. Had she imagined his hostility to them? she wondered. Or was he being very oblique and cunning by hiding what he really wanted from her?

  'You can have three days to decide,' he told her as they drank their coffee. 'Then I shall have to look for someone else; it's a matter of some urgency as my previous assistant has already left.'

  Judith gave him a dry smile. 'I see.' Had Caroline resigned or was she thrown out? she wondered. The woman must be crazy to let her personal emotions ruin her career, but maybe she had got a job just as good with someone else, her experience with Luke Doulton would no doubt have made her an attractive prospect for one of his rivals.

  'Ring me on Thursday morning,' he said, and she nodded. He glanced at his watch. 'I'll have to be shooting off soon; I have an appointment at three-thirty. We have time for some more coffee, though.' He turned to signal the waiter and Judith saw his eyes flash after a girl who was walking through the crowded restaurant. She was a very pretty girl, her figure swayed enticingly as she moved, and Luke Doulton observed it with interest. Judith frowned; poor Baba, she got the feeling Luke was not the faithful kind.

  The waiter hurried over and Luke turned back to face Judith, catching her with her brows together in that frown.

  'Something wrong?' he asked, staring.

  She didn't have to answer; the waiter leaned over to refill her cup with strong black coffee, and by the time he had departed Luke had forgotten his question. A few minutes later he signed the bill and they left.

  'My car's outside, can I give you a lift?' he asked. 'If you don't mind coming along to my office my driver will take you on wherever you want to go.'

  She got into the long, silvery limousine and watched Luke light a thin cigar, the pale wreaths of blue smoke fragrant as they drifted to her nostrils. 'You should wear red more often, it suits you,' he said suddenly, and she looked at him with widening eyes, startled by the personal remark. 'I liked the dress you wore at the party; that's the sort of dress that suits you.' He held the cigar between finger and thumb, rolling it slightly, while he studied her coolly. 'You're much too thin; do you diet? You don't need to, you know.'

  'Thanks for the advice,' said Judith, eyeing him with dislike. She saw his mouth curl up and his grey eyes slid sideways to mock her.

  'If you're going to work for me I feel I have some right to an opinion on your appearance.'

  'Oh, do you?' she said, making it clear she did not agree. 'I haven't made up my mind yet. I have other offers to consider.'

  'You'll accept mine,' he said with what she felt was staggering complacency.

  'Oh, will I?'

  'Yes.'

  'What makes you so sure?'

  'I want you, and I always get what I want,' he said, and the limousine halted smoothly outside a block of skyscraper offices. Luke Doulton smiled at Judith and said: 'I'll hear from you by Thursday,' then he had opened the door and was gone. The car drove on a moment later and took Judith back to her new flat. When she was alone she sat on a packing case and stared around her. Some of her possessions had arrived from America, she hadn't unpacked them yet because the flat was not ready for occupation, although she didn't imagine it would take her long to finish the redecorating. She approved her new wallpaper absently while her mind was sorting through what Luke Doulton had said to her.

  She was tempted; she had to admit that. The salary was one of the major attractions, but the job itself sounded fascinating. It would involve heavy responsibilities, but then that didn't worry Judith, she enjoyed work which offered her the chance to work on her own and take responsibility. There were two real drawbacks; one of them was Luke himself. Judith didn't want to like him, but she did, and that was dangerous, because he belonged to Baba and Judith didn't steal other women's men. That was a minor matter, though. The real problem was that she wasn't sure that he did not plan to use her, somehow, against her old firm. If she could be certain that that was not in her mind she would jump at the job. Her feeling of attraction to Luke really didn't matter; even if she hadn't been the sort of girl who doesn't poach she knew Luke Doulton wouldn't be interested in her.

  She wasn't in his league. A woman had to be very beautiful to catch his eye.

  There was a great deal about him she did not like, however. She hadn't liked the way he said: 'I want you and I always get what I want.' That had been a revelation of how his mind worked that had struck her forcibly; it hadn't surprised her, because his assurance and arrogance were visible in spite of his charm and the humour she saw in his eyes at times. For half an hour she sat on the packing case and added up Luke Doulton like a company balance sheet: he was cynical and ruthless and without hesitation in going after what he wanted, whether it was a woman like Baba or a company which he felt would make him even more money. Judith liked his directness in some ways, she liked the occasional surprise he had given her when they talked; he had treated her with more respect than she sometimes met with from the men in her world. He didn't imply that she had a drawback because she was a woman; he had taken her on her own terms, and that was very much a plus factor. She looked hard for the flaws in him, she would only take this job with her eyes wide open. But by the time she went back to have the evening meal with her grandmother she knew she wanted that job.

  She had lunch with Robert next day. They discussed the job he was offering her and Judith half hoped he would suggest a salary which would make his job more attractive than the one Luke offered, but he didn't, of course, and with reluctance she had to turn him down.

  'You're going back to Schewitz and Quayle, then, I suppose?' he said with flattering regret before they parted.

  'I doubt it,' said Judith, not yet willing to tell him about Luke's job.

  'Playing your cards close to your chest?' he suggested, smiling. 'Well, whatever you decide to do I hope you'll let me take you to the theatre next week? Are you free on Tuesday?'

  Judith was and accepted. She liked Robert and wanted to see him again.

  On the Wednesday evening she was listening to a record when the phone went. She answered it; her grandmother had already gone up to bed because she had a headache.

  'Judith?' Baba sounded distraught, and Judith frowned.

  'Hallo, Baba, something wrong?'

  'I have to talk to you—can I come round to see you now?'

  'I suppose so.' Judith looked at her watch, it was after nine. 'How long will it take you to get here?'

  'Half an hour. It isn't inconvenient, is it? I'm sorry to be a nuisance, but…

  'That's okay, come over.' Judith replaced the phone, her eyes thoughtful. She finished listening to the record and then went into the kitchen and made some coffee. Baba must have a pressing reason for wanting to talk to her; what had gone wrong? Why did she want to confide in Judith, rather than Ruth?

  The door bell went and Judith opened the door to find Baba, wrapped in a short blue suede jacket, looking agitated. 'Oh, Judith, I'm so sorry to barge in on you at this time of night...'

  'Don't be silly, come in and have some coffee—I've just made it-'

  Baba followed her into the kitchen and perched on a stool, her shapely legs curled round the metal legs of the stool. Judith poured her some coffee and pus
hed it over to her. 'Why don't we go into the sitting-room? It would be more comfortable.'

  'I won't stop long, it's just that I have to talk to you.'

  Baba followed her out of the kitchen, her cup in her hand, and a visible urgency in her face. 'You remember that film I told you about? They want me to do a screen test, they rang tonight and asked me to fly over to California tomorrow and I don't know what to do.'

  'Aren't you able to go? A job lined up?'

  'It isn't that—it's Luke. He won't be pleased when he hears. He wants me to stop work once we're married, you see; he won't want me to take the part in this film.'

  'I wouldn't have thought he was so old-fashioned,' said Judith, rather surprised. 'He didn't give me the impression that he disapproved of women working.' On the contrary, she had been favourably struck by his lack of bias where working women were concerned. Did he have two standards—one for most women and the other for his own wife?

  'Oh, I don't think he does in general, but you see he wants to start a family right away.' Baba looked at her and laughed, going pink. 'He's keen to have children, he doesn't want to wait a few years. He asked me if I'd mind having a baby right away.'

  Judith's eyes opened wide. 'How forthright of him. What did you say?'

  'I thought it was rather sweet. I said I didn't mind, I'd like a baby too. I didn't know about the film possibility then. I'm getting a bit bored with modelling; it can be very tiring and I've done all that. I rather liked the idea of having a baby, but now…'

  'Now you think you'd rather make a film,' said Judith with amusement, and Baba looked at her blankly without humour.

  'Yes, that's the problem. I daren't tell Luke about the screen test, but I can't pass up this opportunity, it could lead to anything. I don't know what to do.'

  'Tell him and go off and have your test—that's what you want to do, so why not do it?'

  'It's so easy for you,' Baba sighed. 'Your career matters more to you than anything else anyway; I don't see you hesitating between your job and a man.'