The Other Brother

by Jessica Steele

  She took a steadying breath. 'You'll be wanting my resignation?' The words left her quietly. Words that had to be said, as unflinchingly she brought out what she thought was a fact.

  'Nate tells me you broke your engagement before Rex had his accident. Is that true?'

  Kathryn blinked at the question. She was astounded that even without doubt believing what Nate had told him, here was one Kingersby who looked prepared to listen to any mitigating circumstances there might be.

  Still unable to believe it, she asked, 'He told you I'd been away with—with some other man for the weekend?' And then felt a glow start inside that the old man she had worked for for only six months had seen something in her that had him questioning what he had been told by his own kin.

  'Not you, Kathryn,' George told her, his face still serious. 'I'd stake my life on your integrity. And while I'll admit it grieves me that anyone should inflict pain on any one member of my family, I want to hear from your own lips

  exactly what went on to cause the eager young woman who left this office on Friday anticipating with joy in her heart her forthcoming wedding to suddenly change her mind.' There was a shrewdness in his face that told her nothing but the truth would do. 'It was you who broke the engagement and not the other way around, wasn't it?' he questioned severely.

  'Yes,' she answered quietly.

  Why?'

  The question was blunt. And looking at his faded blue eyes, eyes she noted for the first time that held a hurt pride that anyone could reject a member of that tightly integrated family, she just knew she couldn't tell him. Here, she saw, was someone who might believe her. But she couldn't do it. For suddenly George looked frail and old. Of course he must have spent a worried weekend wondering if Rex was going to pull through, and that probably accounted for the way he looked more tired and worn than she had ever seen him. But the Kingersbys prided themselves on their honour. To tell him the truth about the nephew he loved almost as much as he loved his own sons would wound him deeply, and she just couldn't do it.

  'I'm sorry, Mr Kingersby,' she said softly, and, unable to lie to him either. 'It's something far too personal for me to want to talk about.'

  For long moments after her unsatisfactory answer George Kingersby sat and stared at her sensitive face. Then, 'Very well,' he said at last, 'we'll leave it for the moment.' And, suddenly a business man again, 'In the meantime perhaps we should get on with some work.'

  'You mean . . .' she gasped not quite taking it in. 'You mean I still have my job?'

  For the first time in what had been a taut ten minutes, George smiled. 'There may have been times when I've been a bit of a Tartar, Kathryn, but I hope you'll never accuse

  me of being unfair.' And while delight entered her being that the instant dismissal she had been expecting was not to be, he went on, 'And anyway, with the new chairman taking over very shortly, I want everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion when he comes in.'

  'You had the meeting yesterday after all?' she asked, realising at the same time that even with one member of the board absent business had to go on.

  About to congratulate him on his son Adrian getting the job, certain in her own mind that would be the case, she checked, an ominous apprehension taking her.

  'Er—your son, Adrian,' she brought out slowly, yet still ready with her congratulations, 'He is to be the new chairman, isn't he?'

  'As a matter of fact, no,' said George, looking in no way put out that his eldest son hadn't been appointed. 'Adrian will take over the American side of things.' And while her feeling of apprehension grew, calmly, he dropped out, 'By an entirely unanimous decision, my nephew Nate is to be the new chairman.'

  Kathryn went to her desk, only just keeping from letting the retiring chairman see the horror she was feeling at the bombshell he had dropped. Nate Kingersby was shortly to be the new chairman. And she, her senses reeled, and she— was she to be secretary to that brute of a man?

  CHAPTER THREE

  By the time lunchtime came around, familiar with her work and having coped with it semi-automatically, Kathryn took herself off for a walk. Her appetite gone, there was one very clear fact only staring her in the face: she was going to lose her job anyway.

  Mr Kingersby's judgment of her had swayed in her favour against his loyalty to his family. He must have seen something in her that told him she wasn't the hard case Nate had made her out to be. He hadn't sacked her anyway. But she just knew she wouldn't fare so well with Nate. The minute he was in, she would be out.

  At the end of her lunch hour she headed back to her office on the top floor, knowing there was only one way left open for her. She had her pride too. She wasn't waiting for Nate Kingersby to tell her to take a long walk on a short pier.

  Mr Kingersby only ever had a sandwich for lunch, so she would go in now and tell him, she decided. She had about eight or nine weeks left, she calculated. George would want to stay on for the golden jubilee, would want to complete his fifty years in harness. But when he left, then so would she.

  Entering her office, she paused only to drop her handbag down and hang up her coat. Then tapping briefly on the door as she had that morning, she went in.

  Then what she had come in to say disappeared entirely from her mind—for she would recognise that tall lofty figure anywhere. That broad-shouldered man standing immaculate in his light grey suit, his back to her as he stared out of the window, wasn't George Kingersby.

  Nate Kingersby turned, his eyes contemptuous as,

  unspeaking, he looked her over before lifting his head a fraction as though that was all he need do to enquire of such a lightweight what she wanted.

  'I was looking for Mr Kingersby,' she said, a flicker of anger beginning to niggle inside at his insolent appraisal.

  'You've found him,' he drawled, misunderstanding her on purpose she knew.

  'Mr George Kingersby,' she said tautly, wondering if he would still manage to look as insolent if she took a swipe at him as every instinct urged.

  'He's out,' he told her, not trying to hide that he was being deliberately difficult.

  Putting her head in the air, Kathryn turned. He wasn't the chairman yet, and until he was she had no intention of suffering him more than she had to.

  'What did you want him for?'

  The question was aimed at her departing back. But with her head still high Kathryn turned about, and with abou as much sweetness as an overgrown stick of rhubarb told him shortly:

  'I wanted to tell him I'm resigning.'

  'So you do have a small supply after all,' Nate came back, so obviously impervious to her snappy answer that she found she was gritting her teeth before she asked:

  'What do you mean by that?'

  'I had thought you totally lacking in decency,' he enlightened her bluntly.

  She stalked back to her desk and barely waited to be seated before she was slamming into her typewriter. The swine, went her furious thoughts as the keys hammered down. The unmitigated swine 1 To insinuate that it was a spark of decency she had dredged up from somewhere that compelled her to give in her notice!

  Her eyes sparking, she yanked the paper from her typewriter added her signature, then thrust it inside an envelope.

  The next second she was leaving her seat and marching into the other office to place the envelope down where George Kingersby was bound to see it the moment he came in. She was nearly out through the door again when that insolent voice was heard once more.

  'Just why was it you jilted my brother?'

  Kathryn stopped in her tracks. She turned round, and soon saw that Nate Kingersby was no nearer to being ready to believe anything she told him today than he had been the day before.

  'I thought you'd cleverly worked that out for yourself yesterday,' she said, refusing to be browbeaten when his eyes narrowed at her sarcastic tone. 'Didn't you decide yesterday that I threw him over because I'd had a better offer?'

  The murderous look that came into his eyes told her he wasn't about to sta
rt being civil to her. But before he could begin to flatten her with one of his none too polite phrases, the outer door opened and George Kingersby came in.

  Kathryn managed a smile for him as she passed on her way back to her desk. She heard him say, 'Sorry to keep you, Nate, you know how it is when one gets chatting.' The door closed, but it was a full five minutes before she had cooled down sufficiently to give her work the full concentration it deserved, and even then she was on edge waiting for that door to open.

  When it did she wouldn't have been at all surprised if Nate Kingersby had stopped by her desk to fire a departing shot. But he didn't. She looked up when he approached her desk, saw he was looking straight at her, and felt a momentary discomfort before a surge of temper sapped it as he went out. For the first time in her life a man had looked straight through her as though she didn't exist.

  Then her own feelings had to be put to one side, for George, her letter of resignation in his hands, had come out of his office too.

  'What's this?' he asked without preamble, for all the message it contained was self-explanatory.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to say there was no way she was going to work for Nate when he retired. But she was all too conscious that George Kingersby's loyalty to his family had been stretched more than enough by keeping her on after she had broken her engagement to his other nephew. To start implying that Nate was the swine she knew him to be would have her parting very bad friends with George, and she had grown too fond of him in the short time she had worked for him to want to part bad friends if that could be avoided.

  'I—I think it's for the best, Mr Kingersby,' she told him quietly instead.

  Sadly he shook his head. 'There's no need for you to leave. It'll be six months or more before Rex is back, if fear of meeting him again is what's worrying you.'

  'It isn't that,' she started to deny, but she saw she wasn't being believed, and had to bite down hard not to tell him the real reason.

  'Won't you stay on a little while longer?' he asked. 'I'll give you my word we won't try and hang on to you once Rex is up and about and likely to pay the office a visit.' And before she could find any convincing argument without revealing her true feelings about the new chairman, he was saying, 'I'll let you into a little secret, Kathryn—I'm taking the remainder of my time as chairman on some weeks spent on catching up on all the holidays I've missed over the years. Well, a few weeks, anyway,' he tacked on.

  'You're going . . .'

  'I've this week and next week to complete in my guise as chairman, then off to sunnier climes. I shall be back for the jubilee, though, wouldn't miss that for the world!'

  Kathryn had to give him an answering smile. He deserved his holiday—goodness knew he had earned it. He should

  have retired years ago, but he had loved his work so much he had stayed on. But this was getting nothing settled about her resignation.

  'That means I only have a fortnight left to work for you,' she said, trying to remember if she was legally bound to give a month's notice or if she could get away with giving only two weeks.

  George nodded. 'That's why I feel it's important you stay on,' he said. 'Nate has to return to the States to help ease Adrian in and to clear up a few loose ends. So there's a very good chance that I shall be away before I have time to show him the way things run this end.' He was solemn all at once as he added, 'I was rather banking on you, my dear, to assist him in the change-over. You're good at the work— "excellent" I don't think is stating the case too highly. I should certainly enjoy my holiday more if I knew you were on hand to help with anything Nate can't be expected to be au fait with until he's been in the chair awhile.' And, his voice taking on a coaxing note, 'Would you have my holiday ruined worrying how Nate was coping without a secretary who knows where everything is?'

  So much for the hardhearted label her brother-in-law would have hung around her neck, Kathryn thought, and her heart-strings tugged as she looked as George's tired face and saw that he looked more than ready for a strain-free holiday.

  'But—but I—don't think Nate likes me well enough to have me working for him,' she said, holding back the truth, that his dislike of her went treble as far as she was concerned.

  George looked puzzled as he peered into her worried brown eyes. Then with a fatherly gesture he patted her hand. 'Did he give you a bad time yesterday?' And when her eyes gave him the reply, he patted her hand again. 'Isn't that understandable? Nate and Rex have always been close. I don't think it would be exaggerating to say Nate had little

  sleep over the weekend worrying if Rex was going to pull through. When he wasn't at his brother's bedside he was haring around looking for you—can you blame him that he gave you a bit of a tough time when he eventually caught up with you?'

  Bit of a tough time! His uncle hadn't seen him with his hands around her throat! Nor had he been around an hour ago when Nate had insinuated that to give in her notice was the least she could do.

  And she remembered, without difficulty, the way Nate had said, 'No one does the dirty on a Kingersby without living to regret it.' She knew then that if she stayed on she would be made to rue the day.

  'I ..." she began. But before she could add 'must leave', George was pulling at those heart-strings with a vengeance.

  'If you're determined to go there's nothing I can do to stop you, my dear. Though it will mean, I'm afraid, I shall have to give very serious thought to cancelling the holiday both I and my wife were so looking forward to.'

  Kathryn had met Dora Kingersby several times, a delicate-looking little lady who had probably had as few holidays as George in those early years.

  'All right,' she said, those two words out before she had given herself time to think. It didn't enter her head then that her employer wasn't above being a shade wily to get his own way. 'I'll stay for . . .'

  'For three months at least,' said George, suddenly beaming.

  'For three months,' she found herself promising. If Nate Kingersby hadn't found his feet by then—hard luck!

  Though as she made her way home that night, she was already beginning to regret her promise. If she was truthful, she had regretted it within five minutes of giving her word. But, she consoled herself, if everything she had heard about

  Nate Kingersby's astute business brain was true, he wouldn't need her assistance very much anyway. And why was she worrying anyway? If that brief slanging match she'd had with him today was anything to go by, she wouldn't have to stick it out for three months—he would be giving her the order of the boot within the first five minutes of his taking charge.

  The state of Rex's recovery had not been mentioned that day. And since the moment hadn't come up when she could ask without George perhaps thinking that for someone who had terminated a relationship she was showing an unexpected interest, after she had her meal Kathryn rang the hospital to enquire personally.

  It wasn't that she had any particular interest in Rex, she thought, as she waited for her call to be put through, but that now her shocked senses were at last sorted out, she knew that while she no longer cared deeply about him, and disliked very much that he could boastfully have given his brother the impression he had, it just wasn't in her to hate the man she had once been engaged to.

  'Physically Mr Kingersby is progressing satisfactorily,' the ward Sister told her in answer to her enquiry. 'But he has been a little depressed today,' she further informed her, then went on cheerfully, 'Though that isn't unusual at this stage. I'm sure he'll pick up tomorrow.'

  Kathryn put down the phone, remembering the way Rex had never been down, and hoping sincerely that he would soon be over his depression.

  Next she telephoned her sister and had a long chat with her, acquainting her with the news of Rex's accident. And hearing sympathy in Sandra's voice for any more heartbreak she might be suffering, she felt bound to confess that, unbelievable as it still seemed to her, she just did not feel that way about Rex any more.

  'Well, I must say I'm relieved to h
ear it,' Sandra re-

  t

  marked, sounding as relieved as she'd said. 'Er—was there any trouble at work, by the way?'

  'I still have a job, if that's what you mean,' Kathryn told her, and went on to relate most of what had happened that day. Though for some unknown reason she held back on the subject of what a brute Nate Kingersby was.

  After her call to Sandra she wandered into her bedroom. She might as well have an early night. Heaven knew she had hours of missed sleep over the weekend and last night to catch up on. By the sound of it George would have her working flat out until he left, a week on Friday. And she groaned aloud at the weakness in her that had her promising to work for Nate Kingersby for three whole months!

  She cheered up when she recalled her conviction that they wouldn't get past the 'Good morning—Goodbye' stage; Nate would very soon be telling her 'On your bike'. And she pictured him then, that sour expression on his face, probably at this very moment seated in some plane anywhere between here and America, and didn't feel at all ashamed at the wish that entered her head, the wish that hoped he was a bad traveller and at the very least was prone to being airsick.

  She left such delightful visions as her telephone shrilled for attention, and, part way to getting ready for bed, she shrugged into her housecoat prior to going to answer it.

  Then she discovered that Nate Kingersby was not as she had hoped being ill on a bumpy flight. He had not yet taken off. For it was his in no way conciliatory voice that met her ears as briefly he gave his name and stated the reason for his call.

  'I'm phoning from the hospital,' he told her tersely. And as though for himself he would rather expire than ask a favour of her, he grunted, 'Rex is very down. He's going demented wanting to see you.'

  Discounting that Nate wasn't putting himself out to be

  agreeable, having realised she didn't hate Rex as she would have thought after what he had done, at that moment Kathryn felt so sorry for her ex-fiance that she almost said she would pay him a visit. Then last Friday's scene flashed into her head and again she felt nausea well up, a sickness invading her that on many occasions Rex must have broken faith with her.