The Other Brother

by Jessica Steele

  'So?' she answered coolly, as other reminders came— memories of her heartbroken mother, of Sandra heading the same way.

  'So,' Nate said, aggression only just beneath the surface, 'are you going to visit him?'

  'You're asking me?' she questioned, playing for time, trying to remember what the ward Sister had told her a short while ago. Hadn't she said depression was usual in a case like Rex's? That he would probably be over it by tomorrow?

  Her question was met by a long silence. Then for all he was sounding nowhere near as if ready to plead with her, she heard Nate, his tones even, say:

  'Yes, I'm asking you. Begging if you like. Please will you go and see him?'

  Her decision was made before he finished. And it was most likely nerves, brought on by the fact that she knew Nate Kingersby would turn ugly when she acquainted him with it, that had her bringing out a light laugh that she saw afterwards he had interpreted as a scoffing laugh.

  'It's not like you to beg, is it, Nate?' And getting in there quickly before he could fire, 'You're wasting my time and yours—I have no intention of visiting Rex.' She could almost feel the crackle of ice travelling up the wires as she added, only just getting in before him, 'Surely even you didn't imagine my small supply of decency would extend that far?'

  'You bitch!' greeted her ears in unconcealed-fury. 'You

  callous, coldhearted bitch! I'll get even with you for this if it takes me . . .'

  Kathryn put down the phone. She had heard enough. Her hands were shaking as she collapsed into a chair, his words ringing threateningly in her ears. Of course she knew why he was mad. He had lowered himself so far as to tell her he was ready to beg on his brother's behalf—and what had she done but laughed scoffingly at him?

  What had made her do it? Again he had had that effect on her of making her react entirely opposite from her real nature.. She could just as easily have explained, in a nice way, that she didn't want to be engaged to Rex, that she thought if she paid him a visit Rex would gather from that that things were back to the way they were between them.

  He wouldn't have believed her anyway, she thought a few moments later. He hadn't credited her with any finer feelings from the beginning. He certainly wouldn't believe it had she told him she was afraid seeing Rex bed-bound and bandaged might have her agreeing to continuing being engaged to him just to aid his recovery.

  Why was she getting so stewed up over the Kingersbys anyway? she wondered, getting up from her chair and going to put the kettle on for a warm drink. Rex couldn't have loved her as much as he'd vowed he did in the first place— not if he could carry on the way he had with his secretary behind her back.

  Kathryn was glad to feel her spirit returning as she pottered about in the kitchen. Why should she bother about Nate Kingersby either? His threats didn't mean a thing. He couldn't harm her. The worst he could do was dismiss her, and that would suit her fine. It was just lovely to her way of thinking, because if the instruction came from Nate for her to leave, then she couldn't possibly be accused of breaking her promise to his uncle, could she?

  As she had anticipated, the rest of the week turned out to

  be very busy. Though on Friday when she was taking dictation the phone rang and Erica Naisby, secretary to Jeremy Kingersby who managed Insurance, told her she had called through to remind her she was leaving that day and not to forget the lunchtime session in the Crown—a long-standing custom in the firm on anyone's last day.

  Kathryn had forgotten, but hadn't anything else planned. 'Wouldn't miss it, Erica. I'll be over just after one,' she told her, then put down the phone and explained to George what the interruption had been about.

  'We'd better get as much done as we can this morning,' he cracked, 'if you're going to be tipsy this afternoon!'

  She grinned. He had never seen her tipsy yet, and at the most a couple of gin and tonics were all she intended imbibing. Though she did work hard for the rest of the morning just in case her concentration was not a hundred per cent that afternoon.

  By the time she was free to go over to the Crown, it was ten past one, and just by following her ears, sounds reminiscent of a parrot house mixing with gusts of laughter, she was able to find the crowd from the office.

  She was greeted by several people, one or two passing sympathetic comments about Rex's accident and the fact that the wedding tomorrow had had to be put off—and she just couldn't then tell any of them that her engagement had been broken.

  Though when Erica pushed her way through the crush and asked her what she was drinking she noticed she was no longer wearing her ring. Kathryn mumbled something about it being, 'Just one of those things,' and warmed to Erica, who had once been engaged herself but who had never got to the altar, when she commented:

  'Better to find out before than after. Gin and tonic right?'

  The next half an hour flew by in snatches of conversation

  and wisecracks. But it was as Kathryn stood for a moment chatting to one of the men from the Insurance department that Jeremy Kingersby came in. She had a smile on her lips ready with some form of greeting, for she and Rex had once or twice gone out with Jeremy and his wife in a foursome. But to her astonishment, her 'Hello, Jeremy,' was absolutely ignored as he nodded a greeting to the man from his department, then turned his back on her.

  Her astonishment must have been showing, because it brought forth the comment from her companion, 'He couldn't have heard you in all this racket.'

  But Kathryn knew differently. She had realised, too late to go in for any ignoring herself, that Jeremy knew she had thrown Rex over, and being a true Kingersby, had refused to acknowledge her.

  It had been what she had been expecting, she told herself, finding her gin and tonic of the utmost interest. George, whom the years had mellowed and who knew her better than any of them apart from Rex, hadn't ignored her, though, she thought, just before a half remembered memory came of her standing with a clutch of other people waiting for the lift on Wednesday. Tim Kingersby, another of the cousins, had walked by and she had started to say hello, only he hadn't seen her, or so she thought. But with Jeremy cutting her just now, she was beginning to wonder.

  By the time people began to drift back to their offices, Jeremy Kingersby having been near on a couple of occasions but deliberately not seeing her, Kathryn knew she should start looking for another job. Better start looking straight away too. Nate Kingersby, she didn't doubt, would take charge of Kingersby International at nine a.m. a week on Monday, and at one minute past nine precisely on that day he would take great delight in terminating her services with the company.

  A week followed where every day she scanned the paper,

  but saw nothing that held the interest for her that she found in her present job. Still, she wasn't in any hurry, she thought, as she started work on the last Friday she would be working for George Kingersby. She could afford to wait a month, maybe two, before her jobless situation became urgent.

  Technically George was still chairman until after his holiday, until the jubilee celebrations were over. But slack as they were that Friday, everything they could think of having been cleared up, he was taking things easy on this his last day in harness.

  It was about mid-afternoon that Kathryn tactfully closed the door between the two offices on her way out. It had crossed her mind that he might need a few moments of solitude while he finished gathering up his possessions accumulated over the years, that he might need a few minutes of privacy while he sat back and reflected how well those years had panned out, how all his hard work and that of his brothers, not to mention that of his sons and nephews, had made it the thriving business it was today.

  She was in the middle of some typing when the door to the left of her was thrust unceremoniously open. Her eyes jerked to it, met hostile blue eyes, then went swiftly back to her typewriter. She hadn't expected to see him until next Monday, and then only briefly.

  She heard him come to stand by her desk, but wouldn't look up. That was until
she heard the nasty way he snarled:

  'I thought you were leaving.'

  Her colour rose, so did her temper. Unsmiling, she raised her head, lifted her eyes a long way up. Checking on the angry retort that wanted to have its head, she said sweetly:

  'You're not the chairman yet,' and didn't miss the look on his face that savoured the moment when he was, the moment when he could tell her just where she could go.

  Nor could she resist the most beautiful urge to try and make him change colour. 'As a matter of fact,' she said, syrup dripping, 'you might be interested to learn that your uncle made me promise to stay on and work for you for three months.'

  She knew he was remembering the way she had broken her promise to marry his brother by the way his eyes iced over.

  'And of course you never break your promises, do you?' he sneered.

  'This is one I fully intend keeping,' she said for the pure hell of it—and got the devil's own shock to hear not the reply she was confident of hearing, but:

  'Oh God I Have I got to put up with you for three months?'

  Shaken rigid, Kathryn couldn't believe what she had heard. Surely he couldn't mean he would keep her on? She was sure, where he hadn't changed colour one iota, that she had gone pale. All pretended sweetness left her, at any rate, as she hurried to tell him:

  T made the promise to Mr Kingersby. Your uncle didn't promise me I could keep my job for three months.' There! She had more or less invited him to sack her. She waited. Even a hint that that was what he intended to do on Monday would have sufficed.

  But no such hint came her way. And if her eyes weren't deceiving her there was a devilish gleam in Nate Kingersby's eyes as he read what she had been expecting.

  'Should you ever get to know us Kingersbys sufficiently,' he drawled, that satanic gleam still there, 'then you'll learn, Miss Randle, that as a family we never break faith with each other. If my uncle has seen fit to exact such a promise from you, then let me assure you I'll keep you to it—no matter how diabolical I personally happen to consider the situation to be.'

  With that, Kathryn only just managing to keep her mouth from sagging open, he turned and strode smartly through the other door. She heard George's happy cry of, 'Nate!' and then the door closed.

  Lofty swine! she fumed, while her furious thoughts fought for precedence. Then, damn him, damn him! If she didn't want to be thought a girl who broke every promise she made at the drop of a hat, then wasn't she committed to working for that cocksure creature for three months?

  Three whole months! she thought aghast. For hadn't he as good as said the Kingersby honour decreed that he couldn't dismiss her without making his first action in his role of chairman to break faith with his uncle the minute his back was turned?

  Kathryn forgot about her typing and felt more like crying. Oh, why had she told Nate Kingersby about that promise? He had sworn to get even with her, and she had just handed him three long, long months in which to try!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Having spent the weekend in coming to terms with what she saw was to be her lot for the next three months, Kathryn got out of bed on Monday morning wishing, not for the first time, that she could lose that something that was part of her make-up, decreeing that she couldn't break her promise to George Kingersby.

  She had said goodbye to him on Friday, aware of the uselessness of wishing he wasn't going. He had smiled at her downcast expression, made her smile too on realising he wasn't too old not to feel flattered that losing him as her boss should make her look so upset.

  'I'll be coming back,' he had teased. 'Wouldn't miss the celebrations for anything. And anyway, I'm leaving you in good hands, aren't I?'

  If his reference to Nate taking his place had been designed to cheer her up, he very soon saw as her smile disappeared that it had had the opposite effect. George's smile too had vanished as he had quickly reminded her of her promise to him.

  'You won't let me down, Kathryn, will you? You will stay on and give Nate all the assistance you can in these first three trying months?'

  Sorely tempted to try and wriggle out of it, she had looked at the old workhorse, his need for a holiday evident, and had known then that with his high principles there was a very big chance that he would still cancel his holiday unless she ire-affirmed her promise.

  'Of course I'll stay,' she had said brightly. 'I've given you my word, haven't I?'

  Coldhearted bitch, she thought, coming out of the bathroom. Oh, if only she was! She wouldn't now be preparing to don one of her best suits because her confidence needed a booster. She wouldn't have set her alarm for that half an hour earlier to make doubly sure she arrived on time and didn't get her first black mark of the day for being late.

  Ready, and with time to spare, she stood in her bedroom in front of her full-length mirror running a critical eye over her appearance. Neatly polished brown leather shoes with a two-inch heel, comfortable though still leaving her about eight inches short of his height if Nate had any inclination— and she was sure he had—of looking down his nose at her today. She ousted him from her mind as her inspection continued. Sheer ten-denier tights, not at all practical for the office, but since her legs were slender and shapely with trim ankles she didn't see why she shouldn't go the whole hog on this confidence kick. Her suit was tobacco brown, a suit she'd bought to wear to the office after her marriage, thinking that as Mrs Kingersby she had better dress up to her name. She bit her lip at the unexpected catch in her throat at that thought, but knew it was only an unhealed nerve end from the time she had spent on untrustworthy dreams. The cream shirt she wore beneath her jacket went well with her creamy skin she thought.

  Staying only to check that the small amount of make-up she used didn't need further attention, and wishing her delicate-looking nose was sharper so that if she caught Nate Kingersby sitting down she might have the chance of looking arrogantly down it at him, she snatched up her bag and made for her Mini.

  Her plans had worked out well. She was early arriving at Kingersby International. Now to get to her office, to be hard at it when the new chairman came in. She might glance up when he came through the door, she considered,

  might flick him a cool good morning with her eyes and then carry on with her work as though this morning wasn't any different from any other morning. She might.. .

  Her plans backfired the moment she opened her office door. Nate Kingersby was there before her. She saw him through the dividing door the minute she went in, a door that looked to have been purposely left open. So he's watching to see what time I arrive, she thought, mutinous before she started. Then realising this was no way to begin a three-month stint that would probably find release in fireworks before the week was out, she threw an insincere smile in his direction.

  'Good morning,' she said politely, and discovered Nate Kingersby wasn't the sort of man who went in for smiles, insincere or otherwise, and wondered why she had bothered as even her greeting wasn't returned.

  'Come through when you've sorted yourself out,' he said abruptly. And so started her day.

  Kathryn hadn't dragged her feet when she had worked for George, she mused as wearily that night she drove home. Though with him she had occasionally stopped while they came up for air, stopped and passed a pleasantry or two which helped the day along.

  But not one pleasantry had Nate Kingersby dropped her way. And as for coming up for air, he just didn't seem to need it. And so much for George thinking he would need her help to see him through this transitional stage. Not once had Nate Kingersby asked her advice. He had seen at a glance, it appeared, what needed to be done, and had got right in there and done it. And very early in the day she had learned that Nate Kingersby was a demon for work.

  She had her meal, her mind going over the problems he had handled with consummate ease that day, the telephone calls he had dealt with, showing her he had a wealth of

  charm at his disposal when he chose to use it when one irate customer had rung through and insisted on speaking
only with the chairman if they didn't want to lose his account over some foul-up or other of the kind that occasionally happened in big business.

  She couldn't doubt then, when Nate had had their client positively purring at the end of the conversation, that the right man had been chosen for the job—even if it did mean she had never worked so hard in her life. She paused, wondering if every day was going to be as hectic as this one. The idea came—had Nate been working her so hard her fingers felt typed down to the stumps from the pure dislike he felt for her, hoping she would quit; or was he testing her to see just how good she was?

  It was food for thought. She and Rex had started going out with each other within the first week of her working at Kingersby International. Word had soon got round about it. And with the Kingersby clan being so one for all, all for one, wouldn't it be natural for Nate to wonder if she was up to the job she had been taken on to do? Couldn't he be thinking, since she and Rex had very soon grown serious about each other, that she had been kept on in the job from some sort of nepotism?

  Kathryn went to bed still chewing the matter over, and got up the next morning refreshed from sleeping the sleep of the exhausted and on her mettle to prove she was up to handling the job she had been taken on to do. She knew she was capable, had proved it to George without the need to examine her conscience. But if Nate Kingersby wanted proof she would show him again today, as she had yesterday, that Kathryn Randle could cope with anything he threw her way, if not exactly standing on her head, then without any signs of flagging.

  'Good morning,' she offered as she went in, prepared this time to see him seated behind his desk. Though this time

  she didn't bother with her insincere smile.

  This morning her greeting was answered, for all it was more in the nature of a grunt. We're coming on, she thought without humour, pausing only to drop her bag. She went through the open door, leaving it open, since Nate had objected yesterday when she had closed it. If he wanted to keep tabs on her, she decided, he could get on with it.. She was wearing the same suit she had worn yesterday, though today she had teamed it with a sage green shirt.