The Other Brother

by Jessica Steele

  She was still trying to start the wretched thing when Nate in his gleaming Rolls purred by the back of her. She was still trying to coax some life into her Mini when his voice at her window observed, 'You appear to be having trouble.'

  She smiled, because there wasn't much else she could do. Certainly not give way to frustrated tears that efficient though she might be inside the office, at anything mechanical she was hopeless.

  'I'll have it checked over tomorrow,' she told him, still

  fiddling with everything on the dash that looked promising but knowing in her heart of hearts she would be catching the bus home. She would have to send a mechanic to look at the perishing thing.

  'Your battery's flat,' Nate diagnosed, amazing her with her lack of automobile knowledge that he hadn't even needed to lift the bonnet to come to his conclusion. 'Out you get—I'll give you a lift.'

  'But you're in a hurry,' she reminded him.

  'Did I say I was?' he answered, opening her door.

  Kathryn found she was leaving her car, obeying his authority that he would give her a lift without thinking about it, her mind taken up with remembering he had said he wanted to leave early that night but had said nothing at all about being in a hurry.

  No wonder Rolls-Royces purred, she thought, ensconced in his car—not having to tell him where she lived since he had already visited her on one occasion she was never likely to forget—she felt like purring herself from the pure luxury of it.

  He drove the way he did everything, she couldn't help thinking as the car motored on, effortlessly and well. And while in the lift he had been disinclined to make conversation, while driving along he made several quite ordinary remarks that had her thinking that since technically this was still business time she was spending with him, perhaps he was extending burying that bone of contention between them until the hour struck five; for they had made no pact to be amicable with each other after that hour. Then she found to her disquiet that she was hoping he had got to know her a little better this week, as she had got to know him. She found she was actually hoping if ever they did meet after office hours—which she knew they wouldn't— that the way he had been with her at the office would continue!

  Half way to her flat, he stopped to fill up with petrol. He remarked as he pulled off the forecourt, 'I should hate to run out of juice before I got to Surrey.'

  'Surrey?' she enquired, and learned then that Nate didn't have a flat in London as she had supposed, but had the last time he had been home purchased a house on the outskirts of a village in Surrey and commuted to and fro daily.

  'You knew you'd get the chairmanship?' she asked on impulse, regretting the impulse straight away, though she still did not see why he should buy a house in England if he thought he would be returning to America after that particular board meeting.

  Nate was silent for some moments so that she thought he had objected to her question. Then she discovered she hadn't offended him, as he began to state the facts as he had seen them.

  With my uncle sounding me out on how Adrian would cope if the day ever came when it was left to him to run the American part of the business, it was a pretty safe bet that I had the present chairman's vote in my pocket.'

  'Adrian wasn't offended his father didn't vote for him?' she enquired, enormously proud that Nate was opening up and telling her things he had no need to—well, not unless he had any wish to be friendly, she thought, feeling a glow that it wasn't just at the office he was being nice to her.

  'Relieved, I should say,' Nate enlightened her. 'Adrian is married to a most delightful American young lady who's about to present him with their first child. He has no wish to uproot himself from America at the moment, or to take home work that will interfere with his enjoyment of his family.'

  That sounded so lovely that for a moment Kathryn felt quite wistful that she didn't have a family-loving Kingersby to rush home from his work every night to her. That was

  until she recalled she could have had that had she married Rex. But Rex wasn't the Kingersby she wanted! Horrified at the direction her thoughts were taking, she jumped in with the question:

  'What about your other cousins? Didn't any of them want the job?'

  Tim isn't ready for the responsibility yet,' Nate told her easily. 'Jeremy wouldn't have minded, though he voted for me too. And Paul,' she happened to turn and saw his face crease into what could only be called a grin and knew then that he had a lot of time for Paul, 'well, not to tell tales out of school, I rather think Paul is having too good a time in France to want to leave in a hurry.'

  Smoothly the Rolls pulled up outside the house where Kathryn had her flat. The atmosphere in the car was as friendly as she would wish it, so that when the idea that had been nowhere in her head a moment ago, when recalling that Nate had to drive to Surrey, she found she was impulsively asking:

  'Would you like to come in for a cup of tea before . . .' her voice faltered at the way he looked down his nose as if she had surprised him by her impudence, 'or—or perhaps you'd rather wait for your tea until you get home,' she tacked on lamely, wanting only to flee as pink colour rushed to her face.

  Nate's hand stayed her when she turned from him to hunt frantically for the door catch. 'What a lovely girl you are, Kathryn,' he addressed her back. And when perforce she just had to turn round, she saw he was smiling. 'Forgive my reaction, but you constantly surprise me.'

  T do?' she exclaimed chokily, seeing he didn't look to be at all offended by her impudence now.

  He nodded, doing nothing for her composure by raising a hand and gently running a couple of fingers down her crimson cheek. 'You've just surprised me again,' he told

  her, his mouth curving, that bottom Up taking a particularly sensuous look. "There was I thinking I'd worked you so hard again this week that you'd refuse my offer of a lift because you'd had enough of me. But not only did you accept a lift, but here you are out of the goodness of your heart offering to refresh me before I drive on.'

  His fingers left her cheek, but she felt her cheeks were still burning as she sought round for something that wouldn't give away the emotions that were having a riot of a time within her.

  'Er—the offer's still open if you would care . . .' she tried.

  "Thank you, but I think not,' Nate said softly. 'Your goodness is more than I deserve after the terrible time I gave you all last week.'

  At that moment she had forgotten how completely dreadful last week had been. But some inner reserve wouldn't have her letting him think she was pushy by offering again.

  'I'll—er—see you on Monday, then,' she said quietly, and turned, this time finding the door handle without any difficulty. She had half turned back ready to say goodbye, then just couldn't move at all. For Nate had moved closer, his head only inches from her, and she just knew with certainty that he intended to kiss her mouth, his eyes on her lips told her so.

  "Thank you for not holding last week against me, sweet Kathryn,' he murmured, and as her eyes began to close as his face came nearer, she felt warm lips briefly caress her cheek.

  Her eyes flew open to see he had moved back, was not intending to kiss her mouth at all. 'G-goodbye, Nate,' she said hurriedly, and went, holding on to as much decorum as she could while she thought he might be observing her, to race up to her flat once out of his sight, enormously

  glad his mouth hadn't touched hers. For just the feel of his kiss on the side of her face had started the most unimagin able longings inside her!

  A half an hour later she was still sitting in the seat she had dropped into when she had come in. She was still wondering what on earth was happening to her. Was Nate Kingersby some kind of sorcerer, that without effort he seemed to have the power to bewitch her?

  Take any day up until last Friday and she would have walked home barefoot rather than accept a lift from him. Not that he would have offered her a lift last week. Yet in only a week of seeing this other side of him, when she knew how foul he could be if the mood was on him, she had
not only invited him in for a cup of tea, but had been witless when he had kissed her cheek, had been lost for a moment then in wanting—to be in bis arms!

  There wasn't any sense to it, she thought, getting up and trying to come to terms with the havoc Nate created within her. Why, if things had happened as they should have happened, she would right at this moment be married to his brother, be his sister-in-law! Thank God she hadn't married Rex, was all she could think about as she put the kettle to boil.

  She wasn't in love with Nate, she was sure she couldn't be. But she definitely wasn't ready to marry anybody if a man such as he could come along and without stirring himself too much, send some of his charm her way, and have feelings starting up inside that Rex had never had her giving in to.

  By the time she went to bed that night, Kathryn, with an honesty she found mortifying, had to own that not only had she had a narrow escape in not marrying Rex, but that if his brother could have her emotions acting so erratically with so little cause, then she had done Rex Kingersby something of a favour when she had given him back his ring.

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  the other brother

  The next morning, thinking the Kingersby family had occupied too much of her thoughts just lately, Kathryn set about breaking the habit. First she rang Fay Cooper, a friend who lived not far away but whom she had written to and told the wedding was off, and asked her if she had nothing else doing if she fancied a visit to the cinema.

  'I've promised Debbie Hutton I'd go along to her party tonight,' Fay said, urging, 'Why don't you come too? You know Debbie and all that crowd.'

  'I couldn't, not without an invitation.' Kathryn backed away from the idea of going to Debbie's party—wild wasn't the word for the way her parties ended up.

  'She'd gatecrash one of yours without a second thought,' said Fay, and deciding for herself that Kathryn must be feeling low whoever was responsible for the broken engagement, wouldn't hear of her spending the evening alone. 'If it bothers you I'll give her a tinkle and ring you back,' she said, and rang off before Kathryn could ask her not to bother.

  Why the crowd she had gone around with before she had got herself engaged to Rex should now appear juvenile in the antics they got up to, Kathryn hadn't a clue. But as she looked up the telephone number of a garage near to where she worked, feeling lost without her car, she tried to find some enthusiasm from somewhere for the party.

  It was what she needed, wasn't it, she argued mentally against the pull to find a good book and stay in with her feet curled up. She needed to get back into circulation again, to get the Kingersbys out of her mind. To discover again that her life didn't revolve around that family.

  She got through to the garage, told them about her fiat battery and where they could find her car. And since apparently they envisaged having no trouble in finding a key to fit her Mini, for they seemed not to require her car keys to get inside, said she could ring them in an hour to

  the other brother

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  see if Nate's fiat battery diagnosis had been accurate.

  There were always chores to do on Saturday morning, and what with Fay Cooper ringing back to tell her to let the moths out of her glad-rags, that Debbie would be mortally offended if she didn't show, the next hour passed quickly.

  Kathryn collected her car late in the afternoon and tried to look as if she knew what the stand-in service manager was talking about when he told her she had a faulty dynamo.

  'Have you repaired it?' she asked, not knowingwhether a faulty dynamo had to be repaired or replaced, but thinking the trouble must have somehow been corrected since she had been told on the phone when she had rung back that she could collect her car around four.

  *We only have a skeleton staff at weekends,' she was informed. 'You'll have to book her in if you want us to do a proper job on it. We've recharged your battery, so it will go on for some time yet.'

  'It's not urgent that I have the—er—dynamo fixed straight away, then?'

  'Well, it'll have to be done some time,' said the man whose presence seemed to be needed in half a dozen places at once as a young liberally-covered-in-grease mechanic hovered a yard away and the phone in the tiny office started to ring.

  Kathryn backed out of the office as he went to answer the phone, thought fleetingly of having a word with the mechanic, then changed her mind as he gave a long-suffering sigh that the service manager had answered the phone when he could see he was waiting to speak to him.

  Her Mini started first time, and as Kathryn drove happily away from the garage, she mused that with her car to her untrained ear sounding perfect, and since the garage man had given her the impression that any vague future date would do to have her dynamo done, then it could wait until the next time it started to misbehave itself.

  Knowing the party wouldn't be under way before eight-thirty, at nine that evening having every intention of driving herself home, she arrived at the party still trying to convince herself how much she was looking forward to it when Debbie answered the door to her knock.

  'So pleased you could make it, Kathryn,' she welcomed her warmly. 'Go on through. You know everybody, I think.'

  Fay straight away roped her into the group she was with, and a drink of something that smelt lethal was soon pushed into her hand. And for all everybody was laughing and joking, and talking so hard it was difficult to get a word in on occasions, in less than thirty minutes Kathryn was wondering what she was doing there.

  For the look of the thing she spent the following hour in dancing, chatting, warding off unwanted advances, and generally trying to look as though she was having a great time. But her heart wasn't in it. And at eleven, finding her hostess alone for two seconds, she quickly made her excuses and was the first to leave, knowing she had outgrown this particular type of party.

  On Sunday she reflected that in preparing herself for the responsibilities of marriage, short though her engagement had been, in those few months her outlook on life had matured somewhat. The party last night had proved that.

  Not that she regretted having once been one of that noisy, anything-for-a-laugh crowd; it had all been a part of growing up. But as she pressed a suit ready for work the next day and recalled the lack of enthusiasm with which she had got ready last night, it came home to her that she was looking forward to working with Nate tomorrow with far more eagerness than she had looked forward to going to the party.

  Perhaps I'm a career girl at heart, she thought the next morning when she parked her car, her eyes going in the direction of where Nate usually parked his and seeing he had

  arrived. She certainly found her new boss gave fresh vitality to the work she did at any rate.

  'Good morning,' she called when she went in, unconsciously humming to herself as she popped down her bag with one hand and lifted the typewriter cover off with the other.

  'You sound happy this morning,' said Nate, coming through from his office.

  Her eyes flicked to him and away, noting in that quick glance that he had a darker grey suit on this morning and how well it became him. Her insides went weak as in a flash the memory of how she had felt when he had lightly kissed her on Friday came back, and she hoped with all she had that her face wasn't looking as pink as it felt.

  'I am,' she said, and wished she hadn't. For glancing at him again she saw he was frowning, and thought then he might be thinking it unpardonable that she should be so on top of the world when through her his brother had driven when incapable of driving.

  She felt better when his frown disappeared, for all his, 'Must have been a good film,' mystified her until she recalled she had told him she might go to the cinema over the weekend.

  'Oh, I didn't go to the pictures,' she said, ridiculously happy to see he was favouring her with that curving half smile. 'I went to a party.'

  'Who with?' he bit out aggressively, bis look changing darkly, causing her spirits to dip that he still didn't believe she hadn't ditched Rex for some other man.

  And it annoyed he
r too that in the space of a very few minutes he could have her emotions going up and down like a yo-yo. 'Nobody you know,' she snapped—then felt sick with herself that she could snap at him when he must still be worried about bis brother, and dared to ask, anger gone, 'Is Rex all right? I mean ...'

  'You care?' he barked, and strode back to his office.

  For a week that had started off so very badly, by the time Friday came round again Kathryn was beginning to think it was one of the best weeks she had ever spent. They had worked hard, Nate hadn't let up at all. But where on Monday morning she had thought she would be glad to see Friday, she had come back from her lunch to see a single yellow rose stuck in a tumbler of water on her desk. And although Nate had not apologised for being so rough on her, she accepted his rose as his apology and from then on things had gone swimmingly.

  And if occasionally she caught him giving her what looked like a hard-eyed stare, she knew it wasn't really. For apart from the light playing tricks at the distance between the two offices, she now knew he had a tendency to over-concentrate. He would look up from what he was doing, see her, but not see her at all, his mind filled with the business matter in hand.

  They worked until after five on Friday, but staying a few minutes over never had bothered Kathryn.

  'That's it, I think,' said Nate at last, passing over the letter he had just signed. And, his voice not unpleasant, Tartying again this weekend?'

  'No,' she said, and seeing he had mentioned the subject without looking as though he was going to blast her felt she could explain, without knowing why she should, 'That— er—party I went to last Saturday,' and feeling stupid that he was showing only polite interest, 'it was an impromptu sort of thing. I—left early.' She saw his eyes narrow and following the construction he must have put on that, she rushed in to forestall any thunder, 'By myself, I mean. I drove myself home.' Then she could have hit him for the fool she felt she'd made of herself, when all he said was a cool:

  'Car going all right now, is it?'