Time Fuse

by Penny Jordan

  ‘Fine.’

  Selina could feel the intensity of his gaze concentrated on her, forcing her to lift her head. Something in her eyes made his narrow and sharpen, moving from her face to her father’s and then back to hers again, his mouth grim. Sue ran through to advise her father that she had a call waiting on the line for him and as both she and Piers moved away out of earshot Selina was stunned to hear him say warningly.

  ‘I don’t know what game you’re playing with my uncle but it better not be the one I think it is. He is a married man you know, or is that what you prefer? If so, you won’t find him any pushover, he was nearly caught that way once before.’

  Sick to her stomach Selina stumbled past him, making for the sanctuary of the Ladies’ cloakroom. Once inside she was furious with herself for the nausea that choked her throat. What was wrong with her? She had only herself to blame for Piers’ hostility. But that was no reason for him to assume that simply because his uncle was touching her arm that she had deliberately… Her stomach lurched. The man was her father for God’s sake. But he did not know that and neither did Piers Gresham.

  It was a good fifteen minutes before she felt in control enough to leave the Ladies. On her way back to her office she passed Sue. The other girl gave her a curious glance. Sue had a boyfriend with whom she lived and to whom she was devoted. That did not stop her from flirting with every male who crossed her path, though. However, she was a good-natured girl, as warm and open as she herself was silent and reserved Selina acknowledged, returning her smile.

  ‘You okay?’

  ‘Fine. Is Sir Gerald off the phone?’

  When Sue nodded Selina opened the door and walked into her father’s room, but it was Piers who stood behind the desk not her father. She came to a full stop, aware that the tiny hairs at the back of her neck were raised in primaeval awareness.

  ‘Excuse me.’ Her voice sounded artificially polite. ‘I was looking for Sir Gerald.’

  ‘He’s just popped out. Don’t run away, I’d like to talk to you.’ As he spoke he put down the brief he had been reading and came towards her. A panicky desire to turn and flee almost overwhelmed her, but Selina withstood it. She was going to have to accustom herself to this man’s presence; after all they would be working in the same set of chambers; they were bound to meet occasionally and the sooner she learned not to react so intensely to him the better it would be.

  ‘What made you apply for this post?’

  His question caught her off-guard. For a moment she said nothing and then stammered. ‘I…I…I was ready for a change,’ she managed at last.

  ‘Is that so? You know you’re remarkably well qualified for a young lady who is content to be merely a PA. Have you never thought of taking on something more challenging? You have an excellent degree.’

  ‘I have my ambitions yes.’ Selina tried to mimic his cool self-possession.

  ‘And what are they, I wonder?’ He was coming towards her now, stalking her almost, she thought angrily. What was he hoping to achieve? ‘My uncle thinks very highly of you. In fact I’d say he’s taken to you in a remarkably short space of time. Most unusual. He’s normally a very cautious man where attractive young women are concerned.’

  ‘Why?’ Selina asked flippantly. ‘Does he have a jealous wife?’

  Just for a second she was alarmed by the gleam in the midnight blue eyes, but then it was gone, his expression flat and unreadable.

  ‘Not very clever, Miss Thorn,’ he said at last. ‘If you’re only half as clever as I think you are you must have read all there is to read on my uncle; done all your background research before you applied for this job. You know very well why he would want to avoid any sort of entanglement outside his marriage don’t you?’

  Selina felt as though the floor had suddenly dropped away beneath her, leaving her on thin ice.

  ‘I know that many years ago your uncle was involved with another woman,’ she agreed coolly, turning aside with what she hoped was a calm disdain as she added, ‘but then so have many other prominent men.’

  ‘Indeed they have, but very few have attracted the subsequent blaze of publicity and notoriety suffered by my uncle. I was eight years old at the time. My aunt almost suffered a nervous breakdown.’

  ‘I’m sure it must have been an extremely traumatic time for you all.’ Selina was distant, her voice clipped. Don’t tell me any more, it warned him, I don’t want to hear, but her warning signals were ignored.

  ‘My uncle has three daughters; the eldest one was expecting her first child at that time; she lost it; the second ran away from school because she could not endure the torment inflicted on her by her school-mates. You’re looking quite pale, Miss Thorn. Do you find what I’m relating to you upsetting?’

  ‘It was all a long time ago,’ she managed to say, hating him now with an intensity that made her long to physically assault him. How dared he tell her all this…. Didn’t he think that she had suffered…that she… She pulled herself together before she lost control completely.

  ‘I can assure you that I have no desire to break up your uncle’s marriage,’ she told him crisply. That much at least was true.

  ‘Maybe not,’ he agreed slowly, ‘but you have some ulterior means for being here. I can sense it. Body signals are a very strange thing, Miss Thorn,’ he added watching her. ‘They give away to others so much more than we want them to see. Why do you dislike me so much?’

  ‘How could I dislike you? I barely know you.’ Selina forced a cool smile, ‘I think you’re suffering from an ego problem, Mr Gresham. I am merely indifferent to you.’ She was lying and she suspected that he knew it but she wasn’t going to back down.

  ‘Is that a fact.’ He said it softly closing the distance between them before she could move. ‘Well, let’s just find out how much truth there is in that statement shall we?’

  The hard warmth of his mouth as it covered hers shocked her into submission. She could feel the steady beat of his heart against her body, but her own refused to mirror its firm rhythm. It thudded threadily, her body tensing in mingled shock and rejection, her eyes blazing bitter defiance and fury as she fought against the domination of his hands and mouth. He was kissing her with ruthless precision and a great deal of sexual expertise; her body shamingly recognised that, even while her mind was disgusted by it. As soon as he released her Selina slapped him, panting hard as she delivered the hard blow.

  It left the palm of her hand smarting and a white welt of flesh against his lean cheek which was now slowly filling with dark blood.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to repeat the experiment.’ For some reason his soft words brought darting flares of pain. He watched her, eyes slitted, ‘Do you know,’ he added, ‘I’ve always considered that that particular form of retaliation sprang more from sexual frustration than annoyance. Perhaps sometime it might be worth while putting my theory to the test.’

  The way he said it made her blood run through her veins in angry fire. ‘Not with me you don’t,’ Selina told him rashly.

  For a moment something came and then went in his eyes and when he spoke again, he appeared totally in control, unlike her, Selina reflected bitterly as he drawled. ‘Well now a man with an ego like mine just might consider that challenge to be an invitation, my dear. Is that what turns you on? To slap a man down and then needle him into physical savagery? If so, it’s a dangerous hobby.’

  She wanted to spit and fly at him like an angry cat. No one had ever tossed such outrageous accusations at her before, and certainly not in a languid, almost soft voice that suggested that there was no possible way in which its owner’s assessment of her could be wrong.

  If her father hadn’t walked back into his office just then Selina didn’t know how she would have reacted. As it was she muttered something about a phone call and excused herself. It was only later, safe in her own flat, that she was forced to admit to herself that resent it though she did, Piers Gresham had managed to provoke a physical response from her in a
way that no man had done before. Even now she found it impossible to accept that there had been that moment of fierce need to respond to his kiss; that sensation of melting and then burning that urged her to yield. But she hadn’t done so. He had broken the kiss before she had betrayed herself that much.

  From the first moment she saw him she had known that Piers Gresham was a man to be wary of. Now this impression had been reinforced a thousandfold. It would be a long time before she forgot how he had looked at her when he questioned her. So he didn’t trust her did he; well she didn’t trust him either.

  Back in her flat that evening some impulse she couldn’t contain led her to study her features carefully in her bedroom mirror. What had Piers seen there that had led him to make his accusations? A formidable man the Judge had called him; for formidable she would have said diabolical Selina thought mentally. Even now hours after her encounter with him her pulses still fluttered at the thought of him, her mind and body unable to relax from the turmoil he had caused, and she for the space of one heartbeat had been in real danger of succumbing to him, of forgetting everything she had learned during her life and responding to his kiss… It would never happen again. Maybe the Judge had been right and she had been wrong to react as she had done in the restaurant, but even then her body had been sending her signals that had terrified her and she had reacted instinctively, too frightened by them to use reason and logic.

  For some reason that evening she found it impossible to settle. Normally she enjoyed the quiet hours of solitude in her flat. After the hectic bustle of her foster parents home, where, despite their kindness, she had never felt she fitted in, she had come to relish the peace and quiet of her own home. The books she had collected at Oxford lined her bookshelves; the antique dresser she had found at a country market and lovingly restored holding her china and few little treasures. Her flat was in a large old house with a pleasant garden which she shared with the other tenants, most of whom she knew to say good morning to but very little else. That was the way she had wanted her life, free of complications; of people who might ask questions and force her to lie.

  At university she had dreamed that somehow she might be able to follow in her father’s footsteps, but of course it had been impossible. One needed financial backing to train as a barrister, something she did not have, and although her tutor had suggested a legal career in industry she had not been interested. Without a proper legal training she would always have remained in a junior position in a large department. That wasn’t what she wanted. The law courts, the Inns of Temple, the measured, controlled world of the law; that was where she had set her sights. That was why she had settled for jobs for which she was desperately over-qualified because at least then she was breathing in the atmosphere she craved.

  All through her teens she had been consumed by a desperate need to prove to the father who had rejected her what he lost in doing so. As she grew older those dreams had faded, reality taking their place, and yet she had no more been able to resist the temptation to apply for her present job, knowing it would bring her into close contact with her father, than she had been able to resist Piers’ kiss.

  Working closely with her father was a bitter-sweet experience. She had long ago abandoned her adolescent dreams of winning his admiration and love and even her resentment over the way she had been rejected had eased, but there was still a measure of pain in seeing and knowing him when he did not know her.

  She was glad of the weekend, because it gave her time to relax and unwind, but on Sunday morning when Susan Seaton rang and invited her over for lunch, Selina was ready to admit that for once she had had enough of her own company.

  As she had half-anticipated the Seatons had several other guests. Susan Seaton, used to the demands of a large family, enjoyed entertaining, and Selina found herself chatting to an attractive older woman who also appeared to be on her own.

  ‘Since Susan is too busy to introduce us, we had better perform that task for ourselves. I’m Dulcie Gresham,’ she told Selina.

  With a small start of shock, Selina acknowledged the introduction. ‘Selina Thorn,’ she told her companion, suddenly wishing she was talking to anyone other than this woman. Now that she knew her name it was impossible not to recognise her as Piers’ mother. It was from her that he had inherited his dark hair and his navy-blue eyes, although in his mother they were softer, more compassionate.

  ‘Goodness, what a coincidence,’ she exclaimed warmly, ‘You’re my brother’s new PA, aren’t you? But then of course, not so much of a coincidence really is it, because the legal world is a very close-knit one and of course, you did work for the Judge previously. How are you enjoying working for Gerald, or would you rather not say?’

  ‘I’m enjoying it,’ Selina told her truthfully. ‘It’s very different from working for the Judge of course, but then I was ready for a change.’

  ‘Yes, my son tells me you’re extremely highly qualified. Have you never thought of the bar as a career for yourself?’

  His looks weren’t the only thing he had inherited from his mother Selina thought wryly. Although it was less abrasive in Dulcie Gresham, Selina could see where her son got his sharp intelligence from.

  Almost as though she sensed her hesitation her interrogator’s manner softened, a wry smile curving her mouth. ‘Forgive me, I’m afraid at times I do sound rather like the cross examination. Years of living with lawyers I’m afraid. My late husband was a barrister as well. In fact I should very much have liked a career at the bar myself—I find it fascinating even now, but of course in those days…’

  Charmed against her will Selina heard herself admitting. ‘I should have liked to make a career in law, but after university there just weren’t the funds.’

  Her companion’s expression was instantly apologetic. ‘My dear, how crass of me, I am sorry. Of course, it is an expensive career to train for, but you are enjoying working as my brother’s PA. His chambers have an excellent reputation and you will find yourself involved in all manner of fascinating cases I am sure. How did you get to hear about the job? I didn’t think Gerald intended to advertise it until later in the year. He suffered a slight heart attack just before Christmas you know and Mary, his wife, and I prevailed upon him with my son’s assistance to get himself some more help at the office.’

  Was she being subjected to a subtle investigation Selina wondered? But no, she was being unduly suspicious. Even if Piers Gresham had confided to his mother his suspicions of her, it was taking coincidence too far to believe that the older woman had come to this luncheon partly purely to question her.

  ‘The Judge mentioned it,’ Selina said truthfully. ‘He knows of my fascination with that side of the law, and he thought it might be an ideal position for me.’ What she couldn’t say was the heart-searching she had endured just after the Judge had dropped his bombshell. Here it was, being dropped right into her lap; just the sort of opportunity she had dreamed about as an adolescent. The chance to meet and get to know her father. However, her own strong moral code had made her question the wisdom of trying for the job. If her identity was discovered it would lead to unpleasantness; working for her father was probably only likely to cause heartache to herself as well.

  She had long ago abandoned her childhood fantasies of a loving, caring father, and yet the reality of working for him, knowing that he was sublimely indifferent to her existence might be more than she could cope with. In the end, though, the temptation had proved too great, and she had not been able to resist.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Selina came out of her reverie to realise that her company had been saying something, and that she was now regarding her with a faintly quizzical expression. ‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised again, colouring faintly. ‘I’m afraid, I didn’t…’

  ‘I was just remarking that Harry Frobisher is looking over this way rather a lot. Do you know him?’

  Harold Frobisher was a young solicitor whose father had been a friend of the Judge’s. Selina didn’t particularly l
ike him. He was a slick, sharp young man who was overfond of touching her when she would have preferred him not to.

  ‘Slightly.’ Her response was guarded and again Dulcie Gresham smiled. ‘I quite agree,’ she said lightly. ‘Not a particularly attractive young man. Do you have a boyfriend, Selina? I may call you Selina, mayn’t I?’

  ‘Please do. No…not at the moment.’

  ‘Very wise. A pretty girl like you should take her time before deciding to settle down.’

  Selina saw the Seatons making their way towards them and smiled warmly, unaware that Dulcie Gresham was watching her until she said in a thoughtful voice. ‘Do you know, Selina, you remind me of someone, but I cannot for the life of me think who it is.’

  Selina was glad that she was looking away, otherwise she might have betrayed herself completely. Cold fingers of fear clutched at her heart. Dear God, don’t let her realise the truth, she prayed… She couldn’t bear to be revealed here, publicly, before the Seatons whom she respected and liked so much, as the daughter of the woman who had caused so great a scandal in their small circle.

  For once fate seemed to be on her side. The Seatons reached them, Susan hugging her warmly while the Judge kissed Dulcie’s cheek.

  ‘I can see that you’ve introduced yourselves to each other. I take it that Piers couldn’t make it, Dulcie?’ Susan released Selina to question her friend.

  ‘Other commitments I’m afraid,’ Dulcie confirmed. ‘But he does send his apologies and he will be calling to collect me later. An urgent brief that needed studying.’

  ‘Yes, it will be the Mountford case,’ the Judge interrupted. ‘I heard they wanted him for that. Unusual for him to take on a divorce though, isn’t it?’

  ‘He and John Mountford were at school together, and there’s rather a lot of money at stake as well as his two children. Divorce is the least appealing side of the law isn’t it?’ Dulcie said to Selina. ‘When he was first training for the bar Piers worked for a firm of divorce lawyers. In many ways I blame that period for the cynicism I see in him now. You’ve met my son, Selina?’