She was right to feel so, she discovered a very few moments later, when, without a glimmer of a smile, Trent announced, 'Not Keith Lawrence, Alethea —you.'
`Me!' she echoed, desperately seeking to comprehend. Hurriedly she went back over what had just been said. `The—er—certain conditions—they apply to me, not my brother-in-law?' was the best she could come up with. An accurate statement, she was made to realise, in next to no time.
`You're the one who asked for my intervention,' Trent pointed out. Well, yes, that was true, but not for herself! `Once everything between us is agreed upon, and I give instructions about Lawrence, I want his connection with the company ended completely.'
Alethea could appreciate that. Keith had cheated his employer, and in Trent's view there was no room in his firm for a man who could so misuse the trust placed in him But Trent had said, intimated, that he would only give the word for that prosecution to be scrapped, once `everything' between them had been agreed upon.
`Between us?' she questioned, realising that Trent was watching and waiting while she digested what he said. `You want me to do something?' she asked, and, in her innocence, actually smiled. 'Well, of course—anything you say,' she offered. Just then, all she could see was Maxine's tremendous peace of mind at knowing that her daughters were not to have a jail-bird for a father.
`Oh, Alethea. You're too much!' Trent exclaimed, somewhat obscurely in her view.
`What did I do?'
`You've just committed yourself without having the first notion of what it is I want.'
`Well, it can't be all that bad,' she answered, cheerful in her relief that, given some condition or other, Trent was going to grant her this enormous favour. 'What is it you want me to do?' she asked, and very nearly fainted when he told her.
His eyes raked her face for long, long moments, before finally, he said, `I want you to come and live with me.'
Alethea stared at him. His words had penetrated her brain, but she didn't believe them. He held her glance. `You're ...' She coughed. `You're not—serious?' she managed.
`I was never more so,' he responded evenly.
`No!' she said promptly.
`Think about it.'
`I don't need to,' she told him coldly.
He shrugged. `Fine,' he accepted, and turned, ready to start up his car.
`Wait!' Some of her initial shock was departing, and some sense of what was at stake was starting to penetrate. Trent took his hand off the ignition key and Alethea tried hard to concentrate her thoughts on which was the greater issue here.
It did not matter too much to her that her brother-in-law could go to jail for his misdeeds, but it mattered to her that her sister and nieces might suffer for it. Oh, Lord, had she thought nightmare? Nightmares were easier!
`Why?' she asked chokily, and saw Trent looked amused.
`Don't you know that you're a very desirable woman?' he asked.
Oh, grief! She swallowed. `You mean—er—live with
you, with—er—bed, and everything?' she asked. Trent eyed her steadily. `Everything,' he confirmed.
`But—but ...' Oh, Heavens. This wasn't happening!
Say it wasn't happening! To her But I don't want to
go to bed with you!' she cried in panic.
`You don't have to.' Her heart leapt in relief, until he added two ghastly words: 'Straight away.'
Oh, grief! Her brain seemed befuddled. 'You're saying—that you'll—um—wait?' she managed at last.
`I'll wait,' he answered quietly. No, no, no, screamed her head. 'Look at it this way,' he suggested pleasantly. `You intend looking for somewhere to live other than your present abode. What's wrong with my place?'
His place was wonderful, absolutely superb. The only trouble was, he was in it! 'When I said I'd start looking for somewhere else, it wasn't in my mind to consider sharing,' she commented shakily.
`I'm away a great deal,' he enlightened her matter-of-factly. 'I doubt you'd see a lot of me.' One could only hope! She remembered how only last Friday Trent had returned from Italy. Perhaps he went abroad every week.
It was starting to sound better. Trent away. Trent saying he would wait. Which meant that he wouldn't rush her. She liked him, of course she did. But ... oh, Heavens.
`You know I've never been to bed with a man before!' she blurted out in a panicky rush.
Trent seemed as if he had already suspected as much, and as she recalled how he had accused her of being afraid to commit, to trust, so his look softened. 'Have you not, love?' he murmured gently, so gently that hope rose in her that he was going to say, Forget the whole idea. Fat chance! Then, as if he felt some lightness was called for, he smiled, and promised, 'In that case, my dear, you're in for something of a treat!'
Her lips twitched, she couldn't stop them, but she wouldn't smile at his audacity. Rather, she'd prefer to hit him with something blunt and painful. Though, on thinking about it, something sharp and head-splitting would be better.
`Since it seems I'm to consider sharing,' she began acidly, 'would I have my own room?'
`Until such time you wanted to move into mine,' he replied calmly.
But you'll wait? You said you'd wait?' she asked, panic starting to attack again.
`You have my word,' Trent answered gravely—and strangely, when what he was suggesting was so worrying, she felt she could trust him.
A long, long, unbroken silence followed, while Alethea sought for calm and searched every avenue she could for a way out. Only to come to the conclusion that they were all cul-de-sacs. She wanted Trent to halt Keith Lawrence's prosecution. He would, on the condition that she went to live with him And at some later date she was to join him in his bed.
She sighed heavily. It broke the silence. 'May I think about it?' She grabbed at his earlier suggestion.
He reached for the ignition and had one last thing to say to her before he set the car in motion. 'Don't take too long,' he advised. 'The lawyers are baying for your brother-in-law's blood!'
CHAPTER FIVE
Sleep was elusive for most of that night. No sooner had she fallen asleep than it seemed to Alethea that she was awake again—with the same problem looming as large as ever.
She had to admit she had not been feeling too affable towards Trent when he'd dropped her off at her door. He had got out of the car and come round to her side, and she'd managed a brief, 'Goodnight'. She had found herself looking up at him. Then, without a word, making not the smallest attempt to persuade her one way or another, without a goodnight, even, he had turned away and she had gone indoors.
Both her mother and sister had still been downstairs, her mother looking particularly spleenish, while Maxine's eyes had been full of questioning.
`Anyone want a warm drink?' Alethea had asked, feeling suddenly a very great need to be on her own.
Maxine had followed her out to the kitchen. 'What happened? What did he say?' she questioned in an urgent undertone—only to find that her mother had come out to the kitchen too.
`What are you two whispering about?' she wanted to know accusingly.
`Nothing secret,' Maxine recovered. 'I was just telling Alethea that I've given up sugar and not to put any in my chocolate.'
`Fads!' her mother snorted, but, it was as if she was convinced that there was some secret here to which she
was not privy, because she stayed with them, giving them
no opportunity for any private conversation that night.
Dawn crept over the sky and Alethea was awake again. She was quite glad that there had been no chance of a private chat with Maxine. How could she have told her of the price Trent de Havilland had asked? She was very much troubled that her reluctance to confide in Maxine might stem from an uncertainty that Maxine might urge her to go ahead and do this thing, if not for her, then for her three little girls.
Oh, Heavens! Desperately Alethea tried for a solution. Tried to see this problem and its answer logically. Problem: Trent wanted her to move in with him. Logic:
she, as he had reminded her, was looking for somewhere else to live.
Abruptly she scrapped logical thinking; she didn't like the answers it brought. And, anyway, there was more to it than that. Trent didn't want her to merely move into his house, he wanted her to move into his bed! At that emotion-tearing thought, Alethea promptly left her own bed and began her day.
She was downstairs pouring out a couple of cups of tea when Maxine found her in the kitchen. Oh, crumbs, she had nothing ready to tell her!
`I've just spent the most ghastly night of my life,' Maxine informed her. Tell me about it! thought Alethea. `I nearly came into your room at four this morning. But for disturbing Polly...' She did not finish the sentence; she was in a hurry to find out if her husband was going to be prosecuted or not. 'Tell me you've got some good news for me and my girls,' she implored.
`Maxine, I—' Alethea broke off, noticing the dark shadows under her sister's eyes that said more than words about the sleepless nights she had suffered. And, horror-
struck, she heard her voice add, 'He isn't going to prosecute.'
`Alethea!' Maxine squealed, so great was her relief.
Alethea stared at her; had she actually told her that Trent de Havilland was not going to prosecute Keith Lawrence? Maxine grabbed hold of her and gave her a very big hug of thanks. Apparently, Alethea realised, she had!
Alethea was stuck in traffic on her way to work when she started to realise the enormity of what she had done. So great was Maxine's relief that years had seemed to slip away from her. So how, then, Alethea wondered, could she unsay it? She couldn't, she realised. Which meant that she would have to go through with it.
Traffic started moving again, and Alethea, giving automatic attention to her driving, wished and wished and wished that she had never ever told Trent de Havilland that she was on the look-out for somewhere else to live.
Wretched man! Wretched idea! She wouldn't do it, she wouldn't! But what about Maxine and the girls? Well, she wasn't going to get into bed with him, that was for sure!
Suddenly Alethea started to feel a little brighter. No way was she going to bed with him. And, since he had said he would wait for that momentous happening, then, since it wasn't going to happen, he would get fed up with waiting, change his mind about wanting her to live with him, and tell her she was free to go.
Of course, she would have to be sure he would keep his word and not prosecute Keith Lawrence. But since she would be keeping her word by going to live with him, she would not be breaking her promise. Trent would
do it for her, by telling her he didn't want her living with him any more.
Alethea started to panic a little when she thought to question whether Trent would keep his word? He'd made no bones about telling her he thought her a very desirable woman. Quickly she pushed the thought that he desired her from her mind
But then she found she was remembering last Saturday evening. He had kissed her, and... She urgently brought her thoughts away from where they were going. Good grief, anyone would think she had desired him, and she hadn't.
Oh, so all right, she had enjoyed his kisses, but they hadn't amounted to very much, not really, and whether Trent had desired her or whether he hadn't, she instinctively knew he was not the sort of man who would force her against her will.
Alethea reflected how she had just dived into an area where she had not wanted to go. But, having done so, she had been able to get it clear in her head that Trent would get fed up with waiting and ask her to leave before he would force her to share his bed.
That being so, she would move in with him. It was a bonus that he was often away, and she would sit it out. While, at the same time, she would start looking for somewhere else to live. She would start to look for that flat which she had told her mother she would be seeking. She'd need an address to give Mother and Maxine anyway. And, while she had no notion as to how long Trent thought he might wait, it wouldn't be a bad idea to find some alternative accommodation sooner rather than later. Somehow, in her mind she had already left home. She felt that she would not want to return when the time came to leave Trent.
When Alethea got to her office it was all fixed in her head. Perhaps Trent had been right when he had pleasantly documented how she'd intended looking for somewhere else to live, so what was wrong with his place?
Nothing at all. The only thing he didn't know was that, though move in with him she would, there was absolutely no chance that she might one night take a moonlight saunter from her bedroom to his. She found she was smiling—he didn't deserve any better.
`Morning, Alethea, you look cheerful,' Carol greeted her.
`Morning, Carol,' she answered, and, utterly useless at subterfuge, she owned, 'I've made the momentous decision to leave home.' The topic was still much to the forefront of her mind.
`You'll enjoy it once you get used to it,' Carol assured her. 'Have you found somewhere?'
Wild horses would not have her telling anybody that she had. She only hoped Trent would be as discreet; she'd just die if Mr Chapman or anyone else at Gale Drilling found out. 'Not yet. I thought I'd start looking today.'
`Check with our accommodation section,' Carol suggested. 'They might be able to help.'
`Now why didn't I think of that?' Alethea laughed.
`Probably because it's only recently been set up,' Carol answered. And, the day pleasantly begun, they got down to work.
When Carol went in to see Mr Chapman, Alethea reached for the phone—and then hesitated. Her decision was made, and the sooner she told Trent about it, the sooner he would issue the instruction to call off the prosecution against Keith Lawrence. Yet it embarrassed her that Trent might think any early call meant that she couldn't wait to move in with him.
Against that, though, she wanted this done and out of the way. And if Trent's day went at all along the lines of Mr Chapman's, then his appointments could start first thing and he could be out of his office for the rest of the day. Alethea hesitated no more; she dialled.
Her call was taken by Dianne Tustin, and Alethea grew tense as she waited for Trent's PA either to fob her off or inform her that he wasn't in his office. But, 'I'm putting you through.' The PA's warm tones drifted down the wire, and Alethea didn't know how she felt then. Had Trent told his PA to put Alethea Pemberton through if she rang—and why? Or had he merely instructed that he wanted to speak to her if she called?
`Alethea —how are you?'
She opened her mouth; no sound came. She tried again. 'When?' she asked, and waited, and started to panic in the lengthy pause that followed: perhaps he had changed his mind? Oh, grief, for Maxine's sake, she didn't want that either.
Conversely, again she didn't know at all how she felt when at last the long pause ended and Trent suggested, `Today?' He wanted her to move in with him today!
`No!' she said quickly, sharply. Oh, Heavens, get yourself together, woman, he'll be telling you to forget it in a minute. 'T-tomorrow,' she stammered hurriedly. `Can we make it tomorrow?'
`As you wish,' Trent answered easily, calm where she was flustered. 'I'll come over and help you with your belongings if ...'
Was he mad? 'No, no, that's all right.' She rushed to answer him, and felt tense again and all stewed up inside at the second pause that followed.
`You haven't told your family of your decision to move in with me?' Trent asked after some moments of silence.
Had a three-legged horse won the Derby? The fact that she was moving in with him was something she wanted to keep a dark secret from everyone, and especially from her family. 'Would you like me to come and tell your mother...?'
Hell's bells! Alethea wondered if he was deliberately trying to give her heart failure! So much for her accusing him of being frightened of her mother! The man was terrified of no one!
`That won't be necessary,' Alethea informed him hastily. 'I mentioned to my mother at the weekend that I was going to look for somewhere. It isn't important for anyone to know exactly where,' she stated, hoping he wo
uld take the hint. 'I'll need this evening to collect my things together,' she rushed on—then, slowing down, she asked, `If I could come to you tomorrow after work?'
`Your room will be ready for you,' Trent replied easily, and Alethea suddenly started to feel a great deal better. Given that he was a monster to suggest what he had, she quite liked him again after that comforting confirmation that she was to have her own room.
`Er—my brother-in-law?' she questioned, and found that she didn't need to add any more.
`Consider it done,' Trent said briefly, and the line went dead.
Alethea slowly put down her phone receiver. The deed was done; there was no going back now. Clearly Trent trusted her word that she would move in with him and would now be giving orders that the prosecution of Keith Lawrence be stopped. She swallowed; she only hoped she could believe in Trent's word that he would wait.
Strangely she was able to tackle her work with enthusiasm once that phone call had been made. It was mid-afternoon before she remembered Carol's suggestion
that she check with the accommodation section in her efforts to find somewhere else to live.
`I'll see what I can do for you,' was the best an eager young man in the accommodation section could come up with when she had slipped out of her office and gone to that department. 'Is it urgent?'
Was it? She didn't know. 'Fairly urgent,' she smiled and, at his suggestion, gave him a list of her minimum requirements and returned to her desk. 'Fairly urgent' about covered it, she mused. Trent didn't look long on patience. Perhaps, in next to no time, he'd be telling her, It's been nice knowing you.
She left her office on time that night and drove home. Now for the sticky part. She let herself into the house and navigated a small tricycle that had been left in the already overcrowded hall. She looked on the bright side: it would be a treat to be bruise-free.
The Trouble with Trent! Page 7
