With This Ring

by Jean Saunders

  “Not Claude Girard?” With great forbearance, he stopped himself asking how it was she gave him a meal, when he knew very well how much she detested him and all he stood for. It was a trait that was alternately well-bred and irritating, to Tania’s thinking. Any other red-blooded male would have demanded to know who had been sharing her table that night … and jealously wondered if he had shared anything else.

  Then she realised immediately that there was a charge of excitement in David’s eyes.

  “I thought he looked familiar. I was puzzling who the man was that I saw leaving the front of the building in a taxi as I came in. Of course, Claude Girard, the mountaineer. I had hoped to get a glimpse of him this afternoon, but I missed him.”

  “This afternoon?” Like an echo, Tania repeated the words, while a slow, ominous premonition ran through her. She had been safely away at James’s old college. David Lee worked at the same company where she was a linguist on contract.

  “He was at the office.” David confirmed her worst fears. “I didn’t get the chance to ask Lance what he was doing there, but we assumed it might be something to do with you. I thought he may have turned up at the college, and I knew you’d have hated that. He didn’t, I suppose?”

  Tania was seething. Why was Claude Girard checking up on her? The company she worked for dealt in machine parts for aeroplanes. There was nothing of interest there for a mountaineer. Nothing except herself, when the mountaineer in question was Claude Girard. She made an instant decision.

  “Will you drive me round to Lance’s place, David? I can be dressed in five minutes. Make yourself some coffee while you’re waiting if you like. I’ve got to find out what this is all about.”

  “Don’t you know?” His voice followed her to the bedroom. “What did he come here for? What did he want?”

  I want you!

  Tania seemed to hear Claude’s words floating around in her head, giving them a meaning that was all too clear. Whatever his initial reason for coming here — the book on which he was working — there had been a smouldering sexuality in the arrogant words and mouth. Claude Girard was a man of strong passions and a ruthless determination. James had once told her that. Tania had blocked out the memory from her mind while she was verbally sparring with Claude, but now she also remembered something else James had said to her in his admiration of the other man, only six years his senior, yet far more mature in every way than Tania’s brother.

  “He feels a crazy need to conquer every mountain, Tania. To own them, as a man owns a woman —”

  “Men don’t own women,” she had replied. “That’s medieval.”

  “According to Claude, every man desires one woman so fiercely that every primitive urge in him is aroused. He has a strange way of communicating, sometimes, and maybe Claude is a little medieval in his thinking. He certainly has a powerful influence over everyone he meets.”

  The sudden memory of those dark smouldering eyes, attempting to persuade her to agree to his suggestion by his very will, made Tania shudder, as she pulled a thin sweater over her head and zipped up her cotton slacks. David was dressed casually, and had obviously expected to take her to a favourite riverside pub that evening. Lance Hillman, the managing director of the company, lived with his wife and family near by. He wouldn’t object to Tania and David dropping in for half an hour, especially when it was something so important to her peace of mind.

  “Well?” David’s voice interrupted her flow of thought, as she came out of the bedroom. “What did Claude Girard want?”

  “He wants me to co-operate with him on some book he’s been commissioned to do, about himself and James. He wants me to supply the background information on James’s life.”

  “Sounds terrific. It would be nice for James to be remembered in that way,” David nodded, not seeing. Tania felt frustration creep over her. Did all men club together in some strange clannish manner that excluded women whenever it suited them?

  “No, it wouldn’t,” she said, nettled. “Not for me, anyway.”

  They left the flat and walked around the block to where David’s car was parked in a side road. He looked at her in astonishment.

  “Don’t you think James deserves to be honoured for posterity?”

  He talked the way Claude had talked. Playing on her emotions, setting her up as the fall guy. Tania could cheerfully have throttled the whole male population of the world at that moment.

  “I just don’t want to be involved with Claude Girard, that’s all.” She avoided a straight answer. “And I’ve a feeling I’m not going to be too pleased when I know why he went to see Lance today.”

  She discovered that that was an understatement. An hour later, when the car had threaded its way through the London traffic and was out on the less congested roads leading to the pleasant green-belt houses of the suburbs, Tania’s heart was thumping as they pulled up at Lance’s tree-shaded home.

  His wife, Josie, welcomed them in with a pleased smile, saying it was ages since she had seen Tania, and offering them both a drink. Lance greeted them just as affably, though Tania knew him well enough to see the look of caution in his eyes. Stocky and middle aged, he still had the guilty look of a schoolboy caught stealing apples when he had anything to hide.

  “You know why I’ve come, don’t you, Lance?” she said at once, with the directness for which she was noted. He shifted his gaze slightly.

  “Should I?” he countered.

  “Claude Girard. Do I have to spell it out for you, or are you going to tell me why he went to see you today of all days, when he knew very well I’d be out of the way?”

  “He could have come to see me on a matter that doesn’t concern you,” Lance hedged.

  Tania gave a snort. “Come on, Lance. I’m not leaving here until you tell me!”

  The managing director gave a rueful grin at his wife. “You see how my staff treat me? There’s no respect these days. Young people used to doff their caps to their elders —”

  “I’ll doff you one if you don’t tell me!” Tania didn’t feel like playing games. If Josie thought she was being rude, then Tania would apologise later. But Josie was becoming just as impatient with her husband as Tania, as if some womanly intuition told her how important this was to the other woman.

  “All right.” Lance gave in. “Claude Girard very persuasively and charmingly got me to agree to release you from your contract for the next six months so that you can go to France with him to collaborate on the book he’s writing. Since it deals in depth with your brother, he put it very delicately that he knew you would want to help him. The man should have been a diplomat.”

  “What!” Tania jumped to her feet, spilling sherry down her slacks, her eyes blazing. Every nerve in her body was vibrating with anger at the audacity of the man. Going behind her back like that and enlisting Lance’s support before he had even spoken to her was nothing short of insulting. How dare he override her wishes like this! It was obvious that he’d expected the reaction he had got from her. Did he really think this underhand method was going to change anything?

  “You didn’t agree to it, surely?” Tania spluttered. “Not without consulting me first?”

  “Now then, my dear, of course I didn’t. Not entirely, anyway,” Lance said uneasily.

  “And just what does that mean?” she demanded.

  Lance shrugged. “I couldn’t let you off the payroll for six months just like that, Tania, and I told the man as much. Naturally I assumed he’d already discussed all this with you, and was putting his own case to me in case you felt embarrassed at requesting six months’ leave.”

  “No, he hadn’t discussed it with me,” she said angrily. “And since when have I been unable to speak for myself?”

  “In half a dozen different languages,” David put in flippantly, trying to lighten the atmosphere. Tania didn’t even bother to glare at him.

  “You didn’t agree to it, did you, Lance?” Her voice was shriller than usual. He couldn’t have done. The compa
ny couldn’t spare her, and they’d never pay her for a six-month absence, if that was what Girard had in mind. They certainly wouldn’t give her six months’ unpaid leave while she flitted about Europe, for whatever reason.

  Lance looked at her uneasily. Those amber eyes of hers could really spit fire when they chose to, he thought, and right now their fury was all directed at him. There was more than a little truth in the old cliché about a woman being beautiful when she was angry … but he knew better than to try complimenting Tania Paget with any soft platitudes at that moment.

  “Tania, believe me, I assumed the man had talked it all over with you. He was so plausible, so sure of himself.” At Tania’s bitter look, he spread his hands helplessly. “Hell, Tania, I’m only human! I know you never had a good word to say about him at one time, but lately you never even mention his name. And Girard talked as if you and he had something going. How was I to know any different? He spoke as if you were just dying to get to France with him. When he told me he was willing to pay the company for hiring a temporary linguist for the six months so that your job would be assured if and when you wanted it back, well, I —”

  “He what?” Tania couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Claude Girard went to you and offered to buy me out for six months? He offered to buy me?”

  For someone normally so eloquent, words were beginning to fail her. All she could feel was a raging fury at the man she loathed for putting her in this situation. Did he think he was God, to manipulate her any way he wanted? Did he really think he was that strong, that powerful? And did he really think her so weak that she would agree so readily? If so, he had a shock coming to him, and the light of battle glinted like fire in her expressive eyes.

  “Tania, love, don’t get yourself all worked up,” Josie was saying gently. “I’m sure there’s a way around this, and Lance only did what he thought you wanted. No harm’s been done yet, has it? This Girard put the idea forward to Lance, but it can just as quickly be rejected. Don’t let it spoil your lovely evening with David.”

  Josie’s forte was soothing troubled waters. With two rebellious teenage sons she was well used to it, and Tania’s little storm did nothing to ruffle Josie’s calm surface. Tania gave her a quick, apologetic hug.

  “All right. I’m sorry for upsetting your weekend, Josie, but I had to find out what was going on.” Her voice was jerky with embarrassment. Josie smiled reassuringly.

  “You haven’t spoiled anything here, Tania. We’re used to sparks flying in this house. You talk to Lance in the office on Monday and get things sorted out.”

  Lance might be boss of the company, but Josie smoothed things out at home, Tania realised. He looked relieved as the small, slight woman took command, and five minutes later, Tania and David were driving the short distance to the riverside pub they favoured. She still bristled inside, but as Josie said, no real harm had been done. If anything, Claude Girard had done her a favour, because now she knew just how ruthless a man he was. The kind of man a woman would do well to keep away from. David eyed her thoughtfully as they sat in the soft blue darkness of the pub garden, the fairy-lights reflected in the rippling flow of the river like miniature rainbows.

  “You know, there’s one thing to say for all this business with the Frenchman, Tania,” he remarked. “I haven’t seen you so alive for a long time. You haven’t exactly been wallowing in misery since your brother’s death, at least, not so that anyone could see, but you haven’t been as animated as you used to be either. Tonight, you seem to have got the old sparkle back, even if it’s only anger that’s doing it!”

  “Thanks,” she said tartly, not wanting to admit that he could be right. Not wanting to admit, even to herself, that despite her hatred of him, Claude Girard acted like a stimulant to her senses, that was at once heady and dangerous.

  * * *

  Tania was ready for Claude’s phone call the next day. All afternoon she waited impatiently, intending to give him a piece of her mind at what he had done. She hadn’t slept because of him. Instead, she had drifted off into fitful, restless dreams where she was falling, falling, much as James must have fallen, with nothing but space and air beneath her. The wind rushed past her body, and always at the last minute before she plunged off the edge of space, strong hands would be there to save her, to hold her and comfort her, and a voice would be whispering her name over and over, speaking of destiny and love, and she would be wide awake in an instant, her body tangled in the bed-clothes, drenched in perspiration. After a sleepless night, she felt she knew the touch of Claude Girard’s hands as well as she knew her own, and it was something she didn’t want to know at all.

  By four o’clock she decided he wasn’t going to phone. He was doing this deliberately, Tania thought furiously, keeping her on a string. If it rang now, she damn well wouldn’t answer it …

  When it did, she snatched up the receiver, trying not to notice the way her heart pounded.

  “I’m sorry it’s so late,” Claude’s rich voice said in her ear, his accent more pronounced over the phone. “I’ve had things to do all day. I’ll pick you up about seven thirty. I’ve booked a table for us for dinner. Don’t keep me waiting.”

  The line went dead before she could say a single word. Tania looked at it stupidly, unbelievably. How could she have been so railroaded? She was normally well in command of any situation. It was part of her job, especially when uncertain foreigners at business meetings looked to her to smooth the way for them. Claude Girard wasn’t going to storm into her life like this.

  The easy way was to be out when he called for her that evening. She could go to the cinema, a theatre. She could phone a girlfriend, or David, and simply not be there to answer the doorbell. But for all that James once said she was afraid of shadows, Tania wasn’t one to shirk a head-on confrontation with someone. It was the second time she had thought of her meeting with Claude in those terms, but that was how she saw it. There was nothing conventional in their meeting. There never could be.

  She felt a sudden annoyance at Claude’s assumption that she was the timid twin. She had a responsible job, which she enjoyed, among people she liked. If it sounded deadly dull compared with the flamboyant lifestyle of Claude and her brother, and the celebrity world in which he apparently moved whenever he conquered another mountain, then it was just too bad. It was her life.

  All the same, Tania had no wish to appear the little country cousin at dinner that evening. She would show him she was a city girl, used to the sophisticated London nightlife … even if she only indulged in it infrequently. There was no need for him to know that! She chose her clothes and make-up with care, and had the satisfaction of seeing his dark eyes widen slightly when he called for her.

  He looked her over slowly, from the swathed hair around her head with the enticing tendrils to soften the line, to the stunning gold eye make-up that emphasised her eyes, to the luscious pink-gold lipstick. His eyes moved farther down, to the sleek black cocktail dress threaded with silver, and the high-heeled shoes and velvet evening bag.

  “So. The little duckling of yesterday is in reality a beautiful swan!” Claude murmured with old-fashioned charm. She had hardly noticed what he carried in his hand, she was too taken up with his own appearance, elegantly tall in a dark suit and dazzling white shirt that hadn’t been picked up in a chainstore. His whole aura was expensive, and while she was still digesting the fact, she became aware of those hands she remembered so well from her restless dreams.

  They brushed against her breast, and a small breath caught in her throat as she felt its quick response. Then she realised he was fastening a small corsage from a florist’s box on to her dress, and the Continental gesture was unexpected and charming. When he had fastened them securely, the scent of the pink rosebuds drifted into her nostrils, and he let one finger trail against the smooth skin of her throat before he stood back to admire her.

  “Now you have the finishing touch,” Claude murmured, and Tania wasn’t sure whether he referred to the c
orsage or his own feathery fingering of her skin at that moment. His touch seemed to electrify her. Minutes later, she could still feel the contact his skin had made with hers.

  The anger of last night, when she had discovered that Claude had been to see Lance Hillman still simmered inside her, ready to explode. She had intended waiting until after dinner before she told him just what she thought of him. He may as well feed her … but his undoubted sexual assault on her sent the anger flaring once again. She moved back a pace from him, her mouth tightening.

  “Well, now that you’ve realised I’m not a little duckling,” Tania flashed at him, “perhaps you’ll also realise I’m not the type of woman to be manipulated to whatever the great Claude Girard wants.”

  His dark eyes narrowed. He hadn’t expected this. Tania could see now that he fully intended to exploit his male animal appeal to get what he wanted. He’d soon learn that it wouldn’t work with her, she thought keenly.

  “I merely want to escort a beautiful woman to dinner,” his voice was mild, but she could hear the steely thread beneath the calm. “What Frenchman would choose to be alone on a warm London evening, when he can have a lovely woman at his side?”

  This kind of seduction left her cold. Tania told herself so, refusing to admit that her heart was racing and that it was not entirely due to anger. She remembered last night.

  “I didn’t ask you to come here. Whatever your motives, I would have preferred not to have met you. I thought I’d made that very clear. As for what you did yesterday while I was at James’s old college —” Her voice trembled a little. She could still hardly believe that he could have had the audacity to try and buy her time from the company the way he had.

  “Ah.” Claude clearly saw that she knew it all now. He showed no sign of shame or remorse, Tania raged. “Then you will know there is no problem with your employer. You will come to my home and work on the book with me, as I wish, and as James would have wished. Then, when the work is done, you may resume your old life — if you still want to.”