Billionaire Bosses Collection. Кэрол Мортимер

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       CHAPTER TWELVE

      AS THEY headed for Roscoe’s car they realised that there was a ghostly figure standing beside it, half obscured by the driving snow. Pippa gasped with horror when she realised who it was.

      ‘That’s Franton,’ she said urgently. ‘The man you fired for insider trading. He’s probably damaged your car.’

      But there was nothing threatening about Franton’s appearance as he stood waiting for them by the road.

      ‘What are you doing out here in this weather?’ Roscoe asked him, sounding irritated. ‘Do you want to catch your death?’

      Franton loomed at them through the flakes.

      ‘I’m not staying long. I only came to thank you. I found out who got me the job.’

      ‘I told them you’d do it well and I know you will,’ Roscoe said gruffly.

      ‘And the paper you signed…about my debts…’

      ‘It’s only a guarantee. You still have to pay them.’

      ‘But, thanks to you, I have time now. I had to come and thank you.’

      ‘Fine, but clear off now before you get pneumonia,’ Roscoe snapped, sounding annoyed. ‘Where’s your car? ‘

      ‘I sold it.’

      ‘Get in; I’ll drive you home.’

      Franton tumbled thankfully into the back seat. Pippa, sitting in the front, tried to sort out her tangled thoughts but without success.

      Why, she thought fretfully, couldn’t Roscoe stay the same person for five minutes at a time?

      Franton’s wife and three children were waiting at the window, looking anxious. They streamed out to embrace him and Roscoe sat watching the family scene, before firing the engine and driving off.

      ‘I don’t believe what I’m seeing,’ she breathed. ‘You got him another job? After what happened?’

      ‘What else could I do?’ he demanded. ‘You saw his family. It’s not much of a job, handling the finances of a little group of shops.’

      ‘But didn’t you have to tell the owners why you fired him?’

      ‘I’m a partner in the business.’

      ‘So you pulled strings for him?’

      He grunted.

      ‘And you’ve guaranteed his debts?’

      ‘Guaranteed them. Not paid them. Now, can we drop this?’

      ‘I just can’t get my head around it. Nobody would guess the truth about you.’

      ‘But you think you know the truth? ‘ he asked savagely. ‘After the way you attacked me about him, what did you expect me to do?’

      ‘I didn’t expect you to take any notice of anything I said. And I’m not even sure you did. I have a suspicion that you’d have done it anyway. Scrooge outside and Santa inside.’

       ‘How dare you?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ she mused. ‘But I dare.’

      After a while she said, ‘This isn’t the way to my home.’

      ‘I’m taking a detour. The traffic’s heavy because we’re close to Trafalgar Square.’

      ‘Ah, yes. That’s where they set up the huge tree that the Norwegians give us every year.’

      ‘Let’s go and see it,’ he said, turning into a side road and stopping.

      Taking her hand, he drew her forward to where the crowds were gathered. There was the great tree rearing up into the night, covered in lights. More lights set the fountains aglow and the huge buildings around the edge of the square. All around, carol singers gathered, their voices rising into the chilly air.

      ‘Beautiful,’ Roscoe murmured.

      Receiving no reply, he turned to see Pippa standing with her eyes closed, her face wet from snow, or maybe tears. Her head was uncovered and now her glorious hair was drenched and hanging drably.

      ‘Pippa,’ he said urgently. ‘Pippa, what is it? Tell me, for pity’s sake.’

      He shook her shoulders gently and, when she didn’t react, he drew her close, kissing her with the fierceness of a man trying to reawaken life.

      ‘Pippa,’ he whispered. ‘Where are you?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ she said helplessly. ‘But I can’t escape. I’m trapped there and I always will be.’

      ‘You can. Let me help you.’

      He kissed her again and again and she gave herself up to the feeling, trying to find in it a way out of the fears that tormented her. But she knew there was no way out and she must try to make him understand.

      ‘Let me go,’ she said desperately. ‘I have to get out of here.’

      She wrenched herself free and darted away, vanishing into the crowd so that for a moment Roscoe lost her and looked around desperately. She had vanished into thin air, gone for ever, and for a moment the СКАЧАТЬ