Web Of Darkness. HELEN BROOKS

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t plan it,’ she said indignantly, her brown eyes flashing black sparks. ‘I was with Joe in the coffee-lounge—we had an appointment with the manager about some advertising work—when I saw you come in. It was an impulse thing.’

      He swore, softly and fluently, as he shut his eyes for a splitsecond. ‘I don’t know if that makes it worse or better. Didn’t you stop for a moment to think about the repercussions that were bound to follow?’

      ‘No.’ She stared straight into the blue eyes. ‘But if I had I’d still have done exactly the same.’

      ‘Would you indeed?’ His face was black with rage. ‘You really want a good whipping to bring you to heel, young lady.’

      ‘You touch me again, in any way, and I’ll be the one bringing an assault charge,’ she said angrily. ‘Got it?’

      He shook his head slowly. ‘You’re eaten up with this.’

      ‘What do you expect?’ she said fiercely as her hands clenched into fists at her side. ‘He was my father, not some vague acquaintance. How would you feel if someone treated your father like that?’

      ‘Like murder,’ he said without a trace of amusement in his face, ‘but it’s all supposition at the moment, isn’t it? I haven’t had anything confirmed and it seems to me that you’ve put your own interpretation on events, in any case. You don’t know for sure exactly what happened on the business side and, I repeat, your behaviour is inexcusable.’

      ‘I know enough.’ She faced him stiffly. ‘More than enough, and I want to go now.’

      ‘OK, OK.’ He stood up slowly, almost carefully, and again she got the impression that the movement was deliberate, thought out in advance. ‘I’m expecting a call in half an hour; you don’t want to hang around for the outcome?’

      ‘No, I don’t,’ she said coldly. ‘I know my facts are accurate, Mr Steel, and I also know what your supposed enquiries will reveal.’

      ‘Then you’re way in front of me.’ He stared at her, his face tight and mordant. ‘To be honest, I’ve had more than my fill of your particular brand of charm for one evening.’

      ‘Why break the habit of a lifetime by being honest now?’ she asked bitingly, her eyes flashing sparks.

      ‘I think I probably asked for that.’ The harsh grooves in his face deepened as he turned abruptly away. ‘You don’t miss an opportunity, do you? I’ll have to remember that for the future.’

      ‘Future?’ she asked with icy contempt. ‘I doubt if our paths will ever cross again. Your lifestyle and mine are hardly on a par, are they?’

      ‘Oh, you don’t get off as lightly as that,’ he said coldly, his eyes lethal. ‘You’re wrong, Miss Gordon, and I’ll prove it to you, and when it’s confirmed that you’ve made a grave error——’

      ‘It won’t be,’ she said firmly. ‘I told you what happened in the past and I’m still far from sure you aren’t fully aware of it all anyway. I don’t need to have what I’ve told you confirmed or otherwise. I know what happened. I’d like to go now.’

      ‘As you wish.’ He pressed a tiny gold button at the side of the fireplace and within seconds the little maid had popped her head round the door.

      Didn’t he ever do anything himself? Janie thought cynically as she watched him giving orders to the small girl. Buttons for this, orders here and there, everyone jumping to attention. Her face was cryptic as he glanced back to her and the piercing gaze had swept over her features before she could school them into a more acceptable mask.

      ‘So much hate in one small package.’ His voice was deep and soft and, for some reason, tiny flickers of fire shivered down her spine as he walked over to her, lifting a lock of silky black hair and rubbing it in his fingers as he looked hard into her dark brown eyes. ‘It’s very bad for you, you know,’ he said mockingly, his eyes glittering coldly.

      ‘So you said before.’ She flicked her head away sharply. ‘Did I understand that you’ve asked for the car to take me home? I’m quite capable of phoning for a taxi.’

      ‘I think you’re quite capable of anything.’ There was a note in his voice she couldn’t quite place, but it made the goose-bumps rise all over her body. ‘However, I would prefer to take you home myself, having brought you here in the first place.’

      ‘You’re coming too?’ Her voice was frankly dismayed and a glimmer of a smile touched the frosty face for a fleeting moment.

      ‘I was only saying the other day to a colleague that it would be a pleasant change to meet a girl whose head wasn’t turned by the Steel name,’ he said sardonically as he moved back to his place in front of the fire. ‘I forgot that little law that says we should be careful what we ask for in case we get it.’

      She eyed him without speaking—there was nothing she could say after all—and within sixty seconds June had returned to announce that the car was waiting at the main entrance.

      As they left the beautifully warm house and stepped into the cold night, the wind blew against Janie’s face with tiny chips of sleet in its arctic depths and, once in the car, she drew her coat off the seat where it was lying with her handbag and pulled it round herself gratefully.

      ‘Cold?’ He had seated himself opposite her, like before, the blue eyes watchful.

      ‘A little.’ She glanced out of the dark window quickly and searched for something impersonal to say. ‘Where are we?’

      ‘Middlesex,’ he said coldly. ‘The Mother of London, near enough to make travelling easy and yet still retaining country lanes with working farms and thatched cottages that would grace any village in Yorkshire.’

      ‘You’re a country boy at heart?’ she asked cynically as she pulled the coat still closer round her shape.

      ‘You find that hard to believe?’ he said expressionlessly. ‘You have me set in the North Circular Road with its attendant miles of buildings and Tube stations and so on? Or maybe in the heart of London, the West End or Chelsea?’

      ‘I would say the latter would suit you better.’ She made no attempt to soften her words. ‘I should think the only interest you would display in villages and suchlike is in their market value.’

      ‘That is what you would say, is it?’ The blue eyes were diamond-hard. ‘It is a pity that such attractiveness goes hand in hand with such ignorance.’

      ‘How dare you?’ She reared up like a small black kitten when confronted by a sleek, full-grown panther.

      ‘How dare I?’ His voice was deceptively mild in comparison to the steel-hard set of his jaw. ‘Your terminology is all wrong, Miss Gordon. It is I who should be asking you that. You know nothing about me, nothing at all, beyond the rather vague notion that I was responsible for causing your father some grief——’

      ‘Vague?’ Her voice was so shrill, he winced slightly before continuing as though she hadn’t spoken.

      ‘And you continue to be obnoxious at every turn, refusing to listen to common sense and altogether behaving in a manner more suited to an infant than a grown woman of…?’ She held СКАЧАТЬ