The Only One. PENNY JORDAN

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СКАЧАТЬ inside. She wouldn’t let herself think about what might have happened if he hadn’t recognised her virginal inexperience. His mood hadn’t been kind when he had manhandled her into the bedroom and she shivered, recognising that he could be a very dangerous enemy if he chose to be. But not her enemy; not anything in her life except an error of judgment she had made which had had potentially embarrassing repercussions. Know your own limitations my girl, she chided herself as she locked the back door … don’t jump into deep water like that again. Now it was difficult to conjure up the feeling of antagonism that had urged her to confront him in the first place; in fact the entire episode, from meeting him to his leavetaking tonight, already seemed to be part of a dream; totally unreal and inappropriate to her normal everyday life.

      Forget him, she urged herself as she prepared for bed. Forget him, and concentrate on how you’re going to support yourself from now on.

      The Lodge was hers outright and she had a bank balance of some few thousand pounds. That her solicitor thought she was mad to donate what was left of the purchase money from Abbot’s Meade to the local children’s hospital she knew quite well, but they were doing research there on all forms of children’s cancer and from the conversations with her uncle’s doctor Brooke knew how badly they needed extra funds. She could get herself a job; she was old enough and intelligent enough to support herself, unlike those poor children. A job … she sighed … she would have to start looking round, although she suspected that Sam was right when he said that a secretary of her calibre was hardly likely to find a suitable position locally.

      Not even to herself was she prepared to admit that she might be using her mental busyness concerning her lack of employment to cover deeper and even more disturbing thoughts. That Adam Henderson had affected her as no man had ever done before, she could not deny, but she certainly wasn’t prepared to admit that there was anything especially significant in the fact that he had done so; it had simply been a question of fate running with him and against her, and she doubted that he was ever likely to have exactly that dynamic effect on her ever again.

CHAPTER THREE

      ‘COME on now, Uncle Sam, give. You were very mysterious on the telephone this morning. What’s all this about you finding a job for me?’

      They were sitting in Sam Brockbank’s office in the small market town of Abbot’s Meade. The office was as familiar to Brooke as the rooms of Abbot’s Meade itself, and she surveyed the untidy clutter with a rueful smile as she watched her solicitor shuffle the untidy piles of paper on his desk.

      ‘Well it isn’t so much that I’ve found you a job,’ he told her cautiously, ‘it’s more that I’ve been approached to tell you that one exists, if you are interested.’

      ‘Mysteriouser and mysteriouser,’ Brooke quipped lightly, ‘Don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me all about it.’

      She had dressed for her meeting in one of the neat suits she had worn during her London days—a soft melding of pink and blue tweeds that should have clashed horribly with her hair but did not, her cream silk blouse a perfect foil for her pale skin.

      ‘The chairman of Hart Enterprises is looking for a PA, and apparently he’s prepared to offer you the job.’

      ‘Just like that?’ Brooke raised her eyebrows. She had heard of Hart Enterprises first when she worked for the advertising agency and its chairman had the reputation of being particularly ruthless. Hart Enterprises never carried dead or excessive wood, and she could think of no single reason why she should be invited to join the staff. She was a good secretary, with first rate qualifications and excellent speeds and she knew that her last boss had been sorry to lose her, but surely Hart Enterprises already employed a dozen or more girls equally as skilled as she was herself. Unless of course the chairman was the sort of ogre who demolished secretaries for breakfast.

      She watched Sam clear his throat, avoiding her eyes as he re-shuffled his papers. Apparently he’s heard about you in the City … and when I mentioned that you were looking for a job….’

      ‘He jumped at the opportunity to take me on to his staff?’ Brooke supplied drily. It wasn’t impossible that he might indeed have heard of her; the agency did a considerable amount of work for Hart Enterprises, but she suspected that Sam was the one who was responsible for the unexpected job offer. ‘It’s very good of you Sam,’ she told him, softening her firmness with a slight smile, ‘but I don’t intend to rely on the “old boy network” to get myself a job….’

      ‘Nothing of the kind,’ her solicitor was quick to assure her. ‘He genuinely does want an assistant, Brooke. Although Abbot’s Meade will need to have a great deal of work done on it before it’s ready to operate as the Corporation’s headquarters, the chairman plans to move into the Dower House almost immediately and supervise both the work and his business interests from there. That’s why he was so keen to interview you. Apparently his present secretary is expecting a baby and on the point of leaving.’

      ‘Well, I don’t suppose it would do any harm to attend the interview,’ Brooke agreed, knowing that she was weakening, but the job sounded far too promising for her to dismiss out of hand. From the little her solicitor had told her about it, it sounded just the sort of challenge she was in need of right now to take her mind off losing Abbot’s Meade, and … other things.

      ‘If you’re interested, an interview’s been arranged for this afternoon.’

      ‘Short notice isn’t it?’

      ‘Apparently the chairman’s pretty anxious to get things moving. He doesn’t like hanging around, waiting for things; wasting time….’

      ‘So I’ve heard,’ Brooke agreed dryly, searching her memory for any scraps of information stored there regarding her potential employers. Hart Enterprises’ reputation was a first-rate one; their work highly acclaimed; one of their specialities was the renovation of old houses such as Abbot’s Meade, and indeed that had been one of the factors that had encouraged her to sell to Hart Enterprises in the first place. The job did sound tempting, but she wasn’t too sure if she was happy with the fact that Uncle Sam had apparently pushed her forward as a candidate for it. Telling herself that she had nothing to lose in attending the interview she bid him goodbye, and emerged from the gloomy clutter of his office into the bright November sunshine.

      The autumn had been a dry one, and the rich colours of autumn leaves gathered in drifts in the gutters. Repressing a childish temptation to swish through them, Brooke headed through the small town square to the municipal car park where she had left her bike.

      As always her progress was impeded by several people wanting to chat to her about the sale of the house and its possible implications for the town.

      ‘Should bring in a sight more business,’ one matron told Brooke, ‘they say they’re going to turn the stables into flats for them as works up at the house?’

      Gently parrying the question Brooke hurried on her way. She had heard that Hart’s intended to convert the old stable block into mews apartments and the drawings she had been shown had depicted a very attractive conversion, with the old stable yard still retaining its cobbles but decorated with tubs of flowers and turned into a communal garden.

      It was lunchtime before she got back to the Lodge, her progress delayed by the swift passage of a black Ferrari, taking up more than its fair share of the drive. It was being driven too fast for her to see the driver, and as she was forced to wait before turning into the drive Brooke reflected that such inconveniences were something she was going to have to get used СКАЧАТЬ