AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘So you did,’ she agreed, ironing her face into the serene indifference that she knew he found so infuriating.
‘So…if you and Steve were going somewhere special tonight you’d better call him and cancel. Tell him you don’t know what time you’ll be finishing.’ He swept an expansive hand towards his desk. ‘You can use my phone if you like, and be sure to pass on my regrets for keeping his fiancée from his side…’
She widened her grey eyes. ‘I thought I wasn’t allowed to use your phone lines to talk to Stephen,’ she said piously.
‘Well, I can’t let you just stand him up, can I? The poor guy deserves to know why his romantic evening has crashed and burned. Go ahead—I won’t listen,’ he offered magnanimously, when they both knew that his ears would be madly flapping to catch every single syllable.
‘Actually we had no arrangements for tonight,’ she said, dashing his hopes with gentle relish. ‘Stephen is having a quiet dinner with his mother, at her place.’
‘Oh, Madeline…’ Duncan rolled his eyes in perfect understanding. ‘The Queen Bee—or do I mean Bore? What’s the matter, weren’t you invited?’
She gave him a haughty look that failed to quell his curiosity, or his unfortunate powers of perception. He grinned. ‘Ah-ha, so you were invited and you managed to wriggle out of it.’ His eyes danced with mischief. ‘I don’t blame you; I never got on with Madeline, either. She thought I was a bad influence on her angelic little darling—a swarthy sinner beside his shining blond purity—hence I was always the one who took the blame for his wrongdoings. Plus ça change and all that, huh?’
‘Madeline and I get on perfectly well,’ countered Kalera, grateful that the truth was obligingly elastic.
‘As long as you don’t transgress her stuffy rules of polite conversation,’ guessed Duncan, revealing a shrewd knowledge of his subject. ‘Even then she’d probably grin and bear it—after all, you were chosen by her son, who can do no wrong. Has she shown you all her home videos, yet, of Stephen’s boyish accomplishments and manly achievements? Ah, I see by your glazed expression that she has, and Madeline being Madeline she probably made you sit through the wedding one, as well, just so she could point out all her pedigreed friends.
‘So how did you avoid the jaw-cracking prospect of a comfortable coze with Mumsie? Is that why old Steve was pestering you on the phone earlier?’ he figured slyly. ‘What did you do—trot out the hoary old line about working late at the office?’ He hooted gleefully at her betraying wince.
‘Since it happens to be the truth it’s hardly a line,’ Kalera said, clinging to her dignity.
‘No wonder you didn’t raise a whimper of protest about my slave-driving,’ he grinned. ‘It’s saved you from a fate worse than death. Now you won’t have to lie if Steve gets suspicious and checks up on your story.’
She drew in a sharp breath. ‘He wouldn’t do that. There’s no reason for him to be suspicious!’
Duncan’s shrug was one of wry cynicism. ‘That’s never stopped him before.’
He paused before saying with a quiet lack of emphasis, ‘I bet whenever you say you’re going out somewhere without him he always rings you at home later to see what time you’re back home…’
‘That’s because he’s such a gentleman,’ she said, wondering why she should suddenly feel so defensive over Stephen’s flattering attentiveness. ‘He worries about my living alone and just likes to reassure himself that I’ve got back safely.’
‘And I bet he sometimes leaves messages for you at the places you say you’re planning to be.’
Kalera tipped up her small chin. ‘Most women find it romantic to know that a man is thinking about her when she’s not around. It works both ways, you know. Stephen always lets me know where he’ll be and what he’s doing…’
‘Has he given you one of those incredibly handy pocket planners, yet—so you can carry around all your friends’ addresses and phone numbers, and a written diary of all your appointments and things to do, so that whenever he wants to compare schedules you can do it on the spot?’
Kalera thought of the handsome, top-of-the line, leather-bound organiser stamped with her initials which had been Stephen’s first gift. She had been touched that he had obviously noticed that she carried a cheap spiral notebook in her handbag as a memory-jogger, tearing off the pages as she went, though was slightly embarrassed at the expensiveness of the gift so early in their relationship.
‘Yes, and it’s been very useful,’ she said, choosing to forget the uncomfortable sense of obligation which had led her firmly to refuse the clothes and jewellery that Stephen had tried to shower her with during the remainder of their courtship, instead restricting him to the traditional tokens of flowers and food.
Duncan wisely accepted her clipped comment as a warning that the subject was closed, but left her with one final dig.
‘Given the business he’s in, I’m surprised he didn’t give you an electronic organiser, but I guess on those things it’s too easy to erase entries without a trace. A handwritten diary is usually much more revealing, not to mention accessible, to the casual browser…’
She fulminated over the unsubtle slur, but held her tongue as they worked steadily on through the latter part of the afternoon and through the disruptive clatter of people departing for the day.
As the exodus dwindled to a trickle, Duncan went out to investigate a noisy game of slam-dunk waste-paper basketball going on in the hall.
‘What’s the matter with you people?’ she heard him bellow. ‘What is this, a sports stadium? Don’t you folks have homes to go to?’
‘Yeah, but we don’t get paid to play basketball there,’ Kalera heard an irreverent voice respond.
‘Since it’s after five you’re not getting paid here, either. No team in the world would hire that lame aiming arm of yours anyway, Digby. Go find somewhere else to humiliate yourself. There’re still people trying to get work done around here.’
‘Try harder,’ said someone else, to great guffaws, for it was a standard phrase of Duncan’s if anyone complained that something couldn’t be done.
‘Aw, c’mon Mr Royal; woncha let Duncan come out to play?’ another voice whined.
