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'As Punch,' Lindsay agreed, going into her office and dumping the reports on her desk with a groan. That lot would take her all day, Chris could wait for his resume.
She rang Stephen before she began work on them. Alice answered the phone and told her Stephen had gone to work. 'He insisted, I couldn't persuade him to stay at home any longer.'
'How is he?' Lindsay couldn't get out of her mind the haggard face of her brother last time they met. ,
'Quiet,' Alice said flatly. 'I think he worries more about the staff at the factory than he does about us, all he keeps saying is: Where will they get other jobs if I have to shut down? He isn't worried about us.'
'Of course he is, you know that isn't true. He was so worried about you that he couldn't face telling you.' Lindsay was indignant on her brother's behalf, Alice was being unfair to him. Lindsay could understand why her sister-in-law was upset, Alice had two small children to think about, she must be very unhappy about losing her home, but that was no reason to be so unkind to Stephen.
'He was so worried about me that he let me go through hell thinking he might be dead,' Alice muttered.
'Oh, Alice!' Lindsay said on a sigh, and heard Alice draw a shaky breath.
'I know,' she said suddenly. 'I'm so angry with him I can't bear it at times, he hurt me, I feel insulted because he didn't confide in, me, he rang Aston Hill and he barely knows the man. I feel so small, being left out like that. I'm his wife!'
'Daniel may help him,' Lindsay said on impulse, and Alice broke into the sentence with an eagerness that hurt.
'Did he tell you that? Do you think he meant it? Has he talked to Stephen?'
'Daniel's cautious, he takes his time to think these things through,' Lindsay told her. 'He won't have talked to Stephen yet, not until he's sure of his plans.'
'It would be marvellous,' said Alice, her voice much lighter now. 'It would take such a load off Stephen, he doesn't know which way to turn.'
Lindsay rang off a moment later and sat staring at the wall. Then she slowly picked up the phone and dialled again, her hand shaking. She found herself counting the rings, and when they stopped and a voice spoke she almost jumped out of her skin.
'I want to speak to Mr Randall,' she said, and the voice took on a tone which had the texture of ice-cream, frigidly smooth.
'I'll put you through to Mr Randall's secretary.'
Lindsay waited another half a minute, then a woman spoke politely. 'Can I help you?'
'I want to speak to Air Randall,' Lindsay said again. She hesitated, and before she could decide which name to use the other woman said: 'Who is it speaking, please?' in a distant voice that put her back up so much that she said tersely: 'Mrs Randall.'
There was a silence, then the secretary said: 'Mrs Randall?' again, and Lindsay told her: 'His wife.' When the woman spoke again her voice was very different.
'Would you hold the line for a moment, Mrs Randall? I'll see if I can find Mr Randall, I don't know if he is in his office at the moment.'
Lindsay made grotesque faces at the phone as she waited, and a full minute elapsed before Daniel's voice murmured in her ear.
'Lindsay?'
'Yes,' she said.
He waited, then said: 'What did you want?'
'Yes, I said,' Lindsay muttered, and a long silence fell, then he breathed audibly close to the phone.
'We'd better have lunch today. I'll pick you up outside your office at twelve-thirty.'
'I can't…' she began, only to find that he had hung up, the phone had gone dead. Lindsay replaced it, her skid tight around her jaws. She was aching with tension. Did he have to be so brusque? It had cost her a great deal to make that call, he might have been more responsive than that.
She forced herself to turn her attention to work, concentrating on the pile of reports to such an extent that when the door opened she didn't hear it and Chris's voice made her start violently.
'Jumpy today, aren't you?' he observed, staring down at her.
'I was working,' she retorted. 'You could try it, surprise yourself.'
'I'm just off to lunch,' he said, looking amused. 'Coming?'
