Dark Encounter

by Susanna Firth

  When Jane arrived home from work she dispensed coffee and sympathy after learning of Kate's action. 'You've done the right thing there, love,' she counselled. 'You didn't expect him to go down on his bended knees and beg you to stay, did you?'

  'Well, no, but—'

  'But nothing. Men are all stinkers, even the best of them,' her friend told her firmly. 'Out of sight and out of mind. You'll soon forget him when you've got another job.'

  If she lived to be a hundred she did not think she would forget Nicholas Blake, but she did not say so, merely falling in with all Jane's efforts to cheer her up. 'Yes, you're right. At least another job will keep my mind off him.'

  Jane frowned. 'You look awful,' she said with candour of a true friend. 'In your present state you're not going to convince anyone you're the greatest secretary out. You need a few days' rest before you try anything.'

  And so, by dint of Jane's urging and her own feeling that she did not care if she never had a job ever again, Kate decided to postpone the job hunt for a week and to go back to Aunt Meg for another stay.

  'It won't do any good, you know,' she told Jane in response to the other's bracing talk of how much brighter she would be for the country air and Aunt Meg's home-cooked food. 'After all, look what happened last time I went there for a rest-cure.'

  'Lightning never strikes twice in the same place,' her friend said firmly, waving her goodbye. 'I'll give you three days and you'll have forgotten him completely.'

  'Fat chance,' said Kate, and meant it, but she laughed for the first time in days.

  If Aunt Meg was concerned by the pallor of Kate's face and the dark shadows under her eyes she was tactful enough not to mention it, merely welcoming her adopted niece with usual warmth and promising her the delights of country cooking. 'That's what brings the visitors back year after year,' she told Kate. 'A taste of my homemade bread and they're ruined for shop-bought rubbish in future.'

  She was right, Kate had to admit. Although she had little appetite when she arrived, a few days of long walks in the Cotswold countryside, now putting forward its spring greenery, brought colour to her cheeks and a growing taste for the food which Aunt Meg pressed on her with a lavish hand.

  'I'll be as fat as a pig,' she laughed after she had been there a week and had agreed, after much urging, to stay on a little longer. She had just got up from the tea table and was helping her aunt to clear the dishes away. 'My flat-mate won't recognise me when I get back to London.'

  'And a good thing too,' the older woman smiled. 'You looked as if you were wasting away when you arrived. I don't know what you young girls get up to living on your own. You don't look after yourselves properly. You'll learn when you've a man of your own to care for.'

  Kate winced. Although she had tried to put Nicholas firmly out of her thoughts he refused to stay buried. Every waking moment there was something to remind her of him, especially here where she had first met him. She supposed the pain would fade in time. She certainly hoped so. At the moment it was a dull ache which never left her. As she carried the dishes into the kitchen and plunged them into a bowl of soapy water she wondered what he was doing now. Probably still at the office, she decided, and caught herself worrying about the workload and how he would manage without her. Well, that was his problem, she told herself firmly, and tried to ignore it.

  The doorbell rang just as she was finishing the last of the washing-up. 'I'll go,' she called to Aunt Meg, who, on her instructions, was taking a well-earned rest and watching her favourite television programme. She opened the door, the soapy water still dripping from her hands, and then reeled back in amazement at the sight of the figure on the doorstep.

  'Nicholas?' she asked, hardly able to believe her eyes. 'What are you doing here?'

  He ignored the question. 'May I come in?' he said. 'The doorstep's no place for a conversation.'

  'Yes, of course.' She let him in and shut the door, then led the way into the dining room.

  'Who was it, dear?' Aunt Meg appeared in the doorway and stopped short at the sight of their visitor. 'Why, it's Mr Blake, isn't it?'

  'You have a good memory for names,' he complimented her, his smile charming her as it had done before. 'I wanted to speak to your niece. Her flat-mate told me she was here, so I drove down from London.'

  'Yes, of course.' Aunt Meg ignored Kate's beseeching glance and announced that she would leave them. 'I'll be in the other room if you want me,' she said, and left tactfully.

  Kate's eyes devoured the sight of him hungrily. Was it just her imagination playing tricks or did he look rather drawn and tired? She supposed the drive down here on top of a heavy day's work was enough to tire anyone. But he was not dressed in his working clothes. Instead he wore casual dark slacks and a cream polo-necked jersey which clung to him and emphasised every muscle of his broad frame. She felt her senses weakening as she looked at him and pulled herself up sharply.

  'Would you like some coffee? You look as if you need some,' she asked him hastily before he had a chance to speak.

  'Later, perhaps,' he said. His glance had not left her since she had opened the door to him. 'We have something to discuss first.'

  'I'm not coming back to work for you,' she told him nervously. 'You may be having trouble replacing me and I'm sorry about that, but—'

  'Who says I'm asking you back?' he said.

  He was cool and confident as he stood there and she envied him his composure. But then presumably she did not have the effect on him that his presence was having on her.

  'Is everything all right at the office, then?' she asked.

  'Yes. I've found a replacement for your job. She's rather slow and she jumps every time I come into the room, but I have high hopes of training her into something eventually.'

  'Oh, I see.' Kate's face fell. She supposed she had been hoping that he might at least say that he had missed her talents in the office. Now it seemed that she was instantly replaceable. She gave a brave smile which wavered slightly as she told him, 'You see, I was right, you can cope with everything, can't you?'

  'Almost everything.' He moved towards her and took her in his arms, his hands firm but gentle against her. 'I've come to offer you a new job, if you'll take it on, Kate. Although I'll warn you now that it's quite a taxing one.'

  'Oh?' She was as tense as a coiled spring, unable to relax, worried about what he would say next.

  His eyes scanned her face as if trying to take in every detail. Then he said irrelevantly, 'I had trouble getting out of your flat-mate exactly where you were.'

  'Did you?' She was even more bewildered now.

  'She tried to give me a piece of her mind. Fortunately I was able to calm her down in the end and find out what I was supposed to have done.'

  She was silent. Jane must have told him. How could she? She could not bear him to know of her love and either pity or laugh at her.

  His hand beneath her chin forced her head up to meet his gaze. 'She told me about you and Jeremy Edwards, Kate. All of it. And she also told me that you were in love with me, not him. Is it true?'

  There was no point in lying to him. Besides, she was not sure if she was capable of doing so. 'Yes,' she said.

  She thought at first she imagined the light that blazed in his eyes as she abandoned herself to his kiss. But when, ages later, she came back to reality, she hardly recognised the warmth in his face, transforming it to a tenderness that she had never seen before. 'But what about the job?' she asked in dazed fashion.

  He drew her closer to him, smiling. 'I'm not in the market for a personal assistant any more. I want a wife. Do you think you would fit the bill?'

  'What?'

  He continued, making every word sound like an endearment, 'You're impossible, Kate. You make me lose my control faster than any woman I've ever met, you tempt me, you drive all thoughts of work out of my head. You even disturb my dreams. For God's sake, put me out of my misery and marry me!'

  'You lose sleep over me? She sounded incredulous.
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  'Too much. It's not good for my temper, as my new secretary can no doubt tell you,' he said. 'Kate? Will you marry me?' For the first time since she had known him she saw doubt in his face, uncertainty as to her answer. 'I know I've hurt you badly, but I'll make it up to you, I promise. I love you so much. I was nearly out of my mind with jealousy when you said you were determined to see Edwards again. You were right to be angry with me. I thought I could manage without you, but I never want to go through a week like the last one without you, as long as I live. Kate? Say something?'

  Her face gave him his answer.

  'Oh, Kate!' he groaned. He kissed her again, moulding her close to him, making her aware of how much he needed her. 'When will you marry me?'

  'Is tomorrow too soon?' she asked.

  'I'll see what I can do.' He bent his head to kiss her again and it was some time before he released her, flushed and radiant and in no doubt of his feeling for her.

  'Nicholas,' she said hesitantly, but knowing the question had to be asked. 'What about Diana?'

  'Nothing about Diana,' he replied steadily. 'She's gone. In fact I hear she has her eye on someone she's met in the Bahamas. I understand he owns two dozen oil wells.'

  'But—'

  'I know. She was on the way out when you came into my life. I retained her at first out of sheer self-defence. You were all I'd ever hoped for, yet I was scared. I didn't want to fall for you. But I couldn't help myself. Later when you appeared to be involved with Edwards and told me to stop interfering I suppose I was trying to prove to myself and you that I could always find plenty of other women. But it was no use, you were the only one I really needed, and I suppose deep down I knew it from the first time I kissed you.'

  'You called me an overgrown schoolgirl,' she told him indignantly. 'After we're married you can make up for being so insulting.'

  'I fully intend to, my darling. And I'll start now.'

  And when Aunt Meg poked her head round the door to ask if Mr Blake had everything he needed she rightly concluded that he had, and smiled as she went away again.