Fortunately for Keri, Sunday passed peacefully. She accompanied her godparents to church and to lunch afterward. Charles and Mary had made plans to visit a friend recovering from an operation, and their relationship with Keri was so comfortably close that there was no strain on either side when they left her to fend for herself for the afternoon. She found herself free to spend the time drowsing by their pool, deepening her tan, and finally finishing the book she had started. The phone rang twice and she ignored it both times, on the theory that if it were for her godparents they wouldn't have been home to answer it anyway, and if it were for her it would most assuredly be Dain and she didn't want to talk to him.
She had a light supper ready by the time Charles and Mary returned and they spent the rest of the evening in quiet companionship. Keri shared her latest letter from her parents and the news from her two brothers, one of whom was a" mining engineer on a job in Canada while the other built bridges in South America. Charles and Mary had two children, both of whom were doctors, and they reciprocated with the latest adventures of Charles, Jr., and Steve. Mary also made her usual comment at this time, to the effect that she had always hoped that Keri and Steve ... allowing the phrase to die gently away. Keri responded tolerantly that she loved Steve like a brother, which she did, but wouldn't have him as a husband even to get the two best in-laws a girl could ever want. He was a pathologist who liked to talk shop, a failing even a doting mother had to agree was a drawback to serene mealtimes.
Keri crept back into her apartment building with all the stealth of a seasoned burglar. Instead of coming openly up the elevator, she scurried up the fire stairs and peeked around the shielding door before venturing out into the corridor leading to her apartment. She felt rather foolish when the corridor proved innocent of any looming male figures, but reasoned foolish was better than caught. She just wasn't in the mood for a confrontation between herself and either Schyler or Dain. Tomorrow was going to be upsetting enough, if she read Miss Barth right, and she preferred not to dissipate her energies beforehand.
The next morning Keri searched among her pre-disguise-days wardrobe for her most becoming work outfit. It was a tailored suit, but bore no resemblance whatsoever to the suit she had worn the previous Friday. It was a clear, soft forest green and faithfully reflected the curved body beneath it. The soft silky blouse of cream and green lay smoothly against her skin. Her hair was pulled away from her face, but tumbled in a shining flow down the back of her neck. The prim Miss Dalton had vanished, basically unlamented, leaving behind the Keri of old.
This time, when she drove to work, her car matched her appearance and she got the first reaction to her new image after she deftly slid it into her assigned parking spot. As she locked the car she noticed two of the girls from the typing pool walk by on their way into the building, and as they saw her standing by her car, Keri received her first double take of the day. The stammered "Good morning, Miss Dalton?" with its rising inflection caused Keri's lips to twitch, her unruly sense of humor nearly getting the best of her. It would not have been kind to laugh, nor polite, but it was a near thing. Their faces were most expressive.
Keri dropped her key into her purse, allowing the two to gain a respectable distance from her. No sense in unduly inhibiting their discussion of her! She seemed oblivious to the covert glances cast back over their shoulders as she strolled in a leisurely fashion behind them, and they sped up, eager to carry the news of the miraculous transformation.
Keri didn't know whether to hope that the news would filter ahead of her, rising like the flood of high tide, to the executive level Would Miss Barth be forewarned and therefore forearmed? On the whole, Keri rather spitefully hoped that Miss Barth wouldn't hear beforehand. The look on her face when confronted by the new Keri was probably going to be the only funny part of the day.
So many double takes followed Keri's progress to the elevator that she wondered if the company was going to get a rash of whiplash complaints at the infirmary. She was beginning to get irritated. Damn Dain Randolph anyway. She could have made the transformation gradually if he'd let her, and she wouldn't now feel as though she were the star attraction at a freak show.
When she stalked into the suite of offices used by Dain, Keri knew she had her wish. Miss Barth hadn't heard. She was standing close to Dain as he gave her instructions, evidently concerning a report he held in his hand, but Keri sensed that the report was merely window dressing. Dain was there to see if she had obeyed his orders, and from the way his eyes flickered from Keri, confirming her appearance, back to watch Miss Barth, Keri knew he had wanted to be on hand to see Miss Barth's reaction. It was worth watching, if you liked that sort of thing.
It certainly was classic. Miss Barth's mouth dropped open, her eyes widened and darkened with shock. She turned white, then red, then white again around the mouth and nostrils, her shiny red lipgloss standing out starkly against the surrounding pressure-whitened skin. It gave the momentary effect of a clown mask—scarlet mouth against white greasepaint,—but it wasn't a smile that twisted those lips.
All humor had fled from the situation as far as Keri was concerned. She had made an enemy, though not by her will or by her desire. Miss Barth was feeling a fool and she was sure to blame Keri, human nature being sadly what it is.
"Ah, good morning, Miss Dalton." Dain's smoothly appreciative voice unfroze the three of them. "How charming you look this morning. A new outfit?"
Keri shot him a malignant glare. Somehow she knew that he'd never commented on Miss Barth's attire, new or not, and was merely pouring gasoline instead of soothing oil on inflammable and troubled waters! He didn't wither suitably beneath her scorning glare and his mouth compressed and twitched suspiciously.
Keri tried to salvage what she could of the situation. She ignored his comment. "Good morning, Mr. Randolph. Good morning, Miss Barth. I hope you had a pleasant weekend, Miss Barth."
Miss Barth didn't answer. No matter how exciting her weekend had been, Keri had just ruined her day!
"I had a very nice weekend, Miss Dalton," Dain introjected smoothly. Keri waited for his next words with a sense of inescapable fatalism. He was going to ... He did. "I found your godparents charming, and I'm glad they enjoyed our dinner together. Well have to take them out again soon, won't we?"
Keri's look assured him that she'd see him served up as the main course, an apple stuffed firmly in his mouth, if they ever dined together again. Miss Barth was oblivious to the byplay and Keri's disinclination to attract Dain's notice. As far as she was concerned, Keri Dalton was a scheming, manchasing, unprincipled epithet and the sooner she, Elise Barth, made Keri's position untenable, the better.
Keri glanced briefly at Miss Barth and read her mind like an open book. Oh, Mr, Simonds, she lamented mentally. Why did you ever have to mention that you had a new secretary? Keri still suffered under the delusion that Dain had heard of her through normal channels. Her enlightenment on that misconception was in the mercifully still shrouded future.
Feeling that nothing more could be gained, Keri prepared to retreat into the relative safety of the office she shared with Mrs. Covey. At least that lady wouldn't look at her with the hungry ferocity of a starving vixen preparing to take the first bite out of a farmyard chicken. Miss Barth's eyes had lost their initial dark surprise and now glittered with an icy malice, the pupils contracted to pinpoints of antagonism.
"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Randolph—"Keri began, moving toward the door. She wasn't allowed to finish.
"Just a moment, Keri." Her eyes flashed to him in shock. This was really going too far. Miss Barth's mouth had fallen open again. "I'd like to see you in my office for a moment, Keri. I have a few things I wish to discuss with you that I wasn't able to cover on Sunday." His look was significant and compelling.
Keri knew then, without further confirmation, that it had been Dain on Sunday, letting the phone peal in those demanding summons which she had so determinedly ignored. She knew too, that he suspected, though he c
ouldn't prove it without interrogating Charles and Mary, that she had been avoiding him. His phrasing was also deliberately designed to leave Miss Barth free to speculate just what they had covered on Sunday.
With scant regard for business protocol Keri tramped past Dain and into his office, leaving him to follow behind. As soon as he came in and closed the door behind them, she whirled on him, ready to do battle.
"Mr. Randolph, I do not appreciate the impression you have managed to give Miss Barth, that I am . . . that we are ..." she floundered, searching for the mot juste.
He watched her struggles with amusement, but declined to supply any suitable word from his no doubt extensive vocabulary. Finally Keri was able to stop sputtering and express herself in coherent English.
She said stiffly, "I am your employee, Mr. Randolph, your secretary. I would appreciate it if you would cease implying that I am anything more. Friday night you implied, none too subtly I might add, that I was more than your secretary, and now, in front of Miss Barth, you implied that we ... we ..." Here Keri ran into word trouble again. .. that you and I are on such terms that we dine with my relatives," she finished bitterly.
"Didn't I dine with your relatives?" he asked mockingly.
"Oh, yes, but only because you sneakily contrived it. You knew I didn't want to go out with you," she accused him.
He fixed her with a kindling eye. He could only keep an upper hand with this infuriating woman if he kept his temper, but it was going to be a hard thing to do. "Didn't you have a good time after I dragooned you into going?" he asked her in a silkily dangerous tone.
"That's beside the point!" Keri was determined not to give an inch.
"That's exactly the point," he flashed back. "And here's another point, Keri. I am the boss. This office will be run in the manner I dictate. If I want to call you by your first name, I will, and you'd better answer to it."
By now Dain had advanced from his position by the door to loom over Keri as she stood backed up by his desk. She could feel the edge cutting into the soft flesh of her thighs. She couldn't retreat any farther and still he came closer, until they were nearly touching and she had to strain her neck to look up and meet his eyes. Like her own, his green eyes glittered with suppressed emotion and for a moment the primitive man showed through.
He glared at her for a long moment and then stepped back, giving her a clear path to the door. "Get out of here, Keri. Run back to your nice safe office. You might have shed the exterior Miss Prim, but her soul still lurks underneath!"
"Nice safe office, huh!" Keri muttered as she closed the door behind her not quite in a slam. "I may have been delivered from the lion's den for the moment, but the lady jackal is lurking just outside."
She hoped she didn't look as distraught as she felt inside. Miss Barth would be sure to dive straight for the jugular at the slightest sign of weakness. A bland, imperturbable facade against which Miss Barth would blunt her fangs and the comforting alternative of an embassy job somewhere on the other side of the world would be her shield and buckler.
Chapter Five
By the end of the day Keri wished instead for an armored tank. Miss Earth's unsubtle spray of venom had eaten numerous holes in her "imperturbable" facade and Keri didn't believe that there was an embassy or even a legation in Antarctica, which is where she most longed to be at the moment.
As she had expected fatalistically, Miss Barth was lying in wait just outside Dam's door. When Keri emerged from the ogre's den, Miss Barth pounced, and her first bite was no mere nip at the heels.
"Well, Miss Dalton, what a transformation! Decided that there are faster ways to advancement than through merit, have you?"
Keri fought back a retort in kind—several searing ones jostled to be first out of her mouth—and merely stared frostily at the hostile woman. It lacked the quelling authority of her previous stares since this one was no longer backed up by her matching Miss Prim persona, but evidently it still carried enough force to shift Miss Barth back out of Keri's line of progress. Keri swept into her own office and shut the door firmly behind her. She leaned weakly back against the comforting solidity of the door, her eyes closed while she struggled to master her rampaging emotions.
"Elise makes a bad friend and a worse enemy." The dry comment snapped Keri's eyes open. Mrs. Covey regarded her from her desk, a sympathetic smile creasing the plump folds of her cheeks. "Don't worry, Keri. You're more than a match for Elise at her worst." She surveyed Keri judiciously. "For one thing, you've got better equipment than she has."
Keri groaned heartrendingly. "Mrs. Covey, you are definitely Job's comforter right now. My equipment, as you call it, is what's gotten me into this mess," She raised her hands theatrically to heaven. "All I asked for was a simple secretarial job, where nobody noticed me and I could do my work without all of these brangles. A peaceful life, a simple life . . . was it too much to ask?" Heaven didn't bother to answer, and Keri dropped her hands to her sides. Humor had surfaced and Keri was back on balance. The friendly exchange with Mrs. Covey had restored her equilibrium and she could begin to put the morning's events into some sort of perspective. If only she would be left alone for the rest of the day to strengthen her fragile composure.
Keri got her wish, for the rest of the morning at least. She and Mrs. Covey were deeply immersed in the complexities of the report concerning the latest takeover, assembling, ordering, and translating the relevant papers into a comprehensive and tidy whole.
Whenever further material was needed, Mrs. Covey tactfully sallied forth to gather the requisite pieces of paper. She kindly didn't tell Keri about the increased traffic Elise was having to deal with. There seemed to be a steady stream of people with spurious excuses who came, hoping to confirm the rumor of Miss Dalton's miraculous transformation into a femme fatale. Opportunistic young executives hovered like honeybees, but it wasn't Miss Barth's nectar they wished to sip.
Dain erupted in the middle of one gathering of drones. He had flashed twice for Miss Barth, and receiving no immediate response (an unprecedented event, since she usually appeared before he had time to take his finger off the summoning button!), he came out to investigate.
Unlike Keri, Dain's temper was still simmering, and the hapless young executives received a sizable portion of the nicely boiling ire. Dain took in the gathering with a comprehensive glance and understood its origin and intent in an instant. It didn't help his temper to know that word of Keri's transformation had spread so rapidly and with such devastating results.
"Well, gentlemen?" He surveyed the hovering men with cold green eyes. "Have you come in a delegation to see me about some crisis which threatens RanCo? It must indeed be critical to find so many of the brightest of our executive crop ungainfully employed." The gathering nearly teleported away, so swift was the dispersal. Fortunately no one was crushed in the effort to be first through the office door.
Mrs. Covey, legitimately employed in gathering more material, had stood well away from the dangerous path of egress. She continued to dawdle unobtrusively so she could witness the final scene. It was a dilly.
"And now, Miss Barth," Dain snarled silkily, "if you would be so kind. I have some letters which are urgent. Since your hovering court has dispersed, perhaps now you will find time to concentrate on the work you were hired to do." He stood waiting for the white-faced Miss Barth to gather her materials together and then ushered her within the inner sanctum with exaggerated courtesy.
Well that's the first time ever that Elise won’t enjoy being alone with Dain Randolph Mrs. Covey observed to herself. Elise won't even wait to get Keri alone in a dark alley after this. She clutched her papers to her ample bosom and went back into her own and Keri's office.
Mrs. Covey didn't mention the scene in the outer office, but when lunchtime arrived, she suggested that she and Keri once again forgo the company cafeteria and eat away from the premises of RanCo. Keri, restored by the morning of uninterrupted paperwork, demurred at first.
"I'll have to
face them sometime, Mrs. Covey. I might as well get it over with," she offered bravely. "I had a sample of the reaction when I came up to the office this morning. It'll all die down if I just ignore it."
"I don't know if you'll be able to ignore it, Keri," Mrs. Covey confessed soberly. She went on to detail the morning's events and concluded, "Elise will really have her knives out for you now. Dain Randolph has never spoken to her that way before and she's sure to blame you. She has a coterie of friends who follow her lead slavishly and if those harpies start in on you, Custer's last stand will be a Sunday picnic by comparison."
Keri's eyes began to flash; "Perhaps an unfortunate simile for Miss Barth, She can't be sure she'll end up on the side of the Indians. Custer had blond hair, and though Elise Barth's is bleached to that color, the principle may turn out to be the same. I believe the menu of the cafeteria features cabbage rolls today, Mrs. Covey. They're one of my favorite dishes and I'd hate to miss a chance to try the cafeteria's version of them. Shall we go?"
The outer office was deserted. The two women escaped to the hall without incident and then traded a conspiratorial glance. They didn't know where Elise was, perhaps still closeted with Dain, but at least she hadn't been glaring at them from behind her desk!
The next stop was the rest room, where Keri gilded the lily with fresh lipgloss and a swift hairbrush through her auburn mop. Her eyes glittered green without further enhancement and nothing was needed to tilt her chin into a determined slant. Mrs. Covey decided privately that if she were a betting woman, which, regretfully she wasn't, she'd put a hefty bet on Keri.
Keri slipped her shoulderbag over her arm and with Mrs. Covey in tow, sailed into the cafeteria. To say that all conversation ceased when they entered would be incorrect, but there was a noticeable drop in the sound level of the hum of voices and a rippling effect, much like that of wind through a grain field, as heads turned to follow Keri's progress toward the steam tables.
Deceptive Love Page 8