by Jessica Hart
'That won't be long!' Helen said viciously and stormed out of the office, letting the door bang noisily behind her.
Left unexpectedly holding the field, Ka realised that she was shaking. She sat down abruptly in her chair and dropped her head in her hands.
Was she just the latest in a line of over-emotional secretaries? Was that all she was Luke? Kate didn't want to believe Helen, but the story wasn't that unlikely, after all. Luke himself had mentioned her tearful predecessors: was so incredible that they had fallen in love with him? She had; why shouldn't they?
Kate pulled her fingers through her hair. It was soft and gleaming still, just as it had been when Luke had tangled his fingers in it and tilted h head back for his kiss. The memory of the night they had shared tore at her. It was impossible to believe it hadn't meant anything to Luke. She couldn't mistake the look in his eyes or the tenderness of his touch.
No, she wouldn't believe Helen, but she would have to tell Luke about Chittingdene now. If only she had told him last night! She dreaded the confession in the cold light of day. He would want to know why she hadn't told him before, and it would be hard to explain without sounding deceitful or, worse, calculating.
And then the door opened and Luke came in. One look at his face told Kate that her confession would be unnecessary.
`I met Helen on her way out,' he said heavily. His expression was tight and closed. `She said you were Catherine Haddington-Finch from Chittingdene. Is it true?'
Kate lifted her head and met his eyes squarely. `What do you think?'
`Catherine?' he said, as if wanting to disbelieve. He searched her face, and then sighed as he read the truth in her eyes. `Catherine.'
`Kate,' she corrected him quietly.
`Why didn't you tell me?' He turned away, unable to hide the bitterness in his face.
`There never seemed to be an opportunity,' she began, but he interrupted her.
`An opportunity! You never had any trouble talking to me about anything else!'
`This was different. I didn't think you'd remember me anyway. Why should you?’
'I remember you all right. You were the girl who came down to the wood to tell me about Helen.'
Kate nodded miserably. `But you didn't recognise me. I didn't see any point in bringing up the past. You made it pretty clear you'd put it behind you, and I thought it would just be embarrassing for both of us.'
`I suppose you thought I might be embarrassed at having the daughter of the manor at my beck and call? Was that it?’
'No!' Kate's heart sank at the harsh note in his voice. `I was remembering that day in the woods. The last time I saw you you kissed me. It seemed an awkward memory for a boss and a secretary to share, that's all.'
`And all those times I wondered if I'd met you before? Did you have a good snigger then? That Frenchwoman I told you about in the restaurant; she was your mother, wasn't she? That must have had you in stitches!'
`No! Luke, you know I've never laughed at you.'
`The trouble is, I don't know about you any more.' He turned away angrily. `I really thought you were different. When I looked into those clear eyes of yours I thought I saw only honesty. You've made a fool out of me, haven't you? You're just as deceitful as all the others!'
Kate lifted her chin. `I've never lied to you.'
`It doesn't seem that way to me. Keeping something like that secret is just as dishonest.'
`It never seemed to bother you about Helen!' Kate cried. `What about all the things she didn't tell you?’
'Helen's different. I never expected anything from her, but you… you were special, Kate. At least, I thought you were.' He laughed mirthlessly.
Kate was angry now. `What about all those other secretaries you seduced? I suppose they were all special too? It must save you so much effort, using the same line every time!'
`What other secretaries?' Luke demanded, swinging round.
`Helen told me. Apparently I'm just the latest in a long line of secretaries to fall for your line about being the best ever!'
`And you believe what Helen says?’ 'You appear to!'
They were both too angry to hear the door open. One of the junior secretaries stood in the doorway, clutching some files, startled and embarrassed by the scene that met her eyes.
`Get out!' Luke snarled, and she turned and fled.
`I see you're back to being your usual charming self!' snapped Kate.
`When are you going to revert to being Catherine Haddington-Finch? I'm surprised I didn't remember as soon as you started bossing me around! You're just like your father, that pompous old fool, playing squire up at the manor.'
`My father was not pompous!' Kate hissed. `He was kind and generous, which is more than you are! You've just got some stupid chip on your shoulder. What does it matter if I was called Catherine and lived in a big house? We've both grown up since then. Surely it's who we are now that matters?'
Luke was standing by the window, glaring down at the street, a tic jumping in his jaw. 'That's just it. I thought I knew who you were but now I find that you're someone completely different.' He glanced over his shoulder at Kate who was rigid beside her desk, her tawny eyes ablaze. `I was going to ask the girl called Kate1 to marry me tonight. Quite a joke, isn't it?' His face was closed and bitter. `But I don't feel like marrying Catherine. She might have other secrets she doesn't want me to know.'
Kate looked at the back of his head in despair. `I'm not Catherine, I'm Kate. If you can dismiss the Kate you've known after the last few weeks that easily I don't want to marry you! Can you dismiss last night too? Did it seem to you that we had any secrets that mattered then?' Luke stiffened but didn't turn round. `There are lots of things I don't know about you,' she went on. `For all I know, you have been seducing secretaries for the last ten years, but if you'd asked me to set that against what I learnt of you last night I'd have said it didn't matter.'
Angry tears were very close, and she scrabbled frantically for her bag. `Still, I'm sure you'll find another special secretary soon to console you. Make sure you check her birth certificate before you employ her!' Determined not to cry in front of him, she snatched up her coat as Luke spun round.
`Where do you think you're going?'
`I'm leaving.' Kate stormed over to the door. `You can deal with your own rotten contract and learn to speak French yourself!'
Slamming the door behind her, she jabbed at the lift button. It would be on the ground floor! `Come on, come on!' she prayed as it inched its way upwards with an infuriating lack of haste.
`Kate!' Luke called from the office doorway.
`It's Kate now, is it? It was Catherine a minute ago!' Kate shouted, oblivious of the fact that their voices were echoing down the corridor and would be heard in all the offices.
`You needn't think you can just storm off like this,' Luke yelled back. `You're under contract.'
`You know what you can do with your precious contract!' Kate hit the lift button with her fist, glancing over her shoulder in panic as she saw Luke advancing towards her. If he touched her she was lost. `Come on!'
At last there was a ping, and the lift doors slid open laboriously. Kate practically fell inside and jammed the `close doors' button, missing the fact that Luke veered off and ran for the stairs.
As the doors closed behind her Kate's knees began to shake, and she leant back against the mirrored wall, pressing her hand against her face to hold back the sobs that threatened to tear her apart.
It was a slow lift at the best of times, stopping at every floor. Somebody must have pressed all the buttons as a practical joke. Kate was glad that no one wanted to share the lift, and she tried desperately to pull herself together as the doors opened at the ground floor.
To her horror, Luke stood there in front of a cluster of people waiting for the lift. He was out of breath and panting, barring her escape.
Kate tried to push past him, but he caught her and dragged her back into the lift, pushing her against the mirror an
d kissing her fiercely. She put her hands up to resist and jammed them against his chest, but he was too strong for her. He held her head between his hands, ignoring her struggles, and kissed her, deep, desperate kisses that crumbled her resistance and woke a fire of response where anger and bitter unhappiness melted into the absolute certainty of love.
He could feel the change in her, for his hands left her face, sliding down her back to wrap her closely to him. Kate's arms were about his neck as she kissed him back. Without a word's being said, all was explained and understood and forgiven.
`Let's go back upstairs,' Luke said, raising his head at last. He turned round to press the button for the fourth floor and to face an interested audience in the reception area.
`You'll have to wait,' he said, taking Kate back into his arms. `This one's full.'
Back on the fourth floor, there were little knots of people in the office doorways, all clearly discussing the scene that had taken place, for they fell silent abruptly as Luke and Kate reappeared.
`Why aren't you all working?' Luke demanded. `I don't pay you to stand around gossiping all day!'
Everyone moved hastily, but Kate could just imagine the raised eyebrows as he took her hand and dragged her down to their office so fast that she had to trot to keep up.
Pushing her into his inner office, he shut the door firmly behind him and looked at her.
`Now, what do you mean by storming off like that?’
'What do you mean by dragging me back like that?' Kate retorted, thoroughly ruffled an unsure of whether she felt deliriously happy or cross.
Luke took her hands and held them tightly a he looked into her eyes. `I mean that I'm sorry he said simply. `I mean that I love you. I mean that I'm not letting you go again. Is that clear enough?'
Kate couldn't speak. She could only nod, he eyes golden and starry with relief.
`I really am sorry, Kate,' Luke went o seriously. `When I saw you get into that lift suddenly realised what a fool I'd been and that if I let you go like that it would be the worst thing I'd ever done. I've never run so fast as I did down those stairs; I was terrified you'd leave before I caught you, so I called the lift at ever floor in the hope of slowing you down. I only just made it in time.'
He paused. `I don't know why I blew my top like that. After last night I was sure of what I'd suspected for a long time-that you were the only woman for me. It was just such a shock to suddenly find that you were someone completely different.'
`I'm sorry too,' Kate said. `I should have told you, but I didn't want to spoil things. I wanted you to think of me as the woman I am now, not the girl I was then. I didn't think you'd want to remember kissing that plain, scrawny girl.'
`I didn't, but not for the reason you think,' Luke said slowly. `I wished I hadn't taken my anger with Helen out on you. Afterwards it was hard to forget the look in your eyes when I let you go. In later years, whenever I did something I wasn't very proud of I'd remember that look.'
Kate smiled. `I'm glad you remembered. That was my first kiss, Luke. Nobody ever kissed me like that. I think I've been in love with you ever since.'
`Do you love me now, even after the way I've shouted at you and bullied you?’
'More than ever,' she said, and he caught her to him for a kiss that went on and on in the giddy exhilaration of knowing that everything was going to be all right.
`Luke?' Kate said later. She was sitting on his lap on one of the squashy leather chairs she had avoided during her interview, and her fingers were curling round his. `Why did you take up with Helen again? She was so cruel to you before.'
Luke stroked her face with such tenderness that her heart ached. `Why? I think I had some vague thought of getting my own back on her. She's not nearly as cool as she likes to make out, and she wants marriage just as much as anyone else. I have to admit I took some amusement from beating her at her own game, stringing her along and then suddenly taking up with someone else. Besides, you were right, I have had a bit of a chip on my shoulder for a long time, and Helen is… well, she's very beautiful. She was good for my image.'
`I told her not to come back while I was still your secretary,' Kate confessed.
`I know. She told me. She was furious with you when she met me in the corridor and dropped the bombshell about who you were. I think she must have realised how much you meant to me, because she told me what she said to you about my previous secretaries-all nonsense, of course. There's only one secretary who's ever made me realise that all the attempts I'd made to stay cynical and detached were just a pretence.'
`What happened to her?' Kate asked innocently.
`Oh, I sacked her.'
`You what?' Kate sat up, indignant, but Luke pulled her back against him. `I decided she was just too distracting at the office. In any case, her talents could be put to better use elsewhere.'
She eyed him speculatively. `Where?’
'In my home and in my heart,' Luke said, and tightened his arms about her. `Marry me, Kate,' he demanded, suddenly urgent, and then, with a smile that sent shivers of anticipation down her spine, `please?'
Kate rested her face against his neck and sighed with happiness. `Since you ask so nicely… yes.' `Yes what?' said Luke, pretending to be shocked.
`Yes, please.'
Jessica Hart
***
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