'Tina!' Helen's voice was weak and she couldn't really see properly, her vision badly affected. She swayed dangerously and Tina rushed at her, grabbing her arms, almost unbalancing her.
'Tina, for heaven's sake!'
'What are you doing up? Sit on the stairs while I see to things and then I'll get you back to bed. Go into the kitchen, pet, where it's warm,' she added to Tansy who was biting her nails anxiously. 'You stay where you are!' she added loudly as Ross made a step forward.
Helen looked over her sister's head at him. He was only a blur but she could see his amazed face. He couldn't be laughing, could he? Of course not. This was where she got the sack.
'Look, I'm sorry. I...I have a migraine and...'
'Go back to bed. Don't bother about him.' Tina tried to lift her and the whole situation became fraught with danger.
Ross Maclean strode in and took over.
'Call off the dog.' He picked Helen up as if she weighed nothing at all. 'Where's bed?'
'First door at the top,' Tina snapped. 'But you needn't think that...!'
'Oh, Tina, please!' Helen muttered and Ross glanced at Tina's furious face.
'Seconded, Tina,' he remarked, climbing the stairs steadily, his burden effortlessly held to his chest. He looked down at Helen. 'Next time, give me the password, please. I know a lot more about myself than I did this morning, all of it detrimental. I may never get out of this place alive.'
'She's quick-tempered,' Helen murmured, pain keeping her eyes closed.
'She needs a licence. She probably bites.'
Tina was right behind them, bristling at his sarcasm. 'You can put her on the bed. I'll see to her. She needs a tablet.'
'If you must!' There was a peculiar expression on his face and she closed her eyes quickly, her defence mechanism alerted as usual.
'Right.' He put Helen down and regarded Tina with mocking interest. 'I enjoy being useful. May I get your muzzle now?'
'Listen you, you're not my boss!'
'Tina, please stop. None of this is really his fault.'
'You could have fooled me!' Tina's voice changed like magic. 'Oh, what are you doing up here, pet? Mummy has a very bad head and―'
'Now it's worse,' Ross put in, smiling down at the tiny figure who held on to the door.
'Is it a fight?' Tansy was all blue-eyed worry and he walked across to pick her up right before Tina's outraged eyes.
'No. It was just shouting.'
'Tina can shout,' Tansy offered solemnly, her little arm going trustingly round his neck.
'She probably has a medal for it. What's your name?'
'Tansy.' She looked at him with the interested, steady gaze of a child. 'It's a weed,' she volunteered.
'It's a wild flower,' Tina snapped, trying to help Helen into bed.
'It's a herb,' Ross corrected firmly, looking at Tansy. 'It has bright yellow flowers, very pretty, like you.'
'Flattery will get you nowhere,' Tina muttered darkly, pulling the sheets to Helen's neck, and Ross grinned at her, not at all annoyed apparently.
'It's doing well so far. She hasn't shouted yet.'
'That's because she doesn't know the whole story,' Tina began, ready to strike up again, but Helen interrupted wearily.
'Look, my head is killing me. Can you go and fight somewhere else?'
'Me too?' Ross looked across at her, his silvery eyes taunting.
Tina snatched Tansy away from him very possessively and made for the door.
'I'll get you a tablet, Helen,' she said, glancing at Ross Maclean pointedly, but he was not at all put out. He walked over to the bed as Tina snorted with rage and went down the stairs.
'You've painted a very black picture of me,' he said quietly. 'I got one instalment on the phone when I rang earlier and your sister continued the narrative when I arrived to see how you were. She called me a domineering brute. I have to object!
'She didn't hear the latest happenings,' Helen murmured, even her own voice hurting. 'I'll bring her up to date when I can get up!
'How often do you get like this?'
'Not for a while. Not in the last two years, well, not this bad!
'Then it probably is my fault after all. Maybe I am a domineering brute!'
'I expect I asked for it. I made a complete fool of myself in Paris and, anyway, I deliberately let you think I was an unmarried mother.'
'Why?'
'I don't know. Defiance perhaps. I suppose I just hate men, well, most of them.'
'Dear me. I'll have to work on that!'
Helen looked up at the sound of his voice, so quiet, his eyes faintly amused. Maybe he was fuming inside. She didn't know him, after all. He was tough, self-possessed and she could never see beyond the barrier of those crystal-clear eyes.
'I'm sorry about Tina. She's very protective. How are you managing at the office?' Her voice seemed to have gone husky and his eyes narrowed slightly.
'Fairly well. Jeanette is playing at being you. You can straighten out all the mess she's made when you come back. I'd better go before that sister of yours creeps up behind me with a heavy instrument! He paused at the door. 'Don't hurry back. Get well!'
Helen listened for more trouble but apparently he got out safely and she was just settling again when Tina came up with her tablet and a drink.
'So that's the Maclean of Maclean's,' she mused. 'Isn't he gorgeous?'
Helen squinted up at her, swallowing the tablet with difficulty. 'You roared at him!'
'Well, he deserved it, but those wonderful eyes have a very nice twinkle. I could fall for him!
'If you were older and quite mad,' Helen muttered, settling down to sleep. His eyes did have a twinkle, she realised. He was strong too. He had carried her so easily and she hadn't cringed once. It was odd really, she seemed to be still hearing his voice.
Helen felt a lot better next morning but Tina persuaded her to stay in bed. It wasn't really restful. In the first place, Tansy was all over her, climbing on the bed and playing in the room. It cut deeply at Helen. Tansy saw very little of her really; only the weekends were free for playing and going out. It worried her but she couldn't think of a way round it. She was the head of this small family, the bread-winner. In the second place the phone rang several times and Tina was bounding upstairs to ask for information. The office seemed to be in turmoil.
'Ross wants to know where the Swiss file is!
'Filed under "S", for heaven's sake. What on earth is Jeanette doing? I'm going to be run off my feet straightening things out when I get back. Ross?' she added in surprised enquiry as Tina made for the door.
'Well, he did insist. We've worked out our differences.'
'Wonderful!' Helen noted Tina's flushed face, a nagging worry growing. Ross was a very handsome man, the sort of man that any young girl might find irresistible. There was also a sort of aggressive sexuality about him that for herself was frightening, but for Tina it might be exciting. The sooner she got back to work and cut off all lines of communication between them, the better.
Helen went back on Wednesday, taking everyone by surprise. It was half-past eight and Jeanette had not arrived. Naturally, Ross was there, walking into her office when he heard movement and standing looking at her with unfathomable eyes.
'Are you really recovered?' She was still very pale, the whiteness of her skin a sharp contrast with the blue-sheened black hair.
'Near enough.' She looked apprehensive, avoiding his eyes, and he gave a small laugh, low in his throat, almost a sound of triumph that crackled along her nerve-endings like an invisible current. She looked up warily, surprised by his smile.
'Couldn't wait to get back?' he asked softly. 'Well, I can't say that the sight of you displeases me. Get your feet firmly under the desk before Jeanette gets here. She's running amok.'
'Maybe I made a bad choice?' Helen asked quietly, sure he would think so. He surprised her.
'No. It was a good choice, she'll fit in when you've got her trained. At the moment though she
's swamped, and she doesn't have your intelligence, nor your experience, after all,' he added dryly, 'she's very young, only twenty-three.'
It was slightly taunting but it was said with a smile and Helen managed a smile of her own, a weak one only. She was on unsafe ground with Ross, almost breathless for some reason, a chemical reaction she could not control.
'I'm sure she'll age.'
'With me? She's bound to. In fact she aged a great deal yesterday. You'll find things a bit chaotic. When we move upstairs it's going to be worse until we're sorted out. We'll be ready after Christmas.'
Helen took off her coat and straightened her suit jacket a little self-consciously. He wasn't making any move to go back to his own office and she noticed his eyes lingering on her hair. It was still braided and hanging down her back.
'Any chance of your staying tonight?' he asked almost absently, his voice curious as if he was thinking about something else.
'Yes. It's Wednesday. Tina doesn't have a class tonight, in fact the classes have closed until mid- January, but―'-
'I know. I won't make a habit of it. You need time with Tansy and I expect Tina could do with a break. I thought tonight we could catch up on some of the sorting out, because things are still piling up.'
Helen nodded and turned to the mail, dismissing him in the only way she knew how. He was disturbing her. He had always disturbed her but now he was closer somehow as if she had allowed him to step near. She didn't like it but it was only natural, she supposed. He had carried her up to bed, after all. She blushed painfully and unexpectedly, looking up to find him still there, his eyes intent on her flushed face. He didn't say anything but his glance was half amused, and she remembered she had once felt he could read her mind. She hoped he couldn't.
She met the day head-on, already moving like a whirlwind before Jeanette had even arrived, and it took no time at all for her assistant to get the message and settle to hard work. Ross was wryly amused, his eyes meeting hers as if they had planned it together. It was almost secretive and she was stunned at the pleasure it gave her.
Tina was busy cooking when Helen rang to say she would be late.
'I'm not surprised. Ross said your new assistant was barely coping. I think he had a bad two days when you were off.'
'You're very knowledgeable,' Helen observed crisply. 'Did you shout information to each other during the fight?'
'Well, I had to apologise before he went and he stayed for coffee. Tansy really took to him.'
'Where was I when all this social activity was under way?' Helen asked, feeling worried.
'Out cold with your tablet. I don't think he wanted to go back to the office at all really. I did wonder actually if you were thinking of inviting him home for a meal tonight. He's still living in a hotel, you know.'
'I'm definitely not thinking of it,' Helen assured her firmly, her blood running cold. Tina was interested in him after all. It was a complication she could do without. Tina was nineteen and Ross was a sensual man, dynamic, dangerous.
'Well, please yourself, but I'll put some extra food on just in case. Goodbye, chief.'
Tina rang off and Helen stood looking at the phone as if it were about to leap up and bite her. She was trying to think back to being nineteen. How had she felt? Gullible. One word said it. Except that there had been her parents, her father's steady guidance. Even so, it hadn't stopped her from rushing headlong down the path he had warned against once he was lone.
That was different though. Miles had seemed to be a safe anchorage. She hadn't wondered about loving him really. If things had been different she would probably have waited and got to know him better, found him out. As it was he had pressurised her and she had folded easily, the responsibility of Tina like a weight on her heart. Loving had never entered into it. She had been stupidly naive, only finding out the hard way what life offered. Tina must not drift into that, but Helen had no real idea what to do.
She was still worrying and working at six-thirty when Ross called a halt.
'That's enough, Helen. I'm tired out,' he announced standing in her doorway. He looked tired too. She had never seen him look even remotely weary before, but there seemed to be lines of strain around his face that she couldn't fail to see.
'I didn't think you could tire. I imagined, you were automatic.'
The words just came out without thought and she flushed with embarrassment as soon as they had left her tongue. He laughed, though, the sound bubbling up in his throat.
'Insult or praise? I'm not sure how to take that.' 'I'm not sure why I said it. I don't normally make personal remarks.'
'You don't normally make remarks at all.' He was watching her closely and she was even more flustered. 'Well, Jim Saxton said you were a human dynamo. I think he was a bit scared of you.' '
'Are you? Scared of me, I mean?'
She stiffened, recognising all over again that he was dangerous, being tired didn't make him safe. He was a man greatly to be avoided; all men were. She didn't answer and he sighed, his hand massaging the back of his neck.
'I must admit that I don't usually feel so jaded. It probably has something to do with hotel living. I'll have to get around to finding a house. There just hasn't seemed to be a minute to fit that in though.'
'Are you going to buy one?' Helen looked up at him in surprise, her shyness momentarily squashed.
'I think so. I've got a whole sheaf of information from estate agents, but I've only seen one that interested me and that not enough to stir me into action.'
'But...but you'll have to sell it again when you go back to New York.' Now why did that worry her?
'Possibly.' He dismissed the subject handing her, her coat and reaching for his. 'Well, back to the White Bear. Let's see, Wednesday. It's quiche and salad, they're nothing if not predictable.'
He didn't have much choice either. The White Bear was the only decent hotel within driving distance of the offices. Her eyes slid to the windows. The snow hadn't settled but it was still there, coming down as sleet now, cold and unfriendly. Treacherously her mind pointed out how amusedly kind he had been when she had her migraine, how angry he had been in Paris and how his actions had made her feel better.
'Would you like to have dinner with us tonight?' The impulsive words were out before she could stop them and he seemed to be rooted to the spot.
'Invite me again, slowly and calmly,' he ordered, his eyes intent on her flushed face. 'Please be careful what you say.'
'I...I thought you might like to have dinner with us tonight because it's so cold. Salad and quiche don't seem to be suitable on a night like this.'
He was watching her closely, seriously, a smile growing slowly along his lips. 'Thank you. I'd like to. Are you sure you can cope with one more hungry person?' 'There won't be much to do. Tina's been off all day and she doesn't have to go out tonight. I expect everything will be ready. She...she likes cooking.'
'She's a little powerhouse. Do you like cooking?' 'Yes. When I have the time. I used to ...'
Her voice trailed away and she looked resolutely out at the snowy night. Why on earth had she done this? He was as male as they could get, fined with everything she hated and feared: masculine aggression, sexual power, unbending strength. Just because he had looked tired ...
'Don't freeze up on me, Helen. It's cold enough outside as it is.'
His quiet words dragged her back to the present and she met rueful eyes.
'Want to back out of this invitation?'
Why, oh, why could he read her every action so well? 'Of course not. I wouldn't have suggested it if I hadn't meant it.'
They were fencing like two duellists but Helen knew her own inexperience. She was backed into a comer and she had brought it all on herself.
In the dark warmth and luxury of the car Helen began to regret her impulsive gesture even more. She almost felt as if she had been willed into doing it, either by Tina or Ross himself. For the greater part of the day she had been dwelling on the necessity of keeping
Tina as far away from him as possible and now she was hurtling home, taking him with her as a guest. She hadn't even phoned to let Tina know. Suppose everything was a mess? Tina cooked very extravagantly, using every utensil she could get her hands on, her efforts sometimes left lying on any table in the house. There would be Tansy's toys all over. She was too het up to talk all the way back.
Inviting warmth and the delicious smile of cooking met them as they stepped into the little hall and Tina poked her head around the kitchen door, her eyes filled with laughter as she saw them together.
Perilous Refuge Page 6