Catching Katie

by Sophie Weston

  The blonde shook her head. ‘Really, Haydon is impossible.’ Her tone was indulgent. And possessive. She looked at Katie from under her lashes. ‘I bet he hasn’t even told you about me.’

  ‘No,’ Katie agreed.

  She was remembering the blonde figure in the photographs in the music room. The same beautiful face was now tilted innocently up to her own. Her possessiveness seemed to be justified. Katie was aware of a cold clutch in her stomach that had nothing at all to do with her lack of breakfast.

  ‘Viola Lennox.’ The blonde stood up decisively and held out her hand. ‘We first met when you were moving in. I’m sorry you’ve been left here all on your own for so long. I’m afraid it’s partly my fault.’

  It was like a nightmare. Katie looked round for Haydon. Still no sign of him. She shook Viola’s hand like an automaton.

  ‘Simon Jonas told us all about you,’ Viola said with a smile.

  Katie shook her head, bewildered. ‘Simon?’

  ‘He rang the office looking for sponsorship for you. A week at the castello seemed the obvious answer.’

  Her bewilderment increased. ‘It was Simon’s idea I came here?’

  Viola laughed prettily. ‘No, I have to admit that bit of inspiration was down to me.’

  The nightmare closed in. Katie felt suffocated by it. She put a hand to her throat. ‘Oh?’ she managed.

  ‘Killing two birds with one stone,’ Viola said in what she clearly thought was an explanation. ‘Haydon needed an alibi.’

  Katie sat down rather suddenly. ‘I don’t understand.’

  Viola became confiding. ‘You see there have been takeover rumours about the company. Didn’t he tell you?’

  Katie thought. Haydon had said something about that. She nodded.

  ‘Well, it’s not easy to deal with rumours. If you issue a flat statement that nothing is going to happen, everyone thinks there must have been something in the rumour after all. No smoke without fire and all that. So we advised that Haydon should go off for a private holiday. Take a girlfriend. Be seen not to be worried about the company.’

  Katie said nothing. The blonde looked at her rather impatiently.

  ‘Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Katie. Her lips felt numb.

  Viola detected displeasure.

  ‘You don’t mind, do you? Being cast as the girlfriend, I mean? I’m sorry—we didn’t think to ask if you had a boyfriend who would object.’

  Katie pulled herself together. ‘No, you didn’t, did you?’ she said drily.

  Some of Viola’s pretty apology evaporated. ‘Well, you got a free break out of it.’

  ‘So I did.’

  Viola was not used to criticism. ‘If I could have left London, there wouldn’t have been any need for the pretence, of course,’ she said stiffly. ‘But I had to deal with the press. Convince them that Haydon was otherwise occupied. Make them believe the story. That’s my job.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re very good at it,’ said Katie.

  The tone was so neutral that Viola could not be sure whether she was being insulted or not. Her habitual confidence wavered for a moment and she flushed. It did not endear Katie to her.

  ‘Well, you can’t think Haydon would have brought you out here if I hadn’t put the idea into his head?’ she said sharply.

  Katie gave her a level look. ‘I can’t tell what Haydon would or would not do, can I?’ she said. ‘I don’t know him at all.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Viola, relieved. ‘No, you don’t, do you?’

  Katie did not answer. The sense of nightmare was dissipating into a huge anger. How could he? Oh, how could he? Last night he had said—

  She caught herself. Well, no, last night he had not actually said anything. The declarations, such as they were, had all come from her. Oh, he had held her and touched and kissed her as if he loved her. But, now she thought about it, he had not said anything very much at all.

  Knowing what she knew now, Katie saw that the omission must have been deliberate. The betrayal was total. And calculated.

  Viola watched the expressions chase across Katie’s face. She could not read them too well but the simmering silence made her uneasy. She became conciliating again.

  ‘I hope you managed to get lots of work done, anyway.’

  Work? If she had not been so angry, Katie would have laughed aloud.

  ‘You could say that.’ She stood up. ‘In fact I should be working now.’ She gave Viola a blind smile. ‘If you’ll excuse me . . .?’

  ‘Oh.’ Viola was clearly taken aback. She put out a hand to stop her.

  ‘What now?’ said Katie, her impatience showing.

  ‘Well, now I’m here. . . I mean, did you think you would be staying?’

  Katie began to realise there was a further message here that she had managed to miss. ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘I couldn’t come out with Haydon because I was fielding the press enquiries,’ Viola explained patiently. ‘But that’s all taken care of now. I brought the photographers out here and they are on their way back with their shots even as we speak. So I can come off duty.’

  ‘Photographers?’ Katie was suddenly pale. ‘What shots?’

  ‘I was looking forward to spending some time alone with Haydon. I haven’t been here since Christmas, you see, and—’

  ‘What photographers?’

  ‘We really need to talk. He’s been so busy. And it’s never easy running a relationship with the boss, is it?’

  ‘What shots?’

  Viola appeared surprised. ‘Why, you and Haydon together. I told you, he had to prove he was deep in his own affair. Hence the romantic performance for the telephoto lenses.’

  Katie was speechless.

  Viola said helpfully, ‘Last night? You and Haydon in the garden? Against the fountain? That’s supposed to be a real cracker, so the boys were saying.’

  Katie thought she would die of the pain. Those moments in the garden had felt so magical. And she had thought it was because they were special. She had thought she was falling in love for the first time in her life.

  A horrid thought occurred to her.

  ‘That’s why he put all the floodlights on,’ Katie said on a note of discovery. She felt sick.

  Oh, they had been special moments all right. Specially and carefully staged for the camera. She supposed she should be grateful for the telephoto lenses. Otherwise she would have the additional humiliation of wondering what the hidden photographers had heard as well as seen. This way at least they had stayed at a decent distance and she might, eventually, recover some of her lost self-respect.

  Viola’s laugh tinkled. ‘Are you telling me Haydon didn’t tell you what was going on? That really is too bad of him.’

  Katie looked at her, too shocked to speak.

  ‘I’m afraid he hasn’t been entirely fair to you,’ Viola admitted. ‘Simon told me you called him a philistine. I’m afraid,’ she added confidingly, ‘that would have got Haydon on the raw. He’s rather proud of his record as a patron of the arts.’

  ‘I didn’t—’ Katie began. And stopped.

  She was remembering rather too vividly her conversation with Simon in the bistro. She had known Haydon was listening—and he knew she knew. She had even known he was annoyed. But to revenge himself like this!

  Viola said kindly, ‘In the circumstances, it’s best for everyone if you go, don’t you think?’

  Katie jumped. ‘Go?’

  ‘Back to England,’ said Viola, hanging onto her patience with visible effort.

  ‘Oh, that. I can’t,’ said Katie, not without a certain remote satisfaction. ‘Haydon has already told me I can’t. I haven’t got an open ticket, you see. I’m stuck here till Sunday.’

  She did not want to.stay, but it was nice to harass the enemy. And she did not doubt that, smile she never so sweetly, Viola Lennox was her enemy. Katie did not care. The problem—the awful, unbelievable problem—was that Haydon Tremayne was her enemy too.

&
nbsp; All of a sudden grief rose up in her throat like bile. She knew she had to be alone.

  ‘Excuse me,’ she said abruptly.

  She pushed past Viola without another word, and fled to her tower.

  Haydon found her there. It might have been hours later or only minutes. Katie did not know. All Katie knew was that everything Viola Lennox had said made a horrible kind of sense. Certainly more sense than any crazy fantasy that Haydon Tremayne, millionaire, might have fallen in love with the scruffy girl next door. The scarred, scruffy girl next door. By then, she could not stop shaking.

  He walked in without ceremony, flinging the door back on its ancient hinges.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’

  Katie huddled her arms round her. Below the thin shirt her scar was rough under her fingers. She barely noticed it.

  Haydon surveyed her frowningly. ‘I’m sorry Viola turned up—’

  Katie gave a bark of laughter. It was an ugly sound. ‘I’ll just bet you are.’

  His frown deepened. To Katie’s shocked fury he looked annoyed. What right did he have to be annoyed? she thought.

  ‘It never occurred to me she would.’

  ‘Oh?’ said Katie. She was so angry, she stopped clutching herself and took an intemperate step forward. Her eyes blazed.

  ‘What was she supposed to do? Show the photographers where to put up their cameras and then push off?’

  Haydon was very still for a moment. ‘Photographers?’

  ‘Wasn’t that who she was supposed to bring? What did you want? A full film crew?’

  He said in a discovery of his own, ‘You think I arranged it?’

  Katie gave him a sweet, poisonous smile. ‘Oh, no. I’m sure you left it all to Miss Lennox to arrange. I gather she is the professional. And thoroughly in your confidence.’

  Unforgivably, he looked amused. ‘Jealous, Katie?’

  ‘Jealous?’ She thought she was going to explode with rage. ‘Jealous? What have I got to be jealous about?’

  His eyes glinted. ‘Not a thing. I’m glad you realise it.’

  Katie. ignored that. ‘I just don’t like being tricked,’ she said furiously.

  ‘Tricked?’ Haydon looked thunderstruck.

  ‘When I agreed to come here, I didn’t realise that starring in your corporate photograph album was part of the deal.’

  Suddenly he was not looking amused any more. ‘Corporate—? Don’t talk nonsense,’ he said curtly.

  ‘Hardly nonsense. I hear the photographers got a good one of you kissing me by the fountain last night,’ Katie flung at him.

  There was a short, tense silence. Then Haydon smiled. It was not a nice smile.

  ‘I must remember to order one of those,’ he drawled.

  Katie stared. She was shocked as she had not been shocked before. Surely nobody could be that callous?

  ‘How dare you?’ she said in an icy whisper.

  ‘What drama!’ Haydon was mocking. ‘Let’s get real for a moment.’

  Katie was white to the lips. Not entirely with temper. ‘I see why they say you’re single-minded,’ she said contemptuously. ‘All this because I once made the mistake of calling you a philistine?’

  The dark brows locked in a frowning line. ‘What nonsense is this?’

  She raised her chin defiantly. ‘You thought I needed teaching a lesson, didn’t you?’

  Haydon looked taken aback. ‘Well, yes, for a moment, I did—’

  She could not bear any more. She flung up a hand to stop him.

  ‘Congratulations,’ she flung at him. ‘You did it. This has been a lesson I won’t ever forget.’

  ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ His contempt equalled hers. ‘Cut the dramatics for a moment and listen.’

  It was too much.

  ‘I won’t,’ she said passionately.

  He took a quick step towards her and caught her by the shoulders.

  ‘You will listen if I have to lock us both in while you do,’ he said grimly.

  Katie glared at him. She tried to tear herself out of his grip. But he was too strong for her. His eyes fell to her breast. It rose and fell as if she had been running. His mouth twisted at the sight.

  ‘Look, Katie, we ought to do better than this,’ he said in quite another voice. ‘Let me—’

  That was the voice he had used last night. When she had realised she had fallen in love. When he had not mentioned the word. In spite of everything she felt herself melting in response to it. For a moment she hated him.

  ‘No,’ Katie groaned.

  ‘I don’t know what Viola told you—’

  ‘Let me go,’ she said, trying to haul away from him almost violently.

  He held her easily. ‘Listen to me.’

  She twisted her body this way and that, her fists beating fruitlessly at his chest. ‘Let me go,’ she panted.

  He caught her hands and held them strongly. ‘Katie, this is ridiculous.’

  His touch set last night’s smouldering fires leaping again. She could not bear it. With a strength she did not know she possessed, Katie tore herself away. Her breath came in little gasps of distress. She crashed into the furniture as she stumbled away from him, her eyes blinded by tears. Tears of rage, she assured herself, dashing them angrily away.

  ‘Katie!’

  She swung round on him. She was off balance and collapsed ridiculously onto the bed. It infuriated her even further.

  ‘Go to hell.’ She was almost crying aloud.

  He put a hand out to her. She slapped it away instinctively, before realising, too late, that he was holding out a handkerchief. She sniffed.

  Haydon sat on the side of the bed, facing her. He looked at her gravely. He offered her the handkerchief again.

  Katie snatched it and blew her nose hard.

  ‘I hate you,’ she said.

  ‘No, you don’t.’ The smile was back in his voice. ‘You’re in a temper with me. But you’ll get over it.’

  She blinked sticky lashes. ‘Don’t you patronise me, you double-crossing bastard.’

  ‘When did I double-cross you?’ Haydon asked, with odious reason.

  When you let me think you loved me.

  No, she could not say that, of course she could not. Especially when he had been so careful not to say anything of the kind.

  Katie said harshly, ‘You’ve done nothing else from the moment we met. You even lied to me about your name as long as you could get away with it. I should have remembered that.’

  Haydon winced. But he could not deny it.

  Goaded, Katie went on, ‘I suppose it amused you? Paying off an old score like that.’

  Haydon looked aghast. ‘Paying off—?’

  But Katie was not listening. ‘I suppose I should be thankful Viola Lennox turned up when she did. Heaven knows how far you would have taken it—’ She broke off with a gasp.

  Haydon had launched himself at her and she found herself lying flat on her back. He had her hands pinned to the pillow on either side of her head. He was looking down at her with a look she had never seen before. She had never felt so helpless. Yet her very helplessness was oddly exciting.

  ‘Oh, I think we both know exactly how far I can go,’ Haydon said with a glittering smile. ‘How far both of us can go, to be precise.’

  His eyes were filled with explicit recollections. Katie’s face burned. He held her down, looked at her, challenging her to deny that she remembered last night’s lovemaking. Her whole body quickened in response to that look. Katie thought she would die of humiliation.

  She turned her head away from that look, as if it were an interrogator’s spotlight.

  ‘What are you trying to prove?’ Her voice was strained. ‘All right. I admit it. You’re stronger than me. Go ahead.’

  If she’d thought she could shame him into letting her go, she had misjudged him. Even though she was no longer looking at him, she knew that Haydon’s eyes never left her face. He gave a soft laugh.

  �
�More dramatics?’

  He leaned over her until his lips were a whisper away from her exposed throat. But he did not kiss her. Katie had to fight with herself not to arch towards him in sheer need.

  She could have sworn she did not move a muscle. But Haydon knew. Just as he had known her every desire last night without her saying a word.

  ‘What a little hypocrite you are.’

  He drew back. To her horror, Katie gave a small moan of frustration. It was enough. Haydon’s arms closed round her tightly.

  For about thirty seconds Katie kissed him back, her mouth avid. Then she remembered.

  He sensed that too, of course. ‘Katie,’ he said in an urgent under-voice.

  But it was too much. She could no longer even pretend the tears away. She fell back into the pillows and felt the tears trickle out from under her closed eyelids.

  ‘Katie,’ he said again, shaken.

  Quite suddenly the limitation on her air ticket seemed irrelevant. As long as she got away from Haydon, Katie did not care if she spent the rest of the week walking back to Pisa airport. She would sleep under the sky if necessary.

  ‘I’m going,’ she said in a choked voice, turning away from him. Eyes tight shut, she curled up into a protective ball. She was beyond thinking about her dignity. ‘You can do what you like. But as soon as I can, I’m leaving. Today.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  KATIE got back to the London house that evening. There were a number of messages on the machine. Most of them seemed to have been logged while she was in transit. Haydon had called five times, his tone increasingly impatient The last message was from Simon Jonas.

  Katie decided to call him back, before she lost her head of steam. She dialled. He picked up the phone at once.

  ‘Katie? Thank God. What happened to you? Tremayne has been going spare.’

  ‘Tremayne,’ said Katie coldly, ‘is a rat. As big a rat as you.

  ‘Me?’ Simon was blank.

  ‘You tricked me into going away with him. There’s a name for that.’

  She could hear Simon’s discomfort. ‘Oh, come on, Katie. He’s a respectable patron of the arts. We’re not talking the white slave trade, here.’

  ‘That’s all you know.’ She was so angry she was nearly in tears again. She dashed them away impatiently. ‘Listen to me, Simon. I want you to give him a message for me.’