For an instant Hayley battled against a feeling of hopelessness that she should even try to get the better of this man. Then her courage reasserted itself. What had she to lose now by standing up for herself?
‘It isn’t a disguise,’ she argued heatedly, because the accusation wasn’t true. Or at least, only after a fact. ‘How could I possibly know Marcus Maury would turn out to be you?’
He grimaced wryly. ‘You mean you didn’t recognise me on the train?’
She was genuinely puzzled. ‘On the train? Why on earth should I?’
She stared at him, remembering that his name had seemed familiar, but, though she studied him carefully, his face was the face of a stranger. If she ever had seen him before, with those distinctive features, she was sure she would have remembered.
‘I’m not a city girl, in fact just a country bumpkin.’ Her mouth curled. ‘If you’re famous or something, I wouldn’t know.’
‘Prominent, perhaps, rather than famous.’ He seemed unperturbed by her contempt. ‘But certainly quite well known.’
‘But not well known enough, unfortunately, to reach my former humble domain,’ Hayley sniped at his arrogance. ‘I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings too much.’
He said drily, ‘I’ll survive.’
The interview wasn’t going at all well, Hayley realised with some misgiving, but she wasn’t about to give up without a fight. ‘However, I don’t think this has much to do with anything. I’m offering you my services as secretary, not myself.’
‘No, of course not,’ he intoned mockingly. ‘That you keep for strange men travelling on public transport.’
Hayley’s face flamed, but she kept her voice steady. ‘That was the result of an unforeseen emergency, as I told you.’
He nodded. ‘But you haven’t explained the emergency.’
‘And I’m not going to.’ Hayley was dimly aware that the situation was getting out of hand, but somehow she seemed bent on self-destruction.
‘Because you can’t find an explanation that’s feasible?’ He gave her a measured look.
Red-faced, Hayley retorted, ‘No. Because it’s none of your damned business.’
He seemed perfectly calm. ‘I think your behaviour rather made it my business.’
‘And I disagree.’
Blue eyes locked into velvet-brown in silent struggle, neither seeming willing to give way. They’d obviously reached a stalemate.
Hayley’s breath was short and sharp, her feelings more of dismay than anger. There seemed little to salvage now but her pride.
‘I don’t think there’s much point in my staying, do you, Mr Maury?’ she said with dignity. ‘You probably have others to interview, so I won’t take up any more of your time.’
She stood up a little shakily, but this time it wasn’t the shoes that made the ground beneath her feet feel unsafe.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. Making a pyramid of his fingers, he placed the tips against his firm chin.
‘I haven’t, as a matter of fact. That is, there are no others to interview. It could be something to do with the fact that the post is temporary.’
She stood woodenly before him, making no comment.
With an irritable gesture he growled, ‘Oh, do sit down, girl.’
Hayley sat, facing him mutely, waiting for round two of the battle which she knew she couldn’t win. He held all the aces.
To her surprise he said, ‘You can understand English, type accurately and spell correctly, I suppose?’
‘Of course,’ Hayley answered, lifted out of her depression by astonishment.
He gave a grim laugh. ‘No “Of course” about it. I’ve been treated to some pretty imaginative efforts from other applicants in the past couple of days, and, quite frankly, I haven’t any more time to waste.’
Hayley felt a ray of hope. Perhaps all was not yet lost. Her abilities in the areas he’d mentioned were never in doubt. ‘I’d be quite happy to take a test.’
He shot a quick look at his watch, his firm lips in a tight line. ‘I haven’t time for that either. It’ll have to be a real job of work or we might as well both forget it.’
She gave him a wary look. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? Despite a feeling that this was all too good to be true, Hayley’s eyes brightened.
‘And as I said, it’s temporary, to last only until Audrey’s well enough to come back.’
She nodded. ‘I understand.’
Even a temporary job would be better than nothing. It would give her a chance to gain experience of working in the city and earn her some money to pay her shared expenses.
‘And the salary?’ she said, trying not to sound tentative. She was worth as much as she could get.
He grinned sardonically. ‘Saving the most important thing till last?’
‘Of course. We all have to live, Mr Maury.’
‘True.’
He named a figure which took Hayley’s breath away. It seemed like a fortune, until she remembered the high cost of living in London.
‘Subject to satisfactory performance, that is.’
‘But of course.’ She managed to sound composed. ‘OK. I agree.’
He stood up and came around the desk, looking down at her assessingly, his eyes moving quickly from her neatly coiled hair to her chicly clad feet. He seemed satisfied with what he saw.
‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that you also take shorthand.’
‘I do, as a matter of fact.’ Hayley couldn’t help feeling a little smug. ‘A hundred and twenty words a minute.’
In his prime, Mr Heaton Senior had kept her speed up with the hasty gabble he’d called dictation.
‘Minutes? Verbatim?’
‘If that’s what you want.’
‘Not entirely. Just the salient parts would do.’
It was the first time she had seen him genuinely smile, and the effect transformed his good looks to devastating. She sat transfixed by the unexpected gleam of approval in those piercing blue eyes.
‘And you’ve no other appointments for the day?’
Bemused, Hayley shook her head. ‘Not unless the agency’s rung since I went out.’
‘Then let’s go.’
She stared at him disbelievingly. ‘Don’t you at least want to see my curriculum vitae? I mean...’
He frowned as she ground to a halt. ‘You do want the job, don’t you?’
‘Yes, of course, but...’
He gave a short grunt. ‘Then you’ve got it.’
With a sweep of his lean hand he ushered her into the outer office.
‘You can work in here. I understand Audrey won’t be back for quite some time. But for now I’m late for that meeting, and I need you with me. Just grab a notebook and some pencils.’
If she’d been nervous at the thought of the interview, the prospect of minuting a meeting of which she had no background knowledge terrified her. And a quick glance at the frowning profile of Marcus Maury convinced her he wasn’t a man to make allowances.
Still, he was only a man, not God! she comforted herself. And she could only do her best.
And, surprisingly, doing her best didn’t prove that difficult. Marcus Maury did take the time to give her a short briefing. The Maury Corporation was in the process of taking over a number of smaller companies, and this was the preliminary meeting to separate the wheat from the chaff and fine down the options.
There were ten people present in the gleaming boardroom, eight men and two women, all presumably associated in some way with the Maury Corporation. Hayley was aware of quite a few curious glances being thrown her way.
They worked through lunch, with sandwiches and tea and coffee being brought in on trolleys, but Hayley barely touched anything.
Her pencil flew over her notebook, propelled by her interest in the substance of the various reports, and it was only the light touch of Marcus Maury’s hand on her shoulder and the sound of his voice calling a halt to the proceedings that brought he
r back to the realisation of his presence.
‘There are one or two reports still to come,’ he informed the meeting, sounding a little irritable. ‘But the details can be circulated by post as soon as possible, to give everyone a chance to incorporate the information into their findings for the next meeting.’
Chairs scraped as people rose and a general buzz of conversation began.
‘Oh, by the way—’ Marcus Maury cut through the hubbub simply by raising his hand ‘—Audrey Blake’s accident now seems likely to keep her away from the office for some time. I don’t think many of you will have failed to notice my new secretary.’ He indicated Hayley with a brief nod and a wry smile that had Hayley flushing faintly. What exactly had he meant by that? ‘Miss—er—Hayley Morgan, who will be running things in Audrey’s absence.’
She supposed, a little drily, that she should be glad he hadn’t introduced her as Miss Pushy, and there was a glint in his eyes that might mean he was thinking along the same lines.
Hayley looked away swiftly, and smiled a little hesitantly at the assembly.
A murmur ran around the room and a number of people came up to introduce themselves and congratulate her.
Hayley nodded in response to their greetings. She supposed Marcus Maury had had no option but to introduce her, but it all seemed a little premature, since he hadn’t yet seen the results of her work. She wasn’t really concerned about that. Her work was the one area in which she was entirely confident, but that incident on the train had set up some constraint between them, and it was, she felt sure, bound to raise its embarrassing head again at some time in the future. He was a man who obviously preferred reasons to loose ends. She set her chin firmly. Well, he’d just have to accept that she had no intention of tying this one for him.
It would be humiliating, to say the least, to be reporting to him, as her new boss, all the sordid details of her unhappy experiences at the hands of her old boss...or, at least, those of his son.
She wished fervently that he would soon forget and allow her to put the past behind her.
But if experiences could be forgotten, the effects might take a while longer.
As she stood to one side, waiting for Marcus Maury to finish the conversation he was holding with a large white-haired man whom he’d introduced as chief financial officer, a hand touched against the small of her back, startling her into an audible gasp. Heads turned as she shied away from the well-built young man who was looking down at her in amused consternation.
‘Steady,’ he said, removing his hand hastily at the sight of her stricken face. ‘I didn’t mean to frighten you to death.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Martin Lukes, up-and-coming hopeful from the lowest rungs of Finance.’
‘Oh, hello!’ Hayley swallowed hard, managing a smile as she put her hand into his, where, to her dismay, it trembled a little.
He gave her an understanding smile. ‘Has your debut been that nerve-racking?’
Glad of the proffered excuse, she nodded her head. ‘A little.’
Mentally she castigated herself. She really would have to learn not to react so violently to every unexpected touch. Heaton Junior was many miles away, and there seemed nothing of the lecher in the pleasant open face before her.
‘Sorry I jumped,’ she said. ‘I must have been daydreaming.’
He grinned. ‘Don’t let the boss hear you say so. Dreams of any kind are banned during working hours. Concrete plans only are allowed.’
He glanced across the room to where Marcus Maury was looking their way.
‘And, actually, at the moment he doesn’t look too pleased. In fact I think he wants you.’ He winked, before moving away. ‘And who in his right mind wouldn’t?’
Hayley bit her lip and crossed the room in answer to the imperious lift of Marcus Maury’s hand.
Walking back to the office alongside him, Hayley wondered how she’d ever had the nerve to kiss him. If he’d been awake, and emitting this overwhelming air of authority, she would probably never have had the courage to do it. A peculiar tingle shot up her spine as she stole a surreptitious look at that firm, well-shaped mouth. It was incredible to remember that she had kissed him and, what was more, that he had kissed her back.
He turned and caught her gaze on him, and his brows rose questioningly.
‘Is there something you want to say to me?’ He halted to give her his complete attention, much to her consternation.
‘No, I...’ she stammered, racking her brain for inspiration. ‘I just wondered how soon you wanted these minutes typed up.’
His brows rose in a faintly mocking arch. ‘Well, at least you’re keen, and I suppose that’s a start.’
He took her arm as they turned a corner in the corridor, and she steeled herself against the warmth of his fingers through the fabric of her jacket. Anticipating the now familiar inward shudder that came in response to any man’s touch, she was taken completely by surprise by a strange frisson of excitement, and remembered, with renewed confusion, her reaction of pleasure to his kisses on the train.
How could one man’s touch be horror while another’s was magic? she asked herself wonderingly, before she began to pull herself together. She’d given up one job to escape sexual harassment, and had vowed that from now on she would give men—particularly men at work—a very wide berth. Now here she was practically melting at the merest touch of Marcus Maury’s hand. They’d already started off on the wrong foot in that respect and she would need to be extremely careful if she wasn’t to give him the wrong impression and find herself in an even more impossible situation than her last.
She edged surreptitiously away from him and, to her relief, he dropped his hand.
She found herself sighing with relief as they turned into the managing director’s suite.
‘To get back to your earlier question,’ he said, pausing in front of the secretary’s desk as she took her place behind it, ‘I don’t expect miracles on your first day. But I do expect competent interpretation and accuracy of presentation, so take the time to get it right first time.’
Hayley bit her lip. Well, if that wasn’t expecting miracles, she’d like to know what was, she mused wryly.
‘I think you’ll find available somewhere all the necessary stationery, office machinery, etcetera. Samples of presentation you’ll find in the filing system, if you care to look at some back numbers of the minutes.’
‘I’ll manage, thanks,’ Hayley said, superstitiously crossing her fingers. She hadn’t yet had time to identify the computer, and hoped that the manual for the model was available to hand.
‘Good.’ He nodded his satisfaction and turned his disconcerting eyes on her face, with a little frown between his brows.
Hayley caught her breath, wondering what was coming next.
To her surprise he said, ‘You look a little pale. You didn’t eat much at lunch, and, from what I saw in the boardroom, you seem a little jumpy. Are you on a diet or something?’
She shook her head, a little embarrassed that he’d noticed her nervy reaction to Martin Lukes. ‘Pale is my natural colour, and no, I never diet. I just wasn’t hungry. The rest, I think, is probably nervous tension.’
He gave a little shrug, as though he too had been surprised by his own interest.
‘Well, there is a staff tea-room along the corridor if you should feel like a snack later,’ he said, walking towards his office. ‘Meanwhile, if you get stuck on anything, I’ll be here for an hour or two.’
The telephone rang on her desk and he picked it up, answering the caller crisply, before putting the receiver down with a snap. Hayley could see he was a man who hated to waste time on extraneous conversation, one who’d have no patience with girlish chats during working time. Not that she was prone to that sort of thing anyway, but it made her realise what would be expected of Marcus Maury’s personal secretary.
‘I’ll put this through to my room for this afternoon,’ he said. ‘Normally I like my calls to be screened before anyone is pu
t through to me, but I’ll let you off for today.’
Was that real humour or a glint of irony she saw in those cool blue depths? she wondered, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the thought.
Hayley couldn’t believe her luck. The computer was the same as the one she’d used at Heaton’s. It had a more sophisticated printer, but she should manage to work that out when the time came.
The next couple of hours passed in a haze of absorption. All of the companies under option were engineering companies, and Hayley was surprised at the number that were in financial difficulties. If they were incorporated into a larger organisation, however, perhaps there was still a chance of their survival.
The telephone rang frequently and it was a relief not to have to stop to answer it. She was startled, therefore, by the harsh sound of the buzzer, cutting through her concentration and making her heart leap uncomfortably. With fingers that shook slightly, she pressed the intercom.
‘Yes, Mr Maury?’ she said a little breathlessly.
‘Take a break, Miss Morgan.’ His voice sounded richer, deeper, over the telephone. ‘Have a cup of tea or whatever in the staff-room, and bring me a coffee on your way back. Black, no sugar.’
‘Yes, Mr Maury,’ she said again, and put the phone down with a sigh.
Now she came to think about it, she was hungry and tired. It had been a strange day, exhilarating in a way, but exhausting. She couldn’t wait to see Anthea’s face when she told her about her new job and who it was she was working for. Her eyebrows probably wouldn’t come down for a fortnight, Hayley thought with a grin.
The staff tea-room was almost empty. It was obviously the tail-end of the tea-break, and only two girls remained, gossiping cheerfully in the corner. They looked up as Hayley entered and regarded her curiously.
‘Are you new?’ one asked. She was a small, plump blonde with inquisitive blue eyes and a mischievous smile. ‘I haven’t seen you before, have I?’
‘No,’ Hayley said warily. She had a feeling she was speaking to the root of the office grapevine, and didn’t think Marcus Maury would be happy with anyone who nourished it. ‘I started work here today.’
‘Marcus Maury’s new secretary!’ the girls cried in delighted unison.
When Strangers Meet Page 3