Two-Timing Love. Kate Proctor
pleasantries was an entirely alien concept to them.
Gil had obviously said all he wanted to say, Jenny decided, then rose to her feet and mimed a goodbye. It was the staying hand the man on the telephone raised towards her that returned her to her seat. A few moments later he terminated the call.
‘One further point,’ he rapped out. ‘I believe you brought a child to the office yesterday.’
‘Yes, I—’
‘I don’t remember any mention of your having a child during your interviews,’ he interrupted coolly.
‘He’s not mine. He—’
‘Glad to hear it. Apart from anything else, the presence of an infant would do nothing for the image we like to maintain within the company.’
‘No, I’m sure it wouldn’t,’ agreed Jenny with acerbic quietness, her sense of justice outraged by his refusal to hear out her excuse. ‘Though it won’t happen again, I can assure you,’ she added, surprised to find he appeared to have taken her agreement completely at face value.
‘I’m sure it won’t,’ stated Gil, his smile as brisk and confident as his words. ‘I’m a firm believer in tackling problems as and when they arise—it makes for better working relationships all round.’ He leaned back against the soft black leather of the executive chair. ‘And I’ve a feeling you will fit in and enjoy a very good working relationship with us, Jenny…I most certainly hope we shall.’
The sound of laughter drifted to Jenny’s ears as she let herself into Jamie’s flat that evening. She pulled a small face of discontent—she didn’t feel in the least like socialising, especially not with one of the exotic creatures Jamie seemed to get entangled with, which the feminine lightness of the laughter warned her might well be the case.
‘Jenny—in here!’ his voice called to her. ‘I’ve a surprise for you.’
She removed her jacket and walked into the sitting-room, experiencing a flash of irritation as her suspicions were confirmed. Seated on the sofa next to Jamie, and with a docile Jonathan on her knee, was a woman of exactly the type she had expected. Most of Jamie’s women tended to be flawless creatures who looked as though they had stepped out of a fashion magazine—and this one wasn’t exactly plain!
‘I was just going to take a shower,’ she announced vaguely, feeling thoroughly disgruntled.
‘Bad day at the office, darling?’ drawled Jamie, a remark that brought a flicker of surprise to the face of the woman next to him and an angry tensing in Jenny.
Deciding to ignore his remark, she gave the woman a half-hearted smile of greeting, then turned to leave.
‘Jennifer!’ Jamie’s sharply censorious tone halted her. ‘I’d like you to meet Mandy—our salvation.’
Jenny swung round. ‘Our salvation?’ she queried, not bothering to attempt hiding her puzzlement.
‘Most definitely,’ stated Jamie, bestowing a smile of supreme contentment on the woman now adjusting the baby on her knee in order to reach out a hand to Jenny—a hand which, for the sake of good manners, Jenny felt obliged to walk over and accept. ‘Mandy’s going to be looking after Jonathan as from tomorrow.’
‘Really?’ choked Jenny, the casual announcement knocking the breath from her.
‘I’d better leave Jamie to explain,’ exclaimed the woman with a small gasp of consternation as she looked at her watch. ‘I’d no idea it was so late!’
Jamie solicitously took his nephew from her as she struggled to her feet, then rose to his own.
‘Can I give you a lift anywhere?’ he asked.
Mandy shook her head, an action, Jenny noted ill-humouredly, that seemed to interfere with her balance as she was forced to place a hand on Jamie’s arm for support.
‘I’ve got my own transport—but thanks for the offer,’ murmured Mandy, smiling up at him. ‘Sorry I’ve to dash like this, Jennifer, but I’ll see you in the morning,’ she added.
Jenny remained silent as she watched the curvaceous Mandy bid her farewell to the baby—an act which, to Jenny’s increasingly acute perception, seemed to involve her almost burying her head, with its gleaming, shoulder-length cascade of hair almost the same colour as Jenny’s own, against Jamie as she kissed the unprotesting infant. And as she watched man, woman and child leave the room she felt a murderous rage churning within her. How dared he? Did he honestly believe she would hand Jonathan into the so-called care of some dolly bird who happened to have caught his eye?
It was several moments before Jamie reappeared at the door, the baby still in his arms.
‘I’ll just put him in his pram,’ he muttered, scowling across the room at her, then disappeared.
Well, at least he had managed to get a pram, Jenny told herself, a thought which did nothing to lessen the anger and indignation trembling within her as she marched off to her own room and began impatiently removing her clothes. There had actually been an element of accusation in that scowling look he had flung her—as though she were in some way at fault!
Trying to calm herself, she slipped into a housecoat and picked up her clothes. She needed a shower, she decided, if only to give her time to compose herself before confronting that…that…
‘So this is where you’re hiding,’ observed Jamie, strolling into the room unannounced and right up to her. ‘And what the hell was that about just now?’ he demanded, gazing down at her from coldly assessing eyes.
‘Get out of here!’ she exploded, taking an involuntary step back from him and finding the backs of her legs trapped against the bed.
‘Not until you’ve explained what that ill-mannered performance of yours was all about.’
‘Ill-mannered! You’ve got a nerve!’ she croaked indignantly. ‘The agreement was that the two of us would interview any prospective nannies!’
‘At the time, if I rightly remember, you were all for my doing it alone,’ he retorted, flinging himself down on the bed and gazing up at her accusingly.
‘That’s hardly the point,’ hissed Jenny, glowering down at him. ‘How do you imagine Clare’s going to feel when she hears you’ve roped in one of your…your floozies to look after her child?’
‘I’ve no idea,’ he drawled, his eyes narrowing angrily as he propped himself up on his elbows.
‘For God’s sake, Jamie, don’t you think it’s about time you grew up and started taking life seriously?’
‘Oh—now we’re back to how irresponsible I am, are we?’ he said, his tone ominously quiet. ‘Exactly what is it that makes you think you have some God-given right to be my judge and jury, Jenny? I think it’s time you were reminded of a few facts.’
‘I don’t need reminding of anything. All I—’
‘You’re eight years my junior—the kid sister of one of my closest friends. It probably seems to you that I’ve been around for as long as you can remember…but the fact is that you don’t know me any more than I know you. You seem to be stuck in some sort of time-warp, repeating all the dire warnings the village biddies used to trot out when I was still a kid—’
‘That’s not fair!’
‘No—it isn’t,’ he snapped. ‘Yes, I was a tearaway as a kid, and yes, I have had possibly more than my fair share of women—but I can assure you, Jenny, not one of them is a floozie—’
‘I’m sorry,’ she cut in hastily, shame staining her cheeks. ‘I had no right to say that…it’s just that I feel so responsible for Jonathan.’
‘And you think I don’t?’
Jenny opened her mouth to protest, then clamped it firmly shut. There