Heart On Fire Part 10

"What do you want me to do? Be as disagreeable as you are?" Claudia snapped, then drew a shaky breath and turned pale, horrified.

"At least that wouldn't leave me feeling I was being treated like a child or an idiot!"

"I certainly didn't mean to make you feel like that!"

"Then why are you always so polite and careful what you say?" he muttered, turning his blind grey eyes in her direction, looking astonis.h.i.+ngly like Ellis, his mouth turned down at the corners and his brows together.

"If it's raining and I say it's a sunny day, you'd d.a.m.n well agree with me."

"I'm sorry," she said unhappily.

"Don't keep saying you're sorry, either! All the girls who come here are the samemsilly, whimpering females, forever on the verge of tears! Stephen seemed to think you were different, but you're just like all the rest."

"Well, if you bullied them the way you've bullied me, that isn't so surprising! You probably scared them out of their wits." Claudia saw that there was no point in being polite and patient, any more. She might as well tell him what she really thought.

"They didn't have any wits to be scared out of!" he insisted, grimacing, then sat in silence for a moment, before asking roughly, "Do I scare you?"

"Frequently," she said, and there was a faint, tentative smile in her voice.

Quentin Lefevre turned his head, as if listening to something other than her words, then smiled rather drily.

"Maybe I am sometimes bad-tempered. If so, I am sorry. There! I've apologised. Now, will you stop acting like my nurse? Do you imagine I want a secretary with no brain? A robot to answer the telephone ~nd type? What use is that to me? I want someone I can talk to, someone with brains." His 'voice was rough. "You are the only person so far who has read what I'm writing... So, tell me what you think!"

"I'm fascinated," she said frankly.

"You've made me laugh and you've made me cry... I think Sit wonderful stuff and it will be a big hit."

His face slowly flushed.

"Thank you."

From that moment on, his temper was less hair-trigger, his moods less black.

Sometimes, he reverted, and she learnt when to tread warily, but at least they had begun to talk openly to each other.

"Stephen warned you not to argue with me?he said one day, grimacing.

"Well, I'm not surprised. He never does, nor does Celeste, or my doctor.

They soothe me and placate me and agree with everything I say, however crazy.

n.o.body really talks to me any more. I never hear what's happening in the corporation, n.o.body comes to see me; they report to Ellis now, they ignore me.

"I'm n.o.body, I've been marooned on 95 a desert island." He was getting excited again, his face wearing a dark flush, lines of temper around his mouth.

"Ellis has given orders that I shouldn't be told a d.a.m.n thing! He makes sure he never comes near me, either."

"Do you want to see him?" she asked, watching his face with attention.

Quentin stared into that interior darkness of his, frowning.

"I am his father. He should want to see me," was all he said, fiercely.

She helped Celeste lay the table for dinner that evening, and tentatively asked her if she thought Quentin secretly missed his elder son, and Celeste gave her a wry look.

"Oh, yes! But he would die rather than admit it, and Ellis... he would die rather than risk being turned away at the front door. They are both like the Chinese--losing face is too important to them."

Standing back, she eyed the completed table, nodding in satisfaction.

"That will do! Thank you, chdrie. You are going to make someone a useful wife, one day."

Claudia laughed, but was secretly flattered. She liked Celeste; the cool, dry personality of the Frenchwoman was a mask for a far warmer and more affectionate nature. Celeste, like Quentin himself, was not easy to get to know.

When' Stephen drove down the next time, "Claudia raised the subject of Ellis with him, too. He only ever stayed for a few hours, usually for lunch, but it was pleasant to have his company and Claudia was becoming quite fond of him. He had a gentle, appealing personality which was strangely unlike that of either his father or his brother.

"He complained that Ellis had not been to see him, but when I asked if he wanted to see Ellis he just said Ellis ought to want to see him." She gave Stephen a laughing grimace, and he smiled back; "That sounds like him! He can be as stubborn as a mule. Well, when Ellis comes home, I'." drop him a hint rebut I don't know if he will take it. He's as b.l.o.o.d.y-minded and difficult as the old man. " "And that's saying something," Claudia grimaced, getting a quick, searching look from Stephen.

"How are you getting on with him now? I know he has been quite tough with you..."

"Well, I hope we're getting on rather better now. We had a bit of a row yesterday, a few very nasty moments, but ever since he has been quite good-tempered." She paused, then grinned.

"For him!"

"You like him!" Stephen said, amused, and she nodded.

"I'm beginning to, now that I'm getting to know him."

She was to go home for the weekend, her first weekend off, and Stephen offered to drive her back to London after lunch.

"So I'm going to have some peace and quiet, am I?" grunted Quentin Lefevre, his lower lip stuck out mulishly.

"Will you miss me?" Claudia teased and got a startled look from Stephen, amazed to hear his father being teased, but Quentin gave a grunt of laughter.

"Miss you? As much as I would miss a wasp buzzing in my hair?

On the drive to London, Stephen said, "I couldn't believe my ears! My father actually laughed when you teased him!

You're doing a wonderful job, Claudia. He hasn't smiled like that for months! I can't tell you how grateful I am."

97 He asked her to have dinner with him that evening, but she had already promised to help in the restaurant that evening, so she agreed to a date with him on the Sunday lunchtime.

"We'll have a long, leisurely meal, and then I'll drive you back to my father's house afterwards," he promised.

Annette was full of eager, excited questions when Claudia arrived at the flat. They had talked on the phone, but now she listened with fascination to fuller descriptions of Quentin, Celeste, the house, the flat above the boathouse, even the three wolfish Alsatians.

"But if they are let loose at night, how do you get through the. garden to your flat?" she asked, frowning.

"Quentin eats dinner very early, he goes to bed at about nine-thirty.

If I eat with him, the dogs aren't let out until I'm safely in the boathouse.

" "Oh, yes?" Annette said belligerently.

"And what if there's an emergency and you need to get back to the house in a hurry? If you were taken ill, for instance, or there was a fire, or an accident?"

"If I ever need to come back to the house, I'll have to ring the garage flat, which is where the chauffeur lives, and tell him to lock the dogs up again.

He's in charge of them, you see. He feeds them and handles them."

"What's he like?"

"Quiet. I rarely see him. Mr. Lefevre doesn't go out much, so he doesn't need his cfiauffeur often. George keeps busy doing other things, though, he works hard all by himselfmmows the lawns, looks after the security system itself rathe gates are electrified and so is the wall around the garden.

n.o.body can get in, except from the river, through the boathouse sand if they did get through that way the dogs would have them."

"It would make me very nervous living like that!" Annette said, and Claudia shrugged.

"You do get used to it quite quickly."

Pierre yelled for both of them to come and help lay the tables, so the subject of the Lefevre household was dropped. It was a hectic weekend, and by the time Stephen picked her up on Sunday lunchtime Claudia was shattered and very glad to see him.

He took her to a houseboat on the Thames, which had been turned into a small, unique, exclusive and very expensive restaurant. There were only five tables, but the food was incredible and Claudia had a wonderful time. It was dusk by the time Stephen returned her to his father's house. She called in to rea.s.sure Quentin that she was back, had a drink with him and Stephen, and then walked down through the gardens to her own place, deciding that she needed an early night.

She had eaten too much already, so she showered, drank some warm milk, and then went to bed, falling asleep almost at once.

She slept heavily for some hours, and then a sound woke her and she sat up in bed, eyes wide and startled. Someone else was in the flat.

She could hear breathing, movements, there was a crack of light under her bedroom door.

How could anyone have got in? she thought, dazedly, and then it came to her in a flash of horrified recollection--she had been so tired last night that she had forgotten to bolt her front door. The intruder must have come from the river--n.o.body could get past the Alsatians in the garden!

She put a shaky hand out to the phone to ring George, in the garage, but as she did so her door opened. She saw the shape of a tall man outlined against the light in the corridor, and gasped in shock.

"Who the h.e.l.l is that?" the intruder grated, and Claudia had a second shock as she recognised that deep, horribly familiar voice. She didn't need to answer. The bedroom light was switched on and Ellis Lefevre stared at her across the room, his black brows swooping upwards incredulously.

"You? What on earth are you doing here?" His eyes narrowed, hardened, glittering, and he turned an angry, dark red. The way he looked at her made Claudia feel sick, suddenly. She had known he was furious with her, but she could see then that he actually hated her. There was bitter distaste in his face. Before she could get out a syllable, he said harshly, "Oh, I get it--stupid of me not to work it out at once! Stephen installed you here, did he? Does my father know? No, of course he doesn't, he wouldn't let Stephen keep a woman in this flat." Those fierce eyes flicked down over her with contempt, from her ruffled, dishevelled hair and flushed face, her pale, bare shoulders, to the filmy white silk nightdress which clung to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, revealing rather than hiding them.

Claudia's face burned, as much with rage as with embarra.s.sment.

"No, you're mistaken," she began, but Ellis's voice rose over hers, drowning her explanation.

"It's you and Stephen who've made the mistake. He isn't using my father's home as a love nest. You can get dressed and get out of here tonight."

CHAPTER SIX.

CLAUDIA was so violently angry that she was trembling. She couldn't speak because her head was choked with all the things she wanted to say to Ellis.

She wanted to tell him precisely what she thought of him, and even more she wanted to hit the man. But he had her at a disadvantage. He was fully dressed, in formal dark clothes which somehow made what he had just said to her even more shocking--and she was in bed, in a transparent nightdress. It made her too self-conscious, it made her vulnerable, it even made the insults he had thrown at her seem justified, and she had to change that.

She had to get out of bed and get dressed--but she couldn't do that while he watched her. She wasn't even getting up and going into the bathroom to dress, until he had left this room. It made her feel quite ill to imagine those grey eyes of his flicking up ~and down her body as she got out of bed.

She had to get him out of this room before she got up and dressed.

"Well? Nothing to say?" he sneered.

"Or are you trying to work out some way of persuading me to change my mind?"

His eyes had a dangerous brilliance as they wandered down over her, and his smile made her face burn.

"Well, now, that would depend on what you were thinking of offering me. I might be tempted--with the right offer."

"You... You..." Claudia couldn't get the words out, she was too distraught, and she had to calm down. She tensely counted to ten in her head, her dilated 101 green eyes still holding his mocking stare. She willed herself to slow down--her heartbeat, her breathing, her mind itself. She had to be cool. If she was to manoeuvre him out of this room, she had to have herself under control. What had she learnt about him if not that he would meet anger with anger, force with force?

She took a long, long breath and managed to say quietly: "Will you wait in the sitting-room, Mr. Lefevre? I will get dressed and join you."

His mouth twisted with icy mockery.

"Or I could get undressed, and join you!"

He took a step closer to the bed and Claudia felt her pulse leap disturbingly.

She still struggled to stay calm, her voice level, "You may think that's funny, Mr. Lefevre, but I'm afraid I'm not amused."

"Neither am I," he said, a faint huskiness in his voice suddenly, and he took another step. His eyes glittered; their black pupils dilated with s.e.xual excitement as he stared at her smooth-skinned, bare shoulders and her half-naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Claudia clutched the sheet and pulled it up to hide her body from that arrogant, intimate a.s.sessment. "Get out of here!" she burst out, beginning to be really scared.

"Don't you come any closer or " Or what? " he asked, suddenly right beside the-bed, and she couldn't breathe at all, her mouth was dry and her ears were deafened by the sound of her own blood pumping far too rapidly around her body.

"What will you do if I come closer, Claudia?" he whispered, and she trembled, shrinking back against the pillow.

"Show me what you're going to do, Claudia," he said in that low, husky, voice, his mouth curving in a taunt, and suddenly he was on the bed, sitting on the edge of it and reaching for her.

I'I,IC"~.KI UIN I'IKI" "NoV she cried out in panic, beating his hands away, but she was too late to stop him.

He pulled her up towards him with those strong, sinewy hands of his, his grip so fierce that he hurt her. She struggled wildly, her red-gold hair tossing around her, but she couldn't break free, and.

Ellis held her captive for a second, inches away from 'him, staring down into her wide, panic-stricken green eyes. She could hear the rough drag of his breathing, see a little tic going beside his mouth.