Heart On Fire Part 15

"Where is she?" Quentin turned his head from side to side, as if

trying to pick up some sound from Estelle. He held out his hand, smiling politely.

"Estelle... How are you, my dear?"

"She isn't here, Papa," Ellis said quickly.

"I wanted to talk to you alone."

"Ah," said Quentin, letting his hand drop.

"Is she outside?"

"No, Papa, she has left the house."

Claudia risked a quick look at Ellis, hearing that, but his face was as

bland and unreadable as his voice. She wondered if his quarrel with Estelle had been serious--who had won? What significance did Estelle's departure have?

She couldn't tell by watching Ellis. Quentin made a wry little face, looking serious. "Well, so long as she is not here, my boy, I can be frank. You know I never interfere in your private life, either yours or Stephen's. But I must say I was amazed to hear Estelle talking to you just now. Does she always nag you like that? I had no idea she was so' ferocious. Just like her mother, mind you. I remember Enid when she was young--very beautiful, and full of energy, but so domineering.

Before you 140 propose to any woman, my boy, take a look at her mother! It can usually tell you what you will get in twenty years' time!"

"I'll bear that in mind, Papa," Ellis coolly said, walking over to sit on his father's desk, swinging those long legs of his.

"Do, my boy, do." Quentin tilted back his head, noting that his son's voice came from closer at hand. "Now, don't you knock anything off my desk! I have to know where ever~hing is, don'~ I, Claudia?"

"Yes, sir," she said coolly, knowing that Ellis was still staring at her, and averting her own eyes. "Oh, I'm very careful," Ellis said.

Claudia was quite sure of that! He had been very careful about keeping Estelle away from here. It wasn't his fault that she had arrived, blowing all his little plans to smithereens. If it hadn't been for that, Claudia would be in heaven right now, looking forward to meeting-him when he got back from Germany, and no doubt gazing at him, wide-eyed with excitement, while he smiled at her, knowing that his blind father could not see either of them.

"Well, Papa?" he said now, briskly, in his business-like tones "How did you get on with Ernst?"

"He was glad to have a chance to put his side of it to me, he was very frank." Quentin paused, chewing his lower lip, swivelling his head in her direction, the wintry sunlight striking on his lids and giving him the look of a weatherbeaten stone statue with carved eyes.

"Claudia, I'm sorry, my dear, but this is very confidential..."

She immediately got lip.

"Of course, sir, I'll go and see if Celeste needs any help."

141 Quentin looked dubious, knowing Celeste's dislike of having any other female in her kitchen.

"Well... " Or I might just get some coffee," Claudia suggested tactfully, making him smile.

"Would you like some?" "Please," Quentin said.

"I've been talking so much, my throat is as dry as dust."

She avoided Ellis's glance and walked to the door, conscious of his eyes on her at every step, and resenting it. He had almost fooled her; she could kick herself for being taken in like that! Had she really been crazy enough to believe, even for an instant. " that he was serious about her? Her face burned with humiliation as she suddenly remembered how happy she had been a few moments before Estelle arrived.

How could she have forgotten her doubts about him when, right from the start, her common sense had warned her that a man as rich and powerful as Ellis Lefevre would only have one reason for taking an interest in her--he just wanted to get her into bed?

She had been around; you couldn't live in the West End of London, and move in theatrical circles, without becoming pretty sophisticated.

She had had boyfriends, she knew the score where most men were concerned. So why had Ellis Lefevre managed to convince her just now that he was different?

Her mouth twisted in self-contempt. Well, oh-Obviously-her unconscious had wanted to be deceived, of course; she had been eager to believe it. She had been falling for Ellis long before that walk down to the river this morning.

She had been an easy target for his particular brand of guerrilla warfare because she was half in love with him already.

142 Half in love? she bitterly queried as she went into the kitchen.

Rather more than half, wasn't it? d.a.m.n him.

"Qu'est-ce que vous dites?" Celeste asked, lifting a flushed face from the oven in which she was cooking boeuf en daube; a rich, heavy ca.s.serole of beef in a big ca.s.serole dish. The smell pervaded the entire kitchen; vinous, delicious, and one of Quentin's favourite meals.

"I was talking to myself, that's all," Claudia muttered, appalled to think that she had been talking aloud--how much had Celeste heard, for heaven's sake? Hurriedly, she added, "Quentin wants coffee... I'll make it, don't worry."

Celeste fanned her hot face with a tea towel.

"Merci, mais c'est presque prat..." she said tartly, gesturing to a tray on which stood a coffee pot and several cups, sugar bowl, cream jug.

"I was just going to bring it in!"

"They don't want me in there; will you take it in? They're having a confidential discussion. Can I have a cup of your own coffee?"

"Servez-vous!" Celeste shrugged, making for the door, and Claudia picked up the battered French enamelled coffee-pot which always stood on the old range Celeste still preferred to use instead of the elaborate and expensive ovens standing side by side with it in the ultra-modern kitchen. Celeste liked her coffee thick, strong and sweet, which was just how Claudia needed it at that moment.

She was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking her coffee, ten minutes later, when Stephen arrived, his hair windblown and his face urgent after a very fast drive down the motorway from Cambridge.

143 She had heard his car arrive, ~peered out and recognised him, so she met him at the front door. He looked down at 'her, his brown eyes anxious.

"Is everything OK? My father..."

"He's fine," she rea.s.sured him, feeling guilt-stricken because she had forgotten asking him to come at once to deal with Ellis. It seemed such a long time ago, so much had happened since then.

"Oh, Stephen, I'm sorry, I've wasted your time; you need not have come at all, nothing has happened, they are getting on well and, in fact, your father is enjoying himself enormously. At first, it did seem as if they were going to fight, though, and I'm afraid I panicked.

Stupid of me. I am sorry. " Stephen let his shoulders slacken, sighing.

"Oh, that's OK, don't worry about it. I'd much rather you erred on the side of caution, and with those two, anything could have happened!" He followed her through the house to the kitchen, sniffing.

"Coffee? Is there any left? I'm dying for some."

She poured him a cup and he held it in both hands, nursing it, leaning against the wall.

"That smells delicious. Where are they now, by the way?"

"In your father's study. There's some sort of crisis going on in Germany and your brother came to ask your father for help and advice."

Stephen's brows shot up in astonishment.

"He did?"

"He didn't tell you, when you talked on the phone, last night, that he meant to do that?"

"We didn't discuss the business, we never do. I operate on an entirely different wavelength from my brother." Stephen's tone was dry.

"Which is probably just as well, because if we were rivals it could get very nasty. Ellis is a compet.i.tive animal; he likes to win 144 any contest he enters, and I doubt if he would use kid gloves just because I was his brother."

Claudia didn't think it wise to comment on that; she was sure Stephen was a hundred per cent accurate but it was not a good idea to agree with him, she felt.

"That isn't why you became a scientist instead of going into the business side of the corporation?" she asked him curiously, and he shook his head, face wry.

"Oh, no, I wanted to be a scientist! It wasn't just cowardice." He grinned at her.

"I'm not sure if I would back off from an out and out conflict with Ellism I've often wondered if I would. Just between you and me, I do find my big brother intimidating. So far, though, we haven't had to fight over anything important to either of us, but I'm glad that we don't ever fancy the same woman! I'd hate to think what Ellis would do to me if he thought I wanted his girl!"

Claudia looked out of the window and watched the distant grey gleam of the river. The sun had gone in and the view was bleak.

Stephen finished his coffee and put the cup down. "Well, I'll go and say h.e.l.lo! Does he know I'm coming, by the way?"

"Yes." Claudia didn't tell him how Ellis had reacted to the news. She wasn't sure what sort of reception he would get, but in front of their father no doubt Ellis would be friendly enough.

"I'll come too," she decided.

"They have probably finished their confidential discussion by now."

As they arrived at the study, they heard Quentin laughing, and the deep, amused tones of Ellis's voice, and Stephen paused to look down at her in surprised pleasure.

"My father sounds almost like his old self! You've worked a miracle, Claudia!"

"Not me," she said.

"Ellis. Your father was so happy to be asked to help him! I think, you know, that that is what he really needs--to get involved in poration again.

I can't see why being blind sho~ an obstacle. If he has a secretary he can trust, to read everything to him, he can deal with almost any situation.

It's just a matter of confidence."

"You're right, of course, but when he stopped work it wasn't so much because of his sight as because of his state of mind. He was very ill, he couldn't cope with a tough job at the time. Has he talked to you about it, then?"

She shook her head.

"Not exactly, but I think he would jump at the chance to go back."

"I'll mention it to him, while Ellis is here, and see what they both say."

Stephen opened the door and stood back to let her walk into the room. Ellis and his father stopped talking; Ellis looked quickly at Claudia, who kept her eyes down and walked over to her desk.

"It's me, Father," Stephen said and his father's face lit up with that special smile he kept for his younger son. He held out a blue-veined hand and Stephen went over to clasp it and bend to kiss his father on both cheeks in the usual ritual French kiss.

"I wasn't expecting you!" said Quentin.

"I came down because Ellis told me he would be here, and I thought it would be nice to make it a real family occasion. It's a long time since we were all together. How about the three of us going out for lunch?"

"I don't think I'll have time," Ellis said flatly.

"Make time!" Quentin ordered in a smiling tone.

"I think it's a very good idea. Where shall we go?"

"I'll book a table at that Italian restaurant you always liked, Papa.

Can I use your phone? " Stephen took a little black diary from the inside pocket of his jacket and flicked through the pages, then dialled a number and began speaking in fluent Italian.

Under cover of his brother's voice, Ellis stepped closer to Claudia and asked softly, "Are you coming?"

She shook her head, not looking at him.

"This is a family affair."

He turned his back on his father. and bent towards her, his lips barely moving as he murmured, "I want to see you alone before I have to leave."

"I don't want to see you," she whispered back, hoping his father's quick ears couldn't pick up what they were saying.

"Claudia, at least listen to me!" he muttered thickly, but she shook her head, face cold, and at that instant Stephen put the phone down and turned round, smiling.

"We have a table for one o'clock, so we'll have to go at once, OK?

Then we can have a quiet talk, just the three of us, about the future. " Quentin looked startled, his grizzled brows rising. "The future?

Stephen, you aren't about to break some news to us, are you? Is this the girl you were telling me you liked so much? " Stephen looked confused and turned pink.

"Did I?" His father eagerly asked, "You aren't going to get married, are you?"

Ellis stiffened, his eyes fixed on Claudia, who was pretending to be very busy tiding the drawers of the desk.

She met that stare, her face remote, almost hating him for the way he was looking at her. She knew the 147 Conclusion he had immediately jumped to; she read the jealousy in his eyes, and knew it was real. He was too angry for it to be fake. But Ellis wasn't in love with her. He just wanted her, and that was hardly flattering. If she slept with him, he would soon get bored and forget her, but because she kept rejecting him he was frustrated and angry, and he hated the thought of any other man in her life, especially his own brother.

Stephen said offhandedly, "Married? Me? Whatever put that idea into your head? No, I just had a suggestion to put to you, about the corporation."