The one I broke to go out with you was with Travis.’
‘You’re seeing him this evening?’
Dearly did she want to explain that Travis was just a friend and nothing more than that. But this newly awakened love she felt for Farne made her sensitive to everything. To explain anything of the sort might make Farne think she saw her friendship with him as more important than just two dates should signify.
‘I—promised,’ she said.
‘Did you tell him why you were breaking your date?’ he questioned, his expression unsmiling.
Karrie wanted him happy again. She remembered Travis saying something when she’d phoned him yesterday about being passed over for something better, and smilingly asked Farne, ‘You think I should have told him I’d had a better offer?’
Farne’s glance went to her upward-curving mouth. ‘You’ve charm enough for a man to forgive you anything,’ he commented. And Karrie thought he was going to kiss her again.
She wanted him to kiss her again. But this newly found love was making a nonsense of her. Abruptly, she stood up. Farne followed suit, making no attempt to touch her, or to dissuade her from keeping her promise to Travis. She wished she hadn’t got to her feet, because she knew now that this wonderful interlude with Farne was over. And it was.
Back at her home, he got out of the car and stood on the drive with her for a minute or so. Karrie wanted to invite him in, to prolong this wonderful time in his company. But she’d noted that his car keys were still in the ignition. Quite obviously he wanted to be away.
‘Thank you for rescuing me from the weeding,’ she smiled, and without thinking went to shake hands with him. She saw his right eyebrow go aloft, and quickly put her hand behind her back—and could have groaned aloud. How was that for sophisticated?
But at least her action caused Farne’s expression to soften. ‘Charm, did I say?’ he smiled, and, leaving her to guess whether he meant she had or had not charm, he placed his hands on her upper arms and bent down and kissed her lightly on her left cheek. ‘Thanks for dropping everything to come out with me’ he said, and went to his car. Without another glance or a wave, he drove off down the drive.
Karrie felt bereft. She was unsure whether Farne truly thought she had charm. But what she was sure about was that she’d been totally crass to think for so much as a moment that Farne felt even the smallest iota of jealousy about Travis.
For such an idea to have any substance it would have to mean that Farne Maitland cared sufficiently to be jealous in the first place. And he’d just shown how much he cared, hadn’t he? He’d gone away without so much as a backward glance.
‘Thanks for dropping everything to come out with me’ he’d said. Karrie supposed that there were few women of his acquaintance who would not do likewise. Did he know that? She tried to get cross. Tried to make believe that in the unlikely event that he was passing next Sunday, and stopped by to ask if she’d like to join him, she would tell him that she couldn’t possibly. Fate gave a cruel chuckie—on two counts.
Firstly, having fallen in love with Farne—and Karrie freely owned that this ranked as the most idiotic thing she had done to date—she could not see her denying herself any chance of spending some time with him, if chances there were.
Secondly, there would be no chance. She had been out with him twice—today only because he was passing. Somehow, bearing in mind the way he had departed just now, she had a very strong feeling that there would not be a third time.
CHAPTER THREE
KARRIE dressed with care to go to work on Monday. Much good did it do her. She had not truly expected Farne to walk past her desk on one of his rare visits—so why should she feel such a dreadful ache of disappointment when five o’clock came and she had not so much as seen a glimpse of him?
She drove home, giving herself much the same pep talk that she had given herself yesterday after Farne had gone. She was not going to see him again, and that was the end of it. He might, possibly might, walk by her desk in three months or so’s time—did that mean that her nerves were going to act up, as they had today, every time so much as a shadow, a footstep, was seen or heard near her desk?
Where was her pride? She was in love—she had none. She had tried, really tried, to convince herself that she could not be in love—why, she barely knew him! But it made no difference.
‘Had a good day?’ her mother asked when she arrived home.
‘The work gets more and more interesting,’ Karrie answered.
‘Going out tonight?’
Had her mother expected that Farne Maitland would telephone her at her office? Get him off your mind, do. ‘What, and miss whatever it is that smells so wonderful coming out of the kitchen?’
The phone rang; Karrie jumped. Her mother, nearest to it, went to answer it, and Karrie’s palms grew moist as she waited to hear who was calling. It was her father’s secretary.
‘Looks as though we’ll be having large helpings—your father is “unavoidably detained”. Now doesn’t that make a change!’
The telephone rang a couple of times that night, and each time Karrie suffered the same reaction. She took herself off to bed, knowing that she’d be a nervous wreck if she went on at this rate. Oh, why couldn’t she have fallen in love with someone like Travis?
Karrie went to work the next day determined that that day was going to be different. But it wasn’t. She drove home that evening feeling as wretched and fidgety, with such an aching restlessness inside her that she found it the hardest work to show her mother a smiling face.
She rang her cousin Jan that night for a chat, and wished that she could confide in her, but she couldn’t confide in her mother either. The love, the ache, was much too private. Karrie had seen nothing of Farne that day—nor did he phone that night. Not that she had expected that he would ring her.
She awoke on Wednesday, striving to stir her lost pride into action. For goodness’ sake—never before had she waited for any man’s phone call! Bubbles to him; if Darren Jackson asked her to go out with him again today, she’d jolly well go.
‘Fancy coming for a Chinese after work?’ Darren asked as soon as he saw her.
‘Sorry, Darren, I’ve got something on tonight,’ Karrie replied—well, perhaps if he asked her again tomorrow, she excused the pathetic mess Farne Maitland had made of her. The truth was she just didn’t want to go out with anyone but Farne.
She threw herself into her work, and in part succeeded, sometimes for seconds at a time, in wiping Farne from her thoughts. Then, at around half past ten—time never used to drag like this—a shadow fell across her desk. She looked up—and was hard put to it not to leap out of her seat with joy.
‘How’s my best girl?’ Farne enquired with charm that sank her.
Her heart at once went into overdrive. ‘You’re only saying that ’cos it’s true,’ she replied, every bit as if she hadn’t ate, dreamt and slept Farne Maitland since last Sunday.
He grinned and went on his way—and Karrie casually left her desk and headed for the ladies’ room. Her hands
