He was—er—sort of—overpowering. I couldn’t think straight. I just told him I was—Elyss Harvey.’
Elyss was staring at her in stunned silence when Louise came into the kitchen. She looked from one to the other, observing one totally astounded expression and the puffy red eyes on the other occupant. ‘What goes on?’ she asked.
‘I hardly know where to begin,’ Elyss answered—and Nikki burst into tears. Ten minutes later, and Louise knew all that there was to know. Elyss concluded by passing her the card which Nikki had given her. ‘Mr Pendleton works at Oak International. I...’
‘Saul Pendleton is Oak International—or will be at the end of this year when the present chairman retires and he takes over,’ Louise interrupted quietly.
‘You know him?’ Elyss asked.
‘Not personally,’ she denied. ‘But we’re in fibre optics too—we’re not a multi-million concern like Oak, of course, but we have small dealings with them from time to time.’
Louise worked as a PA in a forward-looking group and, Elyss had already gathered, knew quite a few people of note in the business world. ‘You know of him, though?’ she pressed. Louise nodded. ‘And?’
Louise gave a hasty glance to Nikki. ‘He’s—er—got a reputation for being a tough operator. Straight, resolute; try to put one over on him at your peril.’
‘Oooh!’ Nikki squealed, and at her fresh outbreak of tears, Louise took a firm hand.
‘You haven’t had much sleep, have you?’ she sympathised with Nikki. ‘Come on, back to bed.’
Between them they got Nikki into bed. ‘Don’t worry about a thing,’ Elyss heard herself say—when she was a seething mass of worry herself. ‘Just try and get some rest.’
‘Logic tells me we should be tougher with her,’ Louise opined when they got back to the kitchen. ‘But she sort of gets to you.’
‘I know,’ Elyss agreed. ‘She’s in a shocking state.’
‘I thought the same myself. I don’t think Victoria’s going to work today—something to do with a day she’s owed, she was saying on Saturday. We’ll get her to keep an eye on Nikki. Now, what are you going to do about...?’
‘I’ll have to get in touch with Mr Pendleton, I suppose,’ Elyss answered; like her, Louise appeared to think that Nikki wasn’t up to dealing with it. ‘Is he really as tough as you say?’
‘Believe it!’
Oh, heck—‘try to put one over on him at your peril,’ Louise had said, and what had Nikki done but given him a false name? ‘What else do you know about him?’ Elyss asked. Perhaps he was good to his mother and stray animals. Perhaps he hadn’t got a mother. ‘How old is he?’ she asked, following that train of thought.
‘Young to be in the position he’s in. Still in his thirties, I think—and a bachelor with it.’
‘He doesn’t like women?’ Elyss questioned, seeing any chance of appealing to his chivalrous side going up in smoke.
‘On the contrary. While it’s said he keeps his work and his private. life in two very separate compartments, it seems he’s not lacking for female company.’
‘Trust him to have a Ferrari,’ Elyss commented, knowing she was being unfairly sour, but getting stabbed by darts of panic from time to time.
‘He’ll be as mad as hell when he knows he’ll probably have to pay for the repairs himself,’ Louise volunteered.
Elyss wished she hadn’t. ‘Insult added to injury,’ she sighed. ‘I’d better phone him.’
‘Do it now—it might not be as bad as you anticipate,’ Louise advised.
Elyss was reluctant. ‘It’s too early. He might not be up yet.’
‘You think he’s got where he is by being a lie-a-bed?’
‘Point taken. I’ll—er—ring him from my room,’ Elyss decided. If she was to be verbally slapped down, she’d rather it was private—even if what Saul Pendleton had to say could not be overheard.
‘I’d better go and shower, or I’ll be late,’ Louise commented and went off to the bathroom, while Elyss went to the sitting room to collect the phone.
‘Pendleton,’ a clear concise voice answered.
‘Oh, good morning. I’m sorry to contact you so early, but I thought you might have a busy day ahead.’
‘Did you, now?’ Cool, polite, waiting.
‘My name’s Elyss Harvey.’ She quickly got herself together. The pause that followed was almost tangible. He was still waiting. If he was clever enough to be in line for the chairmanship of Oak International, then he was clever enough to remember the name Nikki had given him last night, Elyss thought sniffily. ‘My car was in collision with yours last night,’ she felt obliged to remind him when he still hadn’t said anything.
That did bring forth some response, and his reply sounded every bit as tough as Louise had promised, albeit delivered in silky tones. ‘I trust you’re not ringing to suggest the mess your vehicle made of mine was my fault.’
‘I—er—my vehicle wasn’t looking too clever either,’ she stated stiffly, something in Saul Pendleton’s tone needling her.
‘True,’ he agreed. ‘According to the mechanic who came out, it could be a few days before it’s drivable again.’
Her heart leapt. Her car wasn’t the write-off Nikki had said it was! Elyss busily tried to estimate the cost of repairs while at the same time frantically searching for some tactful way to let him know that she had neither insurance nor money for her own car repairs—let alone his.
Then she found that her tact, for the moment at any rate, would not be needed. Because clearly Saul Pendleton was not a man with a lot of time to spare to be cluttered up with incidentals. ‘I’ve an appointment shortly,’ he stated. ‘You’d better come and see me tonight.’ He was also a man to whom nobody said ‘no’, apparently. ‘I’ll see you at eight.’
With that the line went dead and Elyss was left staring at the phone—stunned! It wasn’t eight o’clock in the morning yet—and he had an appointment! Whew—that was life in the fast lane, if you pleased!
She didn’t know how she felt about having to meet him that night, at his home presumably, but didn’t see that she had very much choice. It would be pointless asking Nikki to go with her. Nikki was in pieces now; she’d fold completely if she had to stand in front of that tough-sounding man and, on top of everything else, had to confess that last night she had lied to him when she had given her name as Elyss Harvey.
Elyss sat on her bed deep in thought for some minutes. It would be wrong to go and meet Saul Pendleton and to pretend that she was the one who had crashed into him last night. She knew that. But it seemed to her that whichever one of them had been driving, the outcome was going to be the same. Elyss had never done anything dishonest in her life, but with Nikki feeling so low and, Elyss judged, unable to take much
