handsome, reputedly unavailable Alexander McDonald. She looked away for a moment, feeling as if she was a voyeur witnessing a mating game. But what was also clear was that she herself hadn’t even been noticed, nor the fact that Alexander had someone with him. Well, secretaries were supposed to make themselves invisible when the occasion demanded, she thought. It was as if she wasn’t there at all as she was faced with the backs of the three extravagantly dressed women clustered around Alexander, still chattering non-stop.
After a few moments of this, he eased himself away and reached over to take Sabrina’s arm.
‘Sally, Debbie, Samantha—let me introduce you to my secretary, Sabrina,’ he began, and for the first time the women turned, deigning to look at Sabrina, their faces blank.
Just as they were murmuring their polite greeting, another woman arrived and draped her arms around Alexander’s neck. ‘Alex,’ she breathed. ‘At last…’
‘Hello, Lucinda,’ he said, disentangling himself gently. ‘You’re looking wonderful, as usual.’ He drew Sabrina into the gathering. ‘Meet my new assistant, Sabrina.’
Lucinda was tall, raven-haired and swathed in a tight-fitting, low-cut red dress which left nothing to the imagination. She stared at Sabrina, a curious expression on her hard features.
‘Oh. So what happened to funny, little, old dowdy Janet?’ she said, turning to Alexander again. ‘Did she die quietly at her desk?’
‘Funny, little, old dowdy Janet, as you put it, decided that she’d had enough and is now spending much-deserved time with her family,’ Alexander said, and Sabrina could see that the woman’s remarks had angered him.
‘Oh, so you’re the new typist, then, are you?’ Lucinda said, looking down at Sabrina, her eyes taking in her appearance at a glance. ‘I wonder how you’ll put up with Alexander the Great?’
‘I’ve had no difficulty so far,’ Sabrina said neatly, suddenly rattled at the company she was in, and realizing that she herself had hardly uttered a word to anyone yet.
Lucinda shrugged. ‘Efficient typists are difficult to find; I know that to my cost,’ she said. ‘Though I’m afraid secretarial work would drive me absolutely bonkers, whoever I was working for,’ she added. ‘I mean, any office work is deadly boring—surely only a stop-gap before finding other more intellectually fulfilling occupations for the more intelligent among us?’ She blinked, her false eyelashes sweeping her cheek. ‘I run my own marketing company,’ she drawled importantly. ‘Which regularly keeps me out of the country. But I’m afraid my secretary in the London office comes under the heading of “brain dead”. Lazy and utterly useless!’
The others all tittered at that, and Alexander cut in calmly, ‘You’ve obviously lost your powers of discernment, Lucinda,’ he said. ‘I have no such problems. Janet was a loyal, hard-working, good-natured professional and was seldom away. She was with me for fifteen years.’ He paused, glancing at Sabrina. ‘And I very much hope that Sabrina will beat that,’ he added, though thinking that that wasn’t likely. Sabrina would want to return to her own line when the time was right.
Lucinda slipped her arm through Alexander’s and held him to her. ‘Oh, we don’t want to waste time talking about boring work. Now, Alex, you do remember our little arrangement…?’ she said eagerly.
The expression on Alexander’s face told its own story as he stared at the woman. He answered coolly, ‘What arrangement was that?’
‘Oh, you must remember, surely?’ Lucinda cried.
‘Bad luck, Lucinda,’ the others laughed. ‘We told you he wouldn’t have given it another thought!’
‘Then I’ll remind you, Alex,’ Lucinda persisted. ‘We agreed that when I came back to the UK, if neither of us had, shall we say, settled down, we’d see what fate had in store for us. Remember now?’
‘It was all a very long time ago, Lucinda,’ Alexander said calmly, thinking, and I only said that to keep you out of my face.
‘Well, Lydia has certainly not forgotten,’ Lucinda said. She paused. ‘Your mother has prepared the west wing for anyone who might need it tonight, Alex—who may prefer not to go home until tomorrow, I mean.’ She looked up into Alexander’s eyes. ‘We’ll be able to discuss things, Alex, be alone. It’ll be like getting to know each other all over again.’
Sabrina felt herself go hot and cold with embarrassment at the unbridled talk going on over her head. Not embarrassed on her own behalf, but on Alexander’s. But he merely shrugged his shoulders as if Lucinda had just given out the weather forecast.
‘No can do, I’m afraid.’ he said casually. ‘It’s always an early start on Mondays, and deadlines are deadlines.’
At that moment, Lydia came up to them, her face wreathed in smiles as she saw her son surrounded by adoring females. Totally ignoring Sabrina, she said, ‘There, isn’t this wonderful? There’s nothing like a get-together with old friends!’ She glanced at the expensive gold watch on her wrist. ‘Dinner’s being served, so come along, everyone—the night is young!’
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