standing up. She smiled and extended her hand.
‘No.’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘No, that will not be all, so you might as well sit back down.’
A man accustomed to giving orders. A man who bypassed the polite preliminaries of conversation that most people took for granted.
She withdrew her hand, feeling a bit idiotic, and sat back down.
‘You don’t think that I travelled out here merely to inform you that you’ve got a promotion, do you?’ His voice was cool and amused, and it was an effort for her to continue looking at him without dislike.
‘I know,’ she said, ‘that was silly of me, wasn’t it?’
He frowned, and she struggled to contain a sudden urge to grin.
‘Do I hear a little edge of sarcasm there?’ he asked mildly.
‘Of course not!’ Her brown eyes were innocently shocked at such a suggestion. ‘I wouldn’t dare!’
‘You haven’t asked when Robert is due to leave.’ He returned to the chair behind the desk, sat back down and then pushed it away so that he could cross his legs, ankle on knee.
‘I assumed...’ What had she assumed? ‘I guessed that it would be in a couple of months’ time...?’
‘At the end of the week.’
‘The end of the week!’ Jessica looked at him, startled. ‘The end of this week? But how? Why hasn’t he said anything to me? Surely he’ll need longer than four days to tie up loose ends...’
‘Are you beginning to regret your optimism in filling in for him?’
‘I’m just expressing surprise at the suddenness of it all,’ she told him coldly. ‘I’m also a little bit taken aback that he didn’t see fit to inform me before this.’
‘You have me to thank for that,’ he said bluntly. ‘This development happened overnight, literally, and I told him that it would be better for me to talk to you. In fact, it was essential that I did.’ He paused, as though contemplating what to say next. ‘His mother lives in America and two days ago she suffered a stroke. I told him that it made sense for him to combine his leave with a visit out there to see her. He’ll speak to you about this when he gets in this afternoon, then he’ll call a staff meeting some time tomorrow.’
‘I see.’
‘The reason I made a point of coming out here to tell you all this yourself—’
‘When you almost certainly would have had better things to do,’ Jessica muttered to herself,
‘Sorry? I missed that.’ He leaned forward slightly, and she flashed him a brilliant smile.
‘Nothing important. Just thinking aloud.’
‘This sudden development comes at a rather inconvenient time.’
‘Inconvenient for whom?’ she asked.
‘I’ll ignore that question,’ Bruno told her, narrowing his eyes. ‘It borders on impertinence.’
Which it did. She felt colour steal into her cheeks. Had she forgotten that this man was her boss? Had she forgotten that she should toe the line and not risk her career for the sake of emotion?
‘I’m sorry,’ she said honestly. ‘I suppose I’m just shocked and worried about Robert. It’s been sprung on me out of the blue.’
What a limp lettuce of an excuse, she thought. She could feel his shrewd eyes on her, assessing, and she waited for him to inform her that sarcasm was not something he would tolerate. Sarcasm, she suspected, was not something he had probably ever had to deal with.
He chose to disregard what she had said, though.
‘Two days ago,’ he said instead, ‘I received this.’ He withdrew a letter from his jacket pocket and shoved it across the desk to her, then he sat back and watched while she opened it and read the contents several times over.
Bruno Carr was being sued. Personally. A component for a car, manufactured by one of his plants, had resulted in a near-fatal car crash.
‘This,’ he explained softly, ‘is why I thought it important to come and see you myself.’
Jessica looked up briefly before re-reading the official letter. ‘To see if you considered me capable of dealing with this...’
‘That’s right. And you’re not what I expected.’
‘Is that why you expressed concern about my age, Mr Carr?’ She carefully placed the sheet of paper on the desk in front of her and sat back, with her fingers linked on her lap.
A legal issue was something she could deal with. The personal confrontation with Bruno Carr had brought out feelings in her she hadn’t even known existed, at least not for a very long time. But this. She took her time considering him.
‘You think that because I’m relatively young I’m incapable of doing a good job.’
‘You lack experience,’ he said flatly. ‘You are also a woman.’
‘Perhaps I could address those concerns of yours one at a time?’ When she smiled, her jaw ached because of the effort, and her fingers were itching to hurl something very heavy at him. Precisely what century was this man living in?
‘Firstly, age has nothing to do with competence. I can’t deny that I haven’t got three decades’ worth of experience behind me, but then I can assure you that I am more than capable of dealing with this lawsuit.’ The only way to deal with Bruno Carr, she decided, was not to be cowed by him. He would smell out any hint of uncertainty from her with the unerring precision of a shark smelling blood, and he would promptly take his lawsuit somewhere else. Careerwise, it would be death for her.
‘Of course, I shall need immediate and unrestricted access to any information, technical or otherwise, that I consider necessary...’
He nodded fractionally, and continued to look at her, waiting for her to say her piece, upon which he would deliver his verdict.
‘Fine. Now, secondly, yes, I am a woman.’ Camouflaged as it was by her genderless working garb. In a man’s world, frilly dresses were off limits—not that she had ever been one for frilly dresses anyway. A suit told the world precisely what she wanted it to know, which was that she was to be taken seriously. Even outside the working environment, she steered clear of frocks and short skirts, preferring jeans and clothes that were tailored and smart rather than provocative. It was only when she stripped at night that she saw the reflection of her own body in the mirror—tall, slender, but with full breasts and long legs. A good figure, she knew. It was as well to conceal it.
‘However,’ she continued, ‘women comprise a high percentage of the working arena these days, in case you hadn’t noticed. I’m sure if you cast your eyes around you’ll discover that there are quite a few spread throughout your various companies.’
‘Ah,
