Her priorities were always right. Marcus had never looked for another assistant. Ruby didn’t move fast. She was unflappable, and she was worth diamonds. More than diamonds. Now she assessed the situation at a glance, she figured what Marcus wanted and she proceeded to provide it.
‘If Mr Benson has hurt you, we’ll do everything in our power to rectify it,’ she told the girl. ‘Mr Benson has an appointment right now which must be kept, but I can help.’ She gave Marcus an enquiring look—a look they both knew—which asked whether she should be sympathetic. She got a nod. A distinct nod and a smile. The combination of nod and smile was Marcus’s sign language for go all out to be nice.
And Marcus meant it. He was feeling really guilty here. If Ruby could make things better for this chit of a girl, then it’d be worth losing his precious assistant for half a day.
‘I’ll take you to the local medical facility and let someone see that ankle,’ Ruby was saying as Marcus backed away a little. Letting her take charge. ‘We’ll replace your damaged clothes. I’ll buy you a decent meal and I’ll organise a cab to take you home. Is that okay?’
Marcus’s face cleared. It sounded good to him. Generosity would definitely help here. There was still the niggle of guilt, but Ruby would assuage it.
But it seemed they were not to be let off so easily. Or maybe they were being let off too easily.
‘Thank you.’ Peta pushed herself into a sitting position. She glanced from Ruby to Marcus and back again. Her face had shuttered, showing no pain, no anger…just nothing. It was a defence, Marcus realised. A shield.
‘Thank you but I don’t need help,’ she told Ruby, with another half glance at Marcus that said, Yeah, hadn’t she been right all along? Here was his secretary ready to sweep his problems under the carpet. Peta’s look said she knew exactly the type Marcus was—the type who decreed when life got too difficult, pay someone.
Her look also said the sooner she was shot of him the better she’d like it.
‘I’m not going to sue, and my problems are not your problems,’ she told them both. ‘I have an appointment to see Mr Higgins. He’s running hours late as it is. If I leave now he’ll say I missed my appointment and I can’t afford to do that. So thank you, but I’ll stay here. Filthy or not. I can’t afford to lose this chance.’
‘Mr Higgins won’t see you like that,’ Ruby told her, blunt as ever, and Marcus’s face tightened.
‘I’ve already told her that. I doubt if he’ll see her at all.’
Ruby’s lips pursed, acknowledging that he might be right. ‘But if she has an appointment…’
‘You know Charles, Ruby. He’s not about to let Peta anywhere near his corporate offices looking like this.’
‘Hey, excuse me,’ Peta said cautiously, looking up at the two heads talking over her. ‘Can I join in this conversation?’
‘Of course.’ Marcus’s brows snapped together as Ruby’s eyes widened. The waif wasn’t a victim, then.
‘He has to see me,’ Peta was saying. ‘I have an appointment.’
‘An appointment with Charles means nothing if he figures there’s the least chance you might not be able to pay,’ Marcus told her. ‘And pay well.’
‘He has to see me,’ she repeated. ‘He’s my cousin.’
Silence while they took that on board.
‘Charles Higgins is your cousin?’ Ruby asked, and Peta nodded. She didn’t look too pleased about it, though. In fact, she looked as if she’d prefer the relationship didn’t exist.
‘He is. Worse luck.’
‘But you have to make an appointment to see him?’ Marcus didn’t understand.
‘Yes.’
‘You’re running really late, Mr Benson,’ Ruby said warningly, but Marcus had heard enough.
To say he disliked Charles Higgins would be an understatement. He detested the man. The word around town was that the man was utterly unscrupulous. He and his equally unscrupulous associates had rented office space here when Marcus had been in Europe; Marcus had been really annoyed that the man had been granted a twelve-month lease, and given the least excuse Higgins was out of here. He was trying to manoeuvre it now. But meanwhile… This girl would get nowhere with him. He knew that.
So did Ruby. He could read it in her face.
So, the best thing they could do for this girl was to clean her, feed her and give her a ride back to whatever cheap accommodation she was using.
But…
But.
He’d hurt her. He’d made her life difficult when it was already impossible. He could see that. There was real desperation in her eyes.
He knew enough of Charles Higgins to guess that the girl would be being screwed. He had no idea how—all he knew was that it was true. She was alone and bereft and he’d hurt her.
She expected him to throw his assistant at her and leave her to face the wolves alone.
Damn, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t.
‘Ruby, can you reorganise my afternoon?’ he said, and he said it as though every word was being dragged out of him. As if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.
Not seeing this deal through this afternoon might well cost him thousands. But it couldn’t be helped. When Marcus made a decision the decision was made—and his decision was made right now.
‘If you’ll set everything back a few hours, I’ll take Peta over,’ he told Ruby. And then, as his assistant’s eyebrows hit her hairline, he clinched it.
‘I’ll face Charles Higgins with her.’
‘You…’
Marcus was left in no doubt of what she thought of him. She was still seated, with Marcus and Ruby speaking over the top of her. She was still—waif-like? Her mop of chestnut curls was tousled and wild, her freckled nose was completely free of make-up and that dollop of jelly was still there. And so was her antagonism towards him. Peta stared up at him and he thought ruefully that he might as well be Charles Higgins himself. Was it the suit? he wondered. Or the presence of his assistant? Tokens of power… Whatever, there was no doubting that she was looking at him with contempt, as if such an action as he proposed was just a figment of his imagination.
‘Why not?’ he demanded. He looked from Peta to Ruby and found their expressions matched. Both women were looking at him as if he’d lost his mind.
‘The project is important,’ Ruby murmured, but he thought he detected a trace of a smile behind her normally expressionless eyes.
‘I know. I’m trusting you to keep things on ice until I can take over again.’
‘And when will that be?’
‘A
