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Fee’s anger subsided and she looked at him hopefully, aware that Rhodes Properties’ reputation was excellent, but then rare pride stirred.
‘I don’t need you and Charles to arrange my life for me, thank you very much, Simon,’ she asserted caustically. ‘I’m quite capable of finding a job for myself, and, considering how scathing you’ve been about other people’s failure to realise that I’m not a helpless baby any more, I’d have expected you to tell him to go to hell when he asked you.’
The smile Simon gave her was biting. ‘Oh, definitely not a helpless baby. A spitting cat is more like it, and I do mean the wild kind. Charles didn’t exactly ask me—’
‘No, but I bet he hinted like mad and you felt obliged to come up with something because he’s a friend and you men have this stupid buddy-code about helping each other out,’ she accused tempestuously. ‘I don’t mind Charles interfering so much, because he’s family, but I don’t really even know you except as his friend, so don’t try to make a charity of me. I won’t accept it.’
Simon was still smiling at her, derisively now, but something flickering at the back of his eyes seemed to suggest that she had either angered or offended him.
‘No, you don’t really know me at all, Fee, if you can imagine I’d make you my good deed for the day,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘I’ve no objection to doing Charles a favour, but not if it’s at the expense of anything to do with Rhodes Properties. Assuming you’re interested in the position, I’ll only appoint you if you’re qualified for it. Right now, I have to say I have my doubts, if you’re stupid enough to believe anything else.’
Fee had always been flexible, seeing no point in clinging obstinately to an idea once it was proved to have no foundation, but something in Simon’s attitude was angering her, and her apology carried a distinct trace of acid.
‘Sorry! I was forgetting that first and foremost you’re a hard-headed businessman. Blame it on the way people talk about you. Everyone is so riveted by the social side of your life. But I should have remembered that Rhodes Properties is the one thing you truly take seriously—far more seriously than you do your famous love life.’
Simon shrugged dismissively. ‘Since, properly administered and maintained, property not only increases in value but is the one thing that actually lasts. Love doesn’t.’
Irrationally, since she had already known he believed something of the sort, it intensified her anger.
‘It might, properly cared for…It does, if people work at it, I’m sure.’
‘Who has got that much emotional energy?’ Simon retorted cynically. ‘I haven’t. You haven’t either, obviously, or you’d still be in Australia with Sheldon. I’m assuming you were the lazy one, given the particular nature of your very public break-up.’
‘Love didn’t come into that,’ Fee snapped, for once mercifully undistressed by the reference, too fascinated by his attitude and driven by some compulsion to try and understand it. ‘I suppose you’re so cynical because you’ve never seen anyone working at a relationship. You called my family life a horror story and my family odd, but you had all those step-parents and so-called aunts and uncles coming and going—’
Simon’s laughter stopped her. It was genuinely amused, but there was something hard in his eyes, denial or rejection, lending them the brilliance of diamonds.
‘Forget it, Fee, I dealt with all that years ago—not that it required much in the way of effort. There were no villains or victims, just a lot of nice, normal people, all coming and going, as you’ve mentioned. I never expected anything else.’
‘So you were never disappointed,’ Fee taunted softly, furious at the way he made her feel so naively idealistic.
‘Don’t try to analyse me, darling,’ he advised her with idle indifference. ‘You’re sure to get it all wrong.’
‘Yes, I suppose you flatter yourself you’re a madly complex, superior being, whereas men are actually the simpler sex, as every woman knows,’ she claimed with a swift, blistering smile.
But she didn’t really believe there was anything simple about him, while Vance Sheldon had taught her that some men were devious and not to be trusted.
‘Oh, I’ve always thought of myself as fairly uncomplicated,’ Simon offered easily.
‘All right!’ Irritated by his lack of co-operation with her attempts to comprehend him, Fee gave it up since he so clearly didn’t want to be understood. ‘I accept it. You’re just a simple, single-minded businessman and Rhodes Properties is the only thing in the world that really means anything to you, the only lasting relationship you’ll ever have.’
‘Well, don’t sound so disapproving about it,’ he adjured her amusedly, but then he frowned. ‘At least I’m never bored by work.’
After a moment she decided he wasn’t implying anything personal, and she considered his words, which had allowed her a glimpse of the isolation that his intellect must impose. Rhodes Properties probably provided him with his only real intellectual stimulation, and somehow that struck her as sad, making her wonder if he was ever consciously lonely.
But the amused way in which he had brushed off all her attempts to understand him better deterred her from probing further. Maybe he enjoyed being misunderstood, or perhaps there was nothing there to understand. Hadn’t she always thought of him as superficial? So why this instinctive urge to look for hidden depths? He had given her no cause to believe any existed.
Suppressing the strange fancies that had prompted her, she ventured cautiously, ‘If you’re serious about having a job for me, I do have a testimonial.’
Miss Betancourt had insisted.
‘For what it’s worth, and my word is worth a lot, I’m going to give you a reference since Mr Sheldon is still refusing, and exercising your legal rights there is going to take time. I’ll make it clear that both he and I have found your work entirely satisfactory, and there’s no need to mention anything else, although I’m afraid anyone who has heard the story is bound to wonder; but it’s time you stopped blaming yourself so much. Your only fault was that you were too trusting. Finding yourself his only guest at the races should have made you suspicious; it’s what alerted the Press…But there’s no point in worrying about it now, and you can also stop worrying about the other people concerned. Mrs Sheldon isn’t nearly as shocked as you imagine, since she has never had many illusions about her husband.’
The pen Simon removed from the pocket of the lightweight jacket he had dropped on to another chair was a ball-point, but the most expensive in a range that had left left Fee wondering, when she had once seen an advertisement, what sort of person would spend such a fortune on something so utilitarian.
‘A Miss Sung-Li is head of Personnel. Ring her on Monday, but not first thing, because I’ll need to have a word with her, and if she thinks you’re qualified for the job she’ll make appointments for both of us to interview you.’
Fee regarded him levelly.
‘If you’re really not just being kind, because I’m Charles’s sister-in-law—’
‘I’m never kind,’ Simon interrupted distastefully, following it with a complicated smile.
‘No, you’re not,’ she conceded tartly, accepting that her assumption had been a stupid one, and jumping slightly as he handed her the card on which he had just scribbled the name and number she would need and their fingers brushed, Simon’s warm and hard. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever done a single altruistic action in your life.’
An amusedly reflective gleam appeared in his eyes.
‘Strangely enough, I used to flatter myself that I might have, once, and I’m not at all sure I won’t yet live to regret it, or else find it rebounding on me in some way.’ Then the thoughtful expression vanished as he paused, warm blue eyes glinting as they lingered on her face a moment before skimming her slender body and the length of her legs, pale because her fair skin couldn’t take much sun, but smooth and slim. ‘Why did you take up office work? You could have been a model. You’re not strictly beautiful, but then many models aren’t when you see what lies under the tricks they perform with make-up.’
‘And you’ve seen hundreds?’ Fee taunted.
‘Not so many really. I generally prefer small, curvy women myself.’
‘But not because they make you feel protective,’ she guessed acidly.
‘Hell, no,’ he confirmed, drawling slightly. ‘I like a woman who can take care of herself, stand up for herself, and the sassy little ones usually can.’
He would. Fee supposed that was partly why he had never appealed to her personally. She knew it wasn’t fashionable, but she dreamed of the sort of man who would take care of her while refraining from the sort of babying that people like Babs and Charles offered her—not that she couldn’t look after herself generally, of course, despite the self-doubt she had suffered since misreading Vance Sheldon’s intentions.
‘So you’re able to feel superior without having to be protective at the same time,’ she mocked.
‘Everyone is the same height in bed.’ Simon was dismissive. ‘Out of it, your height would have made you ideal for ramp work, especially now that that incredible grace has replaced your clumsiness, so how come you never considered modelling?’
‘Mainly because I don’t like a lot of people looking at me,’ she vouchsafed shortly.
‘Why not?’ His eyes were bright with interest.
‘I once had an unpleasant experience,’ she began pointedly, and saw his face harden.
‘You’ve had all the apology you’re getting, Fee, so don’t go on about it,’ he advised her ruthlessly, before smiling. ‘All the same it’s a pity…Nice legs too. You can wear shorts and miniskirts. Usually the women who do definitely shouldn’t…Here’s Babs.’
He stood up to go and help Babs who had appeared on the patio with a tray of drinks, leaving Fee blushing and confused. His manner had begun to perplex her, nowhere near as boredly indifferent, occasionally teasing and sometimes rude as it had been in her teens, for which she was grateful; but his odd, brief forays into the realm of what might loosely be termed flirtation were disconcerting, mainly because they were so inconsistent. She had to suppose that they arose out of mere habit, simply because he was such a chronic flirt, programmed to a certain automatic pattern of behaviour in female company, whether the women concerned interested him or not. He probably didn’t even realise he was doing it, and would be startled if she ever flirted back, she reflected wryly.
She glanced down at her denim shorts and pretty white cotton top and found confirmation of her suspicion; despite the air of sophistication she had managed to acquire over the years, but which she frequently tended to forget she possessed simply because she still felt so unsophisticated, she was sure she was devoid of the sort of glamour common to the women who attracted Simon.
Mercifully, her face had cooled by the time he and Babs arrived on the pool-deck, although Simon threw her an amused look as if he had discerned the trend of her recent thoughts. Fee prevented herself fidgeting self-consciously and managed to keep her expression composed, relieved when he seemed disinclined to make any further personal comments.
Charles arrived home from work a few minutes later and came out to join them, but Simon stood up to leave as soon as he had finished his drink.
‘A date?’ Charles enquired interestedly.
‘Work.’
Charles shook his head incredulously. ‘When are you ever going to ease up, man?’
Simon shrugged. ‘It’s my choice, Charles.’
‘On a Friday night? And with the lovely Loren no doubt waiting for you!’
Lovely, but limited intellectually, Fee reflected sardonically. She must frequently bore him, but, as he had acknowledged, Rhodes Properties never did.
He was so full of contradictions, absorbed in his work and highly regarded as an employer, she knew, and yet simultaneously a social animal with an overt appreciation of the opposite sex, and superficial and inconsistent in his romantic attachments. But the fact that he and Charles were still friendly argued that he was at least capable of a degree of consistency in his friendships, even if he would never accept the responsibilities and curbs of marriage.
She was doing it again, Fee realised, disconcerted—looking for depths when she knew perfectly well that, as charming and physically perfect as he was, Simon was essentially a shallow man.
‘Don’t forget to phone on Monday,’ Simon addressed Fee, ignoring Charles’s challenge, and she nodded, conscious of depression settling on her, which it had tended to do ever since the Australian fiasco, as she watched him stroll away, a beautiful, truly golden man.
‘Hell, it’s hot. Where are my swimming-trunks, darling?’ Charles gave Fee a teasing grin. ‘Since Babs tells me skinny-dipping is out now that we’ve got you with us.’
‘Find them yourself. Don’t let him embarrass you, Fee, darling,’ Babs adjured as he went bounding up the stairs. ‘What did Simon want? He said something about a job when he arrived.’
‘Yes, he said he might have a position for me at Rhodes Properties.’
‘Take it,’ Babs advised her promptly. ‘Mercifully I don’t have to work any more, but if I did Rhodes Properties would be high on my list, although I don’t suppose I’d even feature on theirs. What job exactly?’
‘I’m not sure. I have to ring the head of Personnel on Monday and presumably she’ll decide if I qualify for whatever it is.’ Fee looked at her stepsister a little uncertainly. ‘It should be all right, shouldn’t it, Babs? To accept if I’m offered a position, I mean? Simon did make it clear that he wasn’t just being kind because I’m Charles’s sister-in-law, although I gather Charles did speak to him about it. Anyway, I know he simply isn’t a kind man.’
‘No, so what are you worrying about?’ Babs urged. ‘I remember he used to tease you occasionally when you were a kid, but he doesn’t mess around where Rhodes Properties is concerned.’
‘I know. It’s strange that he should have such a reputation for integrity where that side of his life is concerned, when you consider how he behaves in other areas,’ Fee commented, regarding Babs with sudden curiosity. ‘All those women—’
‘Don’t look at me like that; I wasn’t one,’ Babs laughed, able to read her thoughts now that she had discarded the more worldly persona she adopted for strangers. ‘It was one of those lucky things. I was already falling in love with old Charlie when he introduced us, and, to my immense relief, nothing changed. To give him his due, I think Simon was equally relieved as Charles is one of the few people he genuinely likes. I know you’ve always loathed him—I remember you used to call him “that horrible man”—because of the teasing, not forgetting that time he lost his temper with you so abominably, but he’s not as unscrupulous as he’s made out to be, you know. Oh, he’s a playboy of the first order but, for instance, he never gets involved with a married woman.’
‘He hardly needs to when he must have a queue of single ones all lined up waiting their turn to be flavour of the month,’ Fee suggested sardonically before shrugging dismissively. ‘Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. I do accept that where Rhodes Properties is concerned he’s a different man, and if I am offered whatever job it is and whoever my immediate boss is going to be seems all right I’ll probably take it.’
Babs and Charles went out a little later, urging Fee to join them, but she declined, spending a quiet evening on her own, and she was in bed by the time she heard them return soon after midnight. She had slept extra soundly for two nights running now, compensating for the weeks of fitful, shallow slumber in Australia when she had kept waking, hot with shame or often disorientated by fatigue and nightmare, thinking she was back in that hotel room in Perth, or facing a baying pack of reporters again, or listening to Vance Sheldon’s demands on the phone.
But tonight, for some reason, she was restless, unable to settle, as if Simon’s visit had disturbed her in some mysterious way, and she was conscious of a return of the hot resentment that had been her most consistent reaction to Simon in past years.
Nevertheless, it would be childish to let a personal feeling prevent her accepting a position at Rhodes Properties, assuming that she was offered one, and she phoned Miss Sung-Li on the Monday morning as directed.
Fee was conscious of a slight constraint about the woman’s manner which suggested wariness, but her questions were strictly professional and the answers she received must have reassured her as to Fee’s legitimacy as a candidate for the job because she asked her to come in with Miss Betancourt’s reference for a personal interview the following morning, warning her to be prepared for a possible second interview in the afternoon.
‘The position hasn’t been advertised yet, but I should warn you that I have already been giving consideration to some of our established personnel since Miss Norman advised us that she was leaving us,’ she cautioned Fee.
The following day, Fee dressed for the interview in accordance with both the July heat and her perception of Miss Sung-Li, in a slim linen skirt of dark cream and a cool, loose matching jacket with sleeves that stopped at the elbows, the prettily coloured bands decorating the pockets which lay flat against her hips saving the outfit from severity.
The morning was so intensely humid that she gave up the idea of catching a bus and, since she didn’t want to have to deal with traffic and parking, turned down the offer of Babs’s car and took a taxi, glad that the Rhodes Properties offices were on the island and not over in Kowloon. The building was one of the most impressive this side, an elegant, graceful white spire of imposing height.
Aged about forty, Miss Sung-Li was a reserved woman and once again Fee was aware of something resembling caution in her manner, but to her relief she confined her questions to Fee’s abilities and experience. Quiet and still socially shy despite her acquired poise, Fee was nevertheless confident of her professional worth and she was gratified to observe Miss Sung-Li relaxing slightly as the interview progressed.
Finally, Miss Sung-Li seemed moved to reveal something of her thoughts.
‘Of course, in your previous position, you had a superior between you and the man at the top. That wouldn’t be the case here, but the work is well within your capability. Nevertheless, you are very young and rather quiet. Normally I think I might have reservations on those grounds, but, as Mr Rhodes informs me that you are old acquaintances, I have to assume that you have a fair idea of what you can expect and are confident that you can cope, and know him well enough to respect that, while he demands a great deal of his employees, he demands even more of himself.’
‘I didn’t realise!’ Fee’s professional guard fell abruptly. ‘Do you mean I’d be working for—for Mr Rhodes himself?’
‘Didn’t he explain?’ Miss Sung-Li’s mouth tightened as she stared at Fee, and suspicion revealed itself in her dark eyes.
‘All he said was that there might be a position for me and that I should contact you.’ Fee dropped her eyes, her thoughts in turmoil.
There was a silence, but finally Miss Sung-Li seemed to reach a decision.
‘Yes, you would be working for Mr Rhodes himself. Are you still interested in the position, Miss Garland?’
This time Fee was responsible for the silence. Miss Sung-Li believed she could do the work and, as everyone knew, Simon simply was not a kind man, so there was no question of his charitably creating a job for her. Nor could this be some elaborate tease; not in business hours when time, including Miss Sung-Li’s time, was money; besides which, this slightly formidable lady would never lend herself to any sort of hoax.
Oh, Simon probably hadn’t told her what the job entailed simply because, like so many quick, clever people whose thoughts outran speech, he had made the assumption that everyone else knew what he knew.
All she had to consider was whether she wanted the job, and such a prestigious position, in a firm like Rhodes Properties, wasn’t one to be turned down lightly. She might find Simon disturbing to tranquillity, but then again, during working hours he was probably a different man, because the shallow, social Simon Rhodes she knew could never have prospered to the extent that he had.
‘Yes.’ Fee looked up. ‘Yes, I am interested, Miss Sung-Li.’
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_6b423353-9978-5dee-8677-28dc31ceb985)
SILENTLY, Fee counted the seconds Miss Sung-Li spent regarding her. Five. Then a receiver was lifted from one of the phones on her desk and she seemed to speak to several people, both in English and Cantonese, before saying crisply, ‘Sir? Sung-Li. I’ve just concluded the interview with Miss Garland. I propose to take my lunch-break late so my report will be on your desk when you return if you’ll be going out? Yes…yes, sir.’ She listened briefly and made a polite response before replacing the receiver and looking at Fee a little cynically. ‘Mr Rhodes is on his way down. He wants you to wait for him.’
Having little choice, Fee obediently did so, answering some casual questions about Australia until Simon arrived. Even though she had been expecting him, her pulses leapt nervously when he almost erupted into the peaceful office, and she could see his instant effect on Miss Sung-Li too. Strange man, bringing people to life like this with his blazing vitality.
‘Fee!’ He was hyper, his mood brilliant. ‘Come on, let’s go and have some lunch and I can tell you about the job. I’ll read your report when we get back, Miss Sung-Li, and conduct a proper interview if I think it’s encouraging, and I’ll get Maynah Norman to tell Fee everything she needs to know about her duties.’
By the time they were descending in a lift, Fee had managed to catch her breath.
‘I didn’t realise you meant I’d be working for you,’ she confided gravely.
‘Didn’t I say?’ Simon seemed surprised and then arrogantly dismissive. ‘Yes, we got side-tracked, I remember, when you accused me of wanting to do Charles a favour. You should enjoy it, though. You don’t mind walking, do you? There’s a great place just a few blocks away.’
Hong Kong could change so quickly, and from glittering modern buildings and complicated traffic circles they passed quickly into narrow, shadowy streets, eventually coming to an entrance decorated in the traditional bright colours, beyond which five shallow stairs led down to the restaurant, obviously a favourite with the business community as the men and women lunching there were all immaculately attired for the office. Simon was known, greeted by name and deferentially led to one of the best tables, and Fee couldn’t help a feeling of general pleasure which she expressed with a contented sigh.
‘It’s just nice to be back and get the feel of Hong Kong again,’ she explained in response to Simon’s amusedly questioning glance.
‘You were in Sydney, weren’t you? I should have looked you up the couple of times I’ve been there. Where were you living?’ Simon asked.
‘We had a flat in Manly for the first two years, and after that I shared a house with some Aussie girls at Dee Why, just above the beach,’ Fee vouchsafed, thinking how she would miss it and the local restaurants they had patronised at weekends.
‘What happened to the two girls who went with you?’
‘One is backpacking in Europe with a boyfriend, the other is married. She has just had her second baby,’ Fee added tenderly and felt an irrational sense of outrage mixed with disappointment when Simon grimaced. ‘Don’t you like children?’
