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‘Good luck to her.’
Tina said it as though she really meant it and her gaze was perfectly steady as she watched Mike disappear out through the door. And she did mean it. Surely? Hadn’t she just been thinking that it would be a relief when Justin and the Red Dragon finally married?
But as she sat frozen in her chair she was aware that she’d stopped breathing and that her stomach had suddenly turned to lead.
Tina remained at her desk that night until well after seven, but by then there was no point in staying on any longer. She’d done all the work she could for now on the faulty manuscript, though it definitely still wasn’t up to scratch.
She pushed it aside wearily. She’d have to fix up another interview to fill in the gaps and give it a bit more substance. And that would probably mean a trip to the Cotswolds over the weekend. She tossed down her pen. But for tonight she was through.
But she still didn’t make a move. She sat staring into space and let her mind roam over the subject she had kept shut out for the past few hours. Justin and the Red Dragon. And the long-threatened wedding. So, it was actually about to happen after all.
She’d got over the stupid paralysis that had struck her on first hearing the news. And heaven knew why it had shocked her anyway. She felt composed now and genuinely glad that it was about to happen. This was the final line in the final chapter. At last she’d be able to close the book.
At that thought she felt a wry smile touch her lips. Chapter one had promised a very different ending. Who ever would have guessed then that things would turn out the way they had?
Tina had been twenty-one years old, fresh out of college and as keen as mustard to make a name for herself in journalism when she had joined Miranda as a sub-editor nearly five years ago.
As she’d told her new boss at the interview, ‘It’s always been my dream to work in magazines. There’s nothing else I’ve ever wanted to do.’
Her new boss had been a woman nearly ten years her senior, a tall, stunning redhead with the reed-thin figure of a model and a wardrobe that came straight out of the pages of her own glossy magazine. Her name was Eunice Robinson and though Tina had guessed even then that she probably had a temperament to match her hair she’d had no idea that she’d end up dubbing her the Red Dragon!
On the contrary, she’d been excited at the prospect of joining Eunice’s team. On the phone to her parents when she’d been offered the job, she’d confided, ‘The atmosphere’s so professional and high-powered and sophisticated. I’m going to learn so much. I can’t wait to get started!’
And so she’d dived in, full of enthusiasm.
Her first encounter with Justin Marlowe had come in her second week at JM Publishing.
‘Come in. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable,’ he’d told her as his secretary showed Tina into his office. He’d held out his hand to her. ‘I’m Justin Marlowe. Welcome to JM Publishing. How are you settling in?’
Tina had taken his hand and looked into his face, feeling a shiver of awareness like electric fingers down her spine. The other sub-editors had told her about Justin Marlowe and that he was the dishiest man on the face of the planet. But he was more than just dishy, she’d decided instantly. This man had a special kind of magic.
She’d felt a ripple of innocent pleasure as he’d shaken her hand and smiled at her. Boy, I’m lucky! she’d thought. Not only have I just succeeded in landing my dream job, I’ve also got the handsomest boss!
Smiling back at him, she told him, ‘I’m settling in very well, thanks. I’m sure I’m going to love it here.’ Her eyes glowed keenly as she added, ‘I think Miranda’s a wonderful magazine.’
‘So do we and I’m very glad to hear that you agree.’ The iron-grey eyes, which she would later discover could at times look as cold as the North Sea in winter, twinkled warmly at her enthusiasm. ‘I suspect you’re going to be a most valuable addition to the team.’
‘Oh, I hope so. I really hope so. I’ll do my best.’
Justin Marlowe smiled. “Then you’re halfway there.’ He leaned back a little in his leather buttonback chair. ‘So, tell me about your ambitions, Tina. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’
‘Still on Miranda, I hope.’ She blushed a little. How truthful, she wondered, did he really expect her to be? For she really did have high ambitions.
He sensed her ambivalence. ‘Go on,’ he urged her. ‘You can tell me. We encourage ambition in this company.’
Tina took a deep breath and decided to take him at his word. ‘Well, first I want to learn to be a good sub-editor, but I also want to do a bit of writing. I love writing. I want to do articles on anything and everything.’
Then, as he nodded encouragingly, she decided to bare her soul. ‘And one day what I’d really like is to be an editor.’
‘An editor, eh? Aiming for the top.’ Justin nodded his dark head approvingly in response. Then he winked across at her almost conspiratorially. ‘We’d better not tell Eunice. I don’t think she’s quite ready to retire yet.’
Tina felt herself flush crimson. ‘Oh, I didn’t mean that! I didn’t mean editor of Miranda! Some other magazine. Some time in the future. A long time in the future,’ she plunged on in embarrassment.
Oh, lord! she was thinking. Talk about putting your foot in it!
But Justin, if anything, seemed to approve of her revelation.
‘Never apologise for your ambitions,’ he told her straightforwardly. ‘We encourage ambitious people at JM Publishing—as long as you have the talent to match the ambition, of course.’ He smiled at her. ‘And we’ll soon find out if you do.’
Tina left his office feeling the world was hers to conquer. I’ll show him I have talent! I’ll show him how good I am! I’ll show him I have it in me to achieve all my goals! she vowed.
And, over the next few months, that was precisely what she did.
Tina worked like a madwoman, loving every minute. Pretty soon she became a first-class sub-editor, renowned for her precision and witty, attention-grabbing titles. And pretty soon, too, she had a couple of short articles published. And Justin wasn’t slow to acknowledge her progress.
He appeared in the office one day and stopped by her desk. ‘I thought you might like to have a go at this,’ he suggested, dropping an invitation on her desk. ‘Have a word with Eunice. I think it might be worth a full-length interview.’
‘Oh, thank you!’ Tina’s eyes widened as she looked down at the invitation to meet an up-and-coming young actor who’d recently been taking the British film world by storm. She looked up at Justin gratefully. ‘I’ll make a good job of it. I promise.’
And she made an excellent job of it. Even Eunice agreed on that and gave her piece a four-page colour double spread, with a prominent byline as the icing on the cake. Tina was over the moon with delight.
She phoned her parents in Shropshire. ‘I’m sending you a couple of copies. Your daughter’s a proper journalist at last!’
There was just one tiny fly in the ointment, however, as, with Justin’s encouragement and guidance, Tina proceeded to move from success to success. And that fly in the ointment was the red-haired Eunice.
Tina had rapidly realised that she could be a difficult woman to work with, much given to furious outbursts when anyone displeased her. Tina had escaped her wrath at first. She’d just kept her head down and worked hard. But more and more she was finding herself in the firing line.
‘These pages are late, you stupid girl!’ Twice in one week Eunice stormed the accusation at her when the pages, in fact, were not late at all. ‘Instead of trying to be the star of the editorial department, you’d do better to keep your mind on what you’re paid for!’
That was unfair and uncalled for. Tina knew her responsibilities and always put her sub-editing duties first—though, to be truthful, the accusation had not surprised her. She’d been aware for some time that, far from wishing to encourage her, Eunice would rather like to clip her wings.
But she kept that to herself and confined herself to pointing out, ‘I think if you check your diary you’ll find the pages are dead on time.’ Unlike some members of staff, she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself. ‘Just as they always are,’ she added firmly, but respectfully, simply ignoring the fulminating black look that that provoked.
For Eunice’s increasingly frequent attacks were not anything Tina couldn’t handle. In fact, to be truthful, they barely registered. Because suddenly something much more exciting was occupying her mind.
Justin. For something was happening between them.
It had all started with an unexpected invitation to lunch at London’s Dorchester Hotel on fashionable Park Lane.
‘It’s part treat and part work,’ Justin had told her when he’d invited her. ‘We’re to be the guests of a group of major travel agents and naturally I’ll expect you to write a small piece for Miranda. But only a very small piece, so just relax and enjoy yourself. You’ve been working hard. You deserve a treat.’
Tina’s workmates had been almost as excited as she was. ‘You’re obviously in the good books,’ one of them had observed admiringly. ‘He only issues these special invitations when he’s really pleased with someone.’ Then she’d pulled a mock-scowl and poked Tina in the ribs. ‘I hate you, Tina Gordon, you lucky devil!’
Tina struggled to appear cool in the face of this development. The invitation was purely professional, she told herself. And certainly nothing to get all het up about.
But she was het up. She could barely see straight at the thought of it. Lunch with Justin Marlowe! The very idea made her breathless!
For, though she’d admitted it to no one, the truth of the matter was that over the six months or so she’d been at JM Publishing she’d really rather fallen for her magnetic, handsome boss. Which hardly made her unusual. Every woman he met fell for him. The entire female staff of JM Publishing was hopelessly in love with Justin Marlowe, so why should she be any different?
Yet what she felt for him was different. In her heart Tina was sure of it. Hers was no swooning, giggling admiration. She couldn’t quite define them, but the feelings he let loose in her seemed to reach down to the very roots of her being. And sometimes it scared her. She’d never felt this way before.
Still, she was holding on very tightly to her emotions when they set off together in the company limo. Just don’t make a fool of yourself, she warned herself firmly. You mean nothing to him. He’s just being nice, that’s all.
But nice like Justin could be nice was something Tina had never before encountered. She was only a junior employee, but he treated her like a princess, putting her at ease with that wonderful charm of his, chatting to her and looking after her as though they were on a real date. When they finally left the Dorchester just over three hours later, Tina was feeling as though she must have died and gone to heaven.
‘Did you enjoy yourself?’ he asked her as they climbed back into the Bentley.
‘Oh, yes. It was wonderful. I mean, wonderfully interesting.’
Had he any idea, she wondered helplessly, how her heart was soaring? She’d been on plenty of very pleasant dates in the past with perfectly acceptable young men, but the past three hours with Justin had been a revelation. She’d had no idea she was capable of feeling such ecstasy. She was floating so high, she feared she might never come down again.
Justin was smiling at her. ‘I enjoyed it too. Perhaps we can do it again some time?’
‘Oh, yes. That would be nice.’
‘Perhaps when I get back from Germany? I’m going there on business. I’ll be away till the end of the week.’ He smiled. ‘I presume your home number’s in the office files. I’ll give you a ring and we can fix up something when I get back.’
‘OK. If you like.’
Tina flushed to her hair roots, totally confused now, not knowing what to think. Was this a real date he was proposing? Was he really serious? If she dared to hope, would she be in for a huge disappointment?
she decided she probably would be, but she went ahead and hoped anyway. She was quite incapable of doing anything else.
Waiting for the week to pass was the finest kind of torture. At home, every time the phone rang Tina nearly shot through the ceiling. But she made herself a promise. If he didn’t phone by Saturday lunchtime, she’d call up her friends and make other arrangements for the weekend. It would be masochistic madness to spend it waiting by the phone!
But on Friday evening when she got back to her flat from work the phone was ringing in the hallway.
Breathlessly, Tina grabbed it. ‘Hello?’ she demanded squeakily, not quite managing the cool tone she’d been aiming for. It can’t be him, she was thinking, feeling her heart was about to explode.
But it was him.
‘Hi, Tina. I just got back. How’ve you been?’
At the sound of the deep tones, Tina had to sit down. ‘I’m fine.’ She was burning from her scalp to her toes. ‘H-how was your trip to Germany?’ she stuttered.
‘It went off very well, thanks.’ He paused for an instant. ‘How about if I tell you all about it over dinner this evening?’
‘This evening?’ The room was swimming round her ears. Could she believe what she was hearing or had she gone mad?
‘Unless you’ve got something else fixed, of course...?’
He sounded disappointed. Tina rushed in to assure him, ‘No, I don’t have anything fixed at all.’
‘Then I’ll pick you up about eight. How does that sound?’
Like a dream come true, she thought. ‘It sounds fine,’ she said.
‘Eight o’clock it is. I’ll see you then. Bye for now.’
Tina was shaking so badly as she laid down the phone that she fancied she could hear the bones tattling in her fingers. For a full thirty seconds she just sat where she was, grinning like an idiot and glowing with excitement. Then with a whoop of dalight she leapt to her feet, rushed through to her bedroom and flung open the cupboard doors. What on earth was she going to wear?
Justin was every bit as punctual as she’d expected he would be. At the stroke of eight o’clock his gleaming white Mercedes appeared like a fairytale coach and horses outside her modest red-brick flat block.
‘You look terrific,’ he told her as he held open the passenger door for her and she slid a little shyly into the leather-upholstered seat. ‘But then you always look terrific. You’re just looking particularly so tonight.’
Tina might very well have answered, So are you, but she bit her lip and just smiled at him instead. She was feeling far too nervous to pull off remarks like that!
All the same, it was true—if such a thing was actually possible! He was looking even more terrific than usual.
He was wearing a dark blue suit whose simple clean-cut lines showed off to perfection his manly proportions—the strong, broad shoulders, the lean hips and long legs. And the plain white shirt provided a perfect dramatic contrast to his suntanned skin and the ebony darkness of his hair.
He was a positive feast for the eyes, Tina decided. She wouldn’t need to eat; she could just sit and admire him!
Justin took her to a restaurant in the heart of Mayfair. The most elegant place she’d ever set foot in. You could almost smell the gold credit cards and hear the rustle of designer labels. She was rather glad she’d worn the most stunning outfit in her wardrobe—a chic, long-skirted dress in bright cherry-red.
‘Champagne,’ Justin told the waiter as they were shown to their table. Then he smiled at Tina. ‘Unless you’d prefer something else, of course?’
‘Oh, no. Champagne’s fine.’
She could hardly keep her face straight. Was this really happening or was it all a dream? Would she wake up and find herself in her local Wimpy bar with Vicki?
But at least she was rapidly losing her nervousness. There was just something about being with Justin that felt easy and right. The conversation flowed. There was no sense of strain. As they were being served their first course, she took the initiative and asked him, ‘So tell me about your trip to Germany.’
But Justin shook his head. ‘That was just business. Very boring.’ He smiled that smile that made her heart keel over. ‘What I really want to talk about this evening is you. I want you to tell me all about yourself, Tina Gordon.’
‘Me? There’s not much to tell. I’m just an ordinary girl from Shropshire.’ Tina’s cheeks had turned the same cherry-red as her dress. ‘My parents both work at a local car plant and I have two sisters, one married and one at college, studying French.’
She laughed a little nervously. ‘There! You have it in a nutshell!’ Surely, she was thinking, he couldn’t really be interested?
But it seemed she was wrong. He was shaking his head at her. ‘Ah, but I don’t want it in a nutshell. I want to hear all the gory details. By the end of this meal I want to know all there is to know about you.’
He meant it, too. He plied her with questions, and Tina found herself very happily opening up to him. He wasn’t just being curious. He seemed genuinely interested. Flushed with pleasure, she virtually told him her life story.
She told him about her schooldays back in Shrewsbury, about the friends she grew up with and all the places she knew. She told him about the articles she used to write for the school magazine, about her ambition to work on a national magazine one day and about her wonderful parents who’d encouraged her all the way.
‘You’re an interesting girl.’ Justin smiled at her across the table as he poured them both more wine and finished off his fillet steak—for by now they’d been talking for more than an hour. ‘I knew you would be. You’ve got that spark in your eyes.’
Tina smiled back at him as she took a sip of her Beaujolais. ‘But that’s enough about me. It’s your turn now,’ she told him. ‘Tell me something about Justin Marlowe.’
‘OK. What do you want to know?’
‘Everything! Fair’s fair,’ she laughed. ‘After all, I’ve told you virtually everything there is to know about me!’
And so over the next hour, until coffee, Justin told her about himself. He told her about his own modest upbringing in London and about how he started his first publishing venture with a loan from a wealthy uncle.
‘I owe it all to him,’ he told her, ‘and I’ll always be grateful. I would never have made it without his help.’
‘Oh, I’ll bet you would.’ Tina shook her blonde head at him. ‘It might have taken you a little longer, but I bet you’d have made it.’
