The Wrong Kind Of Wife

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‘Because I’m a happy one. Happy in my job, happy in my marriage. I’d like that for you.’

‘Right now I’m happy to settle for my job.’ Quickly she changed the subject. ‘So how come Lawson is honouring you with his company?’

‘We grew up in the same village near Manchester. Plus the fact that he likes to maintain a high profile, and I’m willing to help him if you think there may be a story in it for us. We’ll know better when we find out what he’s shopping around for in the States.’

‘I thought it was going to be an anniversary celebration for only the three of us,’ Lindsey teased as she joined Belle in the back seat. ‘Now it turns out to be a business dinner!’

‘Don’t you know Phil?’ his wife sighed. ‘Fifty years from now he’ll be organising business dinners for St Peter!’

Lindsey laughed. As a top television executive, Phil met most of the leading personalities visiting New York, and within weeks of starting to work for him she had been caught up in his frantic social activity. Not surprisingly, given her stunning looks, she was propositioned with unremitting frequency, but she had developed enough poise to keep all would-be lovers at bay without offending them.

‘What’s Robert Lawson like as a person?’ she asked Phil.

‘Belle will tell you.’

Lindsay turned to her.

‘A self-made millionaire, who makes no pretence about it,’ Belle said. ‘He’s tough but charming, and would be death as a husband, though I think he’d be great as a lover.’

‘What category am I in?’ Phil enquired.

‘Both!’

Belle’s description of Robert Lawson might be right, Lindsey mused as they entered the restaurant and he rose from his table to greet them. In his late thirties, with glinting brown eyes marked by heavy brows as dark as his thick, curly black hair, he was a big man with a well-proportioned body: wide shoulders, broad chest tapering to slim hips, large hands with carefully manicured nails, and bronzed skin that had the cared-for look that went with a first class fitness club.

‘So you’re Lindsey,’ he murmured as, introductions made, she sat beside him. ‘Have you deserted England for good?’

‘I’m not sure. At the moment I love my work too much to consider going home.’

‘It is only your work that keeps you here?’

Knowing what he meant, she gave him an innocent look. ‘There’s Angus, of course.’

‘Of course,’ he said smoothly. ‘I thought you might have someone special. He sounds a Scot.’

‘Siamese, as it happens.’

For an instant he was taken aback, then he chuckled. ‘A cat! You caught me there, my dear.’ He eyed her speculatively. ‘I’d have thought you more the Saluki type.’

‘I’m not sure whether to be flattered by that,’ she said. ‘I always associate them with well-bred idleness!’

‘I associate them with elegance and beauty,’ he replied softly.

Aware of the amused looks passing between Belle and Phil, Lindsey resolved to keep the conversation general, and as if aware of her intention Robert Lawson did the same. He was an excellent raconteur, and listening to his stories—which were mainly political—she began to feel homesick.

It was not until they left the restaurant and were waiting for Phil’s car to be brought to them, that Robert quietly asked if she was free to have dinner with him the following evening.

‘I’ll have to check my diary,’ she said equally quietly.

‘Is that a polite turn-down?’

‘It means I have to check my diary.’ Her voice was devoid of expression. ‘I have a heavy week.’

‘I’ll call you in the morning,’ he said, shepherding both women to the car.

They did not talk again, and he allowed Phil to accompany her to the door when they reached her apartment block, which would have piqued her had not feminine intuition told her he had behaved this way to exploit the abrasive quality in his personality, an abrasiveness that she was sure attracted many women.

But did it attract her? Not at the moment. All she knew was that he was as different from Tim as chalk from cheese, and that, she reflected as she closed her apartment door and went into her bedroom, might be the reason why she would go out with him tomorrow night.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘MR LAWSON phoned twice,’ her secretary announced as Lindsey came into the office next morning. ‘He left a number for you to call.’

Lindsey was surprised by his keenness. Smiling, she dialled, and he picked up the phone himself.

‘I thought you’d be at the office bright and early,’ he greeted her, his voice deeper than she remembered it. ‘Have you checked your diary?’

‘Yes, I’m free.’

‘Good. I’m staying at Bedford House, Park Avenue. Apartment eleven. I’ll expect you at seven-thirty.’

The line went dead and she gave a gasp of astonishment. What cheek! Ordering her to call for him as if she were his personal assistant.

‘Anything wrong?’ her secretary asked.

Lindsey shook her head. Maybe she was being childish. Robert Lawson probably had a tight schedule and shouldn’t be judged by normal standards.

Despite her irritation, she arrived on time at his apartment that evening.

When she refused a second drink, he suggested they leave for dinner and, expecting him to take her to a restaurant where he might possibly make an item in a gossip column next day, he surprised her by taking her to Mr Albert’s, a discreet dining club in an elegant brownstone house.

‘Have you been here before?’ he asked as they were immediately shown to their table. Mr Albert’s guests did not sit at the bar drinking with strangers!

‘Yes.’ Lindsey was glad she could answer affirmatively. She didn’t want Robert thinking only he could take her somewhere special. ‘The head of a rival network brought me here last month to try to bribe me away from Universal.’

‘Did you accept?’

‘No. Doing a chat show isn’t my scene. I believe the documentaries we do are worthwhile.’

‘So you turned down fame and fortune for—’

‘Job satisfaction,’ she cut in abruptly.

To his credit, Robert instantly saw she was in no mood to be taken lightly. ‘I can appreciate that. Job satisfaction means everything to me too. The day I decide I no longer enjoy the cut and thrust of business, I’ll sell out and retire.’

‘Sell out? Wouldn’t you prefer to appoint someone to take over from you?’

‘I’d be watching him like a hawk to make sure he carried on the company the way I would. And nobody is as good as I am. That’s why, when I’ve had enough, I’ll give up completely.’

‘Are you always so modest?’ Lindsey couldn’t help asking.

‘I believe in being honest. I started with nothing and now have one of the biggest engineering companies in the country. I’m negotiating to buy another one, and if I can persuade them to sell it to me I’ll be the biggest.’

‘Which is the biggest at the moment?’

‘Semperton Engineering. It’s a part of Semperton Trust. A damn octopus that has its tentacles into everything.’

Lindsey wondered whether to tell him that they had bought her father-in-law’s engineering company a few years ago. Indeed, only last week she had read a flattering article about him in Time magazine, saying that Semperton Trust rated his business acumen so highly that they had just elected him chairman and managing director of the main board; a remarkable achievement for a man who had only come into the organisation three years ago.

As she opened her mouth to speak, the waiter presented them with the menu, and by the time they had chosen their meal, she decided that she didn’t know Robert Lawson well enough to disclose anything about her private life.

‘Let’s not talk any more about me,’ he said as their first course was set before them. ‘Tell me about yourself. You’ve been married, I believe. I asked Phil, and he couldn’t evade a blunt question.’

‘You could have waited to ask me.’

‘You seemed to have some doubts about seeing me, and I wanted to know what I was up against.’

‘And do you?’

‘I think so. You’ve been hurt once and have put up your guard. It’s usual when a person has been divorced.’

‘Are you speaking from experience?’

He shook his head. ‘Until recently I’ve been too busy building my fortune to have time to build a private life.’ He set down his fork. ‘How long have you been free?’

‘I’m not. I’m still married.’ She was pleased to see he looked put out at being wrong-footed. ‘Didn’t Phil tell you that too?’

‘No. He said as little as possible.’ A blunt-fingered hand, the nails well kept, rubbed the side of his face. ‘Look, it’s no crime to be curious about you. If we’d met in London I’d have played it differently, but I’m not here long and—’

‘I’m flattered,’ Lindsey cut in. The poor man had suffered enough for his curiosity, and she genuinely was flattered by his interest. ‘Are you always so inquisitive about the women you date?’

‘Only when they’re as beautiful and bright as you.’ He leaned towards her. ‘Are you hoping to get back with your husband?’

He was blunt all right! No one had asked her this, and she found it painful to answer. Yet perhaps there was catharsis in pain.

‘My marriage is over. We’ve just been rather dilatory in making it official.’

Robert pursed his lower lip. It drew her attention to his mouth, which was well shaped but thin. ‘Is your husband in entertainment too?’