Читать книгу Trust Too Much - Jayne Bauling - Страница 8
CHAPTER THREE
ОглавлениеSILENTLY, 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?’
‘Don’t know much about them.’ The subject plainly bored him and he turned his attention to the wine list that had just been handed to him, courteously seeking her approval of his choice. ‘I just hope you won’t toss it over me this time.’
Fee’s eyes darkened. ‘These days the responsibility lies with you.’
‘In other words, I mustn’t provoke you?’ His glance sparkled with enjoyment, holding hers for a moment, then straying to an extremely pretty Chinese girl at a nearby table and finally returning to Fee.
She laughed, unable to help herself. ‘She’s beautiful, isn’t she?’
‘Lovely. You’re an unusual one, Fee.’ Simon sounded mildly intrigued. ‘Generous. Most women I know get furiously uptight if the man they’re with so much as glances at another woman, even if he means nothing to them personally. They start tearing the other woman to shreds and, in my experience, the more beautiful a woman is, the bitchier she’ll be about other beauties.’
‘I suppose it’s understandable,’ Fee suggested compassionately. ‘So much is made of beauty that they start believing it’s all they’ve got without being able to forget that it doesn’t last, so they become desperately insecure. It doesn’t apply in my case, though, because I’m not beautiful.’
‘No.’ He brought the word out slowly, studying her face thoughtfully, bright, clever eyes lingering on the curve of her nose, the soft flush of her mouth and the way her cheekbones swept downwards from just beneath the delicate hollows at her temples. ‘No, you aren’t exactly.’
That could just be why he had decided it might suit him to have her working for him, Fee reflected wryly. He was intelligent enough to recognise his own weaknesses and, since he did take Rhodes Properties seriously, he probably didn’t like being distracted during working hours.
On leaving Australia, she had promised herself that she would be scrupulously careful in her choice of boss in future, and she had anticipated a long search, but it seemed as if she might have been lucky, because if she got the Rhodes Properties job she wouldn’t need to be afraid of Simon’s turning out to be like Vance Sheldon, however badly he might behave with the legions of beautiful women who did attract him.
She felt confident that she could do the job Simon outlined over lunch and she was even optimistic that he might prove to be less disconcerting as a boss than he was as an acquaintance.
However, as they walked back to Rhodes Properties, he seemed inclined to revert to personal topics.
‘How are things at home? What have you been doing with yourself?’
‘Oh, nothing much.’
‘Not trying to take up where you and Bates left off?’ Simon prompted smoothly. ‘I can imagine that the contrast of his youth might appeal to you after that old man you were involved with in Australia.’
‘As you say, that old man,’ Fee emphasised, incensed by his lack of intuition. ‘Doesn’t that even suggest that you might be wrong about the nature of my “involvement” with him?’
‘What’s wrong? Did he fail to satisfy you?’ he derided lightly and laughed at her furious expression. ‘But then again, Bates is too young for you, not much more than a boy. What you really need in a relationship is a man—’
‘If ever I find myself in need of advice about relationships, I’ll apply to someone with a more successful record than yours, thanks, Simon,’ she cut in caustically, inwardly disconcerted by the personal turn the conversation had taken.
‘I don’t consider any of my relationships to have been failures,’ Simon returned easily, observing her with amused eyes.
Fee laughed incredulously. ‘They haven’t exactly lasted, have they? You’ve never married, for instance.’
‘Marriage is scarcely a proof of success,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘In fact, most marriages look like failures to me, even when the people concerned make an effort to keep up appearances. Have you ever seen one that works?’
‘What about Babs and Charles?‘ Fee demanded rebelliously.