Nicola nodded her head. Christine was one of her oldest friends. Her husband, Mike, was a solicitor, just starting up in his own local practice. They had two small children, and, as well as looking after them, running the house, taking care of their large garden, Chrissie also helped Mike out with his paperwork at home.

They were a well-matched, happy couple, and Nicola always enjoyed the time she spent with them, even though sometimes their very evident contentment and love for one another made her feel a little envious.

Over supper her father asked her what she had thought of her new boss.

Her heart started to beat frantically fast as she looked down at her plate, knowing that if she looked up her real feelings would show far too plainly in her eyes.

Already it was beginning . the deceit . the anxiety. "He seems very well-informed.. very efficient," she answered unevenly.

"Mm. From what I've heard he's got a nose for a good opportunity. With him behind it, the firm should really start to pick up. Will he be running it himself or?"

"No, he's putting in a manager--someone from one of his other companies. We haven't heard who yet."

"And this manager, you'll be directly responsible to him, I imagine?"

her mother interrupted.

Nicola nodded her head. That was the one bright gleam in the whole sorry mess--the fact that Matthew Hunt would be spending a limited amount of time with them.

"I wonder how old he'll be, and if he's married..."

Nicola put down her knife and fork. She was on familiar and much safer ground here.

"Mother..." she warned.

"I'm sorry, Nicki. When you were in your teens, I promised myself I wasn't going to turn into the kind of mother who was always on the look-out for a potential father for her grandchildren, but when I look at Gordon..." She gave a small shudder and said forthrightly, "What on earth do you see in him? And as for that mother of his--' " Gordon is a friend. Mother. nothing more," Nicola told her firmly.

"Mm. Still, this new manager ... I wonder what he'll be like," her mother continued, undeterred.

CHAPTER FOUR.

her mother wasn't the only one to be curious about the new manager, as Nicola discovered in the morning when she got to work.

The brief visit Matthew Hunt had paid them the previous day was not going to be repeated until towards the end of the week, she had been relieved to learn. Until then, Alan would, nominally at least, remain in charge.

Nicola had got the impression the previous day that Matthew Hunt's decision to take over the firm had been a rather impulsive one, and that he was having to shuffle around his existing staff in order to find someone responsible and whom he could trust to take charge of his new acquisition.

The knowledge of the take-over seemed to add a new zest to the work-force. There was talk of better rates of pay and working conditions, now that they were part of a much larger organisation--of bonus schemes and other perks.

Alan had opted not to have a formal retirement party and, knowing how what was happening must be reactivating the trauma of losing his son, Nicola didn't blame him. Even so, she thought it was very sad that after a lifetime of owning the firm he should simply opt to walk out of his office on Friday afternoon without any acknowledgement on the part of those who worked for him.

All day Tuesday there was an atmosphere of excited tension in the air.

They already knew that on Wednesday morning Matthew Hunt would be introducing them to their new boss, the new manager.

Nicola, unlike everyone else, was frantically busy on the Tuesday, gently prodding Alan into going through all their current files so that she could prepare status reports on each of their current contracts, giving details of work in progress.

She loved her job, and the more responsibility Alan gave her the more she thrived on it. She had a talent for administrative work and, although few people knew it, it was mainly thanks to her ability to keep tabs on the various clients that the firm had not lost several of its major contracts.

Naturally enough, Nicola wanted to make a good impression on the man who was going to be her new boss, and not just for her own sake, but for Alan's as well. Out of loyalty to him, she was determined to make sure that he was presented with an efficient and up-to-date, as well as comprehensive run-down of exactly what was going on.

Every time she walked into his office, Alan seemed to have ama.s.sed even more paper from the filing cabinets. The shredder was going to be working overtime, she decided ruefully, looking at the dates on some of the files. Alan was something of a squirrel when it came to his files. She reminded him gently that he would have to make arrangements to have his large partner's desk removed from the office.

It was a very good antique piece of furniture, which he had bought in a sale when he had first started the firm, and she suspected it was now worth a considerable sum of money.

He gave her a wan smile.

"There won't be room for it in the bungalow; and besides. " he touched the wood gently '.. where's the point?"

Nicola felt close to tears, and decided privately that, if Alan didn't do anything about it himself, she would ask her father if it was possible for them to store the desk in one of their outbuildings, because she was sure that, given time, Alan would regret abandoning it.

On Tuesday evening when she arrived home dusty and tired, her mother commented, "You're very late."

"Mm. We've been cleaning out Alan's office-getting ready for the new man... Has Gordon telephoned?" she asked.

She and Gordon were supposed to be attending a concert in the city, and she had half expected him to telephone to confirm what time he was picking her up.

"Not while I've been in," her mother told her.

After she had showered off the dust and dirt and changed into a pair of jeans and a casual top, Nicola dialled the number of Gordon's mother's house.

She sometimes thought that she and Gordon were an anomaly in these modern times, in that both of them still lived at home, but then she had read several articles indicating that, because of the exorbitant cost of property, adult children were remaining in the parental home for much, much longer than had once been the norm.

Certainly Gordon, at thirty-four, might be supposed to be able to afford his own house. He had a good job with an insurance company but, as he had once carefully explained to Nicola, his mother was widowed and not very strong, and he felt he owed it to her to live with her.

She, too, could perhaps have afforded to buy her own small property, but she liked living with her parents, enjoying their company and their conversation, even though her friends sometimes teased her about the fact that she was still living at home.

Gordon's mother answered the telephone, her faint, helpless whisper hardening a little when she recognised Nicola's voice.

"Gordon is just about to eat," she told Nicola disapprovingly, 'so I hope you won't keep him for too long. "

Sighing faintly, Nicola gritted her teeth.

Gordon, when he came to the phone, sounded tense and hesitant. When she reminded him about the concert, he paused for a moment, and then told her quickly, "I'm sorry, but I won't be able to go.." You see.

Mother hasn't been feeling very well and I really feel I should stay here with her. "

In point of fact Nicola hadn't particularly wanted to attend the concert. It had been Gordon who had suggested they go and not her, but nevertheless when she replaced the receiver she was seething. Why on earth hadn't Gordon telephoned her to say that the evening was off?

Why had he left it to her to get in touch with him7 And as for his mother's supposed ill health. It wasn't so much that she minded missing the concert, as she explained later to Christine when she drove round on impulse to see her friend. It was the fact that he hadn't even thought to let her know earlier that their evening was to be cancelled.

"Why on earth do you bother with him?" Christine asked her forthrightly.

"I mean, come on, Nicki, don't try telling me that he makes your heart beat faster, or that you fancy him to death-- I've seen you with him."

Nicola had to laugh.

"No, maybe not," she agreed.

"So then, why...?" Christine began, but Nicola very firmly changed the subject and started to ask her instead how young Paul was getting on at school.

It was quite late when she got home, but she knew the evening with her friend had done her good. However, as she hovered on the point of falling asleep, her strongest feeling was one of anxiety as she worried about the morning. Not so much because of meeting her new boss, but because of Matthew Hunt.

Please G.o.d, don't let him recognise me, she prayed desperately.

Anything, anything but that. "Matthew Hunt's here, but he's on his own," Evie announced excitedly, as she came hurrying into Nicola's office.

Nicola had already seen Matthew's arrival for herself. Today he wasn't driving the ancient Land Rover, but a sleek and very expensive-looking Jaguar.

"Isn't he just the s.e.xiest man you've ever seen?" Evie drooled as she watched him walk towards the office-block.

"I mean, just look at him.. even in that stuffy suit he still looks wonderful."

Nicola hid a small smile. The stuffy suit in question might not appeal to Evie as much as the jeans Matthew had worn on his previous visit, but it did give him an aura of power and control that made Nicola herself suddenly conscious of the fris son of tension that flashed hotly over her skin.

She turned away from the window, appalled by her reaction to him, only half listening to Evie's excited chatter. Evie had heard on the grapevine that Matthew's take-over would mean an updating of their office systems to include the very latest state-of-the-art technology, and she was just asking Nicola if they were likely to be using new, stream-lined word processors instead of their existing electronic typewriters, when the door opened and Matthew walked in.

He smiled at Evie, causing her to blush and simper, and then gave Nicola a much sharper, considering look.

She was wearing what she considered to be her working uniform of a Prince of Wales check suit with a fine over stripe in crimson, a white shirt, and a wide crimson belt which brought out the colour of her suit.

As Evie had remarked innocently this morning, to colour-co-ordinate the outfit she should perhaps have been wearing red lipstick, but the mere thought of doing so had made Nicola feel physically sick. It had been red lipstick she had been wearing that night. These days she stuck to a dull, workaday soft pink which did little more than enhance the natural colour of her mouth, and which certainly did not emphasise its soft, full contours.

So there was really no reason why Matthew Hunt's gaze should linger thoughtfully on her mouth for what to Nicola seemed like a lifetime, but which she knew could only be a handful of seconds. As he studied her, fear ripped through her. He had recognised her. He had-"Is Alan in?" he asked her briefly.

She shook her head.

Alan had had to go out and visit a client who was complaining that they were behind schedule with their work. Loyalty to him made her keep back this particular piece of information as she explained where he had gone, but to her consternation Matthew's mouth hardened a fraction and he said immediately, "I hope we're not on a penalty clause with that contract. We're already too far behind. Which reminds me ... the foreman... Jackson.. 1 want to have a word with him some time--' " Would you like a cup of coffee, Mr. Hunt? " Evie broke in.

The smile Matthew gave her made something wrench painfully inside Nicola. It was the indulgent, appreciative smile of an adult for a pretty child, and it struck her sharply that no man ever had, and now ever would, look at her like that.

Don't be ridiculous, she told herself sharply. She wasn't a child, she was an adult, an equal to any man, and wanted to be treated accordingly. not humoured and indulged as though she were dimwitted.

"Matthew, please, Evie," he corrected her, reminding her that he had already told everyone that they were to address him by his Christian name.

"So when will Alan be back?" he asked Nicola.

"I'm not sure. Before lunch."

"Mmm. Well, while I'm waiting for him, I'll go through the work in progress sheets--if you could just get them for me, Nicola..." He paused suddenly and gave her another sharp look before walking through into Alan's office and closing the door behind him.

Once she had the appropriate sheets, Nicola took the coffee from Evie, knocked on the door, and walked in.

Matthew wasn't seated behind Alan's desk. Instead he was standing by the window looking out into the yard. Without turning his head he told her, "Sit down, please, Nicola. There's something I want to discuss with you. Oh, and close the door, would you, please?"

Her heart started to pound with frantic fear. He had remembered her, after all, and now he was going to tell her soto remind her of what she had done. of how she had behaved, and tell her that in the circ.u.mstances he could hardly have her working for him. She knew it.

Shakily she did as he had told her and sat down, hoping that her body wasn't trembling visibly, betraying the intensity of the nervousness she could feel inside.

She could feel sweat starting to break out on her skin, physical evidence of her inward panic. She gritted her teeth and curled her hands into tense fists as she willed herself not to lose complete control.

"It's about Alan," Matthew told her without turning around.

"Nothing seems to have been arranged to formally mark his retirement..."

For a moment Nicola was too stunned to speak. He hadn't remembered her at all, she recognised in shaky relief. He wanted to talk about Alan's departure from the firm, not hers.

"Are you all right?"

She hadn't seen him turn round and walk towards her, but now, as she saw him coming towards her, she shrank back in her chair, causing him to pause and frown while she stammered frantically.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. I just..." She shook her head, trying to clear her head, to fight her way back to normality, to dismiss her shock and deal with his query.

"Alan--Alan wanted to leave without any fuss. You'll know about his son... In the circ.u.mstances--' " In the circ.u.mstances, some acknowledgement at least of the years he has run the firm is called for, even if it's only an apparently informal col lection among the staff to buy him some memento and present him with it. "

From the tone of his voice, Nicola suspected that he was criticising her for not already having inst.i.tuted something along these lines, and her fear receded, professionalism coming to her res cue as she tilted her chin and said firmly, "Something along those lines has been organised."

As soon as she had known that Alan was leaving, she had organised an impromptu collection, and with the money she had arranged that they would buy Alan a presentation hand-cut goblet with the dates of the years he had owned the company and its name inscribed on it.

All she hadn't done was arrange a time when the goblet could be presented to Alan, and as she explained all this to Matthew she added tentatively, "Of course, I'll have to have a word with our new manager.

I had thought perhaps Friday afternoon. "

"I don't see any problem with that," Matthew a.s.sured her, 'and some kind of informal buffet meal could be organised, if it isn't too late.

By the way," he added picking up his coffee, 'there isn't going to be a new manager ... at least not for the time being... The man I had in mind is having to take some sick leave."

"So who will run the company?" Nicola asked him with concern.

He put down his cup and studied her calmly.

I shall. "

Nicola was glad that she was already sitting down, otherwise she felt she might have betrayed herself completely.

"I think you and I will work very well together, Nicola," she heard him adding quietly, confounding her completely as he added, "I like your initiative, and your awareness ... your compa.s.sion for your fellow human beings. Those are very valuable and necessary a.s.sets in business today, and unfortunately they are not a.s.sets which the male s.e.x is very strong on."

He was smiling at her now. Not the same kind of smile as he had given Evie, but it was a smile of warmth and approval, none the less, and she was shocked by the sudden burgeoning of warmth in her own heart that it gave her.

It was because he had shocked her with his concern for Alan . a concern she had never expected him to display, that was all, she told herself shakily. Yes, that odd feeling of warmth was caused by that. that and the relief of knowing he had not, after all, recognised her.

Later, as she informed Evie of what was going to happen, she told herself that, if she was going to ensure that Matthew did not recognise her, then she was going to have to stop behaving so irrationally every time he spoke to her.