Smokescreen

Adam hesitated. ‘You haven’t—that is—there’s been no word from Alex, I suppose?’

‘Alex?’ Olivia blinked. ‘No. Should there have been?’

‘Well—no,’ Adam shrugged. ‘Was he informed?’

‘As I have no idea where he is, that would have been difficult,’ Olivia replied tautly. ‘Henry said something about his living in Africa, but Africa’s a big place, and he never heard from him.’

‘No.’ Adam nodded. ‘No, of course not.’ He flicked open the lid of his briefcase. ‘Shall we begin?’

Olivia scarcely listened to the preamble. It wasn’t long. Henry had no close relatives, other than herself and Alex, of course, and his bequests to the members of his staff were characteristically few. Five hundred pounds here, a thousand pounds there; Francis Kennedy received a bonus in the form of a five-thousand-pound block of shares in Gantry Chemicals; but otherwise the vast sum of his estate remained intact, to be administered by his wife, Olivia, providing certain conditions were adhered to.

Olivia straightened her spine. ‘What conditions?’ she asked Adam, her green eyes alight with suspicion, and the elderly lawyer exhaled a sigh before explaining the situation.

‘It’s quite simple,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you’ll find them onerous. H.R. simply wanted to ensure that his business empire survived his death.’

Olivia sprang to her feet. ‘You said the estate was mine!’

‘I said you were his heir,’ said Adam mildly, his eyes showing faint bewilderment. ‘My dear, surely you consider an income of some quarter of a million pounds a year an adequate commission for sustaining Henry’s controlling interest in the Gantry corporation?’

‘What are you saying?’ Olivia gazed at him. ‘That I can’t dispose of it?’

Adam looked confused. ‘Why should you wish to do that? Olivia, you’ll have everything anyone could ever want—money, power, position——’

‘But not complete power,’ she exclaimed harshly ‘You’re saying that the estate is entailed.’

Adam regarded her with evident perplexity. ‘My dear, you’d be a fool to sell, even if you were able to do so. In this time of recession, the corporation has continued to make a comfortable profit for its shareholders, and now that the economic crisis seems to be bottoming out——’

‘I know all that.’ Olivia turned away, her hands pressed to her cheeks, a sick sense of defeat replacing the nervous anticipation inside her. God, she had been a fool! Her mother had been a fool! They should have known that Henry would find some way to perpetuate his memory. It had been naïve to imagine he would give her complete control. He had alleviated his conscience. He had left her well provided for. But the capital investment remained within his grasp, even after death.

‘There is one more thing.’ Adam spoke tentatively, his tone indicating his continuing mystification at her attitude. ‘It concerns the future, Olivia. If—if you should decide to get married again, your position as nominal head of the corporation will be withdrawn. You will receive a settlement of three hundred thousand pounds, but your controlling interest will, at that time, be taken into trust for H.R.’s grandchildren, should Alex ever produce any.’

Olivia steeled herself to look at him. ‘And this house?’

‘All H.R.’s houses are yours, so long as you wish to live in them,’ replied Adam.

‘But—if I marry?’

‘Again the situation changes. The houses are part of the Gantry estate.’

Olivia nodded. She felt immensely weary suddenly. It seemed as if it had all been for nothing, she thought painfully. Her mother’s schemes, her mother’s desire for revenge—it had all been futile. Oh, she was wealthy now, more wealthy than she had any right to be, and that was part of her disillusionment. She had not wanted to be wealthy. She had not wanted Henry’s money. And although at the time it had seemed a cruel irony, perhaps it was as well now that her mother would never learn how unnecessary her sacrifice had been. In her confused state, she might well have suspected Olivia of being a party to this all along.

It was so unfair! For a moment, a tearful sense of outrage gripped her. She had given up her career, her future, her life! Maybe another girl would have found it fair recompense. Olivia did not. She had been inveigled into a marriage that was abhorrent to her, persuaded it was the only way to restore her mother’s health, only to find that Henry’s desire to make amends had been as empty as his proposal. He had only wanted a scapegoat, she could see that now, someone to deprive his son of his inheritance.

Adam folded the will and laid the copy in his briefcase. Then he said stiffly: ‘I suggest you sleep on it, Olivia. Obviously, this is neither the time nor the place to go into further detail. Perhaps you’d allow me to make an appointment for you to come and see me in a day or so. We can continue this discussion at that time.’

‘Wait——’ Olivia put out her hand instinctively, forcing a note of apology into her tone. After all, this was not Adam’s fault, and it would not serve any purpose she had to make an enemy of Henry’s trusted business advisor. ‘I—I want to thank you,’ she said, adopting a rueful expression. ‘I’m afraid you must think me very ungrateful. It’s just that—well, I suppose the fact of Henry’s death hasn’t really sunk in yet.’

That was an outright lie, and she thought that perhaps Adam identified it as such. But he was evidently prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, and he took her hand automatically as he made his farewells. His attitude gave Olivia pause, and almost incredulously she realised that so far as Adam was concerned, she still wielded a hefty weapon. Henry had given her the power to administer his controlling interest; how she actually used that power was her decision to make. She could be the symbolic, but silent, partner they expected, or she could exercise her rights to offer her opinion. How far that opinion would be listened to remained to be seen, but one thing seemed certain: no one, not Adam Cosgrove, or Francis Kennedy, and most particularly not Henry himself would expect her to involve herself in the corporation’s affairs.

Adam left, not altogether satisfied, she knew, with her explanation, but prepared to put it down to the inconsistency of her being female. His departure seemed to signal to the others that it was time they, too, made their farewells, and in ones and twos they took to their cars, their expressions of sympathy ringing in Olivia’s ears long after the steel gates had sealed behind them.

Francis had left, too, after offering to remain behind and being refused. He had suggested she might need company over dinner, but as Olivia had little taste for food right now, she had declined his proposal.

‘It’s very kind of you, Francis,’ she said, ‘but I’d prefer to be alone. I—have a lot to think about. We’ll talk again in the morning. Join me for breakfast. I—I have something I want to talk to you about.’

He had been curious, she had known that, and vaguely wary of any proposition she might devolve. But like Adam before him, he was sufficiently in awe of her position not to argue, and Olivia had known an unexpected surge of excitement as she flexed the reins of power for the first time.

It was only as she was leaving that Olivia remembered Drusilla. The other woman had not been mentioned among the few bequests Henry had made, and Olivia felt a wave of compassion sweep over her for the bitterness Drusilla must be feeling. It was typical of Henry Gantry, of course. He never forgot an insult, and Drusilla’s behaviour at the time of his marriage had created an unpleasant scene.

‘I’m sorry,’ Olivia said quietly, as Mrs Stone passed her on her way out to her car. She made no further explanations. None was necessary. But Drusilla was not prepared to accept her dismissal gracefully.

‘You will be,’ she declared spitefully, her eyes glittering. ‘One day you’re going to regret you ever laid eyes on Henry Gantry, and you can be sure I’ll be around to see it!’

Olivia found she was trembling when the door finally closed behind the last of her guests, and the housekeeper, Mrs Winters, exchanged a knowing look with Hamish Murdoch. Surprisingly enough, the members of the household staff had all grown to like and respect the young Mrs Gantry, and her quiet manner and unassuming ways had won her many friends among their ranks.

‘It’s been too much for you, Mrs Gantry,’ the housekeeper exclaimed, but Olivia resisted her efforts to urge her back into the library. ‘I said it would be, and I’ve been proved right. You look as if every drop of blood has drained out of you!’

Olivia managed a faint smile for both of them. ‘I’m all right, really,’ she assured them. ‘Just—tired, I think.’ She paused. ‘I think I’ll take a bath before dinner. Do you think I could eat from a tray this evening? I really don’t feel like facing the dining room alone.’

‘Why don’t you get straight into bed, and I’ll get Mary to bring it up for you?’ Murdoch suggested, but Olivia shook her head.

‘I’ll come down,’ she said firmly. ‘I don’t feel like going to bed right now. I’ll probably watch television for a while. After you’ve arranged about the meal, you can all take the rest of the night off.’

It was a relief to reach the sanctuary of her room. It was such a beautiful apartment, and at least one area of the house which held no associations of Henry. Oh, he had probably hired the interior decorators who had designed it for her, she reflected, sinking down on to the side of the huge square bed; but he had never entered the room during her habitation, and she had made it peculiarly her own by the addition of her personal possessions.

Her brushes, with their gilt handles, did look a little out of place on the crystal tray on her dressing table, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t ashamed of her background, and she had refused to pretend she was used to such luxury as she now possessed. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the servants had taken such a liking to her; because she had never hidden the fact that she had been brought up in surroundings similar to theirs.

Nevertheless, she had become fond of the exquisitely appointed rooms allocated to her. She would not have been human if she had not appreciated a superbly-sprung mattress and real silk sheets, that stroked her skin with sensuous enjoyment; she would not have been honest if she had denied the pleasures of waking up in the morning to the artistic beauty of linen-covered walls, in delicious shades of rose and turquoise, and a soft, shaggy carpet to tease her toes; and she would not have been feminine if she had not felt a thrill every time she slid back the doors of the air-conditioned units in her dressing room, to disclose the rows and rows of suits and dresses, pants and skirts and sweaters and jeans, enough to last a lifetime, were fashion never to change.

Now, Olivia bent and unzipped her boots, kicking them off carelessly as she stood to unfasten the tiny pearl buttons of her dress. When she pushed it off her shoulders, it fell too, in a pool of silk jersey about her feet, and picking it up she tossed it on to the bed. Her reflection, in the stark simplicity of her black slip, was thrown back at her from half a dozen mirrors set about the room, but she paid little attention to her appearance. She saw little to admire in her magnolia-pale skin and night-dark hair. Her mother’s Italian ancestry was never more pronounced than when she was tired, and she turned aside impatiently and strode into the bathroom.

She ran her own bath, liberally sprinkling the contents of a cut-glass flagon of perfumed essence into the water. The step-in tub was deep and wide, and she filled it almost to the brim before stepping into its scented softness, feeling the chill that had enveloped her dispersing in its warmth. She must not allow herself to become depressed, she thought determinedly. She was still the nominal head of the Gantry corporation. And tomorrow she would find out from Francis exactly what that meant.

She was seated on the padded stool in front of her dressing table brushing her hair when there was a knock at her door, and a young woman’s voice called: ‘It’s me, Mrs Gantry. Can I come in?’

‘Of course, Mary.’ Olivia forced herself to welcome the young woman who entered, even though she would have preferred to be alone.

‘You should have asked me to run your bath for you, Mrs Gantry,’ Mary Parrish exclaimed reprovingly, picking up Olivia’s discarded dress and slipping it on to its hanger. ‘How are you feeling now? Mrs Winters seemed to think you had overdone it. Why don’t you get into bed, and let me fetch you some supper?’

‘Thank you, Mary, but I prefer to eat downstairs,’ declared Olivia resignedly, wishing the girl didn’t take her duties so seriously. Henry had employed her, soon after their marriage, to act as lady’s maid, and Olivia had often wished he had consulted her first. However, she meant well, and Olivia tempered her remark with a small smile so that she should not hurt Mary’s feelings.

‘Then what are you going to wear, Mrs Gantry?’ the girl persisted, carrying the silk jersey into the dressing room and replacing it in the closet. ‘I suggest this trouser suit,’ she displayed an outfit consisting of narrow fitting pants and knee-length jacket, teamed with a silk shirt, ‘or this,’ which was a soft cashmere caftan, with knee-length slits at either side.

Olivia sighed. She had considered going downstairs in a dressing gown and pyjamas, but she realised there was always the possibility that someone else might call to offer their condolences. She could always plead a headache, of course, and avoid visitors, but with Mary pulling out various combinations of garments, it was easier to choose than explain her preference.

‘The caftan, I think,’ she said, indicating the exquisite handwork of the knitted cashmere. Its muted shades of blue and mauve were suitably restrained, and she cared little that it was one of the most flattering items in her wardrobe.

‘I wish I had a figure like yours, Mrs Gantry,’ Mary remarked later, when the folds of the caftan clung lovingly to Olivia’s shapely form. Indeed, its plain lines accentuated the rounded swell of her bosom, and displayed the slimness of her hips and the slender length of her legs.

Olivia shook her head, unconvinced in spite of Mary’s sincerity. ‘Clothes maketh man—or woman,’ she misquoted, half cynically. ‘Leave my hair loose, Mary. I shan’t be seeing anyone tonight.’

Leaving the maid to tidy the room, Olivia descended the stairs with slow deliberation. It was strange to think this house was hers, so long as she chose to live in it, unmarried, of course; the rooms were hers to decorate as she wished; the servants were hers to command. It was a tempting proposition, as Henry had known it would be. He had left her enough money, whatever her inclination, to live in luxury for the rest of her life; firmly believing, as he had always believed, that personal gratification was all that mattered.

But it wasn’t. Not for her. She had not married Henry Gantry to embrace his philosophy. Her motives might have been thwarted at every turn, but she was still determined not to give in. Her mother was dead. She could no longer help her. But she could help the one person Henry had least desired to benefit from his fortune: his son!

Her feet sank into the rich pile of the hall carpet as she walked towards the library. Mrs Winters would know where to find her; the library had become her retreat from Henry’s world. Opening the door, she found the lamps still burning and the fire replenished. Its visible warmth was comforting, and she closed the door wearily, leaning back against it, and closing her eyes.

When she opened them again, the first thing she saw was a pair of booted feet set apart on the hearthrug; and as her eyes moved unsteadily upward, they quickly covered long denim-clad legs and thighs, a loose fitting jersey over an open-necked denim shirt, and a lean tanned face below a straight slick of ash-streaked hair. The man was leanly built, but his chest was broad, and the vee of his shirt revealed a gold medallion glinting among the fine whorls of body hair. His arms were strong and his legs looked powerful, and Olivia could not help but notice the bulging muscles of his thighs. But she did not know him. She had never seen him before in her life. And her initial reaction was that he must be an intruder, who had known he would find her alone.

However, before her undisciplined fears could take verbal form, he spoke, and when he did so, she suddenly realised his identity.

‘Hello, Olivia,’ he greeted her sardonically. ‘How delightful to meet you at last. I’ll say one thing for old Henry, he certainly had good taste!’

CHAPTER TWO

‘Alex!’

The man inclined his head. ‘How did you guess?’

Olivia straightened away from the door. ‘How—how did you get in? Did Mrs Winters——’

‘I let myself in,’ he responded laconically, putting his hand into his pocket and pulling out a key, allowing it to hang from its silver chain like some kind of hypnotic device. ‘Do I need an invitation? To Henry Gantry’s house?’

Olivia struggled for composure. ‘No. No, of course not.’

‘Of course not,’ he mocked, putting the key back into his pocket and indicating the leather armchairs set at either side of the fire. ‘Won’t you sit down—Mother? You look as if you need some support.’

Olivia looked at him uneasily, moistening her lips with a nervous tongue. This was a contingency she had not prepared herself for, and in spite of her half-formed intentions to try and find Henry’s son, she was shaken to the core of her being by his unheralded appearance.

‘When did you arrive?’ she ventured. ‘When did you get here? Do—do you know——’

‘—that Henry’s dead?’ he finished flatly. ‘Yes, I know. Cosgrove informed me.’

‘Adam Cosgrove?’ Olivia gazed at him, then shook her head. Of course. Adam had asked her if she had heard from Alex. He had obviously been aware of his whereabouts and informed him accordingly.

She stepped across the Persian carpet now, and determinedly held out her hand. Whatever her impressions, she had to conduct this first interview calmly, even if his expression did not encourage a closer liaison.

‘Hello, Alex,’ she said now, and after a moment’s consideration he shook her hand. ‘I’m sorry you had to learn about your father’s death so abruptly. He’d been ill for some time, and it was not unexpected.’

‘So I believe.’

Alex held on to her hand rather longer than was necessary, and Olivia had to pull it away before crossing to the desk and seating herself beside it. She felt more sure of herself sitting down, less vulnerable somehow; and she needed that space between them, to recover her sensibilities.

‘You’ve been living in Africa, I believe,’ she remarked, trying to keep her tone light. ‘As we didn’t know your address, we—I—had no way of contacting you.’

‘Cosgrove knew where I was,’ he pointed out dryly.

‘Yes, obviously. But unfortunately he didn’t tell me.’

Alex shrugged, pulling out a crumpled pack of cheroots. ‘Do you mind?’ he asked, and after gaining her permission, he added: ‘I’ve been living in Tsaba for the past eight years. Do you know it? My—partner and I set up a mining company. Some of these central African republics are rich in mineral wealth.’

Olivia nodded. She was quite prepared to believe he had lived in rougher circumstances than these. There was a roughness about him, a hard virility, that seemed out of place in this elegant room. He looked as if he would feel more at home in the raw civilisation of a mining community, although she had to admit he did not seem at all concerned that his appearance did not match his surroundings.

‘Can I get you a drink?’ he offered, and she noticed the empty glass standing on the curve of the fender. He must have been sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire when she entered the room, she thought incredulously, but she had been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she had not noticed him.

‘Thank you, no,’ she said now, realising as she did so that it was she who should have made that remark. Summoning her most cordial tone, she said; ‘Tell me, where are you staying? If I’d known you were coming——’

‘—you’d have had the welcome mat out, I’m sure,’ Alex cut in mockingly, his eyes, which were amazingly dark in his tanned face, narrowed and insolent. ‘You surprise me, Olivia. I never expected such civility. I’d have thought you’d have kicked me out by now.’

Olivia’s pale face gained colour. ‘Then you’re wrong, aren’t you?’

‘I don’t know.’ He studied her intently. ‘I guess you knew how old Henry felt about his son.’

Olivia expelled her breath cautiously. ‘Yes, I knew.’

He sneered. ‘But you’re prepared to be generous.’

‘Henry’s dead——’

‘Too right.’

‘—and I see no reason why we should not behave like civilised human beings——’

‘The hell you don’t!’ Alex’s lips curled.

‘As—as I was saying,’ Olivia continued determinedly, ‘we can hardly be enemies when we don’t even know one another.’

‘Can’t we?’

He was not making it easy for her, and Olivia wished she was more prepared for this interview. She should have had her speech written, her arguments marshalled; as it was, she was stumbling and faltering like a schoolgirl up before the head.

‘I see no point in prolonging past grievances,’ she declared steadily. ‘Your father’s dead. I don’t know what happened between you two, but whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me.’

‘Is that a fact?’ Alex’s lips were white now. ‘So what’s your game?’

‘My game?’ Olivia was speechless.

‘Yes, Livvy, your game! God, my turning up here like this gave you one hell of a start, didn’t it? My God! You must have thought you had it made. Henry’s heiress, inheriting all this!’ He waved a careless hand towards the ceiling. ‘You’re cool, I’ll give you that. In your place, I’d have thrown you out and asked questions afterwards. But you—you’re cleverer than that, aren’t you? You must have been to hook old Henry in the first place. You realised straight off that my intervention might, just might, upset the applecart, so you’ve decided it might be safer to play both ends against the middle!’

‘No!’ Olivia was indignant, but Alex didn’t believe her.

‘No?’ he mocked. ‘You’re not even the tiniest bit concerned that I might bring this house of cards down about your pretty ears!’

‘No!’

‘No what? No, you’re not concerned, or no, you don’t believe I can do it?’ He took an indolent step towards her, and it was all Olivia could do to remain sitting in her seat under that insolent regard.

‘I mean—no, you couldn’t overset the will,’ she said, through tight lips. ‘It’s tied up too securely for that. Didn’t Adam tell you? He drew it up, on your father’s instructions, of course.’

Alex’s dark eyes narrowed speculatively. ‘Livvy, you know as well as I do that in any civilised society, a man’s heirs are his sons, not his wife.’

‘Henry obviously did not consider he had a son——’

‘A court of law might not agree with you.’

‘I don’t care what a court of law might think.’ Olivia fought to defend herself. ‘The will is watertight, Mr Gantry. Henry was far too astute not to have considered every possibility.’

Alex snorted. ‘What you mean is, you’ve got expensive tastes as well as greedy fingers!’ he snapped. ‘You’re scared to death someone’s going to come along and take a slice of it away from you!’

‘That’s not true!’ Olivia sprang to her feet then, her pulses racing and her breasts heaving beneath the clinging folds of the caftan. ‘How dare you come here and speak to me like this? It’s not my fault that you and your father came to despise one another. That had nothing to do with me. I don’t know why you split up and I don’t care. But you have no right to accuse me of being greedy, when the minute your father’s dead, you come here threatening to contest the will in your own favour!’

She had not meant to say that, but Alex surveyed her evident upheaval with unwilling admiration. ‘So—it has claws, does it?’ he mocked, as she struggled to control herself. ‘And so vehement, too. When it obviously knows nothing about it.’