CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU’RE not totally deaf, I presume?’
The raised male voice coming from the next-door office to Marly’s made her look up from her terminal in surprise, and unashamedly she eavesdropped. From his tone, the man was in a rousing temper.
‘Or perhaps you’re on a higher plane and haven’t heard anything I’ve told you?’ he went on.
‘I did exactly what you asked me to do, Mr Hamilton,’ a woman protested, and Marly instantly recognised it as Alex Hamilton’s secretary.
‘In your own stupid way, Miss Granger!’
‘Look, Mr Hamilton—’
‘No, you look! If you can’t follow simple instructions, maybe you should return to the typing pool.’
‘Maybe I will!’
There followed a burst of tears and a sharp male curse, and Marly, on the verge of going to comfort the girl as she heard a door slam, stopped at the sound of Alex Hamilton’s voice. It was his secretary who had stormed out, not him.
‘Personnel!’ she heard him bark. ‘Assign Miss Granger to someone more long-suffering than me, and send me a replacement. What? No, keep her on the same salary she was receiving.’
To pay off his conscience, no doubt, Marly seethed, casting daggers at the wall dividing her from this most horrible of men. If she were self-employed and did not have a responsibility to her company, she would walk in and tell him what she thought of him! If he was expecting her to bow and scrape to him, he had another think coming!
She was still seething when she arrived for rehearsals in the hotel ballroom late that afternoon, though she soon calmed down as Richard, the young director of the cabaret, who normally worked in Accounts, put her through her paces. Her part couldn’t have been easier, given her retentive memory, for all she had to do was to learn six pages of dialogue, and spend the rest of her time looking sweet and gentle and quietly amused by the embarrassing antics of the Western visitors to her stage parents’ home.
‘You were terrific!’ Richard exclaimed as rehearsals ended for the day. ‘For a gag, we won’t put your surname in the programme and will just name you as “Marly”. Then the audience will automatically assume you’re Thai.’
‘Which they’d never do if you printed ”Amalia Bradshaw”,’ she chuckled, and was glad she had let Nan persuade her to participate in the show. It would at least keep her occupied while she was waiting for Alex Hamilton to clear his desk and spare her his time.
By the evening of the performance she was proficient in every word and mannerism of her part, and took equal pains with her appearance, emphasising the exotic slant of her eyes by skilful use of black eyeliner, and parting her hair in the centre so that it fell in a black satin curtain down either side of her face. Wow! She looked just like her great-grandmother.
The sketch she was in was the most successful one of the show, and as it came to an end many people in the audience called out to her in Thai as she accepted a vociferous ovation.
However, some of her pleasure ebbed when she saw Alex Hamilton sitting in the front row, vigorously applauding her. Their eyes met and he half inclined his head and raked her from head to toe as he continued clapping, the gesture truly revealing the sort of man he was! Poor Andrea! If this two-timing Lothario thought he had found another heart to break, he could go jump in a lake—and drown there while he was about it!
With a sigh of relief she watched the audience disperse for the Christmas party that was being held in an adjacent conference-room, and suddenly decided not to attend.
‘Where are you going?’ Nan stopped her halfway down the corridor, as Marly made for the powder-room to change out of her stage clothes.
‘Home,’ she replied. ‘I’m tired.’
‘And I’m Mickey Mouse! For heaven’s sake, this is your friend you’re trying to kid. What’s up? You were the star of the show and everyone will want to meet you.’
‘That’s what worries me. Did you see the way Alex Hamilton eyed me? As if I were a nut cutlet and he was a starving vegetarian!’
‘So what? You’ll have to meet him soon anyway. That’s why you’re here, remember?’
‘You have a nasty habit of being right,’ Marly sighed. ‘I suppose I’d better go change and join you.’
‘You look marvellous as you are!’
‘But—’
‘Come on, Marly, if we hang around any longer, the party will be over.’
Somewhat apprehensively, Marly followed her friend into the green and gold reception-room where the theatre party was being held. Not only were all the clerical and senior staff there, but their families too, and she was soon surrounded by an admiring throng, compliments falling thick around her.
‘You’re a natural actress...’
‘I’ve never laughed so much...’
‘You should be on the stage.’
‘You were marvellous...’
‘You’re also very beautiful,’ added a deep, resonant voice, and she looked up, startled, the smile on her lips freezing as she saw Alex Hamilton staring intently down at her.
Close to, he was even more devastating than when she had espied him in the lobby; his tawny, lion’s mane hair was flecked with gold where the sun had touched it, and his skin was the colour of pale honey, making his smoke-grey eyes even more remarkable.
‘I’m Alex Hamilton,’ he introduced himself. ‘I see from the programme that you are Marly.’
‘Yes,’ she managed to say, her mouth so dry she could barely twist her tongue around the word.
‘It’s a lovely name for a lovely young woman. And you played your part very amusingly; but I suppose it came naturally.’
‘Naturally?’
‘I assume you’ve met many Westerners who are as ignorant of your customs as the two actors were in your sketch.’
Heavens, she thought, he also thinks I’m Thai! Unable to stop herself, she smiled, and he smiled back. It riveted her eyes to his lips, which were beautifully shaped, the top one well curved, the lower one fuller and sensuous. How many other lips had they kissed? she wondered. How many lies had they told? How many women had he deceived, as he had Andrea?
Drawing herself up to her full height of five feet two inches, she was on the point of telling him exactly who she was, when he spoke again.
‘I think it’s important to understand the customs of the country one is living in, but sometimes it’s not easy to follow them.’
‘Are you thinking of anything in particular, Mr Hamilton?’
‘Very much so. Normally I’d have no hesitation in asking you to have dinner with me tonight, but since I don’t know whether your parents are strict on protocol, I can only suggest that you allow me to take you home and ask them if I may see you again.’
Open-mouthed, she stared at him, and he instantly misinterpreted it.
‘I’m sorry if I’m coming on too strong, but you’re the loveliest girl I’ve seen and I’m not letting you walk out of my life.’
Beyond his shoulder she glimpsed Nan mouthing words she could not understand, and she seized this as a means of escape.