‘Having you as my granddaughter being one of them, I suppose?’ Catherine shot back.
‘Not at all,’ Kit answered levelly. ‘My mother is such a lovely woman, so undeserving of—of you, or her illness!’
Silver brows rose over cold grey eyes. ‘Have you quite finished?’
Kit took a steadying breath. ‘Yes, I’ve finished.’
‘In that case—’ Catherine looked quite deliberately in the appointment book on her desk top ‘—I have another meeting in two minutes.’ She dismissed Kit with a wave of her hand.
‘You really are very sad,’ Kit finished.
‘And you have taken up enough of my time for one day!’ Catherine slammed back.
‘So I have,’ Kit accepted, adding nothing more, but turning on her heel and walking out of the office, closing the door carefully behind her.
She managed to stay calm as she walked down the corridor and into the lift, determined to hold onto her emotions until she was well away from here.
Away from Catherine Grainger. Her grandmother…
She didn’t care for herself, had lived all these years without a grandmother, could live the rest of her life without one.
But what she didn’t understand was how a mother could behave in that way.
Even knowing of Heather’s illness, of the operation she would go through on Thursday, Catherine seemingly had no forgiveness in her, no softening of the resolve that had made her a stranger to her own daughter for the last twenty-eight years.
The only positive thing about this morning, as far as Kit could see, was that Heather knew nothing about her visit to Catherine, or of her mother’s lack of compassion—
Kit came to a sudden halt as she stepped out of the lift and found herself face to face with both Marcus and Lewis.
A stunned Lewis.
And a furious Marcus!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘I HAVE another meeting in two minutes,’ Catherine Grainger had told her so dismissively a few minutes earlier.
Obviously, that appointment was with Marcus and Lewis!
It had to be. It was just too much of a coincidence for it not to be.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Marcus exploded, apparently no more pleased to see Kit than she was to see him.
Kit moistened dry lips, but as quickly stopped the instinctive movement as she saw Marcus’s eyes narrow ominously. ‘I—I—’ What could she say in answer to that question? How could she explain what had just taken place in Catherine Grainger’s office?
‘Would you leave us for a few minutes, Lewis?’ Marcus instructed.
This was awful. Kit’s worst nightmare. But how could she have known—how could she have guessed? Catherine Grainger hadn’t said anything about Marcus being her next appointment, and Kit hadn’t had any idea about whom he was going to meet today.
Which was curious in itself…
Of course, as Marcus’s PA normally she dealt with all his appointments, had never known him to make his own arrangements like this before—with Catherine Grainger, of all people.
‘Of course,’ Lewis agreed, a little flustered, shooting Kit a questioning glance before moving away to stand over by the glass front doors of the building.
Marcus grasped hold of Kit’s arm and pulled her away from the lifts and round the corner of the reception area, away from the curious eyes of both Lewis and the receptionist.
He released her from his grasp. ‘Well?’ he demanded forcefully, blue eyes boring into hers.
She swallowed hard. ‘I—I—’
‘You lied to me, Kit,’ he said quietly, that nerve pulsing angrily in the rigid line of his tightly clenched jaw.
Her eyes widened in dismay as she realised what he must think: having found her here, he’d concluded that she must be passing on information to Catherine Grainger about his business transactions.
And who could blame him for thinking that? She was here. Clearly on her way down from Catherine’s office. What other possible conclusion could Marcus come to but this?
Even so, she had to at least try to defend herself.
‘No, Marcus, I didn’t—’
‘Oh, yes,’ he interrupted, ‘you did. Why, Kit? That’s what I don’t understand.’ His expression was bleak. ‘What did I ever do to you to make you do such a thing to me? Or are you just paying me back for the way Mike Reynolds behaved towards you—’ he looked at her searchingly ‘—on the premise that all bosses are bastards?’
‘But they aren’t! You aren’t!’ Kit told him desperately. ‘Marcus, you can’t really believe I would behave like that? Do something so vicious?’ She looked at him pleadingly, tears swimming in the smoky depths of her eyes.
‘I don’t know what to think any more,’ he admitted, running an agitated hand through the dark thickness of his hair. ‘And I really don’t have the time to discuss this just now, either,’ he said after a glance at his wristwatch. ‘But we will discuss it later, Kit. At length, in fact.’
Kit was sure that they would. But admitting to him now that Catherine Grainger was her grandmother wasn’t likely to convince him that she wasn’t his disloyal employee, now was it?
What a mess. A complete, unmitigated mess!
She looked at the floor. ‘Maybe it would be better if I just went back to the office, packed up my things, and left…?’ She really didn’t want to do that, but in the circumstances she couldn’t see what option she had.
‘Oh, no, Kit,’ Marcus assured her. ‘You don’t get away that easily. I want to know the who, what, when, where and why—most of all why!’
And she didn’t have answers to any of those questions!
‘I have to go,’ Marcus announced after another glance at his watch. ‘But I shouldn’t be too long,’ he warned. ‘In fact, I’m no longer sure this meeting is even necessary.’
Kit gave him a questioning look, a look he totally ignored as he walked away to join Lewis, the expression on his face more than indicative of his mood.
And who could blame him? Kit thought sadly.
Lewis shot her another enquiring glance as she walked past the two men on their way to the lift, but it was one Kit chose to ignore, looking neither left nor right as she walked across the lobby, her head held high. Even though tears threatened to fall at any moment.
Her meeting with Catherine Grainger, in order to tell her of her mother’s illness, had been a complete waste of time. Walking straight into Marcus on her way out had been nothing short of a disaster.
She had never felt so totally miserable in her life before, felt sure that Marcus, when he did return to the office, would demand answers, and when he got none would tell her to leave and never come back.
What other choice did he have? She looked guilty. Her behaviour appeared guilty. The fact that she wasn’t was totally irrelevant.
Except… if she wasn’t the one guilty of betraying Marcus, then who was?
‘I thought I told you to stay at the office!’ Marcus barked as soon as Kit opened her apartment door to him later that afternoon.
She knew exactly what he had said, appreciated