‘I'm afraid I've never seen much television,’ Catriona said quietly. ‘We didn't have a set at home.'
Mrs Birch was obviously as staggered by this as if Catriona had suddenly grown a second head.
‘Well, there's a thing,’ she said at last. ‘And there was me thinking you were pestering him for a job.'
Catriona coloured. ‘Oh, it's nothing like that,’ she said.
‘I'm pleased to hear it.’ Mrs Birch set half a grapefruit frosted with sugar in front of Catriona and lowered her voice confidentially. ‘You see, dear, the better known he's become, the worse it's got. A lot of girls just think he's the key to fame and fortune and heaven knows what. He knows so many people in television, you see, and one word from him can do all sorts. I'm glad you're not one of them.’ She beamed approvingly at Catriona, then turned back to the cooker. ‘Now you get started, because this is nearly ready.'
Catriona had almost finished her eggs and bacon by the time Jason Lord returned. In a silk-textured dark suit he looked even more forbidding, she thought, and had to fight an urge to flinch as he slid on to the stool next to hers at the breakfast bar.
‘That's better,’ he remarked coolly. ‘You're beginning to look more like a human being.'
Mrs Birch put two steaming cups of coffee down on the bar and hurried out of the kitchen to her other chores.
‘You've placed me under an obligation to you——'
Catriona began stiffly, but he interrupted.
‘Then repay it—please—by going home.'
‘I have no home.'
‘You just thought you'd move in with my nephew.’ His tone was glacial again.
‘No,’ she answered wretchedly. ‘I've told you—we're going to be married.'
He glanced meaningly at her ringless hands. ‘You're officially engaged?'
She hesitated miserably, unwilling to share even part of her precious secret with this man. Then, very slowly, she undid the top two buttons on her white shirt blouse and pulled out the silver chain she wore round her neck. There were two metal objects hanging on it—a small key and a silver ring set with a cairngorm. A cheap enough trinket, but Jeremy had bought it for her one day in Fort William.
‘Until I can afford a proper one,’ he had whispered as he put it on her finger and kissed her. She had thought she would die of happiness, and some of that remembered joy lingered in her face as she extended the ring to Jason Lord in the soft curve of her palm.
There was a long silence. Then, ‘I see,’ he said in a voice devoid of any emotion. She looked at him, puzzled, but his eyes were veiled as he looked down at the thin trail of smoke from the cigarette held lightly between his fingers.
‘You will let me see him, won't you?’ Her voice was pleading.
‘Yes.’ He stubbed the cigarette out with sudden violence. ‘Yes, Miss Muir, you win. I'll take you to him this evening.'
‘Not till this evening?’ She couldn't believe her victory, but at the same time this apparently unnecessary delay jarred on her. ‘Why not now?'
‘Because he's away. He'll be back this evening—his mother's giving a party. I didn't intend to go, but now I will and I'll take you with me.'
‘But I couldn't let you do that,’ Catriona said at once. It was not at all how she had planned to see Jeremy again, at a party against a background where she would be an interloper. ‘I'd be a gatecrasher. And besides, I haven't anything to wear.'
‘The eternal cry of woman, but in your case it could just be true,’ he said, his eyes flicking over her dismissively. ‘And you won't be a gatecrasher. You'll go as my guest. Marion always expects me to bring a girl-friend to her parties.'
Catriona felt a quick surge of revulsion at the idea of being taken for his girl-friend.
‘I'm sure there are other people you'd rather take,’ she said awkwardly.
‘Dozens,’ he retorted. Suddenly he leaned forward and his long fingers brushed the small curve of her breast. Startled, she pulled away, feeling oddly as if she had been scorched by a sudden flame.
‘Don't be a fool,’ he said. ‘Give me credit for a little more subtlety in my approach than that. I'm just curious to know what this is.'
It was the key that shared the chain with the ring.
‘That's just the key of my cashbox,’ she said a little nervously.
‘Cashbox?’ he queried, with raised brows. ‘What cashbox?'
So perforce Catriona found herself telling him about Auntie Jessie and the sale of Muir House.
‘So when all was settled I had about two hundred pounds altogether. I spent some of it of course on my ticket and on a taxi today. But the rest is in a box in my rucksack,’ she added, noticing with alarm that he was frowning again.
‘You've been carrying all the money you possess in the world around London with you all morning!’ he said with ominous calm. ‘And supposing you'd been robbed? Dear God, girl, you're not safe to be allowed out!'
‘I can look after my money and myself,’ Catriona said indignantly.
‘Can you now?’ he said softly. ‘So much so that you blunder into a strange man's flat, make all kinds of demands and stay for breakfast without any thought of what you might have to give in return.'
‘I'm quite willing to pay you——’ she began, but he silenced her by placing an authoritative finger on her parted lips. An odd shiver ran through her. She had never been touched, she told herself, by anyone she loathed as much as him.
‘But supposing I asked for payment in kind rather than cash?’ His eyes held hers and she was aware that her breathing had quickened involuntarily.
‘I'd scream for Mrs Birch,’ she found herself saying with amazing calmness.
‘You assume she'd be on your side. Well, she probably would. She has a weakness for waifs and strays.’ With an insouciance that infuriated her, he let the key and ring drop back inside the neck of her shirt. They felt disturbingly warm from his fingers and again she felt that unaccountable shiver.
‘Well,’ he slid off the stool, ‘studio for me, and bed, I think, for you.'
‘Bed?’ Catriona gasped.
‘Of course. Don't tell me you got much sleep on that train last night.'
‘No—but I can't sleep here.'
‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘And don't start behaving like an hysterical virgin. I've already told you, I'm going to work. I'll get Mrs Birch to wake you around two-thirty and I'll be back at three to take you shopping.'
‘Shopping?'
‘Must you repeat everything I say?’ he said with studied patience.
‘But I don't need to go shopping.’ Catriona thought desperately of her small store of money. She could not go to Jeremy completely empty-handed.
‘Oh yes, you do. You need a party dress,’ he said coolly. Before she could argue, he was gone, and a moment later she heard the front door slam.
Catriona leant on the breakfast bar. Her head was throbbing, and she pressed her finger tips against her forehead with a little sigh. He was everything that was detestable, she thought, and he seemed to take a perverse delight in unnerving her. Only the thought that when evening came he would take her to Jeremy stopped her from grabbing up her things and running away as fast as she could.
‘Come along, lovey.’