Laura couldn’t help her look of surprise. ‘Isn’t he a little young for that? Surely Mr McNee is next in seniority?’
‘Next in age, you mean,’ Janice grinned. ‘But Mr McNee isn’t Mr Courtney’s son-in-law, Gideon Maitland is.’
‘I didn’t know Mr Courtney had a daughter,’ Laura gasped. She hadn’t even realised he had been married, let alone that he had children. With this knowledge Gideon Maitland moved even farther out of her orbit—if he had ever entered it!
‘He doesn’t, not any more.’ Janice shrugged. ‘She died a couple of years ago.’
‘Oh, how terrible!’ Laura’s sympathy was sincere, even though a few seconds ago she hadn’t even known the other woman existed. It was always tragic to hear of a death, especially as the other woman couldn’t have been all that old, mid-thirties at most. She shook her head. ‘No wonder Mr Maitland isn’t interested in women.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ Janice snorted. ‘I just said he wasn’t interested in office girls. Now actresses are a different matter.’
Laura looked startled. ‘Actresses?’
‘Well, one actress in particular, actually. You’ve heard of Petra Wilde, haven’t you?’
A mental image of the sultry actress instantly sprang to mind. Tall, with hair the colour of ebony, her eyes the aquamarine of a clear sea, the other woman was spectacularly beautiful, admired as much for that perfect beauty as she was for her splendid acting.
‘When she won her Oscar last year,’ Janice related with relish. ‘Guess who was there with her?’
‘Gideon Mailtand,’ Laura said dully.
‘Mm,’ Janice nodded excitedly. ‘There’ve been rumours of them going to marry for months, although I doubt it will happen now. Maybe she isn’t the maternal type. After all, not many women would be willing to take on another woman’s child.’
‘What child?’ Laura frowned her puzzlement, feeling as if she had lost Janice somewhere in this conversation.
‘Gideon Maitland has a little girl. Didn’t I explain that? No, I don’t suppose I did. Well, Gideon and Felicity—that’s Mr Courtney’s daughter—were married for ten years before she became pregnant. I think Mr Courtney had just about given up on them. Anyway, she finally became pregnant, and then she died during the birth. The baby almost died too.’
‘But Felicity—Mr Maitland’s wife died?’ It sounded a terrible tragedy to her.
‘Yes,’ Janice nodded; she was a pretty blonde in her late twenties, just waiting for the right man to come along so that she could give up work and have his children. ‘I think Natalie is about eighteen months old now, so Felicity died that long ago. I can still remember Mr Courtney’s face when he came in to work the next day. He looked as if his whole world had fallen apart. He lost his wife the same way, you know.’
‘And—and Mr Maitland? How did he react? He must have been shattered, losing his wife like that when they’d waited so long to have a child.’
‘Hard to say,’ Janice shrugged. ‘He didn’t come back to work for a couple of months, and by that time I suppose the worst of it was over. Although he had changed,’ she added thoughtfully. ‘He became even more withdrawn into himself. Not that he’d ever been the chatty type, but at least he used to say good morning once in a while. Now he barely notices your existence.’
‘It must have been hard for him,’ Laura excused, feeling Gideon Maitland’s pain as if it were her own. ‘I’m sure it can’t have been all that easy bringing up a baby on his own, especially as it’s a little girl.’
Janice gave a scornful snort. ‘Men like Gideon Maitland can afford to pay people to bring up their children for them.’
‘Oh, but surely—–’
‘Natalie has a nanny to take care of her, a friend of the family, so I’ve heard. Gideon Maitland is reputed not to have a lot of time for her.’
‘He probably blames the little girl for the death of his wife.’
‘Probably,’ Janice agreed. ‘But I—–’
‘Miss Lawson!’ James Courtney’s voice came clearly over the intercom.
Janice pulled a face at Laura, moving to answer him. ‘Yes, sir?’
‘Are those notes typed up yet?’ he rasped.
‘Er—almost,’ she invented.
‘Bring them in as soon as they’re finished.’ The intercom was switched off.
Janice wrinkled her nose. ‘What does he think I’m going to do with them?’ she said dryly.
Laura laughed. ‘He just isn’t a patient man.’
‘Neither is Gideon Maitland,’ Janice was obviously enjoying talking about him, especially to the newcomer Laura was.
Laura looked down at her desk. ‘What’s his daughter like?’
The other girl shrugged. ‘I’ve never seen her. But if she’s anything like her mother then she’s lovely. Felicity Maitland was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.’
Laura’s eyes were wide. ‘More beautiful even than Petra Wilde?’
‘Much more,’ Janice nodded. ‘She was tall and blonde, and very sophisticated. She used to make me feel like a dowd every time she came to the office.’
Considering how attractive Janice’s blonde beauty was Laura knew that the other woman must have been exquisite. She always felt inadequate when in the company of such women, her childish features set in a heart-shaped face, her huge green eyes seeming to dominate her other features, her nose small and snub, her mouth slightly tilted at the corners, her little chin had a determined tilt to it, a determination that was rarely asserted, although once she was roused to temper anything might happen. No doubt Felicity Maitland had had a good dress sense too, whereas she dressed to look efficient at the office in an effort to make up for her obvious youth, the tailored suits and fitted blouses worn for effect rather than style or elegance.
Right now she felt the dowd Janice said she usually felt, even the brightness of her hair dulled by its confinement. A man like Gideon Maitland wouldn’t even spare her a second glance, if indeed he had spared her a first one, and she was a fool for wishing he would.
She bent over her typewriter as she heard him taking his leave of James Courtney, the two men obviously arranging to meet at Gideon’s house later that evening, possibly for dinner.
She couldn’t stop herself, she just had to look up, to catch one last glimpse of him. After all, there was no saying when she would get to see him again, he had been back two days already and this was the first she had seen of him. He was just striding past their open office door, those grey eyes flickering over her coldly before he looked away again, James Courtney’s little mouse of a junior secretary dismissed from his mind—if she had ever entered it!
‘Miss Lawson!’ James Courtney had obviously reached the end of what little patience he possessed, his voice over the intercom chillier than ever.
‘God, what a bear!’ Janice frantically collected up the disordered typewritten sheets.
‘I’d better get on too,’ Laura grimaced. ‘He’ll want these letters for signing before he leaves at five.’
But her mind wasn’t on what she was doing, her usually faultless typing having a few errors today. Her secretarial qualifications were excellent, she wouldn’t have been employed at Courtneys if they weren’t, but when she had attained these qualifications she hadn’t had to contend with piercing grey eyes looking back at her from the keyboard of her typewriter, or to see