The thought filled her with a mixture of dread and elation. While her head was afraid, she had to restrain her body from leaning towards him, from shouting Look! Here I am!
But, standing back like this so that she could see all of him—the broad shoulders, the long legs—she could also see that he was wearing an identity tag just like the one Pam had been wearing, which meant that he wasn’t a customer, someone just passing through.
He worked in the store and if Rupert’s bodyguards had elicited help from the management in finding her she was in deep trouble because one thing was obvious. He wasn’t junior staff.
His pinstriped suit was the business, his tie, navy with a tiny pattern, was eye-wateringly expensive; she’d bought one like it in the store just yesterday. And, even without the designer gear, he had that unmistakable air of authority.
But if she’d thought he’d seemed intense as he’d held her balanced above the stairs, now he looked positively grim.
‘Keep your eyes open, Frank.’ His voice was low; he didn’t need to raise it to make a point.
As she watched, pinned to the spot, he took a step back, glanced around, his eyes momentarily coming to rest on her. She’d left it too late to move and she lowered her lashes, opting for the if-I-can’t-see-you-then-you-can’t-see-me scenario. Holding her breath as she waited for the got you hand on the shoulder.
Her heart ceased to beat for the second or two that he continued to stare at her, but after a moment she realised that, while he was looking at her, he wasn’t actually seeing her. He wasn’t even in this room, not in his head, anyway.
Then someone put his head around the corner. ‘Whenever you’re ready, sir.’
Without a word, he turned and walked away. Which was when she realised that he was gripping something in his hand. A shoe.
Her shoe.
Had it fallen out of her bag when she’d stumbled?
Well, duh…How many red suede peep-toe designer shoes were there lying around Hastings & Hart? How many dumb females whose coach had just turned into a pumpkin were there fleeing up the H&H stairs scattering footwear in their wake?
How many men who could stop your heart with a look?
Stop it!
Enough with the fairy tales.
She was done with fairy tales.
‘Wh…who was that?’ she asked, as casually as she could, once she’d finally managed to retrieve her heart from her mouth and coax it back into life.
Frank gave her a weary look and she remembered, too late, that he didn’t like inquisitive elves.
‘That, Miss Mop and Bucket,’ he replied, ‘was Nathaniel Hart.’
‘Hart?’ She blinked. ‘As in…’ She pointed up at the building soaring above them.
‘As in Hastings & Hart,’ he confirmed.
‘No…’ Or, to put it another way, Nooooooo!
‘Are you arguing with me?’
‘No!’ And she shook her head, to make sure. ‘I just hadn’t realised there was a real Mr Hart.’ It certainly explained the air of authority. If he looked as if he owned the place it was because, well, he did. ‘I thought that most of these big stores were owned by big chains.’
‘Hastings & Hart is not most stores.’
About to ask if there was a Mr Hastings, or even a Mrs Hart, she thought better of it. She was having a bad enough day without feeling guilty about lusting after some woman’s husband.
‘Is that all?’ Frank asked with a sardonic lift of the brow. ‘Or are you prepared to honour us with another teddy-dressing class for the under fives?’
‘I’m sorry. It got a bit out of hand,’ she said, fairly sure that was sarcasm rather than praise. ‘I won’t do it again.’
‘Oh, please don’t let me stop you. You are a hit with the children, if not with their mothers.’
Definitely sarcasm and she had been feeling rather guilty since several of the children had refused point-blank to surrender their bears to the rigours of a freezing sleigh ride and insisted they come home with them in a nice warm taxi. Not that it should worry Frank Alyson. It was all the more profit for Nathaniel Hart, wasn’t it? Which was all men like him cared about.
But all the practice she’d had smiling in the last few months stood her in good stead and she gave him one of her best.
He looked somewhat startled, as well he might—she didn’t imagine he got too many of those—and, satisfied with the effect, she returned to her stool, where she would be safely out of sight of Mr Nathaniel Hart, unless he borrowed Frank Alyson’s Chief Elf robes.
But, while the children kept her busy, her brain was fizzing with questions. Had Grey Eyes been contacted directly by one of Rupert’s minions? Asked to organise a discreet search for her? Or even perhaps by Rupert himself? They probably knew one another—billionaires united was a very small club—because he seemed to be taking a personal interest in the search.
He hadn’t sounded at all happy when, having belatedly come to her senses, she’d taken off up the stairs, leaving only her shoe behind.
And it would explain why he was carrying it around with him. He assumed that she had the other one tucked away in her bag and, obviously, she would need two of them if she was going to walk out of here.
Tough. He should have kept his mind on the job.
Or maybe not. Even now, her heart flipped at the memory as she absently sucked on an overheated lip.
Having been assured by the paramedics that Pam was suffering from nothing worse than the latest bug that was going around, Nat drove her home and insisted that she stay there until she was fully recovered.
‘But how will you cope? There’s so much to do and—’
‘Pam, we’ll manage,’ he insisted. ‘And the last thing we need at this time of year is an epidemic.’
‘Sorry. I know. And no one’s indispensable. Petra will manage. Probably.’ She rubbed at her temple. ‘There was something I was meant to be doing…’ He waited, but she sighed and said, ‘No, it’s gone.’
‘Can I get you anything? Tea? Juice?’
‘You’re a sweet man, Nathaniel Hart,’ she croaked. ‘You’d make some woman a lovely husband.’
An image of the woman on the stairs, her scent, the softness of her dress, disturbingly real, filled his head…
‘I’m just a details man,’ he said, blanking it off. ‘Go and get into bed. I’ll make you a hot drink.’
‘You should get back to London before the roads get any worse,’ she said. Then, as headlights swept across the window, ‘That’s Peter home.’
‘Closing time, Lou.’ The elf sitting on the next stool stood up, eased her back. ‘Reality beckons.’
‘I’ll just finish dressing this bear.’
‘You’re keen. See you tomorrow.’
It was a casual throwaway line, needing no answer, and Lucy didn’t reply. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself; it was tonight that was the problem.
She tucked the teddy into a pair of striped pyjamas and a dressing gown, putting off the moment when she’d have to face a cold world. Because no amount of thinking had provided her with an answer