Deceptive Love (11 page)

Keri knew then, without further confirmation, that it had been Dain on Sunday, letting the phone peal in those demanding summons which she had so determinedly ignored. She knew too, that he suspected, though he couldn't prove it without interrogating Charles and Mary, that she had been avoiding him. His phrasing was also deliberately designed to leave Miss Barth free to speculate just what they had covered on Sunday.

With scant regard for business protocol Keri tramped past Dain and into his office, leaving him to follow behind. As soon as he came in and closed the door behind them, she whirled on him, ready to do battle.

"Mr. Randolph, I do not appreciate the impression you have managed to give Miss Barth, that I am . . . that we
are ..."
she floundered, searching for the mot juste.

He watched her struggles with amusement, but declined to supply any suitable word from his no doubt extensive vocabulary. Finally Keri was able to stop sputtering and express herself in coherent English.

She said stiffly, "I am your employee, Mr. Randolph, your secretary. I would appreciate it if you would cease implying that I am anything more. Friday night you implied, none too subtly I might add, that I was more than your secretary, and now, in front of Miss Barth, you implied that
we ... we ..."
Here Keri ran into word trouble again. .. that you and I are on such terms that we dine with my relatives," she finished bitterly.

"Didn't I dine with your relatives?" he asked mockingly.

"Oh, yes, but only because you sneakily contrived it. You knew I didn't want to go out with you," she accused him.

He fixed her with a kindling eye. He could only keep an upper hand with this infuriating woman if he kept his temper, but it was going to be a hard thing to do. "Didn't you have a good time after I dragooned you into going?" he asked her in a silkily dangerous tone.

"That's beside the point!" Keri was determined not to give an inch.

"That's exactly the point," he flashed back. "And here's another point, Keri. I
am
the boss. This office will be run in the manner I dictate. If I want to call you by your first name, I will, and you'd better answer to it."

By now Dain had advanced from his position by the door to loom over Keri as she stood backed up by his desk. She could feel the edge cutting into the soft flesh of her thighs. She couldn't retreat any farther and still he came closer, until they were nearly touching and she had to strain her neck to look up and meet his eyes. Like her own, his green eyes glittered with suppressed emotion and for a moment the primitive man showed through.

He glared at her for a long moment and then stepped back, giving her a clear path to the door. "Get out of here, Keri. Run back to your nice safe office. You might have shed the exterior Miss Prim, but her soul still lurks underneath!"

"Nice safe office, huh!" Keri muttered as she closed the door behind her not quite in a slam. "I may have been delivered from the lion's den for the moment, but the lady jackal is lurking just outside."

She hoped she didn't look as distraught as she felt inside. Miss Barth would be sure to dive straight for the jugular at the slightest sign of weakness. A bland, imperturbable facade against which Miss Barth would blunt her fangs and the comforting alternative of an embassy job somewhere on the other side of the world would be her shield and buckler.

By the end of the day Keri wished instead for an armored tank. Miss Earth's unsubtle spray of venom had eaten numerous holes in her "imperturbable" facade and Keri didn't believe that there was an embassy or even a legation in Antarctica, which is where she most longed to be at the moment.

As she had expected fatalistically, Miss Barth was lying in wait just outside Dam's door. When Keri emerged from the ogre's den, Miss Barth pounced, and her first bite was no mere nip at the heels.

"Well, Miss Dalton, what a transformation! Decided that there are faster ways to advancement than through merit, have you?"

Keri fought back a retort in kind—several searing ones jostled to be first out of her mouth—and merely stared frostily at the hostile woman. It lacked the quelling authority of her previous stares since this one was no longer backed up by her matching Miss Prim persona, but evidently it still carried enough force to shift Miss Barth back out of Keri's line of progress. Keri swept into her own office and shut the door firmly behind her. She leaned weakly back against the comforting solidity of the door, her eyes closed while she struggled to master her rampaging emotions.

"Elise makes a bad friend and a worse enemy." The dry comment snapped Keri's eyes open. Mrs. Covey regarded her from her desk, a sympathetic smile creasing the plump folds of her cheeks. "Don't worry, Keri. You're more than a match for Elise at her worst." She surveyed Keri judiciously. "For one thing, you've got better equipment than she has."

Keri groaned heartrendingly. "Mrs. Covey, you are definitely Job's comforter right now. My equipment, as you call it, is what's gotten me into this mess," She raised her hands theatrically to heaven. "All I asked for was a simple secretarial job, where nobody noticed me and I could do my work without all of these brangles. A peaceful life, a simple life . . . was it too much to ask?" Heaven didn't bother to answer, and Keri dropped her hands to her sides. Humor had surfaced and Keri was back on balance. The friendly exchange with Mrs. Covey had restored her equilibrium and she could begin to put the morning's events into some sort of perspective. If only she would be left alone for the rest of the day to strengthen her fragile composure.

Keri got her wish, for the rest of the morning at least. She and Mrs. Covey were deeply immersed in the complexities of the report concerning the latest takeover, assembling, ordering, and translating the relevant papers into a comprehensive and tidy whole.

Whenever further material was needed, Mrs. Covey tactfully sallied forth to gather the requisite pieces of paper. She kindly didn't tell Keri about the increased traffic Elise was having to deal with. There seemed to be a steady stream of people with spurious excuses who came, hoping to confirm the rumor of Miss Dalton's miraculous transformation into a femme fatale. Opportunistic young executives hovered like honeybees, but it wasn't Miss Barth's nectar they wished to sip.

Dain erupted in the middle of one gathering of drones. He had flashed twice for Miss Barth, and receiving no immediate response (an unprecedented event, since she usually appeared before he had time to take his finger off the summoning button!), he came out to investigate.

Unlike Keri, Dain's temper was still simmering, and the hapless young executives received a sizable portion of the nicely boiling ire. Dain took in the gathering with a comprehensive glance and understood its origin and intent in an instant. It didn't help his temper to know that word of Keri's transformation had spread so rapidly and with such devastating results.

"Well, gentlemen?" He surveyed the hovering men with cold green eyes. "Have you come in a delegation to see me about some crisis which threatens RanCo? It must indeed be critical to find so many of the brightest of our executive crop ungainfully employed." The gathering nearly teleported away, so swift was the dispersal. Fortunately no one was crushed in the effort to be first through the office door.

Mrs. Covey, legitimately employed in gathering more material, had stood well away from the dangerous path of egress. She continued to dawdle unobtrusively so she could witness the final scene. It was a dilly.

"And now, Miss Barth," Dain snarled silkily,
"if
you would be so kind. I have some letters which are urgent. Since your hovering court has dispersed, perhaps now you will find time to concentrate on the work you were hired to do." He stood waiting for the white-faced Miss Barth to gather her materials together and then ushered her within the inner sanctum with exaggerated courtesy.

Well that's the first time ever that Elise won’t enjoy being alone with Dain Randolph
Mrs. Covey observed to herself.
Elise won't even wait to get Keri alone in a dark alley after this
. She clutched her papers to her ample bosom and went back into her own and Keri's office.

Mrs. Covey didn't mention the scene in the outer office, but when lunchtime arrived, she suggested that she and Keri once again forgo the company cafeteria and eat away from the premises of RanCo. Keri, restored by the morning of uninterrupted paperwork, demurred at first.

"I'll have to face them sometime, Mrs. Covey. I might as well get it over with," she offered bravely. "I had a sample of the reaction when I came up to the office this morning. It'll all die down if I just ignore it."

"I don't know if you'll be able to ignore it, Keri," Mrs. Covey confessed soberly. She went on to detail the morning's events and concluded, "Elise will really have her knives out for you now. Dain Randolph has never spoken to her that way before and she's sure to blame you. She has a coterie of friends who follow her lead slavishly and if those harpies start in on you, Custer's last stand will be a Sunday picnic by comparison."

Keri's eyes began to flash; "Perhaps an unfortunate simile for Miss Barth, She can't be sure she'll end up on the side of the Indians. Custer had blond hair, and though Elise Barth's is bleached to that color, the principle may turn out to be the same. I believe the menu of the cafeteria 
features cabbage rolls today, Mrs. Covey. They're one of my favorite dishes and I'd hate to miss a chance to try the cafeteria's version of them. Shall we go?"

The outer office was deserted. The two women escaped to the hall without incident and then traded a conspiratorial glance. They didn't know where Elise was, perhaps still closeted with Dain, but at least she hadn't been glaring at them from behind her desk!

The next stop was the rest room, where Keri gilded the lily with fresh lipgloss and a swift hairbrush through her auburn mop. Her eyes glittered green without further enhancement and nothing was needed to tilt her chin into a determined slant. Mrs. Covey decided privately that if she were a betting woman, which, regretfully she wasn't, she'd put a hefty bet on Keri.

Keri slipped her shoulderbag over her arm and with Mrs. Covey in tow, sailed into the cafeteria. To say that all conversation ceased when they entered would be incorrect, but there was a noticeable drop in the sound level of the hum of voices and a rippling effect, much like that of wind through a grain field, as heads turned to follow Keri's progress toward the steam tables.

After the initial lowering of conversation, the increased volume was all the more noticeable. Keri seemed oblivious to it all, but Mrs. Covey observed that the fingers that grasped her tray were white from the pressure she was exerting. She smiled pleasantly at the woman who served her plate with the requested cabbage rolls, and Mrs. Covey noticed that Keri got an extra helping of tomato sauce over her selection. Subtle sympathy?

Keri seemed unaware of the wave of interest her appearance had spawned, but as Mrs. Covey so cannily observed, it was surface serenity only. Her stomach churned and her face felt stiff as she forced her expression into self-possessed impassivity. She wanted to scream at all the staring eyes,
Stop looking at me! It's not my fault. Your precious boss got me into this.

Not a hint of the inner turmoil appeared, however, and as they paused by the cashier after paying for their meals, both women surveyed the room for space to sit. Keri saw Elise and a group of friends sitting across the room, heads together, but darting glances at Keri between whispered comments. Mrs. Covey had spo'tted a table for two on the opposite side of the room and she directed Keri's attention toward it, but Keri had decided to carry the attack to the enemy. There was also an empty table right next to Elise and her comrades. Keri headed toward it, with Mrs. Covey gamely bringing up the rear.

Keri took the seat which faced outward into the room and which not so incidentally placed her directly in line with Elise. Keri nodded regally to Elise and received a blistering glare in return. A besetting sense of mischief overtook Keri and she smiled sweetly. Elise was taken aback and momentarily flustered. Hot color, due mostly to fury, ran up under the skin of her cheeks, tinting her makeup a momentary blotched orange. The clown mask of rage reappeared, but Keri faced her opponent guilelessly until Elise turned away and broke the eye contact, disconcerted.

Keri then began to eat her cabbage rolls with every evidence of enjoyment. She and Elise were never going to be friends, but Elise was going to respect her as an opponent or Keri would know the reason why! She cut into a cabbage roll with savage precision.

"I think Elise would like to hand you a salt shaker full of ground glass right now," Mrs. Covey commented with understated perceptiveness.

"Just at this moment, I could probably eat it and come to no harm," Keri retorted. "If I could shake it over Dain Randolph's heart I'd probably even relish it!" She glanced up from her plate, checking on Elise's whereabouts, but the other woman was avoiding her eye. Keri returned her attention to her own lunch.

"So you'd like his heart on a plate, would you?" Mrs. Covey chuckled.

"I wouldn't have any part of him on a silver platter," Keri shot back, but she grinned wryly and addecl, "and don't quote me the one about the lady doth protest too much. That's always seemed to me to be a singularly irritating quotation and as unfair as the old have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife question. You can't win either way."

By now both women were into dessert and Keri watched Elise and her friends gather up their trays, preparing to depart. Elise's and Keri's eyes met once again, and as before, Elise's eyes fell first. Keri watched her walk away, stiff-backed and bristling, and knew that life in the executive complex was going to be dicey for a long time to come. She mentally shrugged with resigned acceptance. It was all so futile—she would have happily and, at this moment, truthfully reassured Elise about her lack of designs on their mutual boss—but Elise was unable to believe in Keri's innocence of intent or to accept the even more unpalatable fact that with or without Keri's attractive presence, Elise Barth had no chance with Dain Randolph anyway. Elise had had three years to make what headway she could and she was still Miss Barth, both in public and in private. Unfortunately for Keri, Elise Barth was not a graceful loser.