Glass Ceilings (48 page)

Verity
hu
rried away without looking back, while
Royce and his
dog stood silently watching as
she
disappeared out of the
light
’s reach
.

Chapter Twenty

‘Hello Claire.’

‘Hello Royce.’

They eyed each other, he from his impressive height, and she from the chair behind
the executive secretary’s desk.

Cl
aire was
up to her eyeballs in work,
getting a handle on the new role and
still
trying to
finalise some of her
previous
PR duties,
so
she
was
less than thrilled
to see
Royce
walk through the door
.
It was late afternoon and she’d been looking forward to a couple of qui
et hours to finalise
some
tasks
.

Sh
e
made herself stop
agonising about
the interruption
for a second,
and studied Royce
’s face
. She
knew
things had changed between
him
and Verity
, but Verity had been a little vague about what had
actually
transpir
ed
, and Royce had kept a
low profile
following their return from the island
.
When he didn’t speak straight away, Claire became flustered and tried to
fill the void with small talk.

‘So,
sounds like it
was an exciting time on the island?’

‘That seems to be the general consensus
.’
He fixed her with a level gaze.

Her mouth
ran
away with her again.
‘And
some changes here
while you guys were away
, with
Reardon
gone
, and Kerry
... o
bviously,
’
and she gave a self-conscious
chuckle, ‘otherwis
e I wouldn’t be sitting
—
’

‘Look,’
Royce
said, his voice gravelly
,
‘
I didn’t come here to gossip.
I came to ask if you could arrange a
meeting for me,
with Verity.’

Claire frowned,
‘
I’m not
gossiping, just
...,’
and then she remembered who she was speaking to.
‘
I mean,
of course
Mr Chairman of the Board
of Directors
.’
She
tapped on her keyboard, opening Verity’s electronic
calendar
.

‘
I’m not chairman
yet
.’

‘
OK
then, Royce, which day
are we talking about
?
’

‘
Tomorrow, in the afternoon. Is that a possibility?’

‘Hmm,
tomorrow ...
let’s se
e.
Well, aren’t you
the
lucky
one
. S
he doesn’t have any appointments
from two
-thirty
onwards. How long will you need?’

‘Can you block out the rest of the afternoon?’

Claire loo
ked at him quizzically. ‘
You must have a lot to talk about?’

He
merely
raised a noncommittal eyebrow
, so
Claire went on with a small sigh,
‘
Right then. W
hat do you want noted as
the subject of
the
meeting?’

He
replied
crisply, ‘
I have a
proposal to
discuss
.’

Clai
re ty
ped the entry
into the
calendar
. ‘OK,
meeting with “Royce re proposal”
all booked in for two
-thirty
’
til five
pm tomorrow.’

‘T
hanks.’ Royce
turned
to leave, but pa
used
and
glanced over his shoulder
. ‘Look, I’d appreciate it if we’re
not disturbed tomorrow
.
’

‘Gotcha. I’ll be here, on
gate-keeping
duty. Oh, and don’t be surprised if she hits you with a bill when she sees you.’

‘What?’ He
frowned
at her
.

‘
You owe her for a trip to the vet.
’ His
frown deepened, and she grinned.
‘
Y’
s
ee
,
Jack
, her
beloved
cat,
was
off his food
,
so she took him
in for a check-up
.
Turns
out
he’s perfectly healthy, but
someone
,’ and she threw
Royce
a significant look
,
‘has been
filling
him
up on fresh
fish.’

‘Oh ... right ... so s
he knows about that?’

‘Sure does
.’
Claire gave a quiet titter
at his bemused face
.

With a half-smile playing around his mouth
,
Royc
e
said
,
‘
Well, thanks for the heads-up,
’
before
nod
ding at her
and striding
away
.

‘Verity, this fax just came in. Thought you’d wanna see it straight away.’ Claire studied
her boss
’s face as she handed her the fax.
Verity had
been unusually pensive and distant since her return
from the
island
,
and the forthcoming meeting with Royce only
seem
ed
to mak
e her more so
.

‘Thanks
,
Claire.’ Verity took the fax and ran her eyes over it quickly. ‘I’m glad you gave this to me straight away, I was waiting on these figures.’

‘
I thought you might’ve been. Say,
I’m about to go get a coffee, do you fancy one?’

Verity looked up at her new PA
, and it was
as if
she was seeing her for the first time. She
sat back with a tired
smile. ‘Of course
I do, thi
s
is
me you’re talking to
.’

Claire grinned.
‘Right-ho, I’ll be back in a jiffy.’

When she returned
, bearing two flat whites and a
double choc muffin
, Claire sat at the m
eeting table in the centre of the office,
and Verity joined her.

Claire took a generous slurp from her cup. ‘
Have you seen the funny notice on the lunch room wall?’

Verity gave a preoccupi
ed shake of her head.

‘You now h
ow Paul Painter from the drafting
office breed
s Pointer puppies? Well, he pinned up a “
puppies
for sale”
poster
on the notice board, and
now some wag has changed it
to read, “For Sale, Painter Puppies, see Paul Pointer”,’ and Claire
dissolved
into giggles.

Verity gave a half-hearted chuckle.

Claire splutter
ed
, ‘I can
picture
tho
se little puppies holding
brushes in their paws, and Paul pointing at
what they’re to paint
.
H
ilarious
!
’ an
d she burst out laughing again.
But wh
en Verity remained silent, Clair
e sobered to say
, ‘Well,
I
thought it was funny, but maybe you had to be there.
’
She had another drink, looking assessingly a
t her friend over the top of her
mug, before
try
ing
another tack.

‘Hey,
I heard on the grapevine that Jim and Kerry are divorcing.’

‘Mm
hm
.
’
Verity
took
a bite from her half of the muffin
.

‘Apparently
Jim put his foot down abo
ut her playing up
, b
ut
I’m struggling to
picture
him winning
that
confrontation
. H
e’s such an easy-going bloke
, without a mean bone in his
—dare I say it?—
not unattractive
,
body
.
’

This
met
with another
grunt from Verity, who was
gazing
at the fax in her hand.

Clai
re’s brows drew together
and
she
went on,
‘If you ask me, h
e’s way too good for her.’ Sh
e blew on her hot coffee. ‘
And m
aybe
Kerry realised
it
too,
’
cos
the story goes,
when Jim
asked if
she was prepared
to work at
their marriage
, more
fool her, she told him all she
really want
s i
s a
divorce.’

T
his time Verity glanced up and said crossly,
‘Claire,
you should know
it doesn’t pay to gossip, and I don’t need a
nother
PA with loose lips.’

Claire gasped and put down her coffee with a thump
, thinking agitatedly,
a
gain with the gossip tag!
She stared at her
boss
for a
few seconds
and said tartly, ‘Permission to speak frankly?’

Verity sat back with a sigh
. ‘Claire
—’

‘I want a chance
to set the record straight.
’

Verity nodded miserably.

‘First of all,
I wasn’t gossiping. I was talking to
you
,
and nobody else,
about
a situation with a staff member. Which, by the way, is
common knowledge around the halls
.
I even heard
someone talking about it
just now,
down
at
the vending machine!
And I thought you said when I took this job, that you wanted me to help you stay informed and in touch with the workforce.
’

Verity
squeezed her eyes shut for a second and
gave a barely
perceptible shake of her head.
‘Sorry, I—’

‘And
you should know
better than anyone, that I
don’t
have loose lips.’

Verity sat forward and put her head in her hands
, saying resignedly,
‘Yes,
of course
.
You didn’t deserve that.
I don’t
know what’s got into me,
I’ve been snapping at everyone lately.
’

‘I think you need to talk about what’s bothering you
.
’