Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

Juliet frowned. ‘Your secretary—’ She broke off, looking at him closely, finally putting down the orange she had been attempting to eat. ‘Did you enjoy playing your little game with me, Liam?’ she said sharply, suddenly knowing that that was exactly what he had been doing, realising too late that no secretary of Liam’s would have been so indiscreet as to reveal such privileged information concerning his whereabouts, and the apparent sale of one of his hotels, to a complete stranger over the telephone. Unless she had been meant to!

The pig! The absolute lousy, rotten, manipulative—

‘Not particularly.’ He shook his head. ‘Certainly not once I had met you,’ he added grimly. ‘You aren’t what I expected, Juliet.’ His eyes were narrowed on her thoughtfully, as if part of him still wasn’t sure exactly what she was, just that she wasn’t what he had ‘expected’!

She could imagine only too well what he had expected and it wasn’t very pleasant. Oh, she realised that, on the face of it, it didn’t look too good in her favour: she was a young woman who had apparently been living with a much older man for several years. But it had been something which she was sure that William had never actually thought about, and she certainly hadn’t—not until Liam’s obviously cutting remarks about the relationship had forced her to do so.

‘And considering the state of you my father obviously got his pound of flesh out of you,’ Liam added harshly.

Juliet gasped—something she seemed to do all too often around this man. But he made such outrageous remarks it was impossible not to!

‘Work-wise, I meant, of course,’ he added scornfully.

‘Of course,’ she acknowledged bitingly.

‘I thought I told you to eat.’ He looked down pointedly at the food still on her plate.

‘And you’re used to people doing what you tell them to, aren’t you?’ Juliet derided.

‘Usually, yes,’ he said without conceit. ‘I run a multi-million-pound corporation, Juliet; someone has to give the orders.’

And a little company like Carlyle Properties wasn’t even worth the trouble of thinking about, she could see that. Except that it had been his father’s company. But William had been a father he obviously despised, for some reason.

‘I’m not one of your employees, Liam,’ she told him calmly. ‘And arguing like this when I’m trying to eat does not help my appetite!’

He gave a grimace. ‘So I’m to blame for that too, am I?’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘I bet you’re formidable in business, aren’t you? No one would believe there’s a woman of steel under that fragilelooking exterior!’

‘Woman of steel’? He had to be joking! Oh, she had learnt to adopt a certain barrier to a lot of the knocks of life, but she certainly wouldn’t call herself steely!

‘Maybe I can understand why the old man kept you around, after all,’ Liam mused. ‘If all else failed, he brought in the big guns!’

‘Liam—’

‘Or, in this case, the little guns,’ he continued derisively, pointedly looking her up and down. ‘Who could possibly be a hard-headed businessman to a little runt like you?’ He shook his head again.

He could, Juliet could have pointed out. But didn’t. She was far too busy taking exception to the ‘little runt’ remark. ‘Your father kept me on as his assistant because I was—am!—good at my job,’ she told him stiltedly. ‘For no other reason!’

Liam shrugged. ‘But it’s obviously proved too much for you since my father died.’

She drew in a ragged breath. Of course it had been too much for her since William died; she had been swimming upstream for the last two months— without any help from this man sitting beside her, she might add!

She sat very straight, her back rigid. ‘Maybe if you had cared, just once, to come and actually look at Carlyle Properties you would have seen just how well it’s run,’ she bit out tautly.

Liam gave a considering nod. ‘I intend to do just that.’

Juliet looked at him sharply, but his expression was enigmatic, his gaze steadily meeting hers. ‘What do you mean?’ she prompted warily.

He shrugged again. ‘I’ve been giving the matter some thought and I’ve decided to come back to England with you after all and take a look at the books of Carlyle Properties.’

Juliet stared at him. Just stared at him. Just exactly why had he changed his mind so suddenly?

CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_8cfca05e-e0ce-586b-8308-f2562a0c5eb2)

‘GOOD God, nothing has changed!’

Juliet turned as she stood in the large reception area of Carlyle House, her brows raised, to look at Liam who was standing just behind her.

They had returned to England only that morning. On Liam’s private jet. As she should have predicted! However Liam might have left this house, and his family, ten years ago, he certainly travelled and lived in style now, his jet of luxurious proportions, the formalities at the airport dealt with so quickly that Juliet had barely had time to catch her breath before going outside and being shown into the sporty Jaguar that Liam apparently liked to drive himself around England in.

He had unerringly driven both of them to Carlyle House this afternoon; he might not have visited the family home since he walked out all those years ago, but he certainly hadn’t forgotten where it was.

He was looking about him now with rueful derision, and Juliet tried to see the house through his eyes. It was as William had always liked it, with antique furniture and furnishings, vases of fresh flowers in all the main rooms, a huge arrangement in creams and orange on a round table in this reception area. And Juliet knew that when they walked through to the family sitting-room there would be a log fire burning in the fireplace. Yes, everything was still exactly as William had liked it. And she personally saw no reason to change that.

Liam, as he looked around the house he hadn’t seen for ten years, didn’t look quite so happy with what he saw. His expression was grim as he slowly walked about looking at things that must once have been very familiar to him—were still familiar to him—which was probably why he looked so grim!

Juliet couldn’t say that she was feeling exactly happy with the way things were either, but that had nothing to do with Carlyle House.

Liam had followed through on his announcement of his intention to return with her by arranging for them both to fly back three days later. There had then been two days during which he had arrogantly ordered her to rest completely, ignoring all of her protests that she would rather return immediately now that the decision had been made. In fact, he had just ignored all her protests, period! Nothing she had said during those two days had deterred him from his decision that she rest, and although she inwardly had to admit that she was feeling slightly better she certainly hadn’t enjoyed having Liam waiting on her. It made her uncomfortable to accept his attention in that way.

‘Miss Juliet!’ the housekeeper greeted warmly as she came through to see who the visitor was. ‘How lovely. Mr Liam…!’ Janet gasped as she saw him standing at the foot of the wide curved staircase.

‘Janet,’ he greeted drily. ‘My God, nothing has changed.’ He shook his head almost dazedly, striding across the distance that separated him from the housekeeper and clasping her in a bear-hug that made her gasp.

Janet Byrd, small and plump, with warm blue eyes and a head of completely white hair, had been with the Carlyle family since she had first come to the house as a maid when William had arrived with his bride. She had never married, claiming the Carlyles were the only family she wanted.

There was only Janet in the house now—and a young girl from the village who came in to help on a daily basis—but she could still tell tales of how grand it had all been forty years ago, with six household staff and a veritable army of gardeners to keep the grounds in immaculate condition. Those grounds were now kept in a similar condition by a contract gardener who came in two days a week. Almost sixty now, Janet had seen a lot of changes in the Carlyle fortunes during those forty years.

She was obviously pleased to see Liam in his old home, if a little confused. ‘Why did no one tell me you were coming?’ She frowned slightly reprovingly at Juliet. ‘I could have got your old room ready,’ she said, with a shake of her head.

Liam grimaced. ‘I’m not sure whether or not I’m staying yet,’ he bit out tautly as he released the elderly housekeeper. ‘And, if I do, I certainly don’t want my old room!’

Janet looked hurt. ‘But—’

‘Could we have some tea, Janet?’ Juliet took over calmly, knowing by that stubborn set to Liam’s mouth that he wasn’t about to be pressurised into doing anything he didn’t want to do—not even by the woman he must have known since his birth thirty-eight years ago. ‘It’s been a tiring day,’ she exaggerated—the journey had been achieved so smoothly that it was difficult to realise that they were actually back in England. But Liam looked as if he had taken enough for one day; returning to Carlyle Manor was obviously a strain for him.

‘I’ll bring it through in just a couple of minutes.’ Janet was obviously glad of something useful to do. ‘It is lovely to see you back, Mr Liam,’ she paused at the door to tell him.

Liam shook his head once the housekeeper had gone through to the kitchen. ‘I had forgotten all about Janet,’ he said, frowning.

Juliet doubted that he had actually forgotten; he had just chosen to put all memory of his family, and everything to do with them, firmly from his mind during the last ten years. Whatever the family rift had been about, and she doubted if she would ever know, it had certainly been something major.

‘Thank you.’

She looked across at Liam enquiringly, not understanding the quiet comment.

‘The request for tea,’ he explained ruefully. ‘Janet might have been hurt by my next comment,’ he accepted self-deprecatingly. ‘You’re quite an astute little thing, aren’t you?’ he remarked as he strode through to the sitting-room.

‘Will you stop being patronising about my size?’ Juliet snapped as she almost had to run to keep up with his long strides. She had heard it all during the last few days, from ‘midget’ right through to ‘pint-size’, and quite frankly she was getting tired of it.