Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

‘What is it, Juliet? Do you draw the line at married men?’ he taunted when he saw her stricken expression. ‘No future there, hmm?’ he added scornfully. ‘Very few men actually leave their wives for the mistress. It’s a fact of life that mistresses have a pretty raw deal.’ He shrugged unconcernedly.

She couldn’t find any reply; she was still reeling from the possibility that he might have been a married man with children. It had never even occurred to her…!

‘But not “companions", hmm?’ he continued remorselessly. ‘They seem to fare a lot better!’ He looked about the room appreciatively. ‘Big houses, half-shares in the business.’ His glacial gaze returned to the paleness of her face. ‘Not bad for a girl from the—’

‘That is enough!’ Juliet stood up forcefully, a nerve pulsing in her throat as she glared at him.

His mouth was a thin, angry line. ‘Believe me, I haven’t even started!’ he grated evenly. ‘Strange, I never thought of my father as a gullible man,’ he mused harshly. ‘But they say there’s no fool like an old fool. In my father’s case, that appears to have been the case!’ He shook his head disgustedly. ‘But I’m neither old nor a fool, so it isn’t going to work on me, Juliet.’

‘I don’t want anything to “work on” you,’ she protested heatedly. ‘William left me those things because he wanted to, not because of any supposed relationship between us. The only relationship between us was like that of father and daughter.’ And it would have been a factual relationship if her marriage to Simon had had the chance to take place.

‘Really?’ Liam returned drily. His insulting tone was unmistakable.

‘You——’

‘What is this?’ Liam ignored her outburst to reach past her to the desk behind.

Juliet turned to see what had so suddenly caught his interest. Colour flooded her cheeks as he looked at her with coldly accusing eyes after picking up the Walters file. She had been going to give him the file, for goodness’ sake, she just hadn’t had the opportunity to do so yet; he had been attackingly offensive more or less from the moment he had entered the study!

‘I found the file in William’s desk—’

‘And decided to have a look through it yourself before giving it to me,’ he said harshly. ‘Find anything interesting?’ he challenged.

Nothing at all. It was a file like any other file in the Carlyle Properties archives. The only thing that made it any different from the others was that it had been kept in the bottom drawer of William’s desk here.

Liam closed the file with a firm snap. ‘I’ll take this now,’ he rasped coldly. ‘And I’ll see you at breakfast in the morning.’

Juliet was left standing alone in the shadows of the study, feeling as if she had just been tossed around by a whirlwind!

CHAPTER EIGHT (#ulink_3c78040b-f3b5-50a9-8a77-66f86a87c199)

‘LIAM won’t be in today,’ Diana told her brightly as she looked into Juliet’s office the next morning.

Juliet had spent most of the night lying awake; she had found it impossible to sleep after that conversation with Liam in the study. And, wanting to avoid him this morning, she had had coffee in her bedroom, missing breakfast altogether, only to discover from Janet, when she had gone down, that Liam had left the house very early that morning. And now it seemed that he was to be away all day. Her relief was mixed up with a certain amount of curiosity as to where he had gone.

‘Business?’ she asked casually, looking up from the work on her desk.

‘With Liam, who knows?’ Diana gave a dismissive shrug. ‘I’ll just carry on going through the papers you gave us yesterday,’ was her parting comment as she closed Juliet’s office door behind her.

Liam was right; Diana was very discreet! Had he found something in that file last night that she just hadn’t seen when she had looked through it? What was he looking for? Knowing Liam, he would probably never tell her unless it was something he wanted her to know!

God, she wished he would come to some sort of decision concerning the business. The waiting was killing her! All she had wanted from him was a straightforward yes or no, but she knew that he wouldn’t be rushed, and that his decision, when it came, would be made on a practical business level, would have nothing to do with love or loyalty towards his father. Basically because he didn’t feel either of those things towards his family.

And he wasn’t about to come to any decision when he wasn’t even here!

John came into her office later in the morning, and Juliet could see that he wanted an explanation of what was actually going on, which wasn’t surprising considering Liam had walked in and more or less taken over William’s office—at the least!

There wasn’t a lot she could really tell John; she had no idea herself what was happening. It could take Liam weeks to decide whether or not to keep the company going—which wasn’t a lot of help to John, she accepted, but it was all she could offer him at the moment.

‘Will Mr Liam be in for dinner tonight?’ Janet asked her when she arrived home later that evening.

She had no idea what Liam’s plans were for this evening; given that she hadn’t seen him all day, how could she possibly know? He hadn’t been into the office at all today, not even to speak to Diana. Not that the other woman had seemed concerned by his absence; she was probably used to it. Diana certainly seemed to accept working alone.

There had been no time for the two women even to take a hurried lunch together today; Juliet was back in the midst of her own work now, Diana still poring over accounts in William’s office. Besides, Juliet felt a little uneasy in the other woman’s company now as she was no longer so sure of Diana’s relationship with Liam; he had certainly seemed defensive enough over the other woman when he’d come home last night!

‘I have no idea,’ Juliet replied dismissively. ‘Liam doesn’t keep me informed of his movements.’

‘He never did.’ Janet shook her head affectionately. ‘He always was the more independent of the two boys.’

Boys? Juliet again found it difficult to imagine Liam as a boy.

Janet laughed at her expression. ‘I can never think of him as anything else!’ she smiled. ‘He was a mischievous little devil.’ Her face clouded slightly. ‘Until Simon was born, that is.’

Juliet stiffened slightly at the mention of her dead fiancе; she had never discussed Simon with Janet. In fact, she hadn’t really spoken of him since his death. Whether that was a good or bad thing she wasn’t sure; she just knew that she found it too painful to talk about him.

But she was interested in this conversation in spite of herself. ‘What effect did that have on Liam?’ She frowned. As she did not have any siblings of her own, or any other family either, it was unknown territory for her.

Janet shrugged. ‘Well, his mother died, for one thing, so that didn’t help the situation. And Mr William doted on the baby, which didn’t help either, so—’

‘Liam and Simon didn’t get on,’ Juliet guessed.

‘I wouldn’t say that as children they didn’t get on,’ Janet said slowly. ‘After all, Liam was five when Simon was born—already at school, with his own group of friends. It was only as they grew up that the resentment became more obvious.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘By the time they were both teenagers it was like open warfare!’

So Liam has been resentful of his younger brother. She had guessed from his attitude towards Simon that there had been no love lost between the two brothers, and Janet had just confirmed it.

‘It was very difficult for Mr William.’ Janet gave a heavy sigh. ‘He loved both his sons—’

‘That’s debatable, Janet!’ cut in a harshly angry voice, and both women turned to find that Liam had entered the house without either of them being aware of it.

Janet immediately looked flustered at being caught discussing him in that way, and Juliet had to admit that she wasn’t too happy about it herself. She was sure that Liam’s remarks last night about not discussing him, or his private affairs, with Diana also applied to Janet!

He strode forcefully into the entrance hall, closing the door behind him with firm finality. ‘We’ll have coffee in my father’s study, Janet,’ he told the housekeeper icily, his eyes glittering like twin blue lakes—fathomless lakes with a threat in their depths! ‘The study, Juliet,’ he told her coldly as he marched past, not even pausing to see if she intended following him.

He just knew that she would! Not that she wanted to, but she accepted that she probably did owe him an apology for being caught out talking about him with Janet. But it hadn’t been intentional; it had just been a natural progression in the conversation.

Janet made a pained expression. ‘Oh, dear,’ she sighed, looking guiltily after Liam.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Juliet said softly, squeezing her arm reassuringly. ‘We weren’t doing anything wrong.’ Although she doubted whether Liam saw it that way!

Janet shook her head regretfully. ‘I know that look,’ she said, grimacing. ‘His father had one just—’ She broke off awkwardly. ‘Liam always was as stubborn as a mule,’ she sighed. ‘And he isn’t going to like it that we were talking about him.’

‘It will be fine,’ Juliet assured her with more confidence than she actually felt; Liam was furious, and her delay in joining him wouldn’t be improving his mood. ‘You go and get the coffee and I’ll speak to him.’ She gave the older woman a comforting smile.

Janet didn’t look any more convinced about Liam’s mood than Juliet felt, but she went off to get the requested coffee anyway.

Juliet took a deep breath and followed Liam to the study. She almost faltered as she entered the room, finding him sitting behind the desk in William’s chair, his face set in a cold, angry mask; obviously this was not going to be a pleasant conversation. Not that she had particularly expected it to be, but facing Liam across the desk like this she felt like a naughty schoolgirl who had been called in by the headmaster to be chastised for some misdemeanour!

He sat forward to rest his elbows on the desktop, lacing the fingers of each hand together in front of his face, his eyes icily assessing as he looked at her. And looked at her. And looked at her.