Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

The implied insult went over John’s head as he gave Liam a puzzled look, and as the younger man was due to marry his long-standing girlfriend the next month that wasn’t so surprising. ‘Juliet, actually,’ he replied.

‘Naturally,’ Liam drawled. ‘I’ll leave the two of you to it, then. We’ll leave together at five-thirty, Juliet; will that do? We can sort out where we’re going then,’ he added challengingly.

It was far from ideal, because it meant that she would have to go back to the house to pick up her things after she had spoken to him, but in the circumstances … ‘That’s fine,’ she agreed softly.

‘Good.’ He somehow managed to convey the point that he really didn’t care whether it was fine with her or not; if she wanted to talk to him privately, that was when they would do it, at his convenience, not hers.

‘Five-thirty, then,’ she confirmed abruptly, very aware of John’s presence.

‘Yes.’ Liam turned and re-entered his office.

John gazed after him frowningly. ‘I can’t quite work him out,’ he finally said slowly. ‘He’s been prowling up and down this corridor for the last hour, I’m sure waiting for you to arrive, and now that you have his mood doesn’t seem to have improved!’

Liam might have been waiting for her to arrive, but only so that he could snap her head off for being late once she got here! It didn’t actually take a lot to work Liam out; he hadn’t wanted to be here at Carlyle Properties, didn’t want to be here, and resented being so. She didn’t doubt that it was only his curiosity that had got him to come back here at all—a curiosity that must have been more than satisfied by now! And Juliet didn’t doubt that now that it had been he would very shortly be leaving. Except that she was leaving first, so he might find it a little difficult to do that.

But she wouldn’t go before telling him what she was doing, even if she couldn’t tell him all the reasons why.

The minutes and hours of the morning dragged by, possibly because it was her last day at Carlyle Properties and, like Liam, she didn’t want to be here either. Despite what she might have originally thought, perhaps it would be best if Liam let the company fold; after what he had told her about its past, it was probably better if it did. The company was tainted.

By one o’clock she decided that she needed a break. And she didn’t care what Liam had to say about her taking an hour off for lunch. What did it matter anyway? She wouldn’t be here at all tomorrow!

It was just her luck that Diana was walking down the corridor as she left her office. The other woman gave her a warm, friendly smile. ‘Off for lunch?’

Lunch hadn’t actually entered into her plans; just an hour out in the fresh air somewhere would be one hour less that she had to spend here. ‘Yes,’ she answered abruptly, not quite meeting the other woman’s gaze.

Diana’s face brightened. ‘I’ll come with you, shall I? Lunch the other day didn’t really count!’

Juliet didn’t want to spend an hour with this woman, trying to act sociably. She didn’t want to spend an hour with anyone at the moment. ‘I—’

‘I’ll just tell Liam we’re going,’ Diana said, cutting lightly across her objection. ‘I’ll only be a moment,’ she promised before entering the office she and Liam had been sharing for the last couple of days.

Juliet could imagine that Liam was going to be absolutely thrilled at the idea of her taking his personal assistant away for an hour, especially as she herself had been in an hour late already this morning! It wasn’t even as if she wanted the other woman to come with her…

Liam’s explosion wasn’t long in coming!

‘What do you mean you’re going to lunch with Juliet?’ he snapped angrily. Diana had left the office door slightly ajar when she’d gone back into the office.

Juliet cringed at the anger in his voice, wishing she were anywhere but standing in this corridor, an unwilling listener to the exchange. She didn’t hear Diana’s quietly spoken reply, only Liam’s response.

‘How else should I feel?’ he challenged harshly. ‘I’m wasting precious time even looking at this damned company, when I have interests of my own that need attention. You’re pregnant, and—God, I’m sorry, Diana!’ His voice had softened in his hurried apology. ‘I know you feel badly enough about that already. Don’t worry, we’ll work something out. It isn’t the end of the world. Tom will come round. He’ll understand. Oh, God, Diana, don’t cry; you know I don’t know what to do when you cry! Diana…’

Juliet didn’t stay to hear any more, but turned and walked in a daze from the building, sure that she had been forgotten by both Diana and Liam. Interests of his own that needed attention, Diana pregnant, her husband Tom would understand. It all added up to one thing: Diana was pregnant with Liam’s child!

Juliet was stunned, totally shocked; she sat in her car for several minutes, unable to move.

What had she expected, hoped? That somehow during her conversation with Liam this evening she might have been able to salvage something, some sort of relationship with him?

God, she did love him. And he was having an affair with a married woman—a woman who was now expecting his child. What a mess!

How she drove back to the house she never knew afterwards; she couldn’t recall the journey at all. But she knew, after the conversation she had just heard, that she couldn’t return to Carlyle Properties, that she couldn’t see Liam again. The only course left open to her now was to collect her things and go. She would leave a note for Liam in his father’s study explaining what she was doing, and saying that he would hear from her lawyer concerning the business and house. There was no way she could actually talk to him herself now. Whatever awareness there had been between them, and no matter how she might feel about Liam, she had no part to play in his life.

As he had no part to play in hers…

A perplexed-looking Janet met her in the hallway as she entered the house. ‘Miss Juliet, I’ve seen the suitcases in your room…’ She frowned heavily. ‘Are you going away on holiday?’

She was sure that the older woman must have realised that all of her things were packed in those two suitcases—everything she wanted to take with her, which was really only clothes and a few personal things. She wanted nothing that any of the Carlyle family had ever given her.

‘Not a holiday, Janet,’ she told the other woman gently. ‘I’m leaving the house for good.’

The older woman looked stricken. ‘But—’

‘It’s for the best, Janet.’ She squeezed the other woman’s arm reassuringly. ‘I think we both know that I should have left seven years ago whenwell, after Simon died.’ She shook her head. ‘I just wasn’t feeling strong enough to make the break then.’

‘Would you care to explain that remark?’

Both women spun round at the sound of Liam’s voice. He stood in the doorway behind them, his expression grim.

Juliet just stared at him. How had he got here? She hadn’t heard the car in the driveway, but she supposed he must have driven here. Had he known she was here too?

‘Well?’ He looked at her challengingly, closing the door firmly behind him.

She couldn’t even remember what she and Janet had been talking about when he arrived, so shocked was she by his presence here!

‘Why weren’t you feeling strong enough to leave seven years ago?’ he prompted harshly, blue eyes narrowed.

There was so much anger in this house—always had been, Juliet realised now. ‘My fiancé had just died,’ she answered quietly, not quite able to meet the intensity of that probing gaze.

‘Simon?’ Liam said scornfully. ‘Was he really any loss to anyone?’

‘Master Liam!’ Janet gasped in a shocked voice.

He looked at her slightly regretfully. ‘I’m sorry, Janet, but you know that there was no love lost between my brother and myself; we just didn’t have anything in common, except the same parents. If we hadn’t been related, we would have disliked each other intensely the first time we met.’ He shook his head disgustedly. ‘Simon was a spoilt child who grew up into a spoilt, destructive man, a man who felt—God knows why!—that the world owed him something.’

He had so perfectly described the Simon whom Juliet had come to know as the real Simon, not the Simon she had imagined herself in love with. She had thought he was wonderful, a golden-haired Adonis, and miraculously he had seemed to find her equally attractive.

But it had all been a lie, a deception for his father’s benefit; Simon hadn’t really loved her at all, had just been trying to prove to his father what a steady, responsible adult he had become, so that William would retire and leave the business in Simon’s complete control. She knew now, after what Liam had told her of the past, exactly why William had had reason to doubt that!

Janet shot her a concerned look. ‘I don’t think it helps anyone to dwell on the past, Liam,’ she told him quietly.

‘The past created the present,’ he rasped harshly.

‘The past is dead,’ the housekeeper insisted firmly. ‘Along with your father and Simon.’

A spasm of emotion crossed Liam’s face at those words, but it was too fleeting for Juliet to be able to gauge what it was. ‘But my father made sure, by leaving me half control of the company on his death, that I would have to come back here,’ he bit out angrily.

Janet shook her head. ‘You didn’t have to come back, Liam. It would have been easy enough just to sell your shares; something inside you must have wanted to come back,’ she pointed out softly.

His mouth twisted. ‘My curiosity was aroused, I’ll admit that,’ he said grudgingly. ‘Even more so once I had actually met Juliet. She wasn’t quite what I had expected.’