Infatuation

'Sounds ominous,' Judith commented, and he looked down at her, his eyes mocking and brilliant in the late afternoon sunlight. She had a strange swimming sensation; she was dizzy and the back of her neck went cold as though she was going to faint. She must have played too long out in the sun, bending down all the time to tap her ball towards the croquet hoop.

Before they left Luke took her up to say goodbye to his mother, who said: 'Keep in touch, won't you, Judith? I enjoyed our little chat; perhaps when you're at a loose end some day you'll come down again? While Luke's away I'd be glad if you'd ring me every so often when you have time.'

Judith promised. On the way back to London Luke said: 'Tomorrow sharp at nine?' His voice was casual, but she knew he wasn't quite sure of her answer because she felt him watching her sideways.

'I'll be there,' she said calmly. She felt Luke relaxing in his seat. He had the hood up now, the air was cooler with the sun sinking in the sky and a little spring wind blowing through the trees. Judith watched the pink glow on the western heights of the downs where sheep grazed on the short grass and the black shadows thronged in the woods; a late thrush sang defiance to the approaching night and in the little villages in the Weald, in front of them, the lights were springing up like glow-worms in the dusk. Neither she nor Luke talked for some time. Judith felt peaceful and strangely happy; the day which had begun so badly was ending with very different feelings.

By the time Luke pulled up outside her grandmother's house it was almost dark and the street lights were on. Judith undid her seat-belt and looked round at him.

'I enjoyed my day. Thank you.'

'My pleasure,' he said, his face serious. It was stupid, but she suddenly felt uneasy and nervous; she had to get away, she had no idea why.

'Well, goodnight,' she said, scrambling out of the car so fast that she laddered her tights. She got into the house and only when the door was shut behind her did she stop breathing hard; she felt as though she had been menaced by something in that car, her heartbeat was uneven and her face very hot. She was furious with herself for behaving like a schoolgirl on a first date. Luke must think she was kooky; she had bolted as though he'd just grown fangs, and the poor man hadn't so much as laid a finger on her. She must be crazy to let her imagination run away with her like that. For a second she had been convinced he was about to kiss her; she had really felt as though any minute . . . she ran up to her own room and looked at herself in the mirror accusingly.

'Make a pass at you? You wish! As if he would! You need certifying, do you know that? You're out of your mind!' Her dark eyes glittered with self-derision.

Downstairs she heard her grandmother calling. 'Judith? Is that you?'

'Yes, I'll be down in a minute,' Judith called back, and went into the bathroom and shut the door. This time she avoided looking at mirrors; she washed her hands vigorously as though washing away the memory of her own stupidity and a moment later was able to look cool and cheerful before going down to see Mrs Murry.

She arrived at the huge office block next morning in a stream of other employees and had to queue for the lift. It was raining outside, a light spring rain which would probably clear up by noon—or so everyone kept telling each other around her. Judith was nervous and hoped it didn't show. Although Luke had talked to her about what he would, expect her to do she was under no illusions about the difficulty of the job; she was going to need all her powers of concentration and every ounce of intelligence she possessed. She already realised that Luke Doulton wasn't the type of man to be ultra-patient; he would probably let her make the odd mistake, but there would be a time limit on how long he expected her to take to get used to the work.

His office was on the top floor and she was the only occupant left in the lift when it reached that level. She stepped out and walked with as much calm as she could to the receptionist seated at a desk in the carpeted lobby.

The girl looked up, smiling. She had a round, smooth-skinned, vivacious face and friendly blue eyes. Judith smiled back. 'Good morning, I'm Judith Murry. I have an appointment…'

'With Mr Doulton—yes, Miss Murry, I'll let him know you're here.' With another smile the girl spoke into the intercom and then stood up. 'Will you come this way, Miss Murry? I'll take you to Mr Doulton's office.'

She led the way to a pair of double doors at the end of the lobby, tapped and opened one door. 'Miss Murry, sir.' She stood back to let Judith pass her and then said: 'Shall I make some coffee, sir?'

'In half an hour, Dora,' said Luke, standing up behind a wide desk littered with papers. The door closed and he came forward, pointing to a chair in front of the desk. 'Sit down, Judith. We have a lot to do and very little time to spare.'

She sat down, crossing her legs, and felt him observing the movement, his narrowed gaze increasing her wariness. Luke perched on the edge of the desk, his knee inches from her own. He was wearing his formal city clothes today, but he had tugged his tie loose and his top shirt button was unfastened. She saw the brown, smooth skin of his throat behind the crisp white material and looked away, irritated with herself for the little jab of awareness. This had to stop; he was going to marry Baba, he wasn't free, and if he was, Judith wouldn't be the sort of girl he would look at twice.

'You look very efficient today,' he said, a dry note in his voice.

She looked up again; a flare of pink colour in her face. She was wearing a dark grey woollen suit over a pearl-buttoned white shirt; it gave a touch of chic to her

slender figure, she had chosen it quite deliberately to look calm and efficient, and it infuriated her to see from his smile that he guessed at her reasons for wearing it today.

'Right.' Luke said abruptly, handing her a folder. ‘Here's a brief synopsis of the work Caroline was handling—you’ll have to hunt out the detailed files from her office later, but this will give you a general idea,’

She opened the folder and looked down the typed sheets, her eye moving rapidly. Luke watched her, she wished he would not sit so close, he was distracting her and making it hard to concentrate.

'Take a close look at Sheet 3—those are the companies I’m keeping a watchful eye on and might want to acquire under the right conditions,' he said, and as she slowed down to read the short paragraphs on that page Luke got up and came round behind her. She felt him grasp the back of her chair and lean over. His face almost touched her cheek, she heard his level breathing. Of course he had no idea what he was doing; why should it enter his head that she had suddenly become aware of him? She was human, she thought impatiently; what woman working in such close proximity to any man could be totally unaware of him sexually? Her instincts worked the same as those of any woman, and Luke Doulton was a particularly attractive man: his sexuality was not easy to ignore. She wished to God she could just ignore him. Until yesterday she hadn't dreamt that she would find it so hard to shut out her own femininity and forget that Luke was around, it hadn't occurred to her that there was any danger to her in accepting that job with him. This sort of problem had never arisen before, although she had often worked with attractive men, she had even dated them in her free time on occasions, without having her concentration on work disturbed. She had always found it a simple matter to separate her working and her leisure hours, she enjoyed both without taking the attitudes of one into the performance of the other.

To her relief Luke straightened and walked round behind his desk to sit down. 'When you've absorbed that stuff we'll discuss it,' he said. 'Then we'll have that coffee.'

Judith breathed more calmly. She read through Sheet 3 again and then went on to study the other sheets, before looking up, questions already forming on her lips.

When Luke looked at his watch and said: 'Time for lunch now,' she was amazed because she had long ago ceased to notice the passage of time; she barely recalled the arrival of the coffee or the two phone calls which had interrupted them as they talked. He saw her face and laughed. 'Lost track of the time? So did I until I started to feel hungry. We'll eat quickly in the directors' dining-room and come straight back to finish the discussion, shall we?' It was a rhetorical question; he had it planned that way and she meekly accepted it.

'Want to go to the cloakroom first?' he suggested, walking to the door. 'I'll join you in the lobby in two minutes.'

They were the only occupants of the small dining-room which, Luke told her, was only used occasionally. They had melon and then salad and cold meat followed by cheese and coffee. Judith felt nervous; she said very little now that they had stopped talking about work, it was the only subject which made her feel safe,

'Oh, I forgot,' said Luke, as they walked back to his office. 'I've got something for you.' He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a blue leather bound book and tossed it to her.