No More Lonely Nights

Rick laughed scornfully. 'And you believed him? Annette didn't tell me that. She said they were laying a few older members of staff off, giving them a lump sum to retire early, and her father had been asked to go voluntarily. She never mentioned ill health.'

Sian screwed up the empty paper cup which had held her coffee and threw it into a waste-paper bin, where it rattled around. What was the truth? Had William Cassidy lied to her? Or had Annette been kept in the dark about her father's state of health? Sian remembered her saying that her father was worried about leaving her alone if he died—why should he have been worrying about death unless he was ill? If he was in his middle fifties that wasn't so very old, and in the natural course of events Annette should have been married with children long before her father had to face death.

'Of course,' said Rick with a faint sneer, 'it could be that Cassidy didn't want his future father-in-law working on the factory floor. He didn't really know Annette until he took her on as his secretary eighteen months ago. That was around the time her dad was asked to retire, now I remember it. Then Cassidy started showing an interest in her and dating her. He swept her off her feet—can you blame her? He could give her such a good time: flashy cars, night-spots, expensive dinners. Once he flew her to Paris in a private jet just to have lunch—showing off, dazzling her with his money. Of course she couldn't resist it. What girl could?'

'Very few,' agreed Sian drily. Nobody had ever swept her off her feet in that style; she just wished they would. It must be great to be flown to Paris in a private jet for lunch! Take me to it, she thought, grimacing.

Rick's hands balled into fists. 'So I quit,' he said. 'I wasn't staying around to watch. If she preferred him and his money, well…'

'But she changed her mind and ran away to you,' Sian gently reminded him.

He smiled then; his face changing. 'Yes, she came to her senses. She wouldn't have been happy with him, you know. Annette didn't grow up in that high-powered world of his, and she wasn't very easy in it. The longer it went on, the more she realised she didn't fit—with him or his friends and family.'

Sian glanced again at Cass, who was still prowling to and fro, like a tiger measuring his new captivity in a cage. Even at a distance he had a restlessly energetic air and a total assurance.

'What on earth did he see in her?' she thought aloud, then shot Rick a horrified look, but he didn't seem insulted by the question, just shrugged as though it was one he had often asked himself.

'If you want my opinion, I reckon it was a whim—she was different and he was bored. He'd have realised he had made a mistake sooner or later, but by then he might have ruined Annette's life.'

'His family didn't approve, anyway?' Sian couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Rick hadn't rung Annette on her wedding morning. Would she have gone through with the wedding? What exactly had Rick said to her? Hinted at suicide? Wasn't that what Annette had said? Had Rick meant it? Or had he just been talking wildly? Whatever he had said, it had had quite an effect; it had broken off Annette's marriage plans, but Sian was unconvinced that Annette knew what she was doing or what she really wanted, even now. She was too volatile, too easily influenced. She wasn't old enough to have a real relationship with a man. She ought to be by now; she was in her early twenties, wasn't she? Sian began to be curious about this father who lay seriously ill up in the wards. What was he like? And how much influence had he had on his daughter?

Rick shook his head, laughing shortly. 'You must be joking! No, they did not approve—especially his sister, Magdalena. She married last year, some guy with a long pedigree, a lot of money and a face like a Pekingese. Ever since, she's acted as if she was too good to walk on the same ground as the rest of us. You'd have thought that Annette was insulting her by just breathing the same air. She went out of her way to make it clear just what she thought about the marriage.'

'Didn't you say Mr Cassidy's father was dead?'

Rick nodded. 'So is his mother—there are only the three Cassidys left. The sister, his younger brother Malcolm, who works in the design department, and him.' Rick jerked his head sideways to where Cass was standing in the corridor, then jumped to his feet as he saw that Cass was talking to a man in a white coat.

'That could be the doctor! He looks as if he's telling someone bad news, doesn't he? Why is he telling Cassidy? He isn't marrying Annette, I am! It's me who should be talking to the doctor.' Rick headed for the door angrily, squaring his shoulders ready for battle, but before he reached them the man in the white coat began to walk in the opposite direction and Cass turned, his face grave.

Sian had followed Rick. She felt her interference might be needed if the two men came to blows.

'What's happened?' Rick demanded belligerently.

Cass looked at him with cool, grey eyes. 'His condition is still serious; it isn't hopeless, though.' He glanced sideways at Sian. 'Would you go and talk to Annette? She's very upset, it seems, but she won't leave the ward and she can't stay there. The ward sister insists that she can't see her father again tonight.'

'Of course,' Sian said, but Rick shouldered past her.

'I'll go. It's my place to be with Annette.' He glared at Cass, defying him to argue, but Cass shrugged.

'OK. Maybe you're right.'

Rick almost ran and Sian watched him, frowning. Cass watched her, thoughtfully. 'And what were you talking to him about? I wonder if I was wise, allowing you to come along. I keep forgetting you're a reporter. I hope you weren't milking him for information, because if you print any of this…'

'Yes?' she queried, lifting her brows at him. 'What will you do? Huff and puff and blow my house down?'

He laughed shortly. 'Something like that.'

'I'm shaking in my shoes!'

He considered her with his head slightly to one side, his mouth wry. 'I wish I was sure I could trust you.'

Green eyes alert, Sian asked, 'Oh? Why?'

'I'm faced with something of a problem. Annette can't sit up in the waiting-room all night, and they won't let her see her father even if she does, but where else is she to go? She can hardly spend the night in her own home, alone, and in the circumstances I don't think Wesley should stay there with her.'

'I don't see what this has to do with me—'

Sian began, and he suddenly snapped, his face dark red with temper.