Burning Obsession

* * *

Kelly was sitting with her father when he woke up late the next afternoon. She had been talking to him as usual, had been telling him of her confusion about Jordan.

Jordan had been right, they saw little of each other, and when they did meet he was always coolly polite, almost as if that incident in this very room had never happened.

It was as she was telling her father this that his eyelids had begun to flicker, his lips to move slightly. When his eyelids suddenly opened Kelly almost burst into hysterical sobs, pressing the button by the bed to bring the doctor to the room.

She stood up, smiling down tremulously at her father. ‘Daddy?’ she said huskily, her tears choking in her throat. ‘Daddy, it’s Kelly.’

‘Hello, darling,’ he spoke as if he hadn’t been unconscious for the last five days, as if he had just woken up from an afternoon nap. ‘What time is it?’

She looked at her watch. ‘Four o’clock in the afternoon. How do you feel?’

‘Well, I’ve got a headache,’ he grimaced. ‘And I’m thirsty.’

‘A good sign.’ The doctor who was in charge of her father’s case entered the room, a tall, loose-limbed man of indiscriminate age. His face was young, but his hair was sparse and streaked with grey.

‘Good afternoon, Doctor,’ Kelly’s father greeted politely. ‘Where’s that son-on-law of mine?’

‘You remember him being here, Daddy?’ Kelly said excitedly.

He turned puzzled eyes on her. ‘No, I can’t say that I do. But it follows that if you’re here then so is Jordan. I’m sorry I interrupted your holiday, darling.’

She frowned. ‘But, Daddy—’

‘Could I examine your father alone, Mrs Lord?’ the doctor interrupted. ‘You can talk to him in a few minutes. Perhaps you would like to telephone your husband while you’re waiting.’

‘Oh yes, yes, of course.’ She squeezed her father’s hand. ‘I won’t be long, Daddy.’

The telephone at the hotel suite was answered by Janet Amery. ‘Mrs Lord?’ she acknowledged. ‘Yes, Mr Lord is right here,’ she said in answer to her query.

‘Kelly?’ Jordan’s sleepy voice came on the other end of the telephone line.

‘Resting, Jordan?’ Kelly asked bitchily.

‘You know damn well I’m not,’ he rasped. ‘Janet and I have some work to get through.’

I’ll bet!’ Kelly scorned.

He sighed wearily. ‘What do you want, Kelly?’

‘Oh, oh yes.’ She had momentarily forgotten her reason for calling him on finding him with his beautiful secretary. Janet Amery was quite a nice girl, actually, and yet the intimacy of her relationship with Jordan precluded Kelly becoming friends with her. ‘Daddy’s awake,’ she explained.

‘Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place?’ he snapped impatiently. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

He got there so quickly that he arrived before the doctor had even finished examining her father. ‘How is he?’ he demanded to know immediately.

‘Quite well, actually, although a bit confused.’

‘That’s only to be expected,’ Jordan dismissed, sitting down beside her in the waiting-room.

‘I suppose so,’ Kelly agreed slowly. ‘But he seems to think I’ve been on holiday.’

‘Well, you did just get back from France.’

Kelly didn’t ask how he knew that, no doubt he had his sources. ‘That wasn’t a holiday, Daddy was working the whole of the time we were there.’

Jordan shrugged. ‘Confusion, as you said.’