He turned to her, his eyes ablaze with some newly born convicti
on. ‘Crawley hurt you. He intends to hurt me. He intends to hurt...’ He grimaced. ‘No business is worth the cost of hurting people I care about.’
Caitlin’s heart skipped a little.
‘Now that’s settled, Caitlin, I’m going to talk to my mother and prepare her for what’s coming. I’m going home.’
Her pleasure in what had seemed real caring for her was somewhat punctured. David had claims placed on him by his mother that took priority over her. In the circumstances she shouldn’t mind. But she did. After what had happened between them Caitlin needed a lot of reassurance.
‘Wouldn’t it be faster to ring her?’ she asked.
He looked pained. ‘This isn’t something I wish to talk about over the phone.’
She reined in her need to know, hoping he would trust her enough to confide everything to her very soon. ‘I’ll take care of whatever needs taking care of,’ she assured him.
His eyes softened, caressing her with a warmth that he had never shown before. ‘Your father thinks the world of you. And I think your father is a fairly astute man.’
A sweet wave of heat flooded through her body. It was such a nice thing to tell her! She wasn’t used to David being nice to her. Riveting, magnetic, dynamic, passionate...a force of nature that she had found it impossible to resist...but nice was definitely something new...and very heart-warming.
She mused over what this difference meant as she watched him stride to the door, his vitality restored. He paused when he reached it, as though struck by some afterthought. He looked back. She hadn’t moved. The sense of the world having tilted slightly in her favour was heady stuff.
David’s cobalt-blue eyes flashed with purpose. ‘What kind of horse do you want, Caitlin?’
The question startled her. ‘I haven’t thought about it.’
‘Think about it,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll be back.’ He used his fingertips to blow her a kiss.
After he had left her, Caitlin did give it thought. It conjured up a lot of ideas, a lot of feelings, a lot of dreams about the future. She made one very firm resolution. If David Hartley thought she could be bought—body, mind and soul—with a horse, he could think again. She would accept the horse. No hesitation about that. But what happened afterwards depended upon a lot of other things.
His good behaviour was one thing.
Being introduced to his mother was another!
CHAPTER TWELVE
CAITLIN spent some time composing a reply to the fax from the German delegation. She couched it in terms that left the door open for them to come back to a negotiating position with Hartley’s, but stated quite clearly that if they wished to deal with Crawley, the responsibility for the consequences was theirs alone.
Caitlin felt satisfied with that. She hoped the word, ‘consequences’, would give pause for thought. She didn’t see why Crawley should be handed the business on a platter, not after the heartache he had given both her and David yesterday. The man was a monster, without conscience or heart. She hated the thought of him winning anything.
She transmitted the reply and was in the process of filing it when a thought occurred to her. She rang Jenny at reception.
‘Hi! It’s Caitlin.’
‘Oh, Caitlin!’ Jenny sounded surprised. ‘I didn’t see you come in this morning,’ she quickly added. ‘What can I do for you?’
Caitlin’s heart sank. She didn’t want Jenny to be Crawley’s informer. Although he had dropped Jenny’s name last night, Caitlin had thought that could have been quite deliberate. It would amuse Crawley to get someone who was innocent into trouble. Perhaps Jenny’s excuse for being surprised was genuine. Caitlin hoped so.
‘Tell me, Jenny, who came into my office yesterday after I left here?’ she asked.
‘Mr Hartley,’ she answered promptly.
‘How do you know?’
‘He used your extension to dial out.’
‘Who else?’
‘Herr Schmidt.’