No More Lonely Nights

Cass said, 'Ah,' and she stiffened, suddenly picking up a note in his voice that she wasn't happy with. She peered over the top of the paper and saw him grinning to himself. She wasn't happy with that, either.

'What's amusing you?' she asked suspiciously.

Cass finished his coffee and leaned back in his chair, his hands linked behind his head and his grey eyes mocking.

'You'll find out. Can I give you a lift to work?'

She was tempted to refuse, but that would have been cutting off her nose to spite her face, and a lift would be a luxury, especially as she had now been delayed and might otherwise be late, so she said coolly that that would be very nice.

'I won't be more than five minutes getting ready,' she assured him, making for the bathroom.

'Famous last words,' said Cass tolerantly, but she was back before he expected her. She had given her face a delicate make-up: a film of very light foundation and then a gentle brushing with powder, shimmering blue on her lids, then the merest touch of mascara on her lashes, and finally a soft rose-pink on her mouth. Her mirror showed her the image she wanted—her blonde hair framed a coolly sophisticated face, and she felt she would be able now to keep Cass at a distance without losing her temper or her dignity.

He stood up when she came back, and then paused to stare. She pretended not to realise he was Staring. 'Can we go, then?' She would have to leave the muddle of breakfast things until she got back tonight, she thought.

'Oh. Yes. Of course,' he said in an oddly disjointed, husky way, and her heart turned over and over, like a salmon leaping upstream. The sensation was peculiar and left her breathless as they went out to his car. She couldn't think of anything to say all the way to her office. Cass seemed abstracted, too, and dropped her outside the building with a curt nod as she got out, but although he didn't say anything she felt him staring after her as she walked across the pavement and through the swing doors. Sian was wearing a straight-cut blue silk dress: tight-waisted and clinging. Every step she took, her body swayed inside the dress, forced to that motion by the style of the dress and her high heels. She had worn the dress before without being so tensely aware of being watched, but for some inexplicable reason Cass's stare made her throat tighten and her skin burn.

The receptionist in the lobby was reading a paper; over the top of it she suddenly saw Sian and her eyes rounded. She audibly giggled. Sian looked hard at her and at the paper she was reading. Her heart sank. What had the other papers printed to make Cass drop meaningful hints and this girl giggle?

She soon found out. Leo had them all on his desk and furiously read bits out to Sian in between gobbling like an enraged turkey cock about loyalty, and did she really want her job or was she about to become Mrs Cassidy and give up work altogether?

'Look, he took me out to dinner—big deal,' Sian said boldly, chin up. 'So what? It's all a storm in a teacup, and I didn't ring in with a story because I'm not using myself as copy, for you or anyone.'

Leo showed her his teeth and she backed. They were a horrible sight. 'Do I have to put a reporter on your tail?' he threatened, and she blenched.

'You can't do that! I work for you!'

'You're also providing all our rivals with some Technicolor copy, while we get zilch,' Leo growled.

'Be reasonable, Leo!' she pleaded.

'I am being reasonable. I ought to fire you, but I'll give you another chance. From now on, I want to get any stuff about you and Cassidy before the rest of Fleet Street hears a word. Or you are out.'

She was infuriated. 'What do you want me to do? Issue a minute-by-minute diary of my social engagements in future?'

The sarcasm was water off an editor's back. 'Yes,' Leo said. 'If Cassidy's involved, yes.' He waved a lordly hand. 'Get back to work. What do you think we pay you for?'

'I'm beginning to wonder,' she told him bitterly. 'I thought I was here to report the news, not make it.'

'Quite the wit,' he sneered.

'Talking about the news, why aren't I being sent out of town on stories?' she attacked, and he looked shifty.

'I don't organise the office. I suppose it's your turn to stay in London.'

Sian didn't believe a word of it. They were deliberately keeping her in town so that she could see Cass and they could follow her romantic entanglement, along with the rest of the media. Giving Leo a murderous look, she stormed back to her desk.

She was out of the office for most of the day on a London story, but late in the afternoon she was working at her screen, tidying up her copy before sending it down to the subs, when Leo sent for her again.

'It's urgent,' the messenger said when Sian made furious faces and doggedly went on checking her copy on the computer screen.

She set her teeth and despatched her copy with a gesture of resignation before getting up. What did Leo want now?

Leo's secretary gave her a quick signal, and she paused before going into his office. 'What is it, Lucy?'

His secretary leaned over to whisper. 'He's got someone with him…Mrs Cassidy!' Her saucer eyes held a mixture of pity, fascination and shock, and Sian went red, then white.

'Mrs Cassidy?' She had read a great deal about William Cassidy over the past few days; she had ransacked the cuttings library and references books for every detail about him, but nowhere had she read that he had ever married. 'Mrs Cassidy?' she said again, frowning and feeling faintly sick.