‘Who?’ he insisted.
Alex heaved a sigh, ‘That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but your sister, your cousin, your housekeeper.’
He grimaced. ‘I’m sure my secretary put in her vote too.’
Alex thought for a moment with a slight frown in her eyes. ‘Fun
nily enough, she didn’t.’ She put her hands on the back of the settee and studied them for a moment, then looked up to see him watching her narrowly. ‘Are you?’
‘Going to marry Cathy?’ He paused and she thought she’d never seen his features so finely sculpted, his mouth so chiselled—or his emotions so firmly locked down. ‘I don’t know yet, but you can rest assured I fully intend to create a road of some kind that’s an even, loving passage for Nicky.’
Alex felt her cheeks grow warm. ‘She—she told you?’
He nodded.
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have said it.’ Her voice was barely audible as she put her hands to her hot cheeks.
This time he shook his head. ‘Someone needed to say it. And, for what it’s worth, I’ve been as self-centred as—anyone.’
Alex cleared her throat. ‘Well, good luck. I—I really wish you all the best. But.’ she hesitated ‘.the job as your personal interpreter is not going to work, either, is it?’ She glanced briefly at him, then glanced away.
‘Alex, look at me,’ he said quietly.
Do I have to? something cried in her head. Please don’t make this any worse than it is already!
But she did raise her eyes to his.
‘No, it’s not going to work,’ he said evenly. ‘In fact it was a bit thoughtless of me in the first place, but I have an alternative suggestion.’
Her eyebrows rose unwittingly.
‘The Chinese Consul in Brisbane is looking for an Australian citizen and resident who is fluent in Mandarin. Mr Li has connections with the consulate and he was most impressed with you. It sounds like an interesting job, much more hands-on than what you did for Wellford’s, much more people orientated. And, of course, all grist for the mill of someone with the Diplomatic Corps in mind.’
Alex opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then said something quite inane. ‘How on earth have you had time to work all that out?’
He smiled rather dryly. ‘I had a brainstorming session early yesterday morning and I happened to be with Mr Li later.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ve had a day and a half to get it all together.’
‘So it was before Cathy came that you decided.?’ She stopped with the question left up in the air, and she couldn’t hide the torture in her eyes.
‘Yes, before Cathy,’ he said. ‘Alex, it would never work for us.’ Although his words were level and quiet, they were quite definite even though the look in his eyes told her he hated to say them.
Because he felt sorry for her? she wondered, and flinched visibly.
‘Alex?’ This time his voice was a little harsh. ‘Would you be interested?’
She turned away and forced herself to breathe deeply and to choke the tears back. She swallowed several times, then she turned back, came round the settee and sat down.
‘It does sound interesting. I—I—could I think about it?’ she said a little unsteadily.
He didn’t answer directly. ‘Did you have anything else in mind?’
She rubbed her face. ‘I suppose I could always go back to Simon.’
‘Simon Wellford will be doing a lot of work for us.’
His words seemed to drop like pebbles into a pool, creating ever-widening ripples, and it didn’t take long for her to grasp the implications of those ripples—too close to him for comfort for her, in other words.
‘I see,’ she said carefully. ‘Well, I’m glad he hasn’t lost out because of me, although he’s probably tearing his hair out trying to find another Mandarin speaker. Uh—no, I haven’t got anything else in mind at the moment, so, thank you very much, I will consider it.’