"Is there anything urgent you'd like me to attend to first?"
"Plenty." He nodded drily towards her in-tray in which several tapes lay, before turning into his own office and shutting the door. She stared after him as a little curl of angry irritation snaked a path into her mind. So.
That was how things stood: no softening of the rigid ice-cool image, nothing approaching even the mildest form of friendship. Fine, just fine. She wasn't here to make friends, after all, she was here to do a job. And she'd make sure he found no fault with her work.
The thought carried her furiously through the day on such a burst of adrenalin that she accomplished an exorbitant amount of work before replacing the cover on her word processor just ^after five. Wolf had spoken, when necessary, in polite monosyllables which she had answered in like vein,-and it wasn't until she was waiting for the tube among a crowd of London commuters that she realised a tension headache was drumming away at the back of her eyes.
"Is it worth it?" she murmured faintly to herself as she rubbed a tired hand across her eyes, opening them to find a portly, well-dressed businessman surveying her with distinct apprehension before edging away down the platform a little. Talking to herself out loud! This was all she needed. But perhaps tomorrow would be better.
It wasn't, nor the next day, nor the next. For some reason the cool, careful formality with which Wolf had always treated her had turned into a cold abruptness that she was at a loss to understand. She hadn't meant to fall off the dam ladder! She found herself gnawing at the _thought in her lunch-hour on the Friday as she did some shopping, wandering round the large supermarket close to Wolf’s office-block without seeing the well-stocked shelves in front of her. Was he mad because she'd interfered with his precious work schedule? But she'd caught up that first day, or very nearly.
And she would have come in before Monday if he hadn't vetoed it so firmly.
He had to be the most impossible, awkward, intractable man. She returned to the office with an empty shopping- basket and a deep frown to find Wolfs door firmly shut and that unmistakable throaty giggle deep inside. Elda. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that went hand in hand with the name did an immediate nosedive. The elegant brunette had already rung twice this week.
What on earth did she want, anyway? As if you didn't know, she told herself grimly as she started work again, tapping the silent computer keys with unnecessary vigour. As if you didn't know. "Lydia, I'm just popping out for a quick lunch-- Are you all right?"
Wolf stopped dead in the middle of her office with Elda hanging on his arm, and she hastily tried to school her features into something approaching normality. But somehow, as they had left his room, she'd had the strangest feeling that someone had punched her hard in the stomach.
"Of course." She smiled stiffly but it was the best she could do.
"Have a good lunch."
"Elda, I'll be down in a moment." As Wolf disentangled himself from Elda's grasp Lydia saw the beautiful brunette's fine, pencil-thin eyebrows raise themselves a fraction, the blue eyes narrowing thoughtfully before she walked out of the office, shutting the door quietly behind her.
/> _"Something's happened, hasn't it? Is it Matthew?" Wolf moved to stand just in front of her and for a moment the desire to stand up and hit him hard across the face was so strong she could actually taste it.
How dared he stand there and pretend he had any interest in her situation one way or the other? How dared he! One minute he had Elda hanging on his arm like a limpet and the next-- The flood of unreasonable, unjust rage was immediately swamped by cold hard reason. He was her boss, for goodness' sake. Of course he would care that she might be less than the perfectly efficient, one hundred percent operational machine he was used to. The thought didn't help.
"It's nothing." Her smile was brittle and the sharp blue eyes watching her narrowed thoughtfully.
"It won't affect my work and--' " Damn your work! “The words were an explosion and for a moment the stillness that followed was absolute. "
Lydia, do you need someone to talk to? I mean--' He stopped abruptly and seemed to collect himself before continuing.
"There are counselling places for situations like this. Have you considered?"
"I don't want to talk to anyone." She lowered her head as she spoke--that blue gaze was unnerving--and missed the tiny instinctive movement he took towards her before it was firmly checked. He thought she was cracking up, was that it?
"I see." There was a moment of silence and then he spoke again, his words bringing her head sharply upwards, her eyes angry.
"Have you considered Hannah in all this? It might be a form of indulgence to try and get through by yourself."
He did think she was cracking up, she thought tersely. He didn't credit her with any guts at all.
_"I always put Hannah first in everything I do." She glared at him furiously even as she acknowledged that from his viewpoint it was a reasonable comment.
She had to tell him. Now. Before she lost her nerve.
"Actually there is something I have to tell you--' " Wolf, the taxi's waiting. “The words died on her lips as Elda's dark head peered round the door.
"I'm sorry, but I really can't be late for that appointment at two..." The big blue eyes were prettily penitent.
For a moment Lydia thought Wolf was going to snap at the lovely brunette as his head swung round and his eyes narrowed into slits of ice, but then he took a deep breath, that iron control she had seen so often in the last few weeks springing into place, and when he spoke his voice was pleasant, if cool.
"OK, Elda, don't fret." He moved across and took the other woman's arm, gently turning her round and out of the doorway.
"I'll be back at two," he said over his shoulder to Lydia.