Her Italian Boss’s Agenda

‘Naturally.’ Luke raised a glass sardonically in Primo’s direction. ‘I had to make sure we were really getting rid of him.’

Yet it was Luke who drove Primo to the airport the next day.

‘I’m coming too,’ Hope told them. ‘Someone has to stop you two killing each other.’

‘No fear of that,’ Luke said lightly. ‘It’s more fun to plot a subtle revenge. That’s the Italian way.’

‘And what would an Inglese know of the Italian way?’ Primo demanded.

‘Only what he’s learned from his mongrel brother.’

As Hope and Luke stood together watching the plane climb, she couldn’t help giving a little sigh.

‘Don’t worry, Mamma,’ Luke said, his arm about her shoulders. ‘He’ll be back in no time.’

‘It’s not that. People say how lucky I am that Primo never gives me cause for worry. But I do worry, because he’s too reliable. He’s so sensible, he never does anything stupid.’

‘I promise you, if he’s a Rinucci, he’s stupid,’ Luke said fervently.

‘Indeed? And what does that make you, since you’ve always refused to take our name?’

He hugged her. ‘I don’t need it. I’m stupid enough anyway.’

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE London headquarters of Curtis Electronics tensions simmered. Employees hurried in, anxious not to be late, wondering who would be promoted and who pensioned off.

‘They’re not getting rid of me,’ Olympia Lincoln said firmly. ‘Not after all the work I’ve put into this firm, and the plans I’ve made.’

‘It is rotten luck, this happening now,’ Sara, her secretary, said sympathetically. ‘Mr Tandy was bound to retire soon, and then you’d have had his job.’

‘Grr!’ Olympia said with feeling.

‘The worst thing is not knowing when the new people will be here.’ Sara sighed.

‘Right. Even Mr Tandy doesn’t know. “Some time soon” is all he can say. Maybe today, maybe next week.’

‘Surely not today,’ Sara objected. ‘It’s Friday. What sort of person makes his first day a Friday?’

‘Someone who’s trying to catch us out,’ Olympia said at once. ‘I’m blowed if I’m going to let anyone take me by surprise.’

‘But today isn’t just Friday,’ Sara objected. ‘It’s Friday the thirteenth.’

‘Don’t tell me you’re superstitious.’ Olympia chuckled. ‘That’s nonsense. People should make their own fate.’

‘But Friday the thirteenth is bad luck.’

‘It’ll be bad luck for Primo Rinucci if he crosses me. Now let’s have some tea. I’ll make it. You’re looking queasy.’

‘I’m fine really,’ Sara said valiantly, if untruthfully. ‘You shouldn’t be making tea. You’re the boss.’

‘But you’re the one who’s pregnant,’ Olympia said with a warm smile that transformed her face from its usual severe lines. She cultivated that severity, determined to make the world believe it. But her natural kindness had a habit of breaking through, although usually only Sara saw this and she was sworn to secrecy.

‘That’s better.’ Sara sighed gratefully when she’d sipped the strong tea. ‘Did you ever want children?’

‘Once I did. When I married David I was madly in love and all I wanted was to be his wife and the mother of his children. Which probably makes me a disgrace to modern womanhood. But I was eighteen at the time, so maybe there was some excuse for me.’

‘Did he appreciate this slavish devotion?’

‘Did he, hell? He needed a working wife so that he could take courses and get diplomas that would help his career. When he moved onward and upward to the next promotion, plus the next wife, I was left with nothing. So I worked like the devil and made a career for myself.’

‘You were unlucky, but not all men are like him.’

‘Most of the ambitious ones are. They use us unless we use them first.’

‘So that’s what you do,’ Sara agreed, regarding her boss sympathetically, and recalling various incidents in the last couple of years that now made more sense. ‘Are you happy?’

‘What’s happy? I’m not unhappy. I remember how I felt when David walked out, and that’s never going to happen to me again. I’m going to get Tandy’s job, you wait and see. I just have to work on- whoever turns up from Italy.’

‘How’s your Italian?’

‘Not bad. I’ve been learning hard, but I suppose everyone else here has done the same.’

‘None of the others will have prepared like you have, either in the head or the-’ Sara made a gesture indicating Olympia’s appearance, and Olympia laughed.

Both inside and out, her grooming was impeccable. Her mind was focused, steely. Her body was slender and elegant, clad in a blue linen dress.

She was tall for a woman, with long legs, a long neck and cleanly chiselled features. Her black hair was naturally luxuriant, but she wore it smoothed back against her head and twined into sleek braids behind.

In this she was illogical. The sensible thing would be to cut it off in a neat, boyish crop. But for once she couldn’t make herself do the sensible thing. She wasn’t sure why.

Her eyes were also dark, lustrous, with depths where humour still lurked occasionally, although she did her best to conceal it. She was a perfectly groomed creation, crafted to her own meticulous design.

In only one thing had she failed to achieve her own standards. At heart she knew that part of her was still the same girl she’d once been, the one she was trying to deny. That girl had been full of trust and eagerness, without a calculating bone in her body. She hadn’t merely loved her husband, she’d worshipped him blindly. She’d also possessed a temper and an unruly tongue, which sometimes spoke before her mind was in gear.

All these things she’d striven to put right, and had mostly succeeded. Occasionally she was still betrayed by anger into rash speech, but she was working on that too.

Today was going to put all her skill to the test.

‘Do you know who’s going to turn up to look us over?’ Sara asked.

‘Probably Primo Rinucci. I’ve tried to research the firm on-line but there isn’t much. There’s two partners, Enrico Leonate and Primo Rinucci. I managed to find Leonate’s picture on-line, but unfortunately there was no picture for Rinucci.’

‘What does Signor Leonate look like?’

‘Dull, middle-aged. Let’s hope Primo Rinucci isn’t the same.’

But even as she spoke Olympia was giving Sara a worried look.

‘You’re not well,’ she said.

‘I’ll be fine in a minute.’

‘Oh, no! You’re going home. I don’t want it on my conscience that anything went wrong with your baby.’ She picked up the phone, dialled reception and ordered a taxi on the firm.

‘Go home and call the doctor,’ she said. ‘And don’t come back until you’re a lot better.’

‘But how will you manage without me?’ Sara asked worriedly.

Olympia gave her a cheerful smile. ‘I’ll just have to stagger along somehow. Don’t worry.’

She went down to reception, saw Sara into the waiting taxi and waved it off.

She was frowning as she returned to her office. She’d spoken reassuringly to Sara, but it was the worst possible time for this to happen.

She called Central Staff and explained that she urgently needed a temporary secretary, adding, ‘the best you have. And quickly, please.’

‘Someone will be there in five minutes.’

When she’d hung up Olympia took some deep breaths and closed her eyes.

‘I will not let this get to me,’ she said to herself. ‘If things go wrong I will overcome them. I will. I will. I am strong. Nothing can defeat me.’

She repeated this mantra several times before opening her eyes and getting the shock of her life.