Appointment at the Altar

glass walls. In spite of what Guy had said about all the guests being in their office clothes, everyone seemed alarmingly well-dressed to Lucy. Until then, this suit of Meg’s had been one of her favourites, and she had worn it several times, but now it was suddenly obvious that it came from a cheap and cheerful chain store.

Still, she might as well wear it with pride, Lucy decided. She was lucky she had a suit to wear at all. If she had to stick to her own wardrobe, she would be standing here in a T-shirt and jeans.

At least the reception was going well. The mezzanine was soon crowded and everyone who was supposed to come appeared. The buzz of chatter and laughter reverberated up into the stupendously high ceiling while the lights glittered in the mirrored glass.

Guy made a mercifully short but very funny speech that had everyone laughing, and Lucy was conscious of a little thrill of pride as she watched him. She knew that he had given his speech some thought, but he didn’t use notes and looked utterly relaxed as he stood up there and held the attention of all with the skill of a born performer.

Looking at him, she was conscious of a strange hollow feeling. With one part of her mind she registered the financier in the suit, the pale blue shirt with the faintest of stripes and the tie that matched perfectly, but with the other she saw him on the back of that horse, sitting easily in the saddle as he cantered around the ring, testing the weight of the rope in his hand, getting ready to send it uncoiling through the air.

How did the other guests see him? she wondered, glancing around her. They no doubt saw, as she had not seen at first, that he was a man with power, a man who could make hard decisions, a man who could laugh and still earn respect. They might see him as a successful financier, perhaps just as a vibrant, handsome man, even a charming and extraordinarily eligible bachelor, but did they know that he could lasso a calf? Could they guess how he bantered with the waiters in a small Italian restaurant, or the good-humoured way he accepted his mother’s grumbling about his car?

Did they know that his lips were warm and his touch was sure and that the mere thought of kissing him was enough to liquefy her bones and send the blood to her head in a dizzying rush that left her shaken and hollow with the longing to kiss him again?

She did, and the knowing made her giddy all over again.

‘Are you OK?’ Guy had materialised at her side and was peering at her expression with concern.

‘Yes, I’m just a bit…light-headed,’ said Lucy truthfully. She gestured with her glass. ‘The result of two glasses of champagne on an empty stomach, I suspect.’

And the thought of you-kissing you, touching you, holding you.

‘Come on, you need feeding,’ said Guy and took her arm, and even that was enough to make her pulse go into overdrive. ‘I’ve done my bit here. Let’s go.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

THEY walked down the steps together to the waiting limousine, but when the chauffeur got out to open the door for her, Lucy’s nerve abruptly deserted her. She couldn’t sit in the dark intimacy of the car with Guy, not tonight. She was afraid of being alone with him, afraid of what she might say and what she might do.

‘Actually, Guy, I…I think I’ll just go home,’ she said. ‘I’m really tired.’

Guy looked at her closely. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Really.’

‘I’ll get Steve to take you, then,’ said Guy, but Lucy was already backing away.

‘I’ll take the tube,’ she said. ‘It’s not late. Honestly, I’ll be fine.’

By the next morning, though, her panic seemed ridiculous. Queuing for a cappuccino on her way into work, Lucy told herself that she had just been silly and that it had to stop. She couldn’t start getting into a spin every time Guy came near her. She was supposed to be acting as his PA, for heaven’s sake! And after her initial nervousness, she had really enjoyed the previous day. Maybe there was something in Guy’s idea of raising her expectations.

She had just been over-tired last night, Lucy decided. That little turn had been brought on by a combination of weariness and champagne, that was all. It wouldn’t be like that today. From now on she would be coolness personified. She would be super professional and treat Guy as no more than her boss, which was all that he was.

Even if he had kissed her twice.

And she wasn’t even going to think about him kissing her any more, Lucy told herself sternly. Hadn’t she decided she was going to grow up and be more responsible? That meant not being thrown into a tizzy by a couple of little kisses that had only ever been intended to wind her up anyway. She should treat them as a joke, the way Guy obviously did.

Fortified by caffeine and having talked herself into a positive frame of mind, Lucy sailed into work. She waved at Imogen and the new receptionist and joined the press for the lifts. Childish it might be, but it gave her a little thrill to press the button for the top floor. It felt as if she were literally going up in the world.

Guy was out all morning. He wouldn’t be in until lunchtime, he had said, and Lucy told herself that it was much better that way. At least it was an opportunity to catch up on the backlog from the frantic activity of the day before. She worked steadily and didn’t think about how empty the office felt without him-at least not more than five or six times an hour. There were far fewer distractions without him hanging around, too. Having to lift her head every time she heard the ping of the lift doors opening, just in case he had decided to cancel one of his meetings and come back early, obviously didn’t count.

In the event, Guy strolled back into the office just as Lucy had taken an enormous bite of her crayfish and roquette sandwich, and she promptly choked.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, her mouth full, and frantically tried to deal with the rogue piece of lettuce that was somehow stuck between her teeth. So much for cool and professional. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’

‘I told you I would be in at lunchtime,’ he said, surprised.

‘I know. I…just wasn’t expecting you right then.’ Feeling a fool, Lucy brushed crumbs from her front. ‘I left a whole lot of messages on your desk.’

‘Good.’ Guy shrugged off his long cashmere coat and hung it up. ‘I had several comments this morning from people at the reception last night. They were all impressed by how well it was organised.’

‘That was all down to Sheila.’

‘I know,’ he said, ‘but it needed you to see it through. I gather you dealt with a number of last-minute hassles.’

‘Well, there’s always something, isn’t there?’ said Lucy awkwardly, rather embarrassed by his praise. It seemed to her that the success of the reception was entirely due to Sheila. All she had done was chase up a few details.

Expecting Guy to head for his office, she picked up her sandwich, but now he was taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves as if he were planning to make himself at home right where he was. ‘I spoke to Sheila this morning,’ he told her. ‘She thinks that she’s sorted out some care for her father, so she’s hoping to be back next week.’

Next week. ‘Oh.’ Lucy put down her sandwich again.

It didn’t look as if her glorious career as a PA was going to last long. Lucy was surprised at how disappointed she felt. It was nothing to do with the fact that she wouldn’t be working with Guy any more, of course. She had just been enjoying doing something a bit more challenging. ‘Will I be able to go back to Reception?’ she asked, thinking of the new girl who had been sitting beside Imogen that morning.

‘If you want to, but I was hoping you’d consider another job.’

She looked at him curiously as he pulled out a chair and sat down on the other side of her desk. ‘What sort of job?’

‘I want someone to arrange a party,’ said Guy, ‘and you seem like someone who could do that.’

‘A party?’ Lucy brightened. ‘That sounds fun.’

‘Not an ordinary party,’ he warned her. ‘It’s being held to raise funds for a new paediatric unit in Michael’s memory, so it needs to be glitzy and glamorous and spectacular and anything else that will persuade people to buy tickets at vastly inflated prices and create an atmosphere that will make them want to donate even more when they