In Separate Bedrooms by Carole Mortimer Page B

any other sort of interest in her? She had been calling at his office building during the early evenings, twice a week, for the last year, and, although Jack had felt that he knew her when they’d met at her mother’s boarding-kennels on Sunday, he certainly hadn’t remembered where it was he might have seen her. Because in the ordinary course of events he just wouldn’t notice someone like her. After all, it was what she was paid for, to be unobtrusive, to go about her work quietly and efficiently, to be virtually invisible.
    Well, she had certainly made sure that was no longer the case where Jack was concerned, hadn’t she?
    ‘I realize that you’re probably—practising, for this weekend, Jack,’ she said stiltedly. ‘But I really wish you wouldn’t bother,’ she added quickly as he would have spoken. ‘I’m much more interested in knowing why you went to see my mother this morning?’ she changed the subject abruptly.
    Was it her imagination, or had his expression suddenly become guarded? Maybe, she accepted slowly. Although she had no idea why …
    ‘Didn’t she tell you?’ Jack unhelpfully answered her question with one of his own.
    ‘Well, of course she told me,’ Mattie dismissed impatiently. ‘I simply wondered—I wondered—’
    ‘Mattie, you gave me the distinct impression last night that you didn’t want your mother to be upset about your coming away with me this weekend—’
    ‘I wonder why that was!’ she said saucily.
    Jack raised reproving brows. ‘I merely wanted to assure Diana that—’
    ‘You have no designs on her baby’s virtue!’ Mattie finished heatedly. ‘You know, Jack, I really don’t think—’
    ‘Is that what your mother told you?’ Jack cut in laughingly, those brown eyes once again filled with mirth.
    Mattie became suddenly still, looking across at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Yes, that’s what she told me,’ she said suspiciously. ‘Isn’t that what you said?’
    ‘Amongst other things,’ he dismissed vaguely. ‘Anyway, she seemed much happier about the situation by the time I left her,’ he finished confidently.
    Mattie would have liked to pursue the subject of those other things, but unfortunately the wine waiter chose that moment to top up their glasses, and by the time he had left again Jack was obviously concentrating on enjoying his meal. She—
    ‘You know,’ he suddenly spoke up, ‘your mother is still a very beautiful woman; has she never thought of marrying again?’
    ‘Never,’ Mattie answered unhesitantly, pleased at what he had said about her mother—even if, at the same time, she felt a twinge of jealousy too for the admiration he obviously felt.
    Although it was an admiration Mattie shared, appreciating that it couldn’t have been easy for her mother tobe widowed at only twenty-three, to be left to bring up her three-year-old daughter on her own. So she shouldn’t really complain if Jack also recognized what a beautiful and accomplished woman Diana was.
    And yet …
    Ridiculous. She had only met and spoken to the man because of his four girlfriends, and she hadn’t felt in the least jealous concerning any of them; it seemed slightly ridiculous now to feel that way about her own parent.
    ‘She must have loved your father very much?’ Jack was looking at her speculatively.
    ‘I believe so,’ Mattie replied quietly. ‘You still haven’t told me what the travel arrangements are for Friday?’ she prompted practically.
    Jack continued to look at her for several long seconds, and then he appeared to physically relax. ‘So I haven’t,’ he accepted lightly, then proceeding to do exactly that.
    Mattie barely listened as he told her the time of the flight, the name of their hotel—although she did hear the part about it overlooking the Eiffel Tower—and the time they would be returning on Monday.
    What was wrong with her?
    She looked at Jack beneath lowered lashes as he continued to tell her the plans for the weekend, knowing as