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all her wangling, she knew she was wasting his time. ‘I’m most terribly sorry, but I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake.’

      Grey eyes narrowed. ‘Have you indeed? Am I to take it you didn’t wish to see me?’

      ‘No! That is, I thought...’ she began disjointedly, only to be halted by his abruptly raised hand.

      Sir Charles began by frowning, then a look of dawning comprehension swept across his features. ‘Ah,’ he said, and reached for the telephone, punching out a number. ‘Ben? Get in here, would you?’ he ordered down the line before replacing the receiver and eyeing her unwaveringly.

      Perplexed by this seemingly illogical action, and not sure if it was a dismissal or not, Kay began a diplomatic retreat. ‘You’re busy. I’m sorry. I’ll just...’ The sound of the door opening behind her halted the flow, and she turned.

      ‘What’s this all about, Charles?’ a smooth male voice queried, punctuating the question with the closing of the door.

      The man advancing into the room was in his mid-thirties, tall, six feet at least, and slim of hip. Even the most conservative of suits couldn’t hide the lean muscularity of his frame, nor the almost cat-like quality of his movements. Kay suffered an unfamiliar tightening of her stomach muscles. Out of the blue, her senses were bombarded with messages that set her nerves tingling and her heart thumping. She raised her eyes to his handsome face. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen, and his mouth was a criminal temptation. Set in a strong face, surrounded by thick waves of black hair, they were an attraction she recognised with a shock. Potent and heady as the finest wine.

      But there was more to come. Because for a moment their eyes met, and clashed, and something like a bolt of lightning shot through her. The shock she knew to be on her face was duplicated on his. She could see the fine tension in him suddenly. It had been total recognition. Elemental and instant.

      Yet while she was trying to assimilate it, his eyes lifted to her bright copper hair, where they lingered. The change in him was instantaneous. For a second he sent her a fulminating glare which was doused by the appearance of a cynical smile on his lips. Automatically she braced herself, without knowing why.

      ‘Now then, young woman,’ Sir Charles reclaimed her attention. ‘This is Ben Radford. I expect he’s the man you expected to see, isn’t he?’ Clearly he found it amusing, although the man who stopped beside him, arms crossed, wasn’t laughing.

      His, ‘I hardly think so, Charles,’ mingled with her,

      ‘I beg your pardon?’

      From the name she recognised the younger man as the other partner in the bank. He was well-known and respected in the City, and was widely suspected to be the real motivator behind the bank’s continued success. Which was well enough, but she was at a loss to understand why Sir Charles should imagine she wanted to see him.

      There followed a brief pause when they all looked at each other. Sir Charles frowned and Ben Radford’s eyes were cold. Kay found herself stiffening defensively.

      The older man cleared his throat. ‘You mean she isn’t one of your damn flirtations?’

      Kay was far from amused to find herself lumped in with a host of women who apparently chased after Ben Radford, even though, after her own response, she could understand why they did it. No wonder he was looking down his elegant nose at her. ‘There seems to be some mistake,’ she said frostily, dispelling the idea immediately.

      ‘And you made it,’ Ben Radford cut in swiftly, making her gasp. Who did he think he was? Handsome is as handsome does, she thought, and he falls a long way short. Of all the conceit!

      Sir Charles was none too pleased either, but for apparently different reasons. ‘Ben!’ he remonstrated, but the younger man remained unperturbed.

      ‘What does she want?’ he asked shortly, and in a tone guaranteed to put her back up. Even if she weren’t a redhead, with all the temper that implied.

      Kay focused narrowed eyes on him, angry for herself and Sir Charles, who was a true gentleman. ‘Nothing. I’ve already said I made a mistake. I was about to leave.’

      That cynical smile deepened. ‘Yet you obviously came here with some purpose in mind.’

      On her mettle, Kay raised her chin, refusing to be browbeaten by his look or tone of voice. ‘Yes, I did. There was a question I intended to ask Sir Charles, but I changed my mind.’ Let him make what he liked of that, she thought. Clearly his character wasn’t as attractive as his looks.

      ‘Really?’ he scoffed.

      Her anger, hinted at by her hair, but usually kept under wraps, boiled up. ‘Yes, really!’ she snapped back.

      Sir Charles banged his pipe down. ‘Stop harassing the girl, Ben!’ he ordered, and the younger man took his eyes from her briefly. Kay experienced a shaky kind of relief, only now aware of the quality of tension that had crackled between them. It was to be short-lived.

      ‘Charles, the girl is a redhead. A strawberry blonde, if I’m not mistaken,’ he said incisively.

      There was a tangible change in atmosphere. Something new and disquieting had entered the lists against her. Automatically Kay raised a hand to her glittering locks as two pairs of eyes speared her. ‘I fail to see what that has to do with it,’ she argued, very aware of a pronounced chill in the air.

      ‘Do you, Miss...? Do you have a name, I wonder, or should I guess?’ Ben Radford probed scathingly.

      Kay wondered how she could, even for a second, have found that cynical face attractive. ‘My name is Kay Napier,’ she replied with seething dignity.

      ‘What was the question you wanted to ask me, Miss Napier?’ There was a reserve in Sir Charles’s voice now, and she found that strangely upsetting. His innate courtesy remained, but Ben Radford’s insidious cynicism had poisoned his mind against her—and for no good reason that she could see. Her emergent dislike of him intensified.

      She shook her head, unable to blame Sir Charles. ‘It’s not important,’ she temporised, and she should have known she wouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

      ‘It was important enough to bring you here. Why don’t you ask it and let us be the judges?’ Ben Radford commanded in a tone that brooked no argument.

      She produced a smile that was every bit as cynical as his. As a judge he had already shown that his impartiality was seriously compromised. The tension now filling the room was awesome, and Kay had no idea what it was she had done to produce such a reaction. Surely not just the fact of having red hair? There was more here than met the eye, and she wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t wanted to know what it was. The way to find out was to ask the question she had come here for.

      ‘Very well, though it’s a waste of your time because I already know I was a fool,’ she declared pointedly. ‘You’ll think so too.’

      ‘Oh, I doubt very much if that will be our reaction, Miss Napier,’ her antagonist drawled with heavy irony.

      She bluntly ignored him, turning instead to the older man, who had sunk down into his seat. However, voicing the question was no easier now than it would have been five minutes ago. ‘Sir Charles, my name is Kay Napier—well, it’s Sarah really, but everyone calls me Kay. I’m twenty-four years old. I have my birth certificate here telling me all this. But...’ She really didn’t want to mention the letter in the other man’s hearing, especially as she had destroyed it. ‘My mother died not long ago, and in among her things I found her diary. This is the crazy part. In the diary she used “K”, you see, just the initial. I thought it stood for Kay, but what if...?’ Helplessly she floundered to a halt, then, with eyes as much angry as unconsciously confused, added, ‘Oh, this is ridiculous. Just tell me this—could I be Kimberley Endacott?’

      CHAPTER TWO

      WHATEVER reaction

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