LITMIR.BIZ

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      She sat down, her wide-spaced blue eyes meeting his in open defiance as she silently prayed the baby wouldn’t waken.

      ‘Jamie, would you mind explaining what’s going on?’

      He raised a hand to his head and began running his fingers absent-mindedly through the dark thickness of his hair. It was a gesture suddenly so achingly familiar to her that Jenny found herself dropping her gaze to escape it.

      ‘I left messages all over the place for you,’ he accused inconsequentially. ‘Jenny, where the hell have you been—and where are your parents?’

      ‘I work in London now and my parents are in New Zealand—they left last week,’ she replied, determined to keep calm. She was a fully fledged adult now, she reminded herself sharply, and there was no way she would ever let Jamie Castile get under her skin again—ever! ‘And as for your leaving me messages all over the place—I was under the impression they came from Clare and Graham.’

      There was mocking amusement in the glance he gave her.

      ‘The implication being that you’d have ignored any message emanating from me, is that it, Jenny?’

      ‘For heaven’s sake, Jamie, be serious!’ she exclaimed, mortified to feel the hot colour flooding her cheeks. ‘When I got a message asking that I bring copies of Graham’s and Clare’s birth and marriage certificates here I assumed they’d lost their passports in the earthquake…I was worried!’

      ‘I can’t imagine why,’ drawled Jamie. ‘The medical conference they were attending was in Bratislava, which experienced no more than the mild rumbles registered here in Vienna.’

      ‘So why do they need all those documents?’ demanded Jenny exasperatedly. ‘I was under the impression they were stranded in Czechoslovakia!’

      ‘It’s more a case of the baby being stranded,’ replied Jamie. ‘Though why the hell they insist on carting a child that young around with them is beyond me.’

      ‘I think it’s wonderful that they can do it,’ retorted Jenny. ‘Obviously the best place for him is with his parents.’

      ‘And obviously that’s precisely where he can’t be right now,’ pointed out Jamie infuriatingly. ‘Getting him out of Czechoslovakia and into Austria didn’t present too many problems—I collected him from Clare the day before yesterday.’

      Jenny bit back a comment on how Clare must have felt—having to hand her infant son into the care of a brother few would describe as either predictable or dependable.

      ‘The authorities at the British Embassy here in Vienna have agreed to issue temporary travel documents for the child—on production of the papers you’ve brought with you,’ he continued. ‘So you won’t have any problems getting him into England.’

      ‘I beg your pardon?’ croaked Jenny.

      ‘Clare seemed to think your parents would look after him till she and Graham felt free to leave…obviously they weren’t aware they’d taken off for New Zealand.’

      ‘They weren’t going till the New Year, but then they decided…Jamie, all this is beside the point!’ she exclaimed frustratedly. ‘There’s no one to look after him in England…unless your mother—’

      ‘I believe my mother’s off on one of her jaunts,’ he interrupted impatiently. ‘And besides, you know how vague she can be—which is why Clare didn’t even bother trying to contact her and got on to me instead.’

      ‘Precisely—she left him with you,’ observed Jenny decisively. ‘And now that I’ve brought you the necessary documents you’ll have no problem getting him back to England.’

      ‘I’m not going back to England,’ he informed her icily. ‘I was just about to catch a flight for Brazil when your brother rang—right at this very moment I’m supposed to be doing trial runs on a new boat I’ve entered in an important race—’

      ‘And you’d rather play with your boats than see to your nephew’s well-being—’

      ‘You know damned well I don’t play with boats—I design and race them,’ he informed her coldly. ‘And a lot of skilled men depend on my designing and racing abilities for their living.’

      ‘And I suppose that I, being a mere woman, couldn’t possibly have a job of any importance!’ exclaimed Jenny, perilously close to losing her temper. ‘Well, it so happens that I have. I only started it a couple of weeks ago and I’ve already put it in jeopardy by dashing off here at a moment’s notice. And I’ve lost the flat I was hoping to move into—thanks to having to chase all over the place getting those papers—so if you think—’

      ‘Give it a rest, will you, Jenny?’ drawled Jamie dismissively, getting to his feet. ‘Because, after two nights without a wink of sleep, I’m not in the least receptive to any sob-story you choose to come up with.’

      ‘Choose to come up with?’ shrieked Jenny, beside herself with rage as she too leapt to her feet. ‘Jamie Castile, just who the hell do you think you—?’

      The two of them froze as the baby’s piercing cries reached their ears.

      ‘You’re the one who woke it with your histrionics,’ muttered Jamie, striding towards the second of the doors leading off the room, ‘so you can damned well deal with it.’

      ‘My God, you’re all gentleman, aren’t you?’ she flung after him.

      He turned as he reached the door.

      ‘And you, my dear Jennifer, are one woman supremely qualified to vouch for that fact,’ he murmured mockingly.

      Her face burning with humiliation, Jenny turned on her heel and marched into the room containing her protesting nephew. Trust him to throw that up at her, she fumed to herself, under no illusion as to what his taunt had referred, then forcefully hurled all thought of the subject from her mind.

      ‘Poor little man,’ she whispered, her face softening as she picked up the distraught baby and cradled him to her. ‘Are you missing your mummy and daddy?’

      He quietened miraculously in her arms and remained silent as she laid him on the bed and made an attempt to inspect his nappy.

      ‘Why—you little rascal!’ she laughed, as his face broke into a lop-sided smile and he began gurgling with contentment. ‘You just wanted some attention, didn’t you?’

      Tiny feet began pummelling at her ribcage, dislodging the nappy she was clumsily trying secure around him.

      ‘Jonathan, you’ll have to co-operate,’ she protested with a chuckle. ‘This is my first encounter with the mysteries of nappy-changing!’

      The instant she tried returning him to his cot, he protested deafeningly. In the end she gave up trying and lay down on the bed with her nephew lying in angelic peacefulness against her.

      She closed her eyes, a feeling of total mental and physical exhaustion wafting through her. She had gone to work early that morning and had worked flat out to clear what she could from her desk—just in case she didn’t make it back to London at a reasonable hour tomorrow.

      She gave a soft groan of dismay as she remembered the icy response with which her unorthodox request for a day off—possibly two—had been met. She was still at the stage of waking each morning unable to believe she actually had landed the job of her dreams with Wardale’s, one of the most dynamic and prestigious advertising companies around…and now, in her first month and in the vital preliminary period of an important campaign in which she had to prove herself, she was taking time off!

      A rueful grin crept over her face as she found herself switching her thoughts towards Jamie. Never in her entire twenty-three years had she thought the day would come when she would regard concentrating her thoughts on Jamie as the lesser of two evils!

      For the best part of four years she had just about

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