Peacock's Walk Read Online Free PDF Page B

don't see what it's got to do with you. Would you mind stating your business and leaving me to get on with mine?'
    Not bothering to answer this rather direct question, he further infuriated her by picking up the printed menu forms for the week's fare. 'Seems okay,' he remarked as he looked up to meet her
     
    fuming eyes. 'Make sure you have plenty of melons on hand, will you? They're partial to them, I understand.'
    Jenny gasped, and made an attempt to snatch the menus out of his hand, but was forestalled by his merely holding them up and out of her reach.
    Sit down, Miss Grange,' he commanded sternly. 'We're due for a little talk.'
    Jenny knew better than to question his right in making such an order; she knew she would get nowhere by shouting and raving at him. Besides, it would be much more dignified to sit and glare at him—at least he would have to sit too, and she wouldn't have to stare up at him. She made her way towards her desk with as much dignity as she could muster, only to find her way barred and a pointing imperious finger directing her to take the chair in front of her desk.
    'Sit there, will you? I'm not accustomed to holding slanging matches with my staff—I'll thank you to remember that in future.'
    Jenny sat, simply because she had to. Her legs .no longer proved reliable and felt decidedly wobbly. Her lips were stiff as she managed to get. out, 'Would you mind explain ing that last statement? Mr Haw ter is my employer, and I've contract to prove it,' she added on a firmer note.
    Mark Chanter settled himself behind her desk before bothering to answer her, then giving a wry grimace remarked dryly, 'This chair is not for me,' and got up again and walked to where Malcolm's chair stood by the office window. Picking it up as if
     
    it were no weight at all, yet it was made of oak, he placed it in position behind the desk, pushing the lighter chair that Jenny had used back into the background.
    Watching these movements, Jenny felt a sense of doom settling over her. His actions were somehow symbolic—as if he were saying, 'We've done with the past. The King is dead—long live the King!' She swallowed as her wide eyes met his implacable ones.
    'Now where were we?' he asked casually, and gave a mock frown of concentration. `Ah, yes, the contract.' He gave her a grin that Jenny could only describe as wolfish, and she felt a prickly sensation along her spine. 'Silas P. Hawter,' he went on slowly, taking his time, and savouring with no little pleasure her wide eyes and white face, 'is the name of a company of which I hold a majority of shares.' He nodded slowly as Jenny attempted to intervene. 'Yes, there is a Silas P. Hawter. He was the original owner of the company, but he has since sold out. He still remains interested in the company, of course, and watches over our interests in the States, purely on an advisory basis.'
    Jenny gasped as the implication hit her. Of all the low-down tricks! He couldn't have been honest about it from the start, could he? Oh, no, she thought bitterly—he knew she wouldn't have entertained another bid from him for Peacock's Walk—not if she could have got someone else! 'I suppose the older staff will now get their marching orders,' she commented bitterly. 'At least you were honest
     
    about that when you came to see me,' she added in a low voice.
    He did not answer her for a second or so, and when Jenny glanced up at him she was surprised by the flash of fury in his eyes. 'The contract states that all staff are to be retained, if I remember rightly,' he said savagely. 'I made a concession there for which you ought to be grateful.'
    Grateful! Jenny wanted to shout the word at him. She'd be grateful if he left her alone. He had enough hotels, didn't he? Why should he want Peacock's Walk? 'Thank you,' she managed to get out between clenched teeth.
    'Will it be so repugnant working for me?' he asked softly, yet goadingly. 'It won't be so very different from the job you used to have