Tasmanian Tangle Read Online Free PDF Page B

possibility now of her making a fool of herself over him. 'Melanie said Kade had other businesses to attend to, is that right?' she asked Connie.
    Connie gave her a straight look before she answered, 'I guess so. He's a business man when all is said and done. I did hear he'd bought up several fruit farms the other side of the valley—why?' she asked abruptly.
    Tanya gave an offhand shrug, 'Oh, he did say something about my running the business later on,' she said. 'I gathered he's got plans to move on, and of course there's his father's business too, isn't there?' Her brooding eyes rested speculatingly on the coffee jug.
    'And you can't wait for that to happen,' remarked
     
    Connie shrewdly. 'Well, I wouldn't count on it. Sure Kade's got other interests, but it's here that he spends most of his time. He could have got out years ago if he'd a mind to. It's also true that his father wants him back in the family business, but it's what Kade wants that matters.'
    'Oh, yes,' replied Tanya cuttingly, 'I've learnt that much by now.'
    'Off on a crusade to avenge your mother, are you?' demanded Connie.
    Tanya's eyes were wide as she stared back at Connie and the hurt that was mirrored in them made Connie move quickly to her side and give her a slight hug. 'I told you how it was, pet,' she said, with a soothing note in her voice. 'And it was the truth. Don't take it out on Kade, for sure as sure, you'll regret it. He had a bad time, too, and you'd do well to remember that.'
    Tanya stared down into the dark liquid depths of her coffee and gave Connie a weary half-nod, but said nothing, and Connie gave her another hug. 'Leave well alone, pet, and let the future take care of itself. You're home now, and that's all that matters.'
    It was all very well Connie saying that she should let well alone, Tanya thought, as she set off for the office that morning, but her world had been turned upside down and she didn't see how it would ever be set right again. She had been walking around wearing rose-tinted spectacles, but now they had been taken away from her and had left her blinking in the harsh sunlight. It would take some time for her to adjust herself to this new world of brutal fact that she had been thrown into.
    For the first time since she had arrived back at home
     
    and started work in the offices, she was grateful for the fact that Kade had made certain of her keeping out of his way by assigning her work in the outer offices of the firm. He was not likely to seek her out on any occasion, and in the light of her awakening she was hardly likely to seek him out.
    She sat next to a girl who was handling export slips and tried to listen to what she was telling her about the procedure carried out at this particular juncture of sales, but her mind would wander off on its own channels of thought and they had nothing to do with the intricacies of the export trade.
    When Mrs Rodgers told her that Mr Kade wanted to see her in his office, Tanya's first reaction was one of panic. She didn't want to see him, it was too soon, she needed time to adjust herself before she faced him, but it appeared she wasn't going to be given that time.
    As she walked through the corridors of the outer offices and through to the main section, she wondered if he had found out about Melanie's indiscretion, but couldn't see how. She did not see Melanie confessing and throwing herself open to his wrath, particularly after what had happened the previous day. Perhaps he wanted to tell her he had decided to leave the firm? At this thought hope soared high in Tanya's heart. Oh, if only it was that, and that he would take Melanie with him. But he would, she was sure of it, just as sure as Melanie had been herself. It had been her manner towards Tanya, for she was too clever to risk upsetting someone she thought would be her employer in a few months' time, and her attitude towards Tanya had never been what might be termed as 'subservient'.
    With this thought in mind, it was a