The Beautiful Widow - By Helen Brooks Page 0,21
was and introducing her around. The top floor of the building housed Steel and Joy’s offices, Steel’s private bathroom, a large conference room and another cloakroom. The floor below was used by Steel’s legal people and the accounts department, and the ground floor consisted of Reception and the team who controlled the outside contractors Steel used for various projects, along with various other employees Toni lost track of. It was a much larger organisation than she had expected but everyone seemed friendly and cheerful.
The two women lunched together in a small bistrotype café a stone’s throw from the office, and it was here that Joy filled her in on some facts about their illustrious boss.
‘Don’t be fooled by the old adage that men can only think of one thing at once, at least not where Steel’s concerned,’ Joy said, once they’d ordered their soup and rolls. ‘He can think of several things at once and he expects everyone else to keep up with him. He’s a workaholic but he plays hard too, although he never, ever gets seriously involved with a woman. Love ‘em and leave ‘em, that’s Steel’s style.’
‘The original bachelor?’ Toni put in drily.
‘And how.’ Joy nodded. ‘Work is his motivating force; women have to fall into line and accept an affair with him is only semi-permanent and strictly sexual. They queue up for the privilege,’ she added wryly. ‘And I’m not joking.’
Toni hadn’t thought she was.
‘He adores his sister though.’ Joy spent a few moments explaining how Steel had brought Annie up, finishing with, ‘You know she was in danger of losing her baby recently?’
‘Uh-huh. How are things?’
‘OK. Annie’s confined to bed from here on.’
They talked some more and Toni found herself wishing Joy weren’t leaving at the end of the summer. She felt the two of them could have become good friends. Joy had already started advertising for her replacement; Steel wanted his new secretary in place long before Joy left so when the time came everything ran as smoothly as he expected.
‘Patience is not one of Steel’s virtues,’ Joy had murmured earlier that morning, eyebrows raised meaningfully, and Toni had nodded that she understood. It wasn’t exactly reassuring on her first day when she felt she knew nothing about anything.
Steel had gone out to lunch with a business colleague and the two women were deep in their respective work when he returned. The interconnecting door opened and he put his head round long enough to say, ‘Five minutes and we’re leaving for the new site, Toni. Bring the plans and anything else you need.’
She must have looked somewhat alarmed because when the door shut again, Joy said, a touch of laughter in her voice, ‘His bark is worse than his bite. He’s quite human really.’
Toni smiled weakly and began to collect her things together. She was ready and waiting when Steel buzzed Joy to say he was leaving, and as she joined him in the outside corridor and they walked towards the lift he reached out and took the plans and other data from her, tucking them under his arm. ‘Settled in?’ he asked briefly, his voice deep and slightly husky in the quiet surroundings as the lift doors glided silently open.
Toni’s stomach muscles tightened. Once in the carpeted mirrored box he seemed very close, even though there were a good few inches between them. ‘Yes, thank you. Joy’s been very kind. She’s shown me around and introduced me to everyone.’
‘She’s a damn good secretary. I’ll be sorry to lose her.’
Toni nodded to this, even as she thought, Joy has worked for you for years. Won’t you be sorry to lose her, as a person, and not just a secretarial machine? And then she answered herself immediately. Of course he wouldn’t. The smooth running of his precious office was all that mattered; the man was barely human. Perhaps he was really a futuristic robot, a creature from a sci-fi film with the appearance of a flesh and blood man? It would fit in with Joy’s warning that he was capable of carrying out a complex series of thoughts and actions simultaneously.
As they exited the lift and walked towards the huge glass doors that led into the street, Toni felt she knew what it was like to be in the presence of royalty. Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and smile and murmur a ‘Good afternoon, sir,’ as they passed, and the burly security man in the foyer practically saluted.
‘Philip has brought your car