A Man To Tame - Rachel Lindsay (Roberta Leigh) (2 page)

She glanced at her watch—five more
minutes to go. The train was slowing down and fields were giving way to houses
that straggled alongside the railway track. All round her they were hemmed in
by low-lying hills, though in the distance they rose high, their sides
partially wooded, their green melting into pinks and purples on the topmost
slopes. She rose to take a final look at herself in the mirror and was nearly
jerked off her feet as the train frame to a sudden stop. Hurriedly she fumbled
at the door, anxious to give some sign that she was alighting before the train
moved off again. Jumping down, she set her small case on the ground, then went back for her larger one. There was no porter to
help. Indeed the entire station looked deserted. Kate squinted
the length of the platform and noticed a man in the distance. He was lounging
against a wooden bench, arms crossed as he looked at the train with a bored
expression.

There was a loud whistle from the
engine and as if from nowhere, a porter appeared with a flag which he waved as
the train slowly shunted out of the station. As it moved off so did Kate,
making her way to where the' porter was standing. She came abreast of the man
who was leaning against the bench and noticed that he was well-dressed in a
grey suit of excellent cut He was younger and taller than she had expected,
with darting brown eyes set in a narrow face. She was aware of his - head
turning as she went past, though he did not speak until she was several yards
beyond him.

‘Forgive me for asking you, but
since you were the only passenger to get off the train, you wouldn't by any
incredible chance be Dr Gibson?'

Coolly Kate paused and looked at
him. ‘Yes, I am.'

‘Incredible,’ he repeated, and
reached out to take her cases. I’m Dermot Kane,' he said, nodding his head. 'Private assistant to Mr Howard.'

Smiling a greeting, she followed
him to the barrier where she gave her ticket to the porter, and thence across
the cobbled yard to an opulent shooting brake. Her cases disappeared in the
vast interior and she took her place in the front. Only as they drove off did
her escort resume speaking, asking her if she had had a good Journey and
whether she had ever been to Wales before. Behind his questions she sensed an
excitement—as if his mind was racing ahead to a more interesting situation— but
she answered him prosaically, letting him know tills was the first time she had
ever been to Wales.

'Is it always as quiet as this?’
she asked as they drove through the town of Llanduff
which seemed to be deserted.

'It's the lunch hour. But the pubs
are full.'

They always are,’ she smiled, and
looked with interest around her.

The man slowed down to give her a
better opportunity of doing so. It was a thoughtful gesture which she
appreciated, even though there was not much to see beyond tidy-looking
shops—all with their doors closed—and a few dogs sunning themselves near a greengrocer's
shop which, though also closed, still had its fruit invitingly on display.

'Aren't they worried about it being
stolen?' she asked.

‘You'll find Dai eating his lunch
with one eye on his black pudding and the other one on his blackcurrants!'

She laughed. 'Do you know everyone
by name?’

He grinned and shook his head. 'If
you say Dai for a first name and Evans, Thomas or Lewis for a surname, you have
more than a fifty per cent chance of getting it right!'

She laughed again and felt herself
relaxing. If Mr Howard was halfway as nice as his
assistant, her stay here would not be as miserable as she had feared.

'How come you took a job like
this?' her escort was speaking again.

‘Why shouldn't I?'

‘You don't seem the country type,'
he said quickly and, she was sure, untruthfully.

'Don't Judge by appearances, Mr Kane. I like the country very much.'

‘Yet you’ve always worked in
London?'

‘Only for four years,’ she said
with a slight smile. I didn't qualify-until then.'

‘You must have been the youngest
doctor ever.'

I’m twenty-seven,’ she said composedly.
‘Is there anything else you would like to know?’

‘Ouch!' He rubbed his shoulder as
if to pain. That barb went home.’

I’m sorry. I didn't mean to be
rude.'

'And I didn't mean to be curious,'
he said, and Instantly shook his head. 'Darn it, that
isn't true. Of course I'm curious why a girl like you wants to stick herself in
a dump like this.'

'I can say the same about you.'

I’m not here the whole time,' he
informed her. There are three other factories in the group and I move between
all of them. Llanduff is my base, though, for this is
Where Mr Howard lives.'

'How long have you worked for him?'

‘Your years.' He smiled. 'Since you became a first
class doctor.’

'Such flattery,' she said dryly.

‘Not at all. When the boss employs anyone he always goes for the best!'

Were there many applicants for the
job?' she asked with a first stirring of interest. 'I was under the impression
there weren't.'

‘Your other doctors tried for it,'
the man said. This practice has been written up in several medical journals,
you know. We have the lowest incident of absenteeism through illness in the
whole industry.'

'And you put that down to good
medicine?'

'I put it down to Mr Howard's excellent psychology. We are one big happy
family here, Dr Gibson, as you will soon find out for yourself.'

Once more he flung her a look that
was half-mocking, convincing her that there was a hidden meaning behind his
words. But if he was not prepared to tell her what it was, she was certainly not
prepared to admit that she sensed anything, and she turned and stared through
the window.

The town had long since been left
behind and they were driving through what Kate took to be an industrial estate,
with one new factory after, another set in
its
own plot of land and
surrounded by outbuildings and ear parks. Howard Engineering was the largest of
them all, a vast complex of steel and concrete set amidst an ocean of motor
bikes and cars. They swept past them to the main entrance where a huge copper sculpture
stood some twenty yards in front of the wide glass doors.

'Like it?' Dermot Kane asked.

I’m not sure.'

‘Mr
Howard commissioned it and had it brought over from Italy. He's keen on all
modem art.'

Her curiosity was stirred, for an
interest in modern art did not go with her idea of the head of an engineering
concern. She wished she had asked Peter for more information about him, but
somehow it had not seemed important. Her main concern had been the job itself, though even on this score Peter had been vague.

‘You will be housed by the company,’
he had said, 'and I gather you have an excellent consulting room and all mod. cons, in the factory itself.'

'Come on,' her escort said. ‘You
can't keep the boss waiting.'

Kate hurried after him. The
entrance hall was quiet and antiseptically clean, more
like the foyer of a modern clinic than an engineering factory.

This block houses the directors and
general staff,' Dermot Kane said, divining her thoughts. ‘The grime and the
noise are behind this facade. The tool shops are in the building on your left.'

‘Where am I housed?' she asked.

'On the ground
floor of this building.'

Wouldn't it be more practicable if
I had my rooms in the tool shop itself ?'

‘You'd find it too noisy and
difficult to keep clean,'

‘What is made here?' she asked.

‘Many different
things. At the moment we're tooled up
to produce aeroplane parts for an American company.
It was a big feather in our cap to get the commission. In Mr
Howard's cap,' he added truthfully. 'It took him a year and fifteen visits to
the States to get it.’

‘He must be pleased with himself,'
she commented.

‘Not that you'd notice. He never
gives anything away emotionally. Good news or bad news, he's always the same.'

He led her up shallow stairs to the
first floor, where a long corridor was lined with offices. At the far end he
ushered her into a fairly large office where two women sat at desks, one a
young typist and the other middle-aged.

'Good morning, Mrs
Prichard,' Dermot Kane said to the older one. 'The boss in ?'

‘Yes, he's expecting Dr Gibson. I
thought you were supposed to be meeting him off the train?’

'I was and I did.' He nodded in
Kate's direction. ‘Dr Gibson, may I introduce you to Mr
Howard's watchdog, though I hesitate to add that her bark is worse than her
bite!'

Mrs Prichard ignored the remark and instead stared at Kate
with a mixture of dismay and astonishment. She glanced over her shoulder at the
closed door behind her and then back to Kate. 'Just wait a moment, Dr Gibson,
I'll tell Mr Howard you've arrived.' Barely opening
the door wide enough to squeeze through, she disappeared into the inner sanctum
and Kate, turning to look at the man beside her, intercepted him winking at the
typist.

‘Mr
Kane,' she said firmly, 'would you mind telling me what——-'

‘Mr Howard
will. see you now, Dr Gibson,' .Mrs
Prichard said, and cut Kate off in mid-sentence.

Smiling her thanks, Kate walked
into Mr Howard's office, hearing the door close
behind her with a feeling of trepidation. Her first thought as she looked at
the man who rose to greet her was that he was taller and bigger than any man
she had met in her life. He was also considerably younger than she had
expected, being in his late thirties, with firm but slightly heavy features and
deep set, piercing dark eyes. He was swarthy-skinned as some Welshmen were,
though in every other respect he did not look Welsh. More like a black-haired
Viking—if a person with such colouring could ever
exist She found her hand enveloped by an enormous one,
the grip firm without being bone-shattering, as might have been anticipated
from its size.

'Sit down, please,' he said, his
voice as incisive as his appearance. Without waiting for her to do so he
resumed his own seat and leaned back in a vast black leather chair which he
still managed to dwarf, clasping his hands together on the desk in front of him
as he surveyed her.

Determined not to be intimidated,
Kate stared back at him, adopting a technique she had employed as a medical
student when faced with her first oral: study the person in detail and they
would lose their frightening aura. She did this now and saw the two heavy lines
indented across the broad forehead; a spattering of grey flecked in the sides
of his black hair and a crisp white shirt whose cuffs sported simple but
beautifully designed links. Surprised by Dermot Kane's sophisticated
appearance, she was even more surprised by that of his employer, for,
envisaging that he would be an elderly, self-made business man, she found him
to be considerably younger and more astringent. It was an odd word to come into
her mind and she decided it had been put there by the anger quickening in his
eyes and the firm set of his mouth which made his blunt jaw look even blunter.
Something was wrong and she was pretty sure she was soon going to find out
what.

I’m afraid there has been some
mistake about your appointment, Dr Gibson,' he said. 'Regrettably you have had
a wasted journey.'

Kate swallowed hard. '
I
have?'

'Naturally you will be reimbursed
for any expenses you have incurred. Shall we say a month's salary? You may like
to have a few days' holiday before rejoining Peter.'

'Rejoining Peter?' she echoed, and
something in her tone made him narrow his eyes.

‘Peter Frisco,' he explained. 'I
take it you will be returning there?'

'At the end of my
time here, Mr Howard, not before. It is a group practice, as you may know, and they have
already engaged someone to take my place during my absence.'

‘You mean you can't go back for six
months?’

‘Nine months, actually, ft was not
anticipated that I would be free before then.' She perched forward on the edge
of her chair, knowing that if she leaned back her feet would leave the ground. ‘Why
was my coming here a mistake, Mr Howard?'

He hesitated and lightly ran his
hand down the side of his face. It was a large hand but well-shaped, with long
fingers and well-tended nails. The wrist that extended from his cuff was thick
with a faint smattering of black hairs on it. It was not the hand of an idle
man but of one used to work, and though the skin was smooth she knew it would
be hard to the touch, the way his grip had been; hard yet controlled.

'Please, Mr;
Howard,' she repeated, 'I would like to know why my coming here was a mistake.'

'Because I didn't know you were a
woman,' he said slowly. 'Peter forgot to mention when he wrote suggesting you
for the position.'

Kate was silent. Often during her
training she had wondered what she would do if she was ever faced with such a
circumstance, but always her mind had boggled at such an eventuality. In this
enlightened era, she had told �herself, no one would object to
employing
a
woman
doctor. Embarrassingly she was now being proved wrong. 'Perhaps Peter didn't realise you were prejudiced,' she said coolly.

I’m not the one who is prejudiced,
Dr Gibson. It’s my work people who will object to you. We employ eight hundred
men here and only a handful of women.'

I’m sure only a handful of men
would object to a woman doctor,' she said, still cool.

I’m afraid you're wrong. Most of
the men we employ are natives of the area and not as sophisticated as those
with whom you normally deal.'

'I don't work in a Mayfair
practice, Mr Howard, but with ordinary people doing
ordinary jobs, and I assure you I have never encountered any sexual prejudice.'

Then you've been extremely
fortunate. I assure you the majority of men here would rather die than be
attended by a lady doctor!'