Forgotten Dreams

"DO YOU REALLY MEAN TO STAY

FOR SIX MONTHS?" SHE ASKED, HOPING THAT HE'D SAY HE'D BE GONE IN TWO WEEKS.

"I'm afraid so, Antonia. I figure that should give u
S
enough time to get to know each other.
I
usu-all
y
don't go in for longer relationships, but with you,
I think I could be persuaded to change my mind."

In spite of her fury, Toni managed to keep calm. "I appreciate your consideration, Christian. It does something for a woman's morale to be told she's next in line as 'mistress of the month' for someone as infamous as you. However, you'll have to clear all the minor details with my cousin. She's bent on marrying me off within the next few months. Have a good night,"
she
threw over her shoulder as she left the room.

FORGOTTEN DREAMS

Eleanor Woods

CHAPTER ONE

'Don't you think Christian Barr is the most gorgeous hun
k.
of man you've ever seen?" Connie Ward, the scatterbrained but lovable receptionist, asked as she placed a stack of mail on Antonia Grant's desk.

"'Karen's been closeted with him for almost two hours." She sighed dreamily.

Her gaze lingered on the closed doors of Studio A, jockingly dubbed the VIP room. Several weekly community interest shows were taped there, as well as per-

social interviews with newsworthy personalities, such as the one Connie was presently drooling over.

"Gee I can't remember," Toni said innocently,

struggling to maintain a straight face as the reception-ist stared disbelievingly at her. "Perhaps if you de-scribed him to me it might jar my memory. Was he the older, stoop-shouldered man you introduced me to earlier?' she teased.

"If you missed Christian Barr, your mind doesn't need jarring, it needs dynamiting," Connie replied dis-

"Ahh." Toni chuckled, her dark eyes sparkling with amusement. "Don't tell me you've fallen victim to that self-admitted playboy's charm?"

"Of course I have," Connie said simply. "Do you know he has a sister living here? That means there's an excellent possibility that he'll be staying for a while."

"I do know about the sister." Toni nodded, the movement of her head causing the edges of her black hair to brush against her cheek. "But how will that help you?"

For Connie, collecting men was no mere hobby; it was a vocation that she pursued with almost single-minded dedication. Her only rule was never to go out with married or engaged men. Otherwise, it was always open season and she was always a huntress.

At that moment Steven Crowell, general manager of WSAM-TV and Toni's fiance, came into the room. "Two beautiful women to welcome me," he said, flashing them his most captivating smile. "The perfect way to start a day." He walked past Connie and around the desk to where Toni was sitting and dropped a light kiss on her upturned face.

"It must be nice to be the owner's son and not have to worry about keeping regular hours," Connie remarked, eyeing the wall clock, which read ten thirty. She followed her little dig with a pert grin.

For a brief moment a flash of anger was visible in Steven's eyes, only to be quickly replaced by his usual smiling expression. "Jealous, Connie?" he asked as he turned to face her.

"Certainly," the attractive blonde said bluntly. "Why can't we all be so lucky as to have a wealthy father?"

"I agree," Toni said, joining in the teasing. "In order for us less important people to draw our pay-checks, we have to be here at eight and put in a full day's work."

Steven laughed. "I'll have to see what I can do. It's very important in any organization to see that the employees are kept happy." He started toward his private office. As he reached out to open the door, he turned. 'By the way, Toni, I'm afraid we'll have to cancel our date this evening. Dad's tied up and asked me to keep an appointment for him."

"Again?" Toni said, disappointed. It was the third time in a week that their plans had been interrupted because of business.

"I know." Steven shrugged his broad shoulders, a rough sigh escaping his sensuous lips. "But I'll make it up to you, I promise. Come up with something really fantastic for the weekend and we'll slip away and not tell a living soul where we're going."

With the closing of the door, Toni turned back to Connie her lips tight with resignation. "I certainly hope "Dad* doesn't suddenly remember some darned appointment on the day of our wedding."

"Perhaps Steven should be more assertive with his father" Connie casually suggested. "After all, he is thirty years old, not three."

" My sentiments exactly," Toni said with a frown. " It's becoming very annoying, having our plans can-celed over and over again because the boss can't keep his appointments straight."

"Well, since you're obviously not going to be busy this evening, why not come with Mark and me?" Con-nie asked. "There's this new restaurant about thirty miles of town and the food is supposed to be

fabulous."

"Don't tell me you've been seeing Mark lately?" Toni asked, incredulous.

"Yes, silly, but it's not what you think. You know Mark's just like a big brother to me."

Why not go? Toni thought as the endless hours of another evening alone flashed through her mind. If she couldn't be with Steven, then good friends certainly seemed the next best thing.

"What time shall I be ready?"

"Sevenish."

After chatting a few minutes longer, Connie left and Toni was alone. Instead of immediately attending to the stack of work on her desk, she sat back in her chair, a thoughtful expression on her face as she considered the direction her life had taken in the last few months.

Since she'd been a freshman in high school, she'd dreamed of a career in television. Never once had she wavered from that decision during the years it took to get a degree in communications. After graduation, and several months at an unexciting job with a radio station, she'd felt fortunate in landing a job with WSAM-TV.

Richmond wasn't that far from the small Virginia town where she'd grown up, and the station wasn't so large that she would become lost in a faceless crowd of employees.

She'd accepted early on that the career she'd chosen was a very competitive one and that all newcomers must pay their dues, so Toni was contented in the beginning to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades and master of none. That suited her just fine; she was learning the business from the ground up, and gaining a wealth of experience that would help her build a solid career.

She smiled as she remembered the first time she'd

conducted an interview. It had been with a local author, and after the ordeal was over she'd celebrated

with Connie. They'd laughed till tears ran down their faces at the ridiculous posturing of the man. He was a native of Richmond who'd written two books that, while not on the best-seller list, had done reasonably well. The interview had been somewhat of a struggle, but Toni had handled it like a pro. Afterward the con gratulations had her floating rather than walking down the halls of the station.

Gradually she began to substitute for other an- nouncers as well as create her own niche in the estab- lishment by doing special stories and interviews. By the time she was twenty-five her face had become well knownn in the area and she was warmly received by the viewers.

She was on her way, her sights set eventually on the nation's capital or New York, when tragedy struck.

While out for a drive with her parents, she was involved in an automobile accident that took the lives of both her mother and father and left Toni with a broken leg, a broken arm, and several fractured ribs. In less than ten seconds the world Toni had known all her life had been shattered into a million pieces. Friends rallied to support her through her grief and her own lohg recuperation. Her only remaining close family, a cousin and one great-aunt who lived some distance away, offered their comfort as well; and, iron-ically enough , it was the letters from her aunt, Sara Cartlaigne. that eventually made Toni accept her par-ents' death and get on with the future.

Aunt Sara, ninety-six and, as Toni's father had often said "hell on wheels," didn't merely wish her niece a speedy recovery. That crotchety old lady demanded that she recover. "Don't let those damn fool doctors keep you shackled to a bed longer than is absolutely necessary, Antonia," the matriarch of the Cartlaigne family wrote in her spidery script. She also threatened to travel to Richmond herself if sufficient progress hadn't been made by such and such a date.

As Toni improved physically, her relationship with Steven deepened. They'd dated fairly regularly prior to the accident, and afterward it seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to turn to him. As Toni tried to put her life back in order, Steven's strength and thoughtfulness made him seem a secure haven, the one unchanging thing in her world.

Steven's parents liked Toni and encouraged the steadily developing relationship between her and their son. When Steven asked her to marry him, the elder Crowells seemed every bit as thrilled as the engaged couple, and they hosted a large party to announce the event to their friends.

That had been four months ago, Toni thought warmly. Four months in which she'd been surrounded by Steven's love. The only unpleasant note had been that lately his responsibilities at the station had been steadily increasing, keeping him away from her more and more.

Perhaps, she decided as she tried to smother her disappointment, Steven's father was looking ahead to retirement and wanted to guide his son through the transition of power with as little upheaval as possible.

The morning passed with only a few annoying problems. Toni took care of the ones she could and directed the others to Steven. Since her return to the station, she'd been working as his secretary.

Her injured leg had taken a long time to heal, and her doctor had warned her not to return too quickly to her for--mer hectic schedule.

As luck would have it, Steven's secretary had left to have a baby, and Toni had been able to step into that position. Her visits~to the hospital as an outpatient for physical therapy dropped from four forty-five-minute sessions each week to three, and then to two. Since her final visit to the therapist was at three thirty, Toni began to tidy her desk at three, then went in to tell Steven she was leaving.

You can't imagine how tired I am of having our lives run by this monster of a business," he murmured against the softness of her hair as he held her close to

him. "I'm longing to be with you, to be able to kiss you in privacy and not worry about someone opening the door to my office and catching us."

" I know," Toni whispered as she stood on tiptoe to tease curve of his jaw with her lips. "But it won't be forever, sweetheart. Soon we'll be together all the time." She smiled up into his eyes.

"It can't happen soon enough to please me," he said. He sighed roughly against her mouth, then let his lips close over hers in a kiss that had Toni's senses reeling as she clung to him for support.

Neither of them heard the knock on the door nor the steps muffled by the thick carpet as a man and a man walked into the office. The woman stared with amused indulgence at the couple. She leaned one slim hip against a heavy chair and crossed her arms over her chest, her head cocked at a comical tilt.

There was a curious glint in the tall, powerfully built man's blue eyes as he came upon the embracing couple. His expression shifted from bored acceptance

to grim alertness as he quickly examined the small slender woman sharing the lingering kiss. Christian Barr, whose fame as a journalist was exceeded only by his renown as a womanizer, had seen Toni upon his arrival at the station and had felt that familiar stirring within him that occurred whenever he happened upon a woman who caught his attention. He had let his seasoned eye travel appreciatively over dark shining hair and downward, past small breasts, a tiny waist, slim hips, and shapely legs.