'I work,' Lindsay said. 'A damned sight harder than you…'
'It was a joke, a joke,' Chris protested, pretending to be alarmed, holding up both hands as though she might hit him.
'Not a very funny one,' she told him, and he sighed and hung his head.
'No, ma'am, sorry, ma'am, I beg your pardon, ma'am.'
'Oh, get lost,' Lindsay said without heat, and stormed off back to her own office to regret losing her temper over nothing. What was the matter with her? As if she didn't know!
That evening she called in to see Alice and found her very busy cooking Stephen's dinner while Matt and Vicky called plaintively down the stairs for drinks of water. 'They ought to be asleep,' Alice said distractedly, tasting the homemade chicken soup and hesitating about the flavour. 'Is there enough salt in that?' she asked, and Lindsay lifted the ladle and sipped, nodding.
'Plenty, it's delicious.'
'I used the carcase,' said Alice, replacing the saucepan lid. 'Why don't you stay? There's more than enough for three.' 'I'd have loved to, but…'
'Date?' Alice asked, and Lindsay nodded, smiling at her, although it was a lie, she didn't have a date, she was simply afraid to talk to her brother for long in case she said too much about Daniel..
'Aston, I suppose?' Alice asked, and Lindsay hesitated, biting her lip.
'Well, no.' Matt's footsteps padded down the stairs and Alice made a wrathful face.
'Back to bed,' she yelled, then looked at Lindsay curiously. 'Who are you seeing tonight?' Her face brightened. 'Daniel?' She stared hard, smiling. It is, isn't it? I knew it, I told Stephen so, I guessed from the minute he walked in here that night. If he wasn't still mad about you, he wouldn't have hared over here the minute that reporter told him you were in trouble.'
'Mummy,' Matt said at the door, 'can we…'
'I thought I told you to stay in bed? Do you want a smack?'
'No,' said Matt, not surprisingly. He advanced to twine himself round Lindsay's leg, hugging her waist. 'Auntie, tell us a story. We're not sleepy, come and tell us a story, we like your stories, you haven't told us one for ages and ages.'
Lindsay hoisted him up, groaning exaggeratedly. 'Heavens, you're getting heavy! What does your mummy feed you on? Elephant steaks?'
'Take no notice of him,' Alice said crossly. 'He should be asleep, they both should. I put them to bed dead on six, it gets later every night. I can't wait for the autumn, these summer evenings drag on and on.'
'Just a quick story, then,' said Lindsay, carrying Matt up the stairs. 'I've got to rush, you know, I didn't come round to tell you two stories.' She slid him into his bed and Vicky peered at her through the cot bars, her nose pink in the half-light. Lindsay bent to kiss her on it and Vicky wriggled, chuckling. Lindsay got her to lie down, tucked the cover over her and sat on Man's bed while she told them a slow version of The Three Bears. Vicky sucked her thumb, eyes half shut. She was quite ready to go off to sleep, it was Matt who was keeping her awake.
When Lindsay got back downstairs Stephen was in the kitchen, sipping a glass of gin and tonic which Alice had given him. He grinned at her. 'Kids asleep?'
'Vicky is—Matt is still full of beans. It's time he had a room of his own, isn't it?'
'You may, be right,' said Alice, nodding. 'Drink, Lindsay?'
'No, I must go. See you both soon.' As she walked away Stephen said: 'I'll give you a lift home,' and although she tried to refuse he insisted. 'It won't take me ten minutes,' he said, and Alice joined him in persuading Lindsay to agree. It was obvious that Stephen wanted to talk about Daniel, and Lindsay was reluctant to do that, but she had no choice but to give in to their combined pressure. At the moment, Daniel was their favourite person, Stephen knew how much he owed Daniel and he wanted to impress on his sister that Daniel was a terrific guy. It wasn't selfish of him, it was only human. Stephen had been overwhelmed by Daniel's rescue operation and he wanted to show his appreciation. He thought Daniel was doing it for Lindsay's sake and Stephen was very fond of his sister, he would do a lot for her himself. He already had, Stephen was an unselfish, loving man with a strong sense of family and a deep sense of responsibility. He had placed his own interpretation on what Daniel was doing. Stephen knew that in Daniel's place he would be acting out of love, and it had made it much easier for Stephen to accept Daniel's help since he worked out why Daniel was doing it. He wanted Lindsay to be kind to Daniel, he made that as clear as crystal.
'I feel as if a great load was off my mind,' he told her as he drove her back to her flat. 'It was unbearable, knowing there was no way out. I've never felt so desperate in my life. I was going crazy!'
She listened, her face sombre. 'I'm glad things have worked out,' she said, and Stephen quickly said: 'Thanks to Daniel, he's being terrific. He's already paid off the bank, and his accountants are working to get the business back on a good footing.'
'You will be careful,' Lindsay said hesitantly. 'Daniel is a tough businessman, he'll expect a profit.'
r /> 'I want the firm to be profitable,' Stephen told her. 'It has to sell what it makes. I'm not a fool, Lindsay, I'd have let him have the whole firm for a song just to keep the factory open. We were right down the drain, I hadn't got a hope, and all those men and women would have been out of a job. I felt so guilty about them, about Alice and the kids… it was my fault. I overreached myself, tried to expand too fast, borrowed too much money and then couldn't pay it back—I meant well, but that's a weak excuse.'
'Don't sell yourself short,' Lindsay said crossly. The car stopped outside the flats and she turned and kissed him lightly. 'You're not a bad brother,' she said with a slightly crooked grin.
Neither of them was over-demonstrative. Stephen grinned and looked uneasy. 'Thanks.' He was a grown man. with two children of his own, but for a second or two he looked like a pink schoolboy. Hurriedly he said: 'And thanks for being so good to Alice. She was worried sick, I know. I wish to heaven I hadn't put her through that—believe me, I wasn't myself, I'd never have done that to her otherwise.'
'She knows that, we both do.' Lindsay gave him a little punch, smiling. 'So stop apologising, buster. You don't need to, nobody blames you.'
'I do,' Stephen said soberly. 'Alice was as mad as hell for a while, but she's come out of that now. I should have told her—she's right. I just wanted to protect her, I wasn't trying to insult her by keeping her in the dark. I'll never keep anything from her again.' He gave Lindsay a wry grin. 'I didn't know Alice could be so belligerent—she threw things at me, imagine that! I was dumbfounded. Alice! She never even raised her voice to me before.'