Free Singing in the Wilderness by Isobel Chace

as she felt at the idea of Gloria reading anything, let alone taking a book to work with her! ‘I’ll wait here,’ she said.
    Gloria was gone a long time. Stephanie stood first on one foot and then on the other, longing to get home. It had been quite a day and she was tired. It had been more of a strain than she had allowed working for Cas for the first time, but she had learned a lot from him too. It had been a revelation to find a mind as clear and concise as his, after the muddled thinking of her father, and her own love of order had instantly responded to the challenge giving her a glow of satisfaction that she had been able to keep up with him all through the morning. If it had not been disloyal to her father, she would not have hesitated to admit that she infinitely preferred working for the American and not only because she was attracted to him as a man. Indeed, it had been in spite of it, for she, like him, was a firm believer in leaving one’s personal life outside the office doors. If one could, she added with an uncomfortable spurt of self-criticism. It was becoming harder and harder to see Cas as anything else but the most attractive man she had ever known.
    Gloria came back breathless and laughing. ‘The lift is out of action. Someone was fool enough to complain of getting an electric shock when he—or I’ll bet it was a she—pressed the button to go up or down. They’ll learn! I never have any trouble! I always press it before I take off my gloves!’
    ‘I don’t wear gloves when it’s hot,’ Stephanie remarked, not wanting to get further involved, but Gloria was not easily diverted once she was following a line of thought.
    ‘I’ll bet it was Casimir’s dreamboat who complained!’
    ‘No, it wasn’t!’ Stephanie was horrified to hear the note of pain in her voice. ‘It wasn’t,’ she said more calmly. ‘It was Mr. Ruddock himself who ordered it to be seen to. I think he’s used to everything around him working like clockwork.’
    ‘His secretary too?’ Gloria nodded wisely. ‘I know the type. I’m glad I don’t have to work for him. I don’t know that I’d like to play with him either. He kind of likes to have his own way, doesn’t he ? ’
    ‘No more than the rest of us,’ Stephanie smiled.
    ‘Well, he doesn’t mind putting you in an awkward position,’ Gloria rushed on heedlessly. ‘You must be torn in two when he reverses all your father’s decisions. What will you do if you have to choose between them?’
    Pray God, it never came to that! ‘I won’t ever have to,’ Stephanie maintained. ‘I’m only the secretary, not the board of directors!’
    ‘Even so, it must be hard to listen to him criticising your father. I wouldn’t like that! I think I’d pack up and go back to England myself, sooner than get involved in anything like that!’
    Stephanie stiffened. ‘I can’t imagine Mr. Ruddock criticising my father to my face!’
    ‘It would depend what he found out about him.’ Gloria’s winning smile was designed to take any offence out of her words. ‘I liked him, as I told you, but he must have done something to have been sent back to England a t a moment’s notice. He wasn’t clever enough to cook the books, but he must have done something !’
    One thing he could have done would have been to curb Gloria’s tongue, but the idea of her easy-going father doing anything as positive as checking anyone who worked for him brought a maternal smile to her lips. Poor Father! He couldn’t be severe with anyone to save his life!
    ‘He was needed in England,’ Stephanie answered, hoping against hope that Gloria would believe her. ‘ Didn ’ t you know ? They’re fighting for some other contract in Africa somewhere and my father was needed to work out the costs for them.’
    ‘In Africa?’ Gloria was plainly astonished. ‘It’s the first I’ve heard of it. Is it a private deal ? ’
    I don ’ t know,’ Stephanie said, already regretting what she knew to