Borrowed Wife (21 page)

‘Perhaps—perhaps
it was an accident.’ Abigail whispered. She had no heart even to try to defend
her father, not even to this woman whose cold blue eyes enjoyed everything

‘That was
the verdict. Fenella said scathingly, ‘but everyone knew differently. The
insurance money would have kept his wife safe at least.’

‘She
died,’ Abigail managed to get out unevenly.

‘She was
very ill already,’ Fenella informed her. ‘It was something they had kept to
themselves. Losing John was too much for her. She died in the same week. I
never even got to see them again.’

‘Logan was rich,’ Abigail protested. ‘He would have helped.’

‘He
wasn’t rich then. His wealth came soon after and it took real wealth to save
the Steele Group.’

‘But his
grandfather his uncle—why didn’t Logan’s father appeal to them?’

‘I
suppose you’ve never heard of pride, honor?’ Fenella asked scornfully, getting
her things to ready to leave. ‘After all, your father hasn’t had much of the
latter and you have little pride, going back
to
Logan after all this time. You know he still sees me; you knew when
you were married. I can only assume you’ve gone back to him so that he’ll save
your father after spending years destroying him. But don’t hold your breath. Logan still wants revenge and, knowing him, he’ll get it one way or the other.’

‘I know
that.’ Abigail said, getting to her feet. ‘For your information, I have not
gone back to Logan. I’m working to get the Madden Corporation back on its feet
and then I’ll be right out of your lives. You can see each other whenever you
wish.’

‘We do!’
Fenella swept out of the restaurant and Abigail gathered her bag and left the
money for the coffee on the table. Her legs felt as if they would not hold her
up and she had cold knowledge inside her. Now she knew why Logan hated so much,
why her father feared him, because although she had no reason to trust Fenella
Mitchell in anything her heart told her that this was only the truth. And Logan’s words at his office came back to her. ‘Promises to keep, Abigail.’

Logan
’s life was built on promises and his father’s life
had been built on them too. John Steele had not been able to keep his promises
and the dishonour had served in killing him. Logan would keep his promise. This
would never end.

She didn’t go in to see her
father in the hospital. She couldn’t face him. She only had a vague idea of
what had really happened. Only Logan could tell her the complete truth and
Abigail had the terrible feeling that her father would not even offer excuses.
He would say it was business practice. Perhaps it was but it was discreditable,
corrupt, and while at one time she would have staunchly defended him, said it
could not possibly be true, she could not do that now because, in her heart she
knew it was near enough to the truth. Now it seemed almost like a rough sort of
justice that Logan had begun his campaign by taking her away from her father.
It had been his first line of attack, his first section and since then he had
been steadily wiping the Madden Corporation out. He had outbid them in every
project, used his wealth to squeeze than out of business and had still, with
his brilliance, made a profit for his company when profits should have been
almost non-existent. He was helping now because he had some terrible
plan—something much worse than anything he had done before.

Next day she was tired and
quiet at the office and Joe Saville looked at her out of the corner of his eye,
asking nothing but dearly thinking a great deal. By lunchtime she could not
contain her emotions any longer and as the small dining room was almost empty
she tried to find out more, tried to wipe out Fenella’s cold words.

‘How long
have you been with Logan?’ she asked him when they were sitting at a table and
everyone else had left.

‘Almost
six years. I joined him soon after he came back from the States. The Steele
Group was practically on its knees at the time. Logan just threw money and
expertise into it and worked as I’ve never seen a man work before. I don’t
know, but I heard that the banks were a little scared to back him at first.
Apparently he stormed in and more or less threw money at them. He’s got
enormous holdings, in the States.’ He suddenly looked red-faced. ‘I don’t know
why I’m telling you all this. You’re his wife. You probably know a lot more
than I do.’

‘I don’t
know a lot about his father.’ Abigail vent carefully. ‘I only found out
yesterday that—that there was a suspicion that he had taken his own life.’

Joe
Saville frowned and glanced at her uneasily.

‘A bad
business, that. There were rumours flying around even when I joined the Steele
Group but you know how it is—these things are only news for a while. As far as
I know, nothing came out officially.’

‘No. it
wouldn’t, Abigail mused bleakly Logan had said that the law would never catch
her father but he had caught him. The fact that he appeared to have let him go
made no sense at all, unless he had something worse planned, And it could only
be for that reason that he had asked her to go back to him. He wanted her
father involved when the final blow came. He wanted him to
be
alone and unaided as his own father
had been.

She went to the small,
luxurious hospital that night. Her father was now almost ready to come
home—they had told her that the previous week—and she had to tackle him before
then, If what Fenella had told her was true then she just would not be there
when he came out. He could live as he liked to live and take her place at the
office.

He was
looking well and smiled broadly when he saw her, ignoring the fact that she had
not visited the previous night

‘You look
tired, Abigail,’ he observed. ‘Is that husband of yours running you off your
feet at the office?

He’s
a hard
taskmaster, according to the rumours.’

‘He’s
never been in,’ she said steadily. ‘I work with Saville and he reports to Logan, things are picking up rapidly. In fact, I can’t see how Logan’s managing it so
quickly.’

Probably
channeling back some of the business he stole from us in the first place,’ her
father muttered harshly. ‘I can’t think why he’s doing this anyway. He hasn’t a
weak spot in his whole armour; if he had had, I would have found it.’

 ‘No, he’s not weak,’
Abigail agreed. ‘Maybe he learned not to be, after his father died.’  ‘What do
you mean?’ Kent Madden sat up in his chair and glared at her, ‘His father
wasn’t just weak, he was a fool.’

‘An
honourable fool?’ Abigail asked quietly. ‘Is that how you managed to trick
him?’

‘I don’t
know what Steele’s been telling you—’ her
father began, and she
interrupted coldly, her eyes never leaving his face.

‘I
haven’t seen Logan at all. I had my information from another source entirely. Logan would never tell me anything about this vendetta; neither would you. Is it because
you caused his father’s death?’

‘I didn’t
drive his car into the river,’ he snapped, his face reddening with anger. ‘He
was stupid enough to take everything on trust and he lost his firm. What he did
after that was his own idea.’

‘After
you’d left him with nothing, not even his dignity and honour,’ Abigail accused
him, and he leaned back, laughing that cold laugh she had heard before so many
times in her life.

‘You
can’t bank dignity and honour,’ he assured her sarcastically. ‘You listen to
any lame-dog story. Business is cutthroat; it’s either sink or swim. John
Steele just took everything on trust—a fool. You’re a fool too, Abigail. Too
soft to succeed. You always were.’

‘Not
now,’ she said, getting to her feet and prepared to leave. ‘I always blamed Logan for not loving me when I loved him so much. How could he have loved mc? How could I
have expected it? His whole life was poisoned and you did it. I’m not a fool
any more. I learn quite quickly when I know the truth and I know it now.’

‘So what
are you going to do?’ he asked scathingly ‘Run back to Logan Steele?’

‘How can
I?’ she asked, looking at him as if she had never seen him before. ‘I’m the one
doing the loving, not Logan. No, I’m not running back to him. I’m just leaving
altogether. When you want to go back to the office, it’s still there. And it’s
all your problem.’

‘Come
back here!’ he grated angrily, but Abigail just walked out. She had taken all
she was about to take and there was nowhere she wanted to be but with Logan. Now that would never be. Nothing else much mattered.

Abigail did not go to work
the next day. There seemed to be no point in it. There was not much point to
anything now because she finally understood why Logan had never stopped his
vendetta. She also knew that he never would stop. In helping Joe Saville she
was not working to get things right for her father, she was once again working
to Logan’s plans, guided by his unseen hand.

In any
case, she did not feel the need now to protect her father. She understood him
too. All she wanted to do was go away and never think about it again. That
could never be possible, though, not when she loved Logan so much. It would
never be possible to run away from what was in her own heart.

She spent
the day sorting out her things, getting ready in move from this house which had
never really been home. The job had to be done carefully because she knew
she
would never again live here. To
stay and meet her father daily was more than she could do. Every sight of him
would remind her of the past, remind her of Logan and the bitter battle that had
been fought for so long in such grim silence.

The next
day at the office was her last. She knew that as she entered the wide
swing-doors and her only feeling of regret was that she would never again see
Martha and the people who had stood by her throughout the battle with Logan.      

Martha
was away from her desk and Abigail decided that the goodbyes could wait until
later. She had no intention of staying in the office all day because she had
too much to do at home. If her father should decide to leave his hospital and
come home he would try to pressurize her into staying and she had no desire to
argue with him. She would be gone by then.

‘You’re
back, Mrs. Steele.’ Joe Saville greeted her warmly as she went into her office
for the last time. He even managed a smile. ‘There was a panic when you didn’t
show up yesterday. The whole place seemed to be holding its breath. As far as I
can tell, the staff rate their chances of survival by your facial expression.
It’s difficult to imagine that the future of the Madden Corporation has
depended on the warmth of one young lady.’

It seemed
to be some sort of obscure compliment but if it was meant to reassure and
please her it failed. Once more her guilty conscience surfaced, little devils
of doubt driving their forks into her heart. She owed the loyal staff more than
this. She was proposing to walk out, disappear entirely and yet even one day’s
unannounced absence had panicked them.

Abigail
looked at him bleakly and his attempt at a sort of fatherly smile of approval
faded.

‘Are you
ill?’ he asked quickly. ‘Can I get you anything?’

‘No,
thank you. I’m not ill,’ Abigail muttered. She walked to the window and looked
down at the street, keeping her back turned towards him. She knew it was now or
never. This was her last and only chance to break free because, if she delayed,
her father would be back, she would be pulled into things and every bit of her
misguided loyalty and troubled conscience would work against her.

‘I’m
leaving.’ Abigail spun round to face him. ‘You don’t need me here. You’re
running the place for Logan, getting it back on its feet. The staff will work
for you and with you. They’re the best. They’re loyal and hardworking. At the
moment I’m just a sort of mascot here and anything I can tell you can quite as
easily come from Martha Bates. She was my father’s secretary for years.’

‘But I
thought... Mr. Steele said you were staying here, continuing with the firm even
after I’ve finished my work.’

‘No. I
never agreed to that,’ Abigail told him firmly. I promised to stay while you
needed me but, in reality, you don’t need me. In any case, I can’t stay. I know
things now that I didn’t know when I offered to help you. I’m leaving today.’

‘Does Mr.
Steele know?’ Joe Saville asked a trifle anxiously, and Abigail managed a smile
at the thought of this clever, talented man who was fast approaching late
middle age being uneasy about facing the man who could take her to the very
gates of heaven in his arms,

‘He’ll
know when you tell him,’ she pointed out quizzically, and he looked a trifle
abashed.

‘I’ll
have no choice but to tell him,’ he confessed, glancing at her in
embarrassment. ‘I go over everything with him after I leave here each day and
the first thing he asks is how you are coping. He even wants to know how you look.’
He cleared his throat gruffly, his embarrassment growing. ‘Mr. Steele doesn’t
ask in a particularly kindly manner, you understand, but he asks all the same.
He had to be away last night and he won’t be back until this evening so I
didn’t have to tell him you were away from the office yesterday.’