She must, above all, find it extremely hard to believe he would ever offer her a job after smashing his beloved Aston Martin with a vehicle not unlike a tank and breaking his collarbone.
So what was behind it, this willingness even to meet Damien Wyatt again? Did she have designs on him? Did she, he swallowed at the mere thought, plan to, if she got the job, fleece him of some of his mother’s treasures?
‘Hello!’
Arthur came back to the present with a start to see that Damien had finished his call and was looking at him enquiringly.
‘Sorry,’ he said hastily, and sat down again.
‘How’s Penny?’
Arthur hesitated. Despite the fact that Damien was always unfailingly polite to Penny, it was hard to escape the feeling that he didn’t really approve of her.
Or, if not that, Arthur mused further, did Damien view his belated tumble into matrimony after years of bachelorhood with some cynicism? He was now approaching fifty and was twenty years older than Penny.
Probably, he conceded to himself. Not that Damien Wyatt had anything to be superior about on that score. He might not have been twenty years older than his wife but he did have a failed marriage behind him—a very failed marriage.
‘Arthur, what’s on your mind?’
Once again Arthur came back to the present with a start. ‘Nothing!’ he asserted.
‘You seem to be miles away,’ Damien commented. ‘Is Penny all right or not?’
‘She’s fine. She’s fine,’ Arthur repeated, and came to another sudden decision, although with an inward grimace. ‘Look, Damien, I’ve changed my mind about Harriet Livingstone. I don’t think she’s the right one after all. So give me a few days and I’ll find someone else.’
It was a penetratingly narrowed dark gaze Damien bestowed on Arthur Tindall. ‘That’s a rather sudden change of heart,’ he drawled.
‘Yes, well, a blind man could see you two are unlikely to get along so...’ Arthur left his sentence up in the air.
Damien settled more comfortably in his chair. ‘Where are you going to find a paragon to equal Ms Livingstone? Or was that a slight exaggeration on your part?’ he asked casually enough, although with a load of implied satire.
‘No it was not!’ Arthur denied. ‘And I have no idea where I’m going to find one—be that as it may, I will.’
Damien Wyatt rubbed his jaw. ‘I’ll have a look at her.’
Arthur sat up indignantly. ‘Now look here; you can’t change your mind just like that!’
‘Not many minutes ago you were hoping to goad me into doing just that.’
‘When?’
‘When you told me I’d be the last person on earth she’d work for. You were hoping that would annoy me or simply arouse my contrary streak to the extent I’d change my mind.’ Damien’s lips twisted. ‘Well, I have.’
‘Which streak prompted that, do you think? A rather large ego?’ Arthur enquired heavily after a moment’s thought.
Damien grinned. ‘No idea. Bring her here for an interview tomorrow afternoon.’