Carole Mortimer - Burning Obsession

‘Stay out of this, David!’ he was told fiercely. ‘If you don’t like the conversation then go and wait for us in the lounge.’

‘Yes, do that, Daddy.’ Kelly’s defiant gaze hadn’t left Jordan, the naked fury in his face.

‘Jordan——’

‘Just leave us for a while, David,’ Jordan had told him, and with extreme reluctance he had finally done so. ‘Now,’ Jordan once more turned to her, ‘just say what you have to say and let’s have this out in the open.’

‘I’m leaving you,’ she told him calmly. ‘Tonight. Right now. I’m going home with my father.’

‘And you think I’ll let you do that?’

‘I know you can’t stop me,’ she said coldly.

‘Like hell I can’t!’ His chair went back with a clatter as he stood up from the dining-room table, pulling her to her feet too. ‘There’s always been one way I can reach you.’ His mouth came ruthlessly down on hers.

Kelly had stoood like ice as he devoured her with a restless hunger, trying his damnedest to evoke a response in her. But she hadn’t given him one, had been revolted by his touch as she thought of him kissing Angela Divine in exactly the same way.

Finally he pulled back, thrusting her away from him with a moan of self-disgust. ‘So you can’t even kiss me now,’ he sneered. ‘Okay, go with your father, and when you come to your senses give me a call. I’ll come and bring you back to me, where you belong.’

‘I belong to no one,’ she snapped icily. ‘Especially you. I hate you!’

‘And God knows that at this moment I hate you too!’ Jordan slammed out of the room, and seconds later out of the house too, the silence deafening after his departure.

Her father had tried to persuade her to leave it for a few days, to give herself time, but she had refused, packing a suitcase and leaving with him before Jordan returned.

Maybe Jordan’s question this afternoon about why she had never gone back to him had been referring to that scene. He had left the door open for her it she ever wanted to go to him. But she hadn’t even thought about it, had travelled with her father on business, had been his hostess in his Hampshire home. Going back to Jordan had never occurred to her.

Then why had it occurred to her now?

Kelly was sitting with her father when he woke up late the next afternoon. She had been talking to him as usual, had been telling him of her confusion about Jordan.

Jordan had been right, they saw little of each other, and when they did meet he was always coolly polite, almost as if that incident in this very room had never happened.

It was as she was telling her father this that his eyelids had begun to flicker, his lips to move slightly. When his eyelids suddenly opened Kelly almost burst into hysterical sobs, pressing the button by the bed to bring the doctor to the room.

She stood up, smiling down tremulously at her father. ‘Daddy?’ she said huskily, her tears choking in her throat. ‘Daddy, it’s Kelly.’

‘Hello, darling,’ he spoke as if he hadn’t been unconscious for the last five days, as if he had just woken up from an afternoon nap. ‘What time is it?’

She looked at her watch. ‘Four o’clock in the afternoon. How do you feel?’

‘Well, I’ve got a headache,’ he grimaced. ‘And I’m thirsty.’

‘A good sign.’ The doctor who was in charge of her father’s case entered the room, a tall, loose-limbed man of indiscriminate age. His face was young, but his hair was sparse and streaked with grey.

‘Good afternoon, Doctor,’ Kelly’s father greeted politely. ‘Where’s that son-on-law of mine?’

‘You remember him being here, Daddy?’ Kelly said excitedly.

He turned puzzled eyes on her. ‘No, I can’t say that I do. But it follows that if you’re here then so is Jordan. I’m sorry I interrupted your holiday, darling.’

She frowned. ‘But, Daddy——’

‘Could I examine your father alone, Mrs Lord?’ the doctor interrupted. ‘You can talk to him in a few minutes. Perhaps you would like to telephone your husband while you’re waiting.’

‘Oh yes, yes, of course.’ She squeezed her father’s hand. ‘I won’t be long, Daddy.’

The telephone at the hotel suite was answered by Janet Amery. ‘Mrs Lord?’ she acknowledged. ‘Yes, Mr Lord is right here,’ she said in answer to her query.

‘Kelly?’ Jordan’s sleepy voice came on the other end of the telephone line.

‘Resting, Jordan?’ Kelly asked bitchily.

‘You know damn well I’m not,’ he rasped. ‘Janet and I have some work to get through.’

I’ll bet!’ Kelly scorned.

He sighed wearily. ‘What do you want, Kelly?’

‘Oh, oh yes.’ She had momentarily forgotten her reason for calling him on finding him with his beautiful secretary. Janet Amery was quite a nice girl, actually, and yet the intimacy of her relationship with Jordan precluded Kelly becoming friends with her. ‘Daddy’s awake,’ she explained.

‘Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place?’ he snapped impatiently. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

He got there so quickly that he arrived before the doctor had even finished examining her father. ‘How is he?’ he demanded to know immediately.

‘Quite well, actually, although a bit confused.’

‘That’s only to be expected,’ Jordan dismissed, sitting down beside her in the waiting-room.

‘I suppose so,’ Kelly agreed slowly. ‘But he seems to think I’ve been on holiday.’

‘Well, you did just get back from France.’

Kelly didn’t ask how he knew that, no doubt he had his sources. ‘That wasn’t a holiday, Daddy was working the whole of the time we were there.’

Jordan shrugged. ‘Confusion, as you said.’

‘I’m not so sure——’ She broke off to look anxiously at the doctor as he emerged from her father’s room.

Jordan stood up. ‘Doctor,’ he politely shook hands with the other man.

‘Mr Lord,’ Michael Jones nodded.

Kelly joined then. ‘How is he?’ she asked eagerly.

‘Would you both like to come along to my office?’ the doctor invited. ‘We can talk more freely there.’

She could barely control her impatience as they all became seated in the ward office. Was there something wrong? Was her father more ill than they had first thought?

The doctor took his time, fiddling idly with the paperweight on his desk. ‘I realise this may seem a strange question,’ he said finally. ‘But could you tell me how long the two of you have been married?’ he spoke to Jordan.

Jordan looked as puzzled at Kelly. ‘Five years. Why?’

‘Mm, just as I thought,’ the doctor nodded, his expression grave.

‘What is it?’ Kelly’s voice was shrill. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing too serious,’ Dr Jones instantly assured her. ‘But serious enough. It seems that the bump on your father’s head caused slightly more damage than we first suspected.’

‘But you said there was no fracture——’

‘There isn’t, Mrs Lord,’ the doctor soothed her. ‘You see,’ he took a deep breath, ‘your father, he—well, he—A few minutes ago he apologised for interrupting your holiday, remember?’ he quirked one eyebrow at her.

‘Yes,’ she nodded frowningly.

He sighed. ‘The holiday he referred to was your honeymoon. I’m afraid this bump on his head has caused your father to have a slight lapse of memory.’

‘Which means?’ Jordan prompted impatiently.

‘Which means Mr Darrow has, temporarily we hope, lost five years of his life. As far as he’s concerned the two of you have just returned from your honeymoon.’

KELLY was stunned, speechless. Her father had lost his memory! Well, not all of it, just the relevant part that would tell him she and Jordan were no longer together.