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office.’
    So he was working in London today. It wouldn’t have crossed his mind, of course, to put through a call to her to say he wouldn’t be in. Not that she wanted to hear his voice—perish the thought! She wondered if he was still angry with her for being a ‘doormat’, then forgot about him as Basil went on to ask how she was getting on.
    ‘Still a little at sixes and sevens, I expect,’ Basil surmised. ‘Mr Arrowsmith’s cousin, William Hudson, is being tipped for the Company Secretary’s job. Nothing like keeping it in the family.’
    ‘He doesn’t work here, does he?’ She’d never heard the name before and was amazed how Basil managed to ferret out his information—in general it was usually pretty accurate.
    ‘No—been learning the business up at head office, I think. Still, we’ll have to wait and see.'
    Gerry went home that night, glad Basil Dyer had been in to see her. His visit had successfully broken up her day since Teddy hadn’t telephoned.
    Teddy seemed as bright that night as she had been in the morning, and Gerry went to bed that night with hope in her heart that her sister might at last be showing some signs of returning to the girl she used to be. Though she knew it was too early yet to dare to uncross her fingers.
    She went to work the next morning glad that it was Friday. She had no way of knowing if Crawford Arrowsmith would be in, but if he was, and was the same unbearable brute he had been the last time she had seen him, then she had the whole of Saturday and Sunday in which to get over it. She was on time again today—only just, though, having been up half the night with Sarah and sleeping through her alarm. She shuddered to think how late she would have been if Emma hadn’t sent up a wail for attention, for Teddy hadn’t heard a sound.
    Crawford Arrowsmith had returned, she saw as she went into her office. He was seated behind his desk the way he had been when she had left the night before last, and was as deeply immersed now as he had been then in whatever he was working on. Well, if he wasn’t going to raise his head to wish her good morning, she wasn’t going to intrude.
    She felt a tenseness come over her as she sat before her typewriter. If he didn’t give her something to do soon, she would soon be out of work, and the last thing she wanted to do was ask him for something.
    ‘Will you come through, Miss Barton.'
    His voice reached her when she was on the last of her jobs. She saw it would be idiotic to use the intercom when the door to the two offices stood open. She had thought he might get up and close it when she’d started typing, but he hadn’t. Full marks to you for concentration, she thought, as she picked up her notepad and pencil.
    He gave her a hard look when she was seated before him. ‘What have you been doing with yourself—you look washed out?’ He was all aggression.
    Thanks very much! she thought. What with Teddy saying she looked scraggy, and him telling her she looked washed out, it did her ego a power of good. He then seemed to regret having made a personal remark, for without further ado, not waiting for any reply she might have made, he proceeded to give her rapid dictation in an unbroken flow that made her feel if he didn’t stop soon, she would have to interrupt him while she got the cramp out of her fingers. She was saved the necessity of doing that when he came to the end of what he was saying. And since it looked as though that was all he had for her, she made to rise.
    ‘Don’t go for a moment—I haven’t finished with you yet.’
    That sounded ominous. Gerry subsided back on to her chair. At least her fingers were having a rest while she waited for what else she was to take down. But it wasn’t dictation he had to give her, but information about her future.
    ‘From what I’ve seen of your work so far, you appear to be a fairly competent P.A.,’ he began. She knew without false modesty that she was good, but it didn’t