Chains of Regret Read online

  Chains of Regret by Margaret Pargeter

  His love had turned to blistering hate!

  Helen was sure her father's new partner, Stein Maddison, was nothing but a fortune hunter, out for what he could get from the old man.

  Stein had even pursued Helen, and she could see why--if he married her, he'd inherit the whole business someday.

  She finally ran away, so great was her disgust. But a combination of homesickness and something else she couldn't quite explain drove her back a year later--to find the situation quite changed.

  And Stein seemed determined to punish her for her past behavior.

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the Author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names.

  They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the Author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

  The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Original hardcover edition published 1983

  Australian copyright 1983

  Philippine copyright 1983

  First Australian paperback edition 1983

  Margaret Pargeter 1983

  ISBN 0 263 74375 6

  Set in Monophoto Times 10 on 10! pt.

  Printed in Australia by

  The Dominion Press-Hedges & Bell, Victoria 3130

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE plane gave a slight bump as planes usually do when they land. Helen tried to relax in her seat until it came to a stop, but found it impossible. Inside she was too tensed up. With the other passengers she left the plane and went through the customary routine, breathing a sigh of relief when finally she was free to look round for her father.

  Anxiously she searched the milling crowds. He had to be somewhere. She had sent two cables, one to Oakfield, one to his office here in London, telling .him the exact time and date of her arrival, so he must know she was coming. It had been over a year since she had seen him, but in his letters he had always said how delighted he would be to have her home again. Had he meant it? she wondered uneasily when he didn’t appear. She couldn’t remember him ever keeping her waiting like this.

  Then, to her dismay, she saw his partner, Stein Maddison, striding towards her, as usual looking as though he was capable of ruling the world. Her face paling, Helen almost turned and ran, but before she could move he was standing directly in front of her. Her heart beating unsteadily, she realised she had left it too late.

  As though he guessed she would have liked to escape and meant to make sure she didn’t, Stein swiftly took hold of her arm. ‘Hello, Helen,’ he said quietly.

  His voice was so soft, Helen wondered why she should think of a cobra ready to strike. ‘Hello, Stein,’ she replied, forcing a smile, clamping down on her turbulent emotions. Hadn’t she resolved in France to get rid of her old antagonism? It had never done her any good, and by running away she must have played right into Stein’s hands. He must have been glad to see the last of her, especially after their last quarrel, when she had told him exactly how much she despised him.

  His grey eyes were going coolly over her, something in their grey depth making her flinch, but he only observed mildly, ‘So you decided to come home at last?’

  Helen flushed unhappily. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have stayed away so long.’

  ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t,’ he agreed tautly.

  Helen wished he wasn’t so tall and broad. Somehow Stein had always managed to make her feel small and defenceless, even when he was being nice to her. ‘I didn’t really intend staying away at all,’ she whispered.

  Stein didn’t appear to hear her remorseful tones. ‘Time’ usually passes swiftly’ when one’s enjoying oneself,’ he observed sarcastically.

  ‘I…’ She began to say she had been working, not enjoying herself, then decided against it. He wouldn’t believe her-and she didn’t blame him. Instead she said, ‘I expected to see my father. Where is he?’

  There was a slight pause while Stein’s steely fingers bit into her arm, and with a murmur of painful protest Helen glanced up at him. She was shocked to see a certain whiteness around his mouth.

  ‘Stein?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘He’s at Oakfield,’ he answered shortly, picking up her suitcase and propelling her over the tarmac. ‘We should be there within the hour.’

  He was driving himself and’ she settled in the powerful Rolls with a sigh of relief. ‘Business must be booming,’ she patted the luxurious upholstery lightly, ‘when we can still afford cars like this!’

  ‘Yes,’ he said curtly, concentrating on leaving the airport.

  Helen sighed. She had merely been trying to lighten the atmosphere and had hoped he would at least meet her halfway. Glancing uncertainly at his rock-hard profile; she tried to stop feeling so strangely apprehensive.

  ‘Is Dad all right?’ she asked suddenly, wondering if this was the cause of Stein’s grim face.

  ‘I guess so,’ he assured her briefly, yet she noticed he didn’t relax an inch.

  A taxi missed them by inches, then cut in front of them so that Stein had to slam on his brakes. They both jerked forward, their seatbelts holding, while Stein cursed under his breath. Helen decided not to ask any more questions until they were clear of the worst of the traffic.

  Rather furtively, while his attention was engaged elsewhere, she studied him. Because she loved her father and Stein was the son he had always longed for, she had decided at last to accept him. It might not be easy to begin with, but if she apologized for the things she had said, surely he would be willing to bury the hatchet? He might be full of unforgiving pride, but if she suggested generously that they should begin again, she didn’t see how he could refuse.

  Helen’s immediate surroundings faded as she recalled the day her father told her he was taking a partner.

  ‘It’s more of a merger really, Helen,’ he had explained vaguely. ‘Stein’s a younger man with a formidable reputation in our line of business. We need him.’

  Helen had felt stunned: ‘I can’t speak for Mr. Maddison, Dad,’ she had retorted scathingly, ‘but we certainly don’t need anyone!’

  Lester Davis had shaken his grey head. ‘I’ve been thinking of it for a long time and Stein’s just the man I’ve been looking for. He’s thirty-four and perhaps a shade too arrogant, but he knows what he wants and where he’s going.’

  ‘I’ll tell him where he can go to if he dares show his face in here!’ Helen had cried, with all the impulsive temper of her eighteen years.

  ‘Don’t be foolish, Helen,’ Lester looked both startled and uncomfortable. ‘You’ll soon get used to the idea, and it’s not like you to be unreasonable.. Besides, it’s all settled. He starts next week, so it won’t be necessary for you to come in any more. You can stay at Oakfield and learn how to run the house. It’s been neglected long enough, ever since your mother died, when you were born.’

  ‘Stay at home?’ Helen sank into the chair at the other side of her father’s desk, at last beginning to take him seriously. Was she going crazy, or was it everyone else? She had come to the firm straight from school and had only been working six months, but she’d been determ
ined to learn everything so she could take over from her father one day. Now he was practically telling her he had no further use for her! Well, she wouldn’t allow him to throw. her out that easily! ‘Whose idea is this?’ she had asked coldly. ‘Yours or Mr. Maddison’s?’

  ‘Why, mine, of course,’ Lester muttered, but she hadn’t believed him. She guessed from his flushed, embarrassed face that he wasn’t telling the truth.

  Helen, clenching her hands, had stared at him. ‘Don’t you see,’ she had exclaimed sharply, ‘once I’m out of the way he might easily get rid of you as well. You need me here to keep an eye on him.’

  ‘No!’ Lester had interrupted hastily.

  ‘I can’t understand,’ Helen raged suspiciously, ‘why you’ve been so secretive. I know I agreed to start at the bottom, so I don’t hear much about what’s going on at your level, but you’ve never even asked me to meet him! You could surely have dropped a hint as to what you were thinking of doing?’

  ‘You’d only have made a fuss,’ Lester muttered.

  ‘Haven’t I the right?’ she had asked in a strangled voice.

  ‘Mr Maddison didn’t want it made public, ’ Lester replied, his face stubborn, obviously having no idea how he was hurting his daughter.

  Helen flinched. ‘It will be now, though. So what did you hope to achieve? Quite frankly, I don’t like the sound of your Mr Maddison.’

  ‘You’ll like him!’ Lester had looked unhappy but eager. ‘He wants to meet you as soon as possible, now that everything’s settled.’

  Ignoring this, Helen had cried bitterly, ‘I know you’ve always regretted I wasn’t a boy, but you didn’t have to push me out!’

  ‘No one’s pushing you out,’ Lester had insisted with an impatient glance at Helen’s white face. ‘I think you’d be better at home, that’s all. If only you’d be reasonable you’d soon see you were never cut out to be a business woman.’

  Helen was twenty now and could still remember how wounded she had felt when her father said that, and she had hated Stein Maddison even before their first meeting.

  When her father introduced them she tried to convince herself she had met plenty of men like him, but she knew this wasn’t true. He was tall and powerfully built, with chiseled features and cool grey eyes. Dark hair topped a face that was hard and assertive. Helen’s gaze had wandered apprehensively over the high cheekbones, his straight nose and firm but sensuous mouth. He was the kind of man who commanded attention, and she had suddenly shivered as his hard vitality struck her like a blow.

  He had given no indication of being aware of her resentment as he smiled and held out his hand. Helen had hated feeling obliged to shake hands with him, and had hated even more the peculiar sensation which shot through her as her slim white fingers were engulfed by his. She had wanted to scream at him childishly and ‘tell him to get out of their lives! It was only because of her father’s pleading glance that she had held her tongue, but as soon as he had gone she had told Lester she would be glad to retire to Oakfield. She was convinced it wouldn’t be long before Stein Maddison left and her father would be begging her to return.

  Unfortunately Stein hadn’t left. Within a month or two it became very obvious he was there to stay. Helen was further outraged when her father began bringing him home for dinner and inviting him to stay for weekends. He even set aside a suite of rooms on the first floor and assured Stein he was welcome to use them whenever he wished.

  Helen was incensed. She had ignored Stein’s friendly overtures, and when he asked her to go out with him she had refused. He hadn’t given up trying, not straight away. He continued doing everything he could to please her, he had even begun bringing her flowers, which she had viewed with secret contempt and stuffed in the dustbin at the first opportunity. Despite his efforts she had remained cool and distant, making sure he understood that she would never demean herself by having anything more to do with him than was absolutely necessary.

  “The little she discovered about him merely added to her scorn and dislike. He apparently came from a very humble background and had worked his way up-by taking advantage of tired old men, she decided fiercely, and getting rid of their daughters! Not until Stein kissed her one “evening did it suddenly occur to her that far from getting rid of her he might, incredibly, be hoping to marry her, so that he would get everything when her father died.

  When Stein had kissed her Helen had been so terrified by the flame of response inside her that she was ready to believe anything. As with a smothered groan his arms had tightened around her slender young body, she had pushed him frantically away. Furiously she had slapped his face then turned and run, vowing never to let him near her again.

  After this Helen had given up all pretence of trying to comply with her father’s wishes. Because she had never been truly ambitious she had settled down quite well at Oakfield. She might not have done much work, but she had squandered her time fairly innocently. If it hadn’t been for Stein Maddison’s disruptive presence and his increasing pursuit of her, she might have been content.

  From the moment he kissed her she began feeling irrationally threatened. Fearing she might not be able to resist him, should he choose to exert any pressure, to avoid him she had begun going frequently to London.

  She had stayed with friends and attended wild parties.

  By sheer coincidence he had turned up at one of these and rescued her from an assault by a drunken youth.

  Stein’s silence had been strangely explosive as he had practically dragged .her from the house back to Oakfield, while, far from being grateful, she had called him all the names she could lay tongue to.

  Helen swallowed a wave of shame as she recalled some of the things she had said.

  ‘You’re nothing but a nobody, out for what he can get!’ she had shouted, wiping hysterical tears from her eyes, ‘You don’t fool me as you’ve managed to fool my father! I know you’re being nice to me because you’d like to get your hands on his money!’

  Lifting her from his car, Stein had frowned darkly down on her distraught young face, noting the beauty which neither tears nor temper could mar. ‘You’re quite wrong—’ he had begun.

  ‘I’d never marry you!’ she had interrupted furiously.

  ‘Wait until you’re asked,’ he had retorted less gently.

  ‘I hate you!’ she cried, strung up beyond reason, as she usually was when she got too near him. ‘I hate my father, too, for having anything to do with you. I’ll make you both regret the day he took you into the firm!’

  ‘Helen!’ Stein had let her slide to the ground very slowly, while still holding her closely. ‘Please, darling, don’t!’ he had groaned. ‘Your father…’

  Again she had cut him off. ‘Don’t talk to me about my father!’ she gasped, despising him for groveling as she wrenched herself free. ‘You can both go to hell for all I care!’

  The next day she had fled to France and stayed with an old school friend. No one would miss her, she felt sure. Her father had Stein now to look after his interests, and Stein had only tried to cultivate her friendship in order to gain by it. For a while she didn’t let either of them know where she was.

  When Helen had been at school she had spent several holidays with her friend Fawn Sommier and her parents, who had always welcomed her. They had a charming house in the South of France and appeared to be quite affluent. Since her last visit, however, much had changed. Fawn’s father had died and her mother, an Englishwoman by birth, had told Helen that, much as she loved having her she could no longer afford to keep her for nothing. Her circumstances were, alas, sadly changed.

  Immediately, with her usual impulsiveness, Helen had written and asked her father to send her a substantial sum. She hadn’t said why she required it, but when it arrived she had given it all to Madame Sommier, who, believing Lester Davis to be wealthy, had greedily taken every penny.

  Helen had’ been in France only two weeks when a neighbor’s husband, a distant relative of the Sommiers, was kill
ed in a road accident. Because she had felt desperately sorry for the young widow, and no one else seemed inclined to help, Helen offered to look after the house and her three children while Madame Sibour took over the running of the family vineyard.

  She had stayed almost a year, during which she had learnt that her own troubles were nothing compared with those Raissa Sibour faced and eventually conquered. The children were darlings, and she soon came to love them and didn’t mind the hard work. To work until she was too tired to think seemed the only way to counteract the feelings of guilt she experienced whenever she thought of Stein and her father. She often thought with great longing of her father, but although he wrote regularly she could never bring herself to reply to his letters. Nothing had changed at Oakfield, she gleaned. The firm was expanding and Stein was still there, but after her wild behaviour and the way she had left, she could never find the courage to go back.