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CHAPTER ONE

"I hope you haven't got me another empty-headed little bimbo out there,

Connoly, who ison with the damn job"

"Mr Strade--' " I told you ht and Iless than a first-class typing speed and skirts down to her ankles, OK? "

"Please, Mr Strade--' Lydia found her mouth had fallen open in a little 0 of shocked surprise as she stood; waiting in the outer office where Mr Connoly had positioned her thirty seconds before He had s into the inner sanctu,for her to stay where she was until he returned He had obviously intended to shut the door, but it had opened the merest crack after he had closed it and now the conversation of the two men inside was clearly audible

"You changed the agency?" the hard rimly

"Yes, Mr Strade" She could just i to smile

"Of course But you must understand that it was such short notice that most of their employees were already in a position"

"And that means?"

"This lady is extremely capable, I do assure you, and _I'm sure she will meet all your work requirements admirably" The nervous squeak wouldn't have convinced Lydia, and clearly Mr Strade was of the same opinion

"She isn't a blonde-haired bohtly

"It's going to be another few months before Mrs Havers comes back after this damn maternity leave, and already I've endured two fehtthe job they were hired for Short skirts and fluttering eyelashes have their time and place, but my office is not one of them Are you sure this one isn't on the make?"

Enough was enough The flood of anger that burnt hotly through Lydia's pale, creaht her small chin militantly upwards and made her deep brown eyes shoot sparks Who on earth did this creep think he was? Robert Redford and Richard Gere rolled into one?

She had pushed open the door and stepped into the huge plush roo to say

"Do excuse the interruption, gentlenificent disdain over the twoby the far , 'but in view of your conversation, I hardly think there is any point in ht strealass held the two h one was clearly taller and broader than the other and it was to this figure that she addressed the last remark