Page 2 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

Oh, she knew how much Harold hated the sound of her voice, but the fact that she wasn’t even arguing with him, but stepping over his objections had the very effect she was hoping for.

“We are not children for you to school, Tamsin. We will be waiting for word of your success.”

And that’s why she was on the GEI jet, winging her way to Africa, because she was the last chance to find Donal. She couldn’t say how she knew that he was alive, or how she felt so sure that she could find him, but she knew she would.

She had to.

She couldn’t possibly fail.

She loved Donal. Not just as a friend, or someone she had known since they were children in school. Donal was everything she’d always wanted and everything she dreamed that she could have.

And she blamed herself for letting him go without more of a fight. Blamed herself for not going with him.

She just blamed herself for a lot of things, and to make up for it, she was going to find him no matter what it took.

* * *

Harold Graystoke stared at the screen of his phone. Normally he considered it a worthless piece of metal, a waste of time, but there were times when he needed it for business. And the message displayed on his screen made him angry.

THE JET IS GONE

He repeated the message to himself a few times, letting his anger build to rage and from that rage, blinding hate.

Tightening his meaty hand around the device, he squeezed and squeezed until he was sure he’d break the phone or a bone in his hand.

Harold jammed his finger against the screen, and it rang loudly in the solitude of his office. The answer came in moments.

“Yes, sir?”

“Explain yourself, Vogel.”

“Sir, there was nothing I could do. By the time I arrived, the ground crew told me that the jet had left almost two hours ago. There was no indication that they were planning an early lift off.”

“Tamsin.” Harold felt her name scratch over his tongue like acid burning furrows in his flesh. “This has to be her doing.”

“Would you like me to contact the pilot and have him turnaround?”

“And how will you stop her from contacting the board and telling them I went back on my promise to support her… field trip?”

There was a moment of silence before he spoke again, his voice forcibly full of hope. “Perhaps this is for the best, Mister Graystoke.”

“Explain,” he cleared his throat, “quickly.” Harold didn’t suffer fools well.

“I don’t see how you can lose, sir. She’ll go to the jungle, or whatever they have there. She’ll spend a week or two shopping in the cities once she realizes how hot and disgusting it is, and then she’ll come crawling back.

“We’ll welcome her home and hand her a tissue to dry her tears, and then at the next board meeting one of your supporters will call for a vote to remove Donal from the board. The corporate lawyers can begin the paperwork to have him declared dead. And the world will simply move on.

“Trying to bring her home would only create issues. Miss Ellery is loyal to your nephew and can be loudly so. This way she will have no reason to complain. How can she say that she didn’t put in every effort to find him? And once she, herself, has announced that he’s impossible to find, who is going to argue with her?”

Harold mulled over the thought, and then let it go. There were other things to worry about. He had to contact his business managers in South Africa. While Tamsin was there, they would have to be very, very careful to continue their operations depending upon where Tamsin was searching.

“That busybody is going to end up costing me a fortune before this is over.”

He picked up the phone and paused with his finger over the buttons as a sly smile crawled over his lips.

“At least, it will finally be over.”

* * *

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