A Change of Heart

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LOUISE ARMSTRONG PUBLISHING

A Change of Heart

Full-length Sweet Romance

Cosy English romance, previously published in the UK by The People’s Friend and Dales Large Print

Note to American readers: Louise Armstrong is a British author and many of her novels feature characters from England who eat biscuits from a colourful tin, rather than cookies from a colorful jar. This manuscript was originally typeset in the UK and has been copyedited in the UK. You will notice differences in spelling, vocabulary and punctuation.

Note to everyone: I've done my best to clean out all pesky typos, glitches and gremlins from this text. If you find anything that bugs you, please let me know and I promise that I'll fix it if I can.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Louise Armstrong 2011

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CHAPTER 1

A Difficult Decision

Nikki Marlow's fingers drummed faster and faster on the polished mahogany boardroom table. She was trying very hard to keep her cool and behave in a professional manner, but she was tired, she was stressed and she didn’t feel well.

‘Given these losses, I can see no alternative. This factory will have to close.'

The words snapped out more sharply than she had intended, but the other people around the table gave slight nods, except the man sitting opposite her.

Alexander Patrick Davidson squared his massive shoulders and gave her a long, thoroughly measuring look.

His dreadful old sweater and corduroy trousers made him look like a geography teacher about to set off on a field trip, but Nikki couldn’t help noticing that his homely sweater was filled out by a well-muscled chest and that he had gorgeous black hair.

Her awareness of his obvious attractions did nothing to soften her jangled nerves. She struggled to keep her voice businesslike.

'We must cancel the order from the Middle East,' she insisted.

Alexander studied her face for well over a minute before he answered.

'Cancel an order for five thousand top-of-the-range Windsor prams? Absolutely not. We start production tomorrow.'

Nikki couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

'Are you crazy? This factory closes tonight. And don't try to tell me the new order could save the company. You'll lose money on this order, not make it!'

Nikki flipped back her blonde hair and swung a harassed glance around the table. None of the faces were friendly and she wondered if she had any supporters at all.

Norman Thompson, a white-haired, rather plump man, was trembling with anger. His faded blue eyes gleamed angrily.

'I've never heard the like in all my born days. I've managed this company for the best part of thirty years! Thirty years, I tell you! And now this snip of a girl wants to close us down! Who does she think she is?'

At the head of the table, Lord Foulridge coughed, then took off his glasses, and polished them carefully before he spoke.

'Miss Marlow has been appointed as Official Receiver by the Inland Revenue, and she was chosen because her company has great experience with companies in the particular situation in which the Davidson Baby Carriage Company finds itself.'

A red-haired man in well-worn overalls snorted.

'Broke, you mean! I'm not afraid to call a spade bankrupt, your lordship!'

Lord Foulridge raised his eyebrows.

'Do please call me Hugh. And yes, one must admit that the prospects for the company do look fairly bleak. But this might be a good time to say to Miss Marlow, that although I am here to represent the interests of the bank, the board members are unanimous in asking you to make every effort to construct a rescue package.'

Nikki honestly couldn’t understand his point of view.

'You'll be lucky to see much of your investment back as it is. Why throw good money after bad?'

Lord Foulridge smiled so serenely that you would never have guessed he was discussing the prospect of losing six million pounds worth of his bank's money.

'Jobs are tremendously important in this area, and one doesn't like to see a fine old English company go down. Why, I had a Davidson’s Baby Carriage myself; a Chatsworth, I think the model was.'

A nostalgic smile lit the face of Olivia Marsden, who had been sent to the meeting by the insurance company connected with the factory. She touched her silver-grey coiffure as she spoke in her very deep voice.

'Mine was a Kensington. I can still remember Nanny wheeling me around the park.'

She and Lord Foulridge turned to smile at each other.

Nikki felt the meeting slipping out of her control. She felt frustrated and out of her depth. She longed for the bustle and glowing computer screens of her office at Bosworth's Chartered Accountants.

She wasn’t comfortable with the atmosphere in this room. The very air was alien to her. It was cold and damp and smelt of the moors outside. Nikki rarely left central Manchester. The bleak landscape of industrial Lancashire chilled her, and she could still hardly believe that her car was parked in a cobbled yard beneath a set of coal-black chimneys. It was so old-fashioned.

The people didn't feel real to her, either.

Lord Foulridge and Olivia Marsden exuded an air of tweedy confidence that seemed a world away from anything to do with bankruptcy.

The young red-headed engineer was hard to read because of his thick black-rimmed glasses, but he seemed to have a grasp of the situation the company was in and he looked intelligent.

Which was more than could be said for the bad-tempered man who claimed to have been managing the company for thirty years. If that were the case, then it was probably his fault that the pram company was in such difficulties.

And as for Alexander Davidson, there had been nothing in her original briefing about him. He was the owner’s nephew and had turned up unexpectedly at the meeting brandishing power of attorney.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye and decided she’d need to be wary of him. He might look slow, but there was steel in him. He'd been opposing her from the minute they sat down at the table.

He had seemed to be examining the gilt-framed oil portraits of long-gone family members that hung around the room, but now, as if he felt Nikki's attention on him, he lifted his long-lashed gaze and turned it directly on her.

His eyes were brown and very steady as they met her grey ones. The expression on his face made her feel as if she’d been judged and found wanting.

Lord Foulridge and Olivia Marsden were still discussing their childhood prams and comparing nannies.

Nikki cleared her throat, and once again her voice came out more harshly than she had intended.

'Do you think we could please continue?'

'My goodness yes,' apologised Hugh Foulridge, taking a look at his gold watch. 'It's nearly ten o'clock. Do we all agree that we are in a position to close for the evening?'

'No!' exploded Nikki. She glared at Alexander. 'Mr Davidson still wants the factory to start work on the Middle Eastern order in the morning. The order will lose money, and I won’t have it.'

Alexander looked her over thoroughly and then turned to face Olivia and Hugh. A message seemed to pass between them that Nikki didn't like at all. It was as if they understood something that she didn't.

Lord Foulridge leant forward and spoke to her gently.

'We understand your point of view, Nikki, but I'm sure you're aware that there may be more than one way of looking at the situation.'

She could feel herself smouldering. 'This factory is bankrupt. What other view can there be?'

It was Alexander who answered her. She saw a hot spark of anger deep in his eyes, but his slow way of talking didn't change at all.

'It doesn’t make sense to close down the factory at this time. If you'll come to my office tomorrow, I'll go over the figures with you.'

'Why not now?'

He gave a short laugh.

'You might be superhuman, but I'm not. I've been here since six this morning.'

She tried to provoke him.

'I've been on the go since five.'

His unruffled smile ignored the challenge.

'Well, I’m sorry, but I've had enough for one day.'

She tried to meet his deceptively mild brown eyes and couldn't. Her cheeks felt hot and her gaze fell to the table. She knew instinctively that she'd never shift him, but she was not going to back down.

'There is absolutely no point discussing this further. You must cancel the Middle Eastern order,' she snapped at him.

Alexander regarded her with distaste, but as ever his response came slowly and courteously.

'You haven't seen my figures yet.'

'If you weren’t so slow in coming to the point, I could have looked at fifty sets of figures and we could all have been home an hour ago.'

At last she heard an edge in his voice.

'Are you certain you fully understand the situation?’

Nikki was furious.

'Do you think I’m stupid?'

'No, but you are so hasty that you make me nervous. You've been in this factory for a few hours. Are you sure you've grasped the whole picture?'

Nikki suddenly wondered if Alexander could be right. A few hours to understand how a highly specialised business worked? She looked uncertainly at Lord Foulridge, who nodded at her benignly, and at Olivia Marsden who was smiling at Alexander. Nikki felt unusually defensive.

'I'm used to making quick decisions,' she said.

Olivia's kindly eyes rested on Nikki. 'It would be wise of you to recognise the special circumstances that apply to this company. My dear, Alexander has a factory of his own and a lot of manufacturing experience. Why don't you two get together before our next meeting and discuss the matter further? It's on Wednesday, isn't it Hugh?'

Lord Foulridge pulled out a leather personal organiser and peered at it over the tops of his gold-rimmed spectacles.

'Absolutely. The day after tomorrow. Is that agreeable to everyone?'

There was a murmur of consent, then the elderly manager flounced out, and the engineer in the dark overalls walked after him, a bleak expression on his white tired face.

The engineer alone seems to understand there's no hope, thought Nikki.

Meanwhile Alexander was ushering the guests out and along the corridors towards the exit. She couldn't help admiring his good manners, but she was still furious with the man for not listening to her, for refusing to carry out her instructions and worst of all, for provoking her into being so snappy and discourteous at the meeting.

From what she'd been able to gather, he'd only been at the factory for a week himself. How much of an expert did that make him?

Nikki walked outside to the factory yard and shivered in the cold northern air. She wrapped her arms around her as if for protection. Everyone else had driven away home. She was alone with Alexander now. She sneaked a glance at him under her lashes, and with a jolt of her heart realised that he was looking at her as if she were a ticking bomb.

She didn't stop to think before she snapped at him, 'What are you looking at me like that for? You've got your own way – but only for now. I’m willing to meet with you tomorrow but what can you possibly say to persuade me to keep the factory open?'

A cold breeze with some dampness in it touched her cheek as she waited for his answer. She shivered and shifted from foot to foot. Her kitten-heeled shoes scraped on the massive stone blocks that made up the impressive factory entrance. She was cold, she had a pain in her chest and she was tired of waiting.

'Well?'

Alexander finally answered in his unruffled voice.

'I’ve been wondering all evening why you are so tense.'

Startled, her gaze flew up to meet his. His dark brown eyes were examining her as if he wanted to find out what her soul was like. The intimacy alarmed her.

'Don’t let’s get personal. The only reason I'm even talking to you at all is because I want to save as much as I can from the wreckage.'

The last thing she expected was a snort of laughter.

'You've come galloping up north like the Lone Ranger to save the day, is that it?'

Nikki spoke through gritted teeth, 'I'll just remind you that I'm a fully qualified chartered accountant and that I am here in my capacity as Official Receiver.'

In the silence that followed, Nikki had a vision of all the work that was waiting for her on her desk.

'It wasn't easy to get away from my other commitments, let me tell you, and I don't like to think what kind of chaos will reign while I'm gone'

She got the idea that he was less than impressed. He looked at her coolly.

'Would it