Tiger by the Tail

"Yes, she's thirty-five. But it's how things happen these days. She's a Roebuck now and her husband is still very fit and simply adores her. They always feature in the social pages of women's magazines. Hello Harris, we have an unexpected guest joining us for lunch. Say hello to Jenni Lovelock."

Jenni felt that embarrassment had shrunk her to a metre tall. She watched surprise leave the face of this Harris guy, son of a lecher, and turn into what she'd describe as a triumphant smirk.

Oh God, he's going to kiss her, not on the lips, please!

She felt her right leg flex. God no, she couldn't knee him in front of Mrs Mack if he went for her mouth.

"Hi, I'm Harris Roebuck," he said, looking at her quizzically through brown eyes that closed. Hers closed involuntarily and, oh yes, he kissed her on the lips, but barely a touch. Simultaneously she'd felt an arm circle her, fingers running along the strap and stopping expertly on her bra hooks. What a fucking Casanova.

"Good afternoon Harris."

"You look more beautiful every time I see you."

That raised Mrs Mack's curiosity. "What, you two know one another?"

"I saw her momentarily about an hour ago when I called on her for a consultation."

"A what?"

Harris looked at Mrs Mack.

Jenni wondered what he'd call his step-grandmother.

"Her father is dad's personal legal consultant, Sarah."

"I know that and that's why they attended the wedding."

"Jenni's also a lawyer and I was thinking of seeking her advice rather than her father's. While he's more experienced, she has the advantage being of my generation and more up-to-date in her legal knowledge."

"I see, and with her being so attractive, it was easy for you to switch allegiance."

"It's not like that; I hadn't consulted with her father previously. Dad had suggested I have a chat with him and when I learned daughter Jenni was with him, I suggested I should perhaps think about consulting her and he seemed agreeable to that."

"So how was it that you just introduced yourself to Jenni?"

"You're sharp as a tack, Sarah. It's because she took one look at me and ran."

"I did not," Jenni said hotly, and her flaming cheeks only appeared to add to her attractiveness.

"You did - straight out the backdoor and looking ungainly on that bike until you raised the seat. Your father and I were looking out the window at you. Chester then gave me your message about..."

"Harris!" Jenni yelled.

"What?"

Facing him Jenni flicked her head and turned her eyes towards Mrs Mack.

"Chester said Jenni had already decided to go for a bike ride."

"I see. If you don't mind me saying so but this doesn't seem quite plausible to me."

"It's not, Mrs Mack, but then again not many anecdotes are but what does it matter. Shouldn't Harris be offered a drink?"

"Oh yes, of course. My apologies Harris. You sit with her and have this drink. I'd like you to get to know her and Jenni is a couple of classes above some of those young women you have brought here at times."

"You're very observant and a good judge of women, Sarah. I'll certainly do my best to ingratiate myself with Jenni, if only for your peace of mind. Come to dinner with me this evening, Jenni."

"No thank you."

"Jenni, are you mad? The magazines describe him as one of Auckland's most eligible under forty bachelors."

"Well, good for him. I don't make myself available for try-outs."

Harris became a skilled predator.

"You misunderstood my intentions, Jenni. I meant the dinner purely as a forum to access your suitability as my personal legal adviser. I only have a bevy of stuffed-shirts at the company, none of whom I'm comfortable with as I didn't appoint them. I'm seeking my own person."

"Accept Jenni, how can you refuse? Chester would be disappointed to know you turned down a potential client of Harris' calibre."

"And what calibre is that?" Jenni said stiffly, finding it difficult to accept that Mrs Mack seemed to be supporting him rather than her. She'd known Mrs Mack since she turned three and joined morning kindergarten on the same day as Mrs Mack's son Roddie.

"His mother insisted he attend her old high school in Chicago and then attend her university where he studied business administration. He then gained some sort of high qualification. While at university he starred in ice hockey in winter and small boat sailing in summer. He only came home when his mother Kimberly was killed in a hit-and-run accident and then joined Leyland in the firm."

"You sound to have an interesting life. What was the higher qualification?"

"An MBA from NBC."

"Harris, don't be so modest," Jenni enthused. The North-western University Kellogg Graduate School of management is consistently in the top two or three business schools in the United States."

"You seem to know a lot."

"And you need to be proud of your mother's legacy. Mrs Mack, she's steered Harris into gaining one of the top business degrees in the world."

Harris muttered, "It's a piece of paper that's useless when your people are openly hostile to you."

"Harris, let Jenni help. She has a wonderful mind, developed I daresay from playing imaginary games with her dolls, being an only child."

Harris grinned and told Sarah she was stretching credibility beyond belief.

Jenni smiled but Sarah didn't.

"You have a lot to learn about our Jenni, young man. Drink up and then come through for lunch. Leave you glasses here. It's only chicken salad but I'm serving it with champagne."

Taking Jenni's arm, Sarah said. "Harris has started a tradition by coming to lunch on a Saturday every six weeks or so. Sometimes both Jolene and Rodney are also here; we have a great time."

They had a lovely time, Sarah a widow of almost ten years, proving herself a skilful hostess.

"Jenni's a sporty person," Sarah announced and Harris obliged by asking, "Hockey?"

"I thought about it at university but selected archery instead."

"Oh, that's interesting," he said mildly.

"I played centre in women's rugby to provincial representative level, went on to coach judo and in clay shooting managed to win the President's open c-grade championship one year."

Harris now looked impressed. "Went on to coach judo, you said. Then you are some sort of expert?

"Not by a long shot. I reached 1st grade black belt, but the masters reach 10th grade. My coaching was limited to classes of young girls at a community centre in the neighbourhood where I lived in London called Kingston."

"I know it, been there. It's beside the Thames and has a huge park with deer."

"Yes, that's it. You've been around."

"Why did you go to England?"

"For my OE after graduating LLB. It was meant to be only for a year, but I met a former Kiwi who lecturers in law and she urged me to considered staying and gaining a higher qualification. So, I ended up where she lecturers at the Centre for Commercial Law at Queen Mary University in London, where I managed to wangle an LLM in commercial and corporate law plus a great position in the firm where her husband worked in international litigation. Just her chance comment at a party turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for me."

"I bet it was. It pays to be friendly, doesn't it, leaving aside any thought of urinals."

He grinned, Jenni blushed hugely and Sarah said what on earth were they on about; she'd lost them.

"I'm just eating humble pie, Sarah."

"There you go again Harris. I haven't served dessert yet and its fruit flan, not a pie."

After coffee Harris said he had leave. "But it's been brilliant in the company of you lovely women, altogether a great lunch. Thank you."

He stood and looked at Jenni, who thought he looked so handsome. Like her father he was short of a haircut. The collar line was ugly. With the alcohol working she wondered if the hair on his chest was luxuriant or sparse. She hoped it would be sparse. What on earth are you thinking? Oops, he was talking to her.

"Pardon me?"

"I said well and that word ended in a question."

"How clever of you."

"Are you drunk?"

"Not unduly so. Am I hearing aggression?"

He ignored that, but his eyes were flashing, flecked with red warming she thought, suppressing a giggle. Is this show done at High Noon?

"Well meant, have you accepted my invitation to accompany me to dinner. It was reasonable, I would have thought, to have replied in a civil and very grateful manner. After all, I only have to click my fingers and young women, and older ones too I should imagine, would be only too happy to get the call. I've become rather focused on you, apart from your possible legal skills. You fit the general specs of the woman I've been looking for."

"What, to bear you children!"

Harris looked slightly nervously at Sarah, who with elbows on the table was listening to this conversation with her hands propping her cheeks, obviously fascinated.

"I didn't say that, well not specifically."

"I can't believe this; you are gene dating."

"What?"

"Looking for golden-haired sweet little toddlers to expand your ego."

He said smoothly, "Jenni, calm down."

"Take you offer of dinner tonight to the men's room, Harris. If you re-emerge, you'll realize perhaps a near-death experience has restored your sanity and your ability to converse with a lady in a genteel manner."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this Victorian twaddle."

"And I can't believe you'd be so gross and insensitive. Goodbye," Jenni said, heading for the kitchen with dishes.

Deciding intervention was necessary, Sarah attempted to appeal to Harris' intellect, she being red-faced and flapped a serviette on her face to cool down. The alcohol was racing ahead of the early summer heat. "Apologise Harris otherwise she'll never talk to you again."

"I'm not sure I want to be friendly with her."

"She's worth the trouble, Harris. Believe me."

Harris tucked the back of his shirt in and scowled. "If I offended you, I apologize Jenni; sincerely. Please call me when your good mood returns."

Sarah rolled her eyes.

Jenni called from behind the cream-painted kitchen door, "You are expecting a favourable reaction from me, crawling on my belly? Get real, your twerp'"

Harris whispered asking Sarah what was a twerp.

"A silly person, putting it mildly. This is promising as she replied with less venom in her voice. Just go, I'll hand her your mobile phone number."

Harris thanked Sarah for lunch and then kissed her, whispering, "This is confidential, do you hear?"

Sarah nodded.

"She's the most exciting woman I've ever met. I fancy I'm about to become her friend."

Sarah said drily he shouldn't expect a friendship to develop at a gallop.

"I've never had such an exciting post-luncheon session enactment. I feel as if I've been watching a new scene from Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice'.

"You're funny Sarah."

"Ah, somewhere within you I sense there's a man worthy enough of our Jenni."

"Me, worthy enough?" he frowned. "You have your wires crossed, Sarah. She is the one who'll have to measure up."

"Whatever. Keep tonight free."

"What, do you really believe she's call me?"

"Yes, perhaps quite late. But she'll call and she'll be hungry."

"Well, providing she behaves herself..."

"Off you go, Harris, and if you don't mind me saying so, check out your own behaviour before you criticize hers. Frankly, if I were in her shoes, I wouldn't have a bar of you, but I saw Jenni's eyes. She's interested, Harris. Just a little but it's there. She'll be dwelling on two issues now."

"Getting me as a client and getting me to bed?"

"Getting you as a client and then attempting to convert you into a more rounded, likeable man."

"But I'm already wealthy and with power. People fear me."

"Oh, how dinky Harris. And the trouble at mill, I mean at corporate headquarters is all about dissatisfied executives who thought they possess superior knowledge and skills to you, but were shunted aside for you to be chief executive and now they fear you?"

"Perhaps something like that has occurred."

"I'm sure it is something like that and my bet is that Jenni knows how to groom you to turn everything around so your people respect you and have confidence in you. Your father knows this but also knows you won't listen to him. That's why he sent you to see Chester, but in my opinion, Jenni is the better bet."

"Bollocks - oops, sorry Sarah. I imagine she's got the intellect but what's the use of relying on intellect when you're facing severe internal dissent."

"Is it only intellect, Harris? Or do you sense she also has a sense of street cunning through living a highly competitive life overseas? And try to whack her, Harris when she'd looking and see what happens. She has the potential to be a great educator in terms of finishing school for you. Be a good boy and don't squander the opportunity. Now off you go and give my love to your stepmother and say hi to Leyland from me."

"I've never experienced you like this, Sarah. You are awesome, yet you were only a community worker."

"If you had natural grace and charm, Harris, you'd not have used that word 'only'. The Government saw fit to award me a national honour for my twenty-eight years' service to State social services."

"Oh Sarah, of course. How demeaning of me."

"I'll pardon you if you'll do one thing for me."

"What, be kind to Jenni?"

"Ask your step-mother about Jenni. Jolene knows Jenni better than anyone apart from Chester and Ruth."

Chapter 2

Jolene was stretched out beside the pool with her two dogs. They stirred and made snuffling noises, knowing the person approaching. She looked up and pulled a towel across her exposed breasts. No sense is giving him ideas.

"How's my favourite younger man?"

"Fine but disturbed."

"Disturbed," Jolene said, playing with a lock of her chestnut hair but eyeing Harris with interest. "I've never heard you use that word in respect of yourself."

"Jenni Lovelock was there for lunch."

"Jenni! The cow, I knew she was home. Why hasn't she been to see me?"

"Dunno. She arrived home yesterday. She may have been doing the rounds and was on her way up here when she was waylaid by your mother."

"Yes, that could happen. Those two have always liked one another. What does Jenni look like?"

"A bit thin, great boobs and long blonde hair. She has great eyes."

"Blonde hair you say: it used to be dirty light brown."

"Now who's the cow."

"That word is offensive used in that context by a male."

"Sorry."

The 14-metre pool was set below the mansion, a little beyond the grass tennis court, with 60ft palms planted just inside the enclose, a childproof security fence. Three tiers of flower boxes running the length of the pool, were set back on the far side to allow small garden parties to be hosted there on summer evenings. Two permanent gardeners worked on the three-acre property located near the foot of a volcanic cone with crater of under 200 metres above sea level grandly called a mountain, Mt Hobson.

Flaxen-haired Jolene put on her wrap, allowing her to retrieve her towel. She poured two coffees from an insulated flask and invited Harris to sit with her.

"How well do you know Jenni?"

"We thought we were in love when young teenagers. Wipe that smirk, it was pure love. Just being together was enough."

"I'm thinking of putting her on a retainer as my personal lawyer."

"You could do a lot worse."

Harris frowned asking what was that supposed to mean.

"It means that I know nothing about her effectiveness as a lawyer but I know she's very much like her father and he has been highly regarded in this city as a top counsel for more than twenty years. It's in Jenni's nature to be at least as good as he is."

"How do I find out how good she is?"

"Email her law firm in England and ask for the name of her former principal and then phone him or her. You could also ask Jenni for references and client feedback. I have that email address on my computer."

"I could also test the water to see how she goes."

"Yes, you could. It's not prudent for me to urge you to bypass these checks."

"Would you?"

"Yes, because I know Jenni. You may be interested to know she won the prize for being top in mooting at her law school in the UK. That's where students in pairs compete in a mock courtroom action presenting their side of a case. She and her 'junior' went on to become runners-up in a national competition attracting teams from almost thirty British universities. She also won a gold medal for something in law - ask her."

Harris patted one of the dogs, causing Jolene to ask, "What is it? You appear to have something on your mind."

Harris sighed and said he wanted what he was about to ask kept confidential. Jolene agreed.

He complained that Jenni Lovelock was one of the most interesting young women he'd even met. Conversely, she was exasperating and seemed prepared to go head-to-head with him over minor issues.

Jolene laughed.

"I don't think that's funny."

"You want me to fill you in about Jenni."

Harris nodded.

"First, let me ask you this. Did you attempt to date her?"

He confirmed he had, telling her everything from his early morning telephone call to the confrontation at the end of lunch.

"Sorry, but I just have to laugh," Jolene chortled. "Suggesting you drown yourself in a urinal is classic Jenni."

"Or a very rude bitch."

"Christ, Harris, I'm warning you. Don't you ever insult her, not unless you want your teeth rammed down your throat in splinters."

"She wouldn't dare."

"I guess you're not the first disbelieving male to have found of the truth of harbouring that misguided assumption."

"She'd be up for assault, even attempted grievous bodily harm."

Jolene said she may have exaggerated about the teeth but he could trust her when she said Jenni wasn't the sort of person to back down if insulted or attacked unfairly - outside the legal system.

"What about assault charges?"

"I suspect I'd know had any threats had proceeded to court. If she whacked you hard enough to stun you, would you complain to the police? They'd ask, 'How big was this formidable woman?' and once you described her height and size, you'd be laughed out of the Police Station."

"Alternatively, they might ask what offensive weapon she used. You'd reply 'Just her hands and feet, Sergeant'. The Sergeant would say, 'Young man, you're wasting Police time; get out of here or be prepared to spend the night in one of our cosy cells'."

"Get the picture?"

"I guess so. Tell me about her."

"There's really not much to tell. You've been with her long enough today to know she's a little bit different. Mum reckons it's because of Jenni's mother who's one of mum's best friends. Jenni's mother Ruth seems to have mood swings and she's very difficult to get to know and yet she'd highly regarded in her work as a child psychologist. You know her husband Chester, a really nice man, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, definitely."

"Well Ruth gets along better with her troubled child referrals than she does with Chester, and mum says it's been like that since she's known them. She says they exist together rather than co-exist like most couples. Jenni is their only daughter and early in the piece Chester mentioned he'd like their child to become a lawyer and enter practice with him. Ruth declared to mum years later that she told Chester, 'Over your dead body' and reckoned Chester got the message."

"She decided Jenni would be a doctor and that appeared to be that, except mother had under-estimated the cunning and grit of her daughter. Jenni had been at university two weeks before Ruth found Jenni had enrolled in law rather than med school."

"Ruth went berserk, attacking Jenni with a thin pastry roller, fortunately not the heavy regular kind. Jenni had some kind of intermediate qualification in judo and could have disarmed and floored Ruth. But she just stood there and allowed her mother to vent her fury. She said later her reasoning was to allow her mother to get it out of her system."