three million of it for Ocean Salvage and the other three to stop you
running that monster you have built. Even if I don't get it, I will
still use it to stop you. I'll slap a garnishee order on you by ten
minutes past nine on the morning of the eleventh. I told you I would
fight you and Golden Dawn. The warning still stands. You are being
petty/ Duncan said. I never expected to see you join the lunatic
fringe. There are many things you do not know about me, Duncan. But,
by God, you are going to learn - the hard way. Chantelle had chosen San
Lorenzo in Beauchamp Place when Nicholas had refused to go again to
Eaton Square, He had learned that it was dangerous to be alone with her,
but San Lorenzo was also a bad choice of meeting-ground.
It carried too many memories from the golden days. It had been a family
ritual, Sunday lunch whenever they were in town. Chantelle, Peter and
Nicholas laughing together at the corner table, Mara had given them the
corner table again.
Will you have the osso bucco? Chantelle asked, peeping at him over the
top of her menu.
Nicholas always had the osso bucco, and Peter always had the lasagne, it
was part of the ritual, I'm going to have a sole. Nicholas turned to the
waiter who was hovering solicitously. And we'll drink the house wine.
Always the wine had been a Sancerre; Nicholas was deliberately
down-grading the occasion by ordering the carafe.
It's good. Chantelle sipped it and then set the glass aside. I spoke
to Peter last night, he is in the san with flu, but he will be up today,
and he sent you his love., Thank you/ he spoke stiffly, stilted by the
curious glances from some of the other tables where they had been
recognized. The scandal would fly around London like the plague.
I want to take Peter to Bermuda with me for part of the Easter holidays/
Nicholas told her.
I shall miss him - he's such a delight. before Nicholas waited for the
main course to be served he asked bluntly, What did you want to speak to
me about? Chantelle leaned towards him, and her perfume was light and
subtle and evocative.
Did you find out anything, Nicholas? No/he thought to himself. 'That's
not what she wants. it was the Persian in her blood, the love of
secrecy, the intrigue. There was something else here.
I have learned nothing/ he said. If I had, I would have called you. His
eyes bored into hers, green and hard and searching. That is not what
you wanted/he told her flatly She smiled and dropped her eyes from his.
No/ she admitted, it wasn't. she had surprising breasts, they seemed
small, but really they were too big for her dainty body. It was only
their perfect proportions and the springy elasticity of the creamy flesh
that created the illusion. She wore a flimsy silk blouse with a low
lacey front, which exposed the deep cleft between them. Nicholas knew
them so well, and he found himself staring at them now.
She looked up suddenly and caught his eyes, and the huge eyes slanted
with a sly heart-stopping sexuality. Her lips pouted softly and she
moistened them with the tip of her tongue.
Nick felt himself sway in his seat, it was a tell-tale mannerism of
