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‘He’s a really bad guy, Lucy. Don’t get involved with him.’
The shock of Dorland looking so serious and saying something so appalling made her stare at him uneasily. ‘What do you mean?’
‘How much do you know about him?’ Dorland asked her.
‘He’s a very successful entrepreneur who has built up a turnkey business based in London supplying concierge services for wealthy people who don’t have time to sort out their own domestic support services.’
‘That’s the legitimate tip of the iceberg of his business,’ Dorland told her flatly. ‘The truth is that he works for a group of Eastern European mafia-type thugs, fronting a money-laundering exercise. The workers he uses in his turnkey business are mostly illegals, brought into this country to work in fear for their lives. The poor sods have to pay thousands to get into this country in the first place, and then when they get here they’re told that they can be sent back at any minute if the authorities find out about them. So they’re forced to work for next to nothing and housed like battery chickens.
‘And that isn’t
the worst of it. Young women—girls—sometimes sold by their families, sometimes just stolen, are sold into prostitution and passed from owner to owner. What he’s involved in is the cruellest business in the world. He traffics in human misery and degradation. And, by the way, Andrew Walker isn’t even his real name.’
‘How can you know all this?’ Lucy protested.
‘I know because last year he approached me with an offer to buy his way into A-List Life. He said that he was looking for somewhere to invest the profits from his turnkey business. He talked about taking A-List Life into Europe and even Russia. I admit for while I was tempted, and not just because of the money he was talking about—which was phenomenal. But once I started looking a little deeper and asking questions all sorts of stuff started crawling out of the woodwork.
‘The reason he wanted to buy into A-List Life was because he’s looking for ways and means to launder the money he’s making from trading in refugees and prostitutes. He told me about an idea he’d had for us to employ our own A-List Life girls as “hostesses” at celeb events. The way he described it, it sounded perfectly above board and respectable.’ Dorland shook his head. ‘It wasn’t. What he meant, of course, was that he wanted to use A-List Life to supply upmarket prostitutes.’
With every word Dorland spoke, Lucy’s heart was hammering harder.
‘I’m not going to pry into your personal business affairs, Lucy, but I know how these people work—they offer of a terrific business deal made in secret and kept that way. If that’s why you were having lunch with him, then take my advice and don’t get involved.’
‘But if he’s as bad as you say, why haven’t the authorities done anything about it?’ Lucy asked Dorland unhappily.
‘Probably because he’s too clever for them to prove anything. The only reason I know is because I asked around—and I asked the right people. London has its share of Russian oligarchs, some of whom I happen to know, and they know people who know other people, et cetera. They aren’t involved in any way with him, or what he does, but they have contacts who have contacts, and they know the people he does business with. And I was told—don’t get involved. He and those he works for play very dirty. Have you told Marcus about lunching with him?’
Lucy shook her head.
‘No. And I…I couldn’t. Not now.’
‘No. He definitely wouldn’t like it,’ Dorland agreed.
‘We only had a meeting, that was all,’ Lucy stressed. ‘Nothing more.’
‘Well, if I were you, Lucy, I’d make sure that there aren’t any more meetings. And I’d also make sure that Walker knows you aren’t interested in any proposals he may put to you, either now or at any time in the future. It’s none of my business, I know that, but I’ve always had a bit of soft spot for Prêt a Party and for you. You’ve got class, Lucy, and I like that. I admire what you did with Prêt a Party, even if things haven’t worked out. But it’s just the kind of outfit he’s looking for, and once he drags you down into the dirt with him I’m afraid you’ll have the devil’s own job getting out of it again. These people know how to keep their victims trapped and dependent on them, and like as not they’ll drag Marcus down with you.’
Lucy looked at the letter she had just finished checking. It was to Andrew Walker, telling him that since she was shortly to get married she had decided against going ahead with the business venture they had discussed. Her husband was going to become her new business partner, she had added, untruthfully.
She signed it, then folded it carefully and put it in the envelope she had already addressed.
Just to make sure that Andrew Walker did receive it she was going to the post office with it right now, so that she could send it for guaranteed delivery.
She gave a small shudder as she sealed the envelope. Thank heavens Dorland had alerted her to the real nature of Andrew Walker’s business. She just wished that the authorities could do something to prevent him from continuing with his evil trade. But when she had said as much to Dorland, Dorland had shaken his head and told her grimly, ‘Removing him wouldn’t solve the problem. There will be a hundred or more other men all too willing to take his place. Illegal workers are big business, and men like Walker get a double pay-off—firstly when the poor devils pay for what they believe is going to be their freedom in another country, and secondly when they have to pay over most of their wages to buy the silence of the very people responsible for them being there. They can’t win, and men like Walker can’t lose. And that’s why it’s so hard for the authorities to do anything. Their victims are too afraid to say anything.’
And Prêt a Party would have been an ideal money-laundering vehicle for them, Lucy recognised. All the more so because it was so labour-intensive, and in a way that used casual labour.
Thank goodness she hadn’t told Marcus about it. He would probably have been too worldly aware to fall into the trap she had, and she could just imagine what he would have had to say about the situation if he’d known how easily she had fallen for Andrew Walker’s smooth words. No doubt he would have also immediately reminded her that she had already proved her naïveté once, by marrying Nick and letting him defraud her, and that there was no need for her to compound her folly.
Marcus. He would be back later this afternoon, and then tomorrow they were driving down to the country for the christening.
Marcus. Didn’t she already have enough to worry about without this added problem of Andrew Walker and the trap he had set for her?
‘You’re very quiet.’
‘Am I?’ Lucy gave Marcus a too-bright smile, glad of the glaring sunlight that meant she could hide behind her sunglasses as Marcus drove them towards the motorway, en route to the christening. They were going down a couple of days early so that Lucy, Carly and Julia could have some time together before the other guests arrived, and Lucy was really looking forward to seeing her two oldest friends.
Marcus had booked them into a small manorhouse hotel, teasing her that they could ‘practise for their honeymoon,’ which they were actually taking in the Caribbean.
She had missed him desperately while he had been away, but last night when he had returned she had felt so on edge about the Andrew Walker business, and so guilty, that she had just not been able to relax with him.
Not even in bed.
‘How did the football boot do go?’
‘Oh, fine.’ Lucy could feel her face burning, simply because of the association between that event, Dorland’s revelations and her own guilt.
Marcus frowned as he listened to her. Something had changed while he had been away. Lucy had changed, he thought grimly. Why? Because she was still having second thoughts about their marriage? His mouth hardened. He had no intentions of giving her up. Not to anyone. And if her doubts were being caused by a longing for Nick Blayne, he was most certainly not giving her up. Couldn’t she see how much better off she would be with him?
‘I’ve spoken to McVicar and told him that I intend to make a cash injection into Prêt a Party’s bank account sufficient to clear any outstanding debts, and the bank overdraft, plus allow for a small amount of working capital.’
‘No!’
Lucy realised that her instinctive objection had been louder than she had anticipated, but she pressed on doggedly. ‘I’ve already told you that I don’t want you to do that. I have enough left in my own trust fund to do almost all of it, Marcus.’
Marcus’s mouth thinned, whilst Lucy’s face burned from her anguished dread of Marcus reminding her of what a fool she had been over Nick. But how could she tell anyone, and most especially Marcus, that she had felt so guilty about marrying Nick when she didn’t love him that she had felt unable to question anything he did?
‘I realise that you are so rich it doesn’t matter if you have to pay off my debts for me, Marcus, but I don’t want you to do that. I’d rather pay them off myself. I don’t want to feel financially indebted to you over my business.’
‘Very well, then. If you feel like that,
why don’t I join you in Prêt a Party as a partner? We could be—’
Sleeping partners, he had been about to say. But before he could do so Lucy burst out sharply, ‘No! No. I don’t want that.’
Why? Marcus wanted to ask her. But he could see how upset and angry she was getting, and he was afraid…He was afraid, Marcus acknowledged, on a sudden unfamiliar surge of shock that gripped his belly in sharp talons and caused a pain he had never previously experienced.
He was afraid of losing her, he recognised. Did she still love Blayne, despite the appalling way in which her ex-husband had treated her? Blayne had left her for another woman, but was Lucy hoping that one day he might come back? Did she think that by hanging on to Prêt a Party she might one day entice him to return?
What was happening? She had seemed happy to be with him, happy about their future—and certainly happy with him in bed. Had seemed…But last night she had stood stiffly in his arms until he had let her go, and now, today, she was behaving though he was the last person she wanted to be with.
On a coruscating surge of pain, he recognised that Lucy’s refusal to allow him to help was actually hurting him. How could that be? Why could it be?
Lucy pressed her fingers to her aching temples. She wished desperately that their relationship were different, that she could confide in Marcus and tell him all about Andrew Walker and his approach to her. But she couldn’t.
‘We’re leaving the motorway at the next junction,’ she heard Marcus telling her after a while, adding, ‘The hotel is only a few miles further on. I thought we’d go there first, and leave our things. What time did you say Julia and Silas are expecting us?’
‘Any time after two, Jules said. So there’s no immediate rush.’ Would he recognise that she was trying to hint to him that she would welcome some time alone with him before they went to see Jules and Silas and the new baby? It could be an opportunity for her to make some small amends for last night, to show both him and herself that her inability to respond to him then wasn’t some kind of ominous portent. Lucy hoped so. For his sake or for her own?
