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“New darling’?” He looked at her with eyes sharp and biting.
“Reg, it was nothing. You know how Germaine exaggerates little things, that’s what her column thrives on.”
“You weren’t at Dorsis Friday night?”
“Well, yes I was.”
“And mystery man?”
“An old friend,” she stated with a believable aplomb. That said Jocelyn rose from her chair and puttered about the kitchen as if there was nothing at all to worry about.
“What old friend?” Reggie asked.
“Ian. Ian Pennywhistle,” she replied, deciding to be as honest as she dared be, less of a hassle should he have other ways to discern the truth.
“And?”
“It was so long ago. He looked me up when he got to town, and should be off elsewhere by now.”
“I see.”
“From Europe?” he asked.
There was a lot of dangerous territory to cover here, since she’d never mentioned to Reggie the bawdy summer of indecency she’d spent with a dapper young Englishman.
“England,” she said.
“Would you like to tell me more?” he asked.
“There’s nothing more to tell,” she replied. “Really Reg, it was totally innocent. Germaine can make bedfellows of anybody she likes, but she’s making things up reading romance into my dinner with Ian. He’s typically Continental, droll and fawning.”
“I thought he’s English.”
“He is, but he’s spent lots of time on the continent.”
“So why haven’t I heard about him before?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I just didn’t say anything, and then it seemed unnecessary. And we were very busy last night. Good god, if I’d known that shrew would set her claws like that, I’d have fessed up the minute you got home. But it was honestly innocent.”
“And was Ian a former lover?”
Jocelyn stopped short at that question. Her hesitation didn’t suit Reg, but he calmly waited for a reply.
“He was. But it was so long ago.”
“I thought I’d heard about all your men. But not this one.”
“I suppose that just indicates his importance in my life—which was very little.”
He nodded, then gazed at the column again. “Perhaps you should be more careful displaying your private life in public,” he suggested.
“I swear, Reg, it was nothing.”
“I hope not,” he replied, suggesting that he wanted to believe her, but wasn’t sure if he could.
***
After an early meeting with her staff, Jocelyn was putting the finishing touches on her plans. Bail out. Hadn’t Reggie used that term? Surely someone had in the midst of the tempest in a teapot that had brewed over the last five months of disaster. But bail out was the most direct way to put it. Once decided there would be no going back. Shut down Killian Management, take her chips and go home to some great whatever after. Perhaps Alex had said it best. “Maybe it’s just Jo
