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‘It’s my...sister,’ she said. ‘My twin sister, Pansy. I’ve been worried about her, that’s all.’
She recovered enough to follow this up with a dismissive nod, indicating that the subject was closed—but Leon Kanonidou was either oblivious to the hint or deliberately choosing to ignore it.
‘What’s happened to her?’
‘I didn’t say anything had happened to her.’
‘But that’s what you implied.’ His gaze was very steady. ‘Tell me.’
Was this how people got so powerful? Marnie wondered wildly. Did they just use the compelling force of their personalities to make you feel you actually wanted to confide in them? Well, maybe Leon would get more than he bargained for. She couldn’t imagine him hanging around to investigate further once he discovered the facts. ‘She’s in trouble with the law,’ she said, the words sticking like glue to her throat.
‘Why?’
She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Tell me,’ he said again.
Oh, but his voice was so soft, so deep, so cajoling. It lulled her into a false sense of security. It made her imagine—for one brief and shining moment—how it might feel to have someone you could lean on.
‘She’s always been a bad judge of men. Maybe it’s congenital.’ She gave a short laugh and had the pleasure of seeing him flinch. ‘Her latest boyfriend asked her to carry a bag to Monaco for him and she agreed. I’m sure you can guess the rest.’
‘Drugs?’ he said quietly, his expression grim.
‘Diamonds, actually.’ But then Marnie stopped thinking about Leon—stopped thinking about anything other than lovely Pansy, who should have known better, but who trusted people way more than she ever should. ‘But she didn’t know what was in it!’ she burst out passionately. ‘She honestly didn’t know. You could rightly accuse her of being too gullible, but she’s not a criminal. She’s innocent!’
His blue eyes were very intense. ‘That’s what they all say.’
His cynical assessment made Marnie furious that she’d told him, and as angry tears sprang to her eyes she tried to turn away from him. But he stopped her. He put his hands on her shoulders and she could feel the power which flowed from their steady weight. And then he did the most unexpected thing. He reached one hand to her face to slowly wipe away the track of wetness which had trickled down her cheek. Somehow the gesture disarmed her and she couldn’t afford to let it. She jerked away from him, aware and afraid of what his touch could do to her.
‘Don’t you dare judge her!’
‘I’m not judging her,’ he said. ‘I’m just telling you how a prosecution lawyer would look at it.’
‘Oh, so you’re an expert in law as well, are you?’
‘Let’s just say I have a working knowledge of legal matters,’ he answered drily. ‘Where is she now?’
‘In prison. In London.’ She stared at him defiantly. ‘There! Shocked?’
‘It takes a lot to shock me, agape,’ he demurred. ‘Won’t they grant her bail?’
She moved her shoulders uncomfortably, knowing that she had said too much, but something about his response made her want to continue—because hadn’t she been bottling this up for so long? ‘No,’ she said flatly. ‘No bail. They think she might be vulnerable to outside influence—which is probably true.’
‘From the boyfriend?’ he interjected.
She pulled a face. ‘Yeah. The ex-boyfriend now. The case comes to court soon but the lawyer they’ve given her is rubbish. That’s the reason I came to Greece. It’s pretty much a certainty that Pansy’s going to get a custodial sentence, so I took this job because it’s unbelievably well paid and my salon in London gave me a leave of absence.’ The words were bubbling out now. Bubbling out in a torrent she couldn’t seem to stop. Yet wasn’t it a relief to say this stuff out loud, instead of letting it join all the other dark secrets which hung heavy on her shoulders? ‘At first I was determined to get her a better lawyer but when I discovered how much they charge per hour, I realised how naïve I was being. So instead I thought...’
Sapphire eyes speared into her. ‘You thought what?’
She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Marnie.’ There was a pause. ‘Please.’
It was a request but it was also a command and Marnie sucked in a breath, hating the way he seemed to be taking control. Hating it, yet revelling in it all at the same time. ‘I thought I could save some money for her. So she’d have something to support herself with when she was set free. A nest-egg to get her started. At least that’s something I can achieve.’
Leon watched as she fished a tissue from the pocket of her uniform and blew her nose, and afterwards surveyed him with an expression of defiance and vulnerability. He noted the untidy spill of her hair and the pinkness around her eyes and felt a tug of something he didn’t recognise deep inside him.
‘And what about your parents?’ he said. ‘Where do they come in all this? Can’t they help?’
