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Full of people who might recognise her.
‘Actually, I was thinking that perhaps I should stay here and get the last couple of nights’ entertainment sorted out?’
Dominic raised his eyebrows. ‘We have Wi-Fi at the Hall these days, you know. You can work there.’
‘Right. Of course.’ Maybe she could hide on the bus. Or in a deserted corner bedroom. Or a cupboard. Anywhere. ‘Only, I was thinking—’ she started, but Dominic spoke over her.
‘Then that’s settled.’ He tilted his head as he studied her. ‘I’ll be interested to see what you make of the old place.’
‘Oh?’ What did it matter what she thought? She was only the hired help.
But Dominic nodded. ‘I want Beresford Hall to be an all-inclusive events location. It’s more than a piece of history now, more than heritage. There are a lot of opportunities there—at our conference facility for a start. If you wanted me to introduce you to the head of events there...’
‘No,’ Faith said, too loudly. ‘I mean, thank you. But really, this job is just a one-off. In between tours, like I said. I’m not looking for a permanent conference and events job here in the UK.’ Especially not at Beresford Hall, where someone was bound to recognise her on her first day. No, thank you.
‘So you’ll be going back to Italy, after this week?’ Dominic’s gaze was sharp, and Faith got the impression that this was the real question he’d wanted to ask all along.
‘Um, probably not Italy, no,’ she admitted.
‘So, you don’t actually have another job lined up there?’
‘Not exactly.’ Faith plastered on a sparkling smile. ‘I like to keep moving, you see. Don’t want to be tied down to just one country.’
‘I see.’ Dominic leant back in his chair again. ‘You never did tell me exactly why you had to leave Italy.’
Because my ex-boyfriend was threatening to bring the international media down on me, and the company I was working for went bust.
Neither of those facts were really going to put Dominic’s mind at rest, were they? When in doubt, lie and run.
Faith gave a high, tinkling laugh. ‘Well, you know, after a while even pizza gets a bit boring. Besides, I wasn’t sure my hips could take any more pasta!’
Before he had a chance to respond, Faith gathered up her tablet and notebook and shoved them into her bag.
‘And I know how lucky I am to have this great job,’ she added, getting to her feet. ‘Which is why I need to get some sleep, ready to do my best work again tomorrow. Goodnight!’
She kept smiling until the door closed behind her, well aware that Dominic was still staring after her. But her heart didn’t stop racing until she was back in her room.
She needed to make sure that Dominic didn’t have any more chances to ask her questions about her previous life. It was far too tempting to tell him the truth.
* * *
She was lying to him, Dominic thought for the hundredth time as he took his seat on the executive coach taking the group to Beresford Hall three days later. Faith had been the perfect employee so far, arranging dinners and tours with such finesse that Dominic would have felt entirely comfortable letting her take charge of everything alone, except for one thing: he knew she was lying to him.
He had absolutely no idea why, but Dominic hadn’t got where he was without developing the ability to spot when he was being lied to. The only question was, what on earth could Faith Fowler have to lie about?
Even if her career history had been embellished—although, given how little she’d actually told him, it seemed unlikely—she was doing a good enough job that he wouldn’t care. She clearly didn’t want to visit Beresford Hall—she’d come up with half a dozen excuses over the past few days to try and get out of it. But he’d stayed firm. He wanted her there, if only to find out why she didn’t want to go. But it still didn’t seem like something to lie about. Which meant it had to be something to do with why she was in such a hurry to leave Italy.
The last of his clients climbed aboard and took their seats, followed by Faith, in full professional mode. Shading her eyes from the sun streaming in through the coach window, she did a quick head count and nodded to the driver, barely sparing a glance and a tight smile for Dominic as she chose her own seat—as far away from his as was possible in the circumstances.
He’d lain awake for far too long after she’d left the other night, dreaming up elaborate falsehoods and scandalous pasts she could be hiding. Associations with the Mafia, drug trafficking, murder. Just the fact he was having to think about these things meant he should probably fire her and minimise whatever risk her lies represented.
