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'From one of the best new designers,' interrupted Carmen. 'Of course, it will be off the peg. We won't have time to have a dress made for you, but it will be one of a limited range of boutique designs.'
'And you'll go to an exclusive Mayfair beauty salon,' Billy Griffith added.
'You'll be staying with me,' Carmen told her. 'I've got a spare bedroom in my flat. Your parents needn't be anxious about you, you'll be well protected.'
'I don't need a baby-sitter,' Quincy flared. 'How old do you think I am?' If they had been judging by that old photo, they had presumably decided she was in her teens, but surely it must have dawned on them by now that she was older than that?
'Twenty?' Billy Griffith suggested, and she suspected he would have liked her to agree, but she looked him straight in the eye and said firmly that she was twenty-two. He gave a little shrug and murmured something that sounded remarkably like: 'Pity,' but since it was a comment made mostly to himself she couldn't be certain. She could be certain that they would have liked her to be a dewy-eyed schoolgirl, especially when Billy Griffith turned to Mrs Jones and said: 'But she looks pretty young.'
Everyone considered her and Quincy sat there, bristling, which brought a lazy smile curling around Joe's lips.
'You see, Mrs Jones,' Billy went on, ignoring Quincy, having obviously decided that she wasn't sympathetic enough, 'we wanted to find an ordinary girl; someone Joe's fans could identify with, a girl with a happy family background like yours. If we searched for years we couldn't find anyone who looked as perfect as Quincy.'
'Well, you're going to have to,' Quincy told him. 'I'm not going to do it.' Her green eyes flashed angrily. 'I don't want any part of this phoney set-up, I couldn't pretend to swoon and look starry-eyed every time I saw him.'
'Don't worry,' Joe murmured in lazy amusement, 'your first reaction was just what Billy wanted.'
Quincy caught her breath, aghast at the memory of how she must have looked, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as she first saw him standing outside the front door.
'Absolutely on target,' Billy Griffith agreed complacently. 'That kiss was beautiful stuff, Joe.'
Oh, no, Quincy wailed inwardly—she had been too distraught at the time to think of all those photographs; the kiss itself had been too spellbinding and unbelievable, making her forget everything but the way Joe Aldonez was holding her, but now it dawned on her that it had all been a carefully staged scene in which she was unwittingly playing a leading role, and tomorrow pictures of her in his arms were going to be splashed all over the newspapers.
'You look like a firework getting ready to explode,' Joe said with mockery, and Quincy's furious eyes sparked green flames at him.
'I think the whole business is despicable! I won't do it, and you can't make me.'
'It was Bobby who caused all this trouble, Quincy,' Mrs Jones intervened. 'If he hadn't put your name on that form this wouldn't have happened.'
Quincy looked mutinous. 'They should have checked before they announced my name!'
'Even admitting that,' said Joe, 'This is no time to cry over spilt milk. We have to play the game the way the cards have fallen.'
'You may have to,' Quincy told him. 'I don't.'
'If we had to admit what a muddle we'd made of it, we'd be a laughing-stock,' Carmen Lister said tightly.
'What's done is done. The only thing we can do is carry on as though nothing was wrong. As your mother said, your brother got us into this mess. You owe us a favour. What's the problem, anyway? You'll get a trip to London out of it, you'll have an expensive visit to a beauty salon and a new dress, and on top of that you'll have a night out with Joe at one of the best restaurants in London, followed by a visit to a nightclub. Most girls would give their eye teeth for a chance like this.'
'I'm not most girls,' retorted Quincy, and got a long stare of icy dislike from Carmen's blue eyes, the other girl's expression holding such antagonism that despite her dislike of Billy Griffith, Quincy decided that the female was certainly deadlier than the male, at least as far as present company were concerned.
Billy Griffith got up suddenly. 'We must be going,' he said, and smiled at Mr and Mrs Jones. 'It's been very pleasant meeting with you, I hope we'll see each other again.'
They looked surprised as they hurriedly got to their feet, and Carmen Lister stared in disbelief at the manager. He conferred one of his smooth plastic smiles on her. 'Coming, Carmen?'
She clearly had not intended to, Carmen Lister had not yet got her own way with Quincy and she was not the sort of girl who accepted defeat, but Billy Griffith bent and lifted her to her feet, a hand under her elbow. 'You've got a fine show of spring flowers, Mr Jones,' he said, as he steered Carmen towards the door. 'I'd surely like to take a closer look at them—are you a serious gardener?'
'When I've got the time,' said Robert Jones, following. 'Would you like to walk round the garden? You won't see much at this time of the evening.'
'The scent of the daffodils is beautiful at night, though,' Mrs Jones told him as they went out of the door.
Carmen looked back, her brows together, and Billy Griffiths murmured something to her, something Quincy did not catch. The next moment the door had closed and Quincy looked at Joe Aldonez in sudden suspicion—they had left him behind, and she guessed now that that was deliberate, it was why Billy Griffith had so abruptly departed.
Joe turned to face her, one arm along the back of the couch, his eyes meeting hers. 'Okay, Quincy, let me lay it on the line—we need your co-operation. Billy already gave you a big build-up to the press as being a big fan of mine and we'd look pretty silly if you backed out now. I realise it's an embarrassing prospect—publicity stunts are always damned silly. But we're stuck with this one now. Will you go along with it as a favour?'
Quincy stared at him, hesitating. 'I don't know if I could face it, it sounds ghastly, I'd feel a fool.'
'You'll get over that,' he said coolly. 'It will be a nine days' wonder, believe me, the press have very short memories and so have the public. They'll forget it long before you do, but we would be very grateful if you would go through with it.' He paused, frowning. 'Suppose Bobby gets his radio, would that persuade you? That's what he entered for, after all. I guarantee he'll get the biggest and best transistor on the market. How's that?'
