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Looking away, she stared fixedly at Amy, trying to get over to her that she did not want Gil at this party, but although Amy met her eyes, and understood the silent message, she quickly looked away and went ahead, which was utterly typical of her. Amy might look sweetly yielding, but she always insisted on her own way.
'Great!' she merely said to Gil. 'You're invited, then. Eight o'clock tonight. The address is Flat 3, Park View Apartments, Windermere Street, St John's Wood.'
She watched Gil write all that down in his address book, and explained how he would get there from his own home in Regents Park. 'You won't have any problem finding it. It's the newest building in the street.'
'You're giving this party?' Gil enquired. 'No,' Caro stiffly said. 'She isn't, and I don't think she should hand out invitations to someone else's party.'
'Oh, don't be so dreary, darling,' Amy said, very pink and excited. She knew Caro was furious and was avoiding her stare now, but she didn't care because she was in the all too familiar process of falling for Gil. Caro knew all the signs. She ought to! Amy had been in and out of love ever since Caro met her.
'A friend is,' Amy said, not mentioning that the 'friend' was male, and an old boyfriend who might very well resent her bringing along the latest male to catch her eye. 'But I'm organising the party, so I can invite who I like.'
'Can I have a word in private?' Caro asked her coldly, but Amy beat a hasty retreat to the door.
'Tonight, darling,' she said. 'I must rush, if you aren't coming shopping...'
'Well, I'll see you when you pick me up tonight!' Caro grimly promised her, and Amy looked hunted.
'Take a taxi, will you, darling? We'll be going there early to help get everything ready. See you.'
'Amy!' Caro yelled after her, but she had slammed the door and was to be heard almost running away. Gil laughed softly, and Caro turned a furious glare on him.
'What's so funny?'
'Your expression! What's bothering you? The idea of my coming to this party? What might I see? The efficient Miss Ramsgate actually being human?'
'I'm human, don't worry,' Caro snapped. 'As you'll find out if you keep annoying me!'
He laughed. 'I'm shaking in my shoes!'
'Oh, go away!' she angrily muttered. 'You may have nothing better to do, but I must get this work finished or I'll be here until midnight, and I'll miss the party, not that I feel much like going now.'
'You're going, if I have to come and get you myself,' said Gil. 'In fact, I will. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty.'
'No,' she said, horrified by the very idea of going there with him. 'I don't know when I'll be ready—don't bother, I'll take a taxi.'
'You won't,' he insisted. 'I'll pick you up, and it doesn't matter if you aren't ready, because I would like a chance for a chat with your father.'
'Oh, I might have known! You want to talk him into showing you my report, I suppose? You won't succeed. Dad isn't an easy proposition.'
'Something else you have in common,' Gil drily said, and was gone before she could think of anything to say in reply.
When she warned her father that Gil was calling to take her to the party that evening, Fred looked oddly at her. 'You're seeing a lot of him.'
Caro blushed and then was furious. T didn't ask him to the party, Amy did.' She explained how it had happened, adding, 'Amy was dying of curiosity about him. She came to the store in the hope of meeting him.'
Fred looked amused. 'I've a lot of time for Amy, she always does go straight for what she wants. And she's so sweet-tempered with it!'
Caro gave him a derisive look. 'You just don't know Amy!' In the hall a clock chimed, and she groaned. 'It's seven o'clock! I don't have time to get ready for the party now, anyway. I don't think I'll go.'
'You will,' Fred said. T want you to stay close to Gil Martell, be charming to him, soften him up. We don't want any trouble from him when we take over.'
Nothing her father had said or done had ever shocked her before, but Caro was shocked then, by the idea of being nice to Gil for such a reason.
'I wouldn't be charming to Gil Martell if my life depended on it!' she said fiercely, scowling; and then she went upstairs and began to get ready for the party.
Gil arrived promptly; she heard the doorbell and then the sound of her father being very friendly. Caro grimaced at herself in the mirror. She knew that bluff, frank voice; it always meant her father was at his most devious. She had better get downstairs before Fred invited Gil in for drinks and tried to pump him for information about the running of Westbrooks. Gil would not appreciate that.
She ran downstairs, hearing their voices in the hall, and Gil turned to watch her come, his dark eyes narrowed in an appraisal which made her acutely self-conscious.
