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‘What did I take you for?’ My eyes were burning. ‘I took you for an honourable man! Apparently, I was mistaken!’
He had turned to the nearest window, to straighten his bow tie in its mirror-like surface. His reflection looked at me, all cool arrogance with a hint of displeased surprise.
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but you do not seem too pleased at my plans to osculate with Mademoiselle Bertrand.’
‘Pleased?’ My eyes almost bugged out of my sockets. ‘You expected me to be pleased?’
‘Certainly.’ He gave another tug to his bow tie, and nodded, satisfied. ‘After all, I undertook the whole matter for your sake.’
‘Maybe,’ I told him in a voice that could have frozen lava, ‘I’m not the most experienced person in male-female interactions, but I fail to see how you can please one woman by kissing another.’
‘I should have thought it is quite obvious.’ Finished with his bow tie, he now went on to straightening his shirt. He didn’t seem to notice that, from behind, I was trying to murder him with my eyes. ‘It was clear that you were not pleased at having to play my loving bride. I had to find a solution. Ergo, I set out to find another female to osculate. The girl I selected is an utter gossip monger, and the story of my extra-marital adventure will be all over the hotel i
n at most half an hour, thus providing you the opportunity to switch from the role of loving wife to boiling angry, jealous and cantankerous wife - a role to which I think you are eminently better suited. Our disguise will once more be perfect, and Dalgliesh’s spies will have no reason to suspect we are anything else than what we proclaim to be.’ Content with his appearance, he clapped his hands and turned towards me. ‘Problem solved, to our mutual satisfaction. There, what do you say?’
I didn’t say anything. My mouth was opening and closing, no words coming out.
‘Hello?’ Mr Ambrose took a step forward. ‘Are you all right?’
In a small part of my mind, far from the boiling flood that filled the rest of me, I dispassionately noted that, actually, seen from a logical and unemotional point of view, his explanation had made perfect sense. The only problem was I wasn’t very disposed to be logical and unemotional right now.
He took another step forward. ‘Are you all right, my love?’
That did it. Those two little words at the end. My eyes, open in shock right up to that moment, narrowed, blazing with fire. I took a step towards him.
‘I see,’ I said, my voice mild. ‘You did all that for my benefit. How thoughtful. So did you just want to let her spread rumours behind my back, or did you plan on me coming in and discovering you?’
He shrugged. ‘Either would have sufficed. But I was hoping to draw the thing out until you came. I thought it would be much more effective, and help you more in acting your new role as a jealous wife. Are you pleased with the alteration to the plan?’
He was serious! He was actually serious! God! That man might be the most brilliant financier and businessman to walk the earth since King Croesus, but he had bricks for brains where women were concerned!
‘What do you think?’ I purred. ‘Do I look pleased?’
He regarded me for a few moments. ‘Oddly enough… no, you don’t.’
‘How very observant of you.’
‘What is the matter? Do you think my idea won’t work? That the Bertrand female won’t spread rumours about our tryst through the hotel?’
My eyes sparked. ‘Oh, I’m sure she’s already at it.’
‘Then don’t you think that will be enough to distract any watchers who were suspicious of us before?’
‘Of course it will.’ The fire in my eyes felt like two stars now, burning bright hot. ‘Your plan was very well thought out. I’m sure it will work beautifully.’ Blast him, but it was! Still, that didn’t mean I didn’t want to take his head off for it!
‘Then what’s the matter?’
I was trembling. ‘You… you…! Don’t you realize? Don’t you realize what you’ve done?’
‘Certainly I do. I’ve made your life a whole lot easier. Next time when we are at dinner, you can snap and shout at me till your heart’s content.’
‘You bastard!’
His sea-coloured eyes flashed darkly. ‘I don’t particularly see why you are so aggravated. You are not the one who had to fondle that female.’ Wiping his fingers on his sleeve, he shuddered. ‘Can you imagine? She actually perfumes her neck with lavender! Bah!’
A muscle in my cheek twitched. It wasn’t the one I used for smiling. ‘You have my profoundest sympathy.’
‘Thank you.’
