it was time to leave Jack was carrying so much valuable jewellery that the shop provided its own armoured car to take us down to the quay. A phone call ensured that the motor boat would be waiting.
There were several faces leaning over the rail when we reached The Hawk. Jenny and Charles were there, frankly agog. Jenny told me later that they’d seen the parcels arrive earlier and everyone had been riveted by the sight. Except for Grace and Selina, who had ostentatiously not been riveted.
‘Can I come and see?’ Jenny asked eagerly.
She came down to the cabin with me, while Jack fled to the sanctuary of the bar with Charles and several of the other men.
‘Good, that’s got rid of them,’ Jenny said gleefully. ‘Now we can have some fun.’
While I was showing her my new clothes she ordered champagne by phone, and we drank it together.
‘I’ve been keeping an eye on Selina for you.’ She chuckled. ‘She’s seen the writing on the wall and she’s mad as fire.’
‘Is she in love with him?’ I asked.
‘No way. He’s just the best catch around. Don’t worry, you’re not breaking her heart. She’ll probably end up marrying Derek, who’s nutty about her, and has almost as big a bank balance as she needs.’
‘Is she really as bad as that?’
‘Worse. She used to date Charles, but his firm had a crash and he lost a lot of money. She dropped him just like that. Luckily I came along and distracted him.’
She gave a smile that told a lot about her marriage. Then abruptly the smiled faded and she yelped, ‘That!’
I’d appeared in a long, black velvet dress, low in the front and even lower at the back.
‘Wear that one,’ she said. ‘It’s sensational. And diamonds. Do you have any?’
‘I don’t think there’s a diamond left in the world.’
We had a great time dressing me to kill, and Jenny’s instinct was spot on. Black velvet and diamonds were a great combination.
‘Can I come in?’ That was Jack, calling from outside the door.
‘Come in,’ I called back.
He walked in and stood stock still, gazing at me in a way that filled me with satisfaction.
‘Will she do?’ Jenny carolled. ‘Will she do or won’t she do?’
‘She’ll do,’ Jack said quietly.
That was all. But I’d seen the way he looked at me, and it said, Tonight.
Jack had come to tell us that he was taking everyone to dinner ashore that evening. It turned out to be a shrewd idea. There were too many of us for one table, so we were split among three, and he managed to keep me away from Selina and Grace. I found myself sitting with Jack on one side and Raymond Keller on the other.
Raymond seemed a nice guy, apart from a tendency to look down my dress, but since it was designed for that I supposed it wasn’t fair to blame him.
Charles and Jenny were facing me, and the others were youngish couples. They weren’t trying to trap Jack for themselves or their daughters, so the atmosphere was pleasant. I began to understand that Jack was a master of tactics.
He played up, slipping his arm around my shoulders whenever he wasn’t eating, clinking wine glasses with me, and sometimes murmuring in my ear.
I could just see Grace and Selina, who kept turning their heads to send forked lightning at me. I reckoned they were calculating every penny of the diamonds’ worth, and if they could have killed me, they would have done.
‘Now you’ve had a chance to relax with some of them,’ Jack said to me in the taxi. ‘But tomorrow you’ll be right in the lions’ den.’
‘Just lead me to it.’
‘You were a knockout tonight. Just keep doing it.’
‘Doing what, precisely?’ I teased.
He drew a ragged breath. ‘Whatever it is you’re doing. And please don’t laugh like that. It makes my life extremely difficult.’
I laughed again. I wanted his life to be difficult.
When we were on board we said goodnight to everyone and went straight to the cabin.
I ran a hot bath and snuggled down blissfully into the suds, thinking of the night to come. I told myself that I couldn’t be sure what was going to happen, but I’d chosen my nightdress very carefully.
Nothing blatant, and not as sexy as Jenny’s, but silky and elegant. And it wasn’t going to hide a lot from a man in the same bed.
During the day we’d talked with a sensual undertone. Whatever the subject, we’d actually been speaking about something else that didn’t need any words.
We’d undressed each other with our eyes and our minds, and that had been very nice. But I knew that I’d really decided Yes! when we’d swapped grandfather stories. That was when my heart had warmed to him as much as my body.
Now I was preparing to make love to a man I’d known barely twenty-four hours—something I’d never done before. And why? Because he loved his grandfather. Put like that, it made no sense. Except to me.
I towelled myself dry and used a few discreet dabs of perfume. Then I slipped on the beautiful pale blue nightdress, and I was all ready. Taking a deep breath, I went back to the bedroom.
There was only one small bedside lamp on. In the shadows I could discern that the other side of the bed, which had been empty when I went into the bathroom, now had a bump. A bump that lay with its back to me, breathing evenly.
Next to it was another bump, the shape of a pillow.
I wanted to scream and shout. I wanted to thump him and say how dared he go to sleep? I wanted to throw every piece of glass across the room until it smashed to fragments.
But I didn’t, of course.
Instead I climbed into my side of the bed, put out the light and lay in the darkness, silently reciting all the rudest words I knew.
Chapter Six
Della’s Story
NEXT day we left Monte Carlo and headed for Sardinia. It was time for me to do my stuff.
I made a grand entrance, sauntering to the smaller of the two swimming pools, where most of the others were stretched out. When their eyes were on me I pulled off a floaty chiffon jacket, leaving nothing but a tiny pink bikini. Then I stretched out and closed my eyes, as if totally unaware of everyone.
‘Well done,’ said Jack, stretching out beside me.
I was lying
