is looking for a car,’ Gordon said.
Nina was seized by an urge to giggle, and to dig him in the ribs with her elbow. Controlling herself she said seriously, pointing to the nearest blur of shining metal. ‘Something like this one, perhaps.’
‘Ah, yes. The 190E. That particular car is two years old, but covered by our full warranty, of course. The mileage is a shade higher than average, which is reflected in the price, naturally. The metallic jade is very popular. And the smoke grey interior.’
‘What else is there?’
‘What are you looking for, exactly? Is it the 190, or something larger? A new car, or a previously owned model?’
Nina blinked. ‘I’m not sure.’ And then seeing the man’s smile patronizingly widen she improvised, ‘A saloon car, not too big. It doesn’t have to be new.’
Gordon, her lifeline, had wandered away. She saw him amongst the curves and planes of metal, appraising the machines. It made her think romantically of his business, translating spidery plans into airy structures of glittering tensile steel. She followed him towards the back of the showroom, with the salesman beside her.
Gordon stopped alongside a red car. It was the colour of audacious lipstick, and it had a black hood and wheels of silver spokes and the air of being inappropriately corralled here amongst the humbler models.
‘What about this?’ Gordon murmured.
‘This one?’ Nina touched the long nose of it. Her fingertip left a tiny smudge on the sheen of scarlet.
The salesman was there at once. ‘The 500SL. Power hood, thirty-two valve engine, the top of the range. A very nice car. This one is a year old, twelve thousand miles, one gentleman owner, fully serviced by us from new.’
He jingled with the ignition key and pressed a switch to the right of the gear lever. The hood began to glide upwards and backwards, and then slowly furled itself like some fantastical umbrella. Inside there were black leather seats, a walnut fascia and a little leather-rimmed steering wheel.
‘It is very pretty,’ Nina said.
‘Top speed of 155 m.p.h. Not that that is much use to us here, but dead handy on the Continent. The car’s capable of more, but the governor cuts in at that point. Nought to sixty in six point five seconds, so you won’t be finding many of the boy racers in XR3s cutting you up at the lights.’
‘Very impressive.’
Behind the salesman’s shoulder Gordon silently mouthed at her, ‘Very sexy.’
Nina kept her face straight.
‘Would you like to test drive it at all?’
The car gleamed at her in its bright red glory. She could see her face reflected in the voluptuous curve of the wing, her hair reddened to a blaze. This wasn’t the sober saloon she had envisaged.
‘Why not?’
There was at once a clicking of fingers and opening of tall doors behind her. The salesman sprang into the black leather seat and switched on the engine. A soft purr with a threatening, throaty undertone rose like bubbles through champagne. Smiling like truant children, Gordon and Nina followed the car outside. The salesman climbed out and held the driver’s door open for Nina.
‘But there are only two seats,’ she said.
Gordon bowed. ‘I’ll wait. Enjoy the drive.’
Nina slid into the car and braced her hands experimentally on the wheel. She looked down the nose of it to the gun-sight of the three-pointed star on the end, and gently touched her foot to the accelerator.
‘Left around the building, and then right into the main road,’ the salesman encouraged her. As she eased the Mercedes away Nina distinctly heard Gordon’s wolf-whistle.
At first she was nervous, and then she was exhilarated. The purr modulated to a noise like tearing silk and the car shot forward. She swung the wheel too hard and had to jerk it back again, and they sailed out into the stream of traffic.
‘Power steering,’ the salesman reminded her.
It was very fast. The road opened up and the bunch of dull cars in their wake dwindled to dots in her mirror. She braced her arms and felt the car respond to the lightest touch on the wheel. The glossy bonnet in front of her shimmered like a stretched satin ribbon, and the grey road temptingly unwound ahead.
The salesman had been reciting the selling points, but now he had gone quiet. Nina glanced at his face, and then at the speedometer. She was doing a hundred and five miles an hour. She lifted her foot, and the scenery caught up with her again.
‘Quite a quick motor,’ the man said. ‘I can see you like that.’
‘I do, rather,’ Nina said, surprised by herself.
But she knew that she had been entirely seduced. The more she drove the car, the more she wanted to drive it. The speedometer crept up again, and her head fell back, and she wanted to turn on the radio and sing and drive straight on for ever into the winter sun.
‘We could make a turn just ahead,’ the salesman ventured.
Reluctantly she did as she was told.
When they swooped back to the showroom and Nina saw Gordon innocently lounging with hands in pockets beside his own unremarkable family saloon she muttered a mock curse under her breath. It cost her a pang to climb out of the black leather seat and abandon her bright red seducer, even temporarily.
Gordon strolled over to meet them. ‘How was it?’
The salesman fanned himself with his clipboard.
‘I liked it,’ Nina said demurely.
‘Shall we go across there and have a look?’ Gordon nodded at the busy flags over the lines of Nissans.
Nina turned her back on them and stretched her fingers out again to the red shine. There was nothing so vulgar as a price ticket anywhere in sight.
‘How much is it?’
The man consulted a list on his clipboard. ‘Sixty-two nine fifty, this particular car.’
She was opening her mouth, amazingly, to say I’ll take it, when she felt Gordon’s hand descend very firmly on her arm.
‘We’ll just take a walk, and think about it.’
Then they were outside again in the cold sunshine. A stronger wind had begun to blow, and there was a fringe of cloud away to the east.
‘I loved it. It isn’t at all what I intended to buy, and now I can’t bear to think of settling for anything less.’
Her cheeks were hot. Gordon’s arm and shoulder felt very warm on one side and the chill on the other sliced into her. She realized that her blood was racing, and that she was excited, for the car and for the bright day and for Gordon himself. He lowered his head and kissed her, open-mouthed. His hand slid inside her coat.
‘Can
