on what you’ve just paid for this stuff.’
Mark shrugged. ‘Then tomorrow you can sell it on eBay,’ he returned. ‘But I suggest that you hang on to it. Wear it when you meet your publishers. You might get a better deal if they think you’re not hungry.’ He looked her over. ‘And leave your hair loose.’
She was quivering with temper. ‘Any other instructions—sir?’
‘Not at the moment, but that could change.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘I’m going to put some coffee on while you get dressed. We haven’t got all day.’
As he went to the door, she said, ‘One thing occurred to me.’ She hesitated. ‘You don’t think Kit may have told her about moving me in here? That she might recognise my name?’
‘Unlikely,’ he said. ‘Even if he did share the joke with her, your actual identity would be far too unimportant a detail to mention.’
‘Oh,’ she said with false brightness, ‘that’s all right then.’
‘No,’ he said, more gently. ‘But I’m afraid it’s as good as it gets, with that precious pair.’ He grimaced. ‘As you’re about to find out,’ he added, and went.
The new clothes, she had to admit, were becoming. Even more annoyingly, they were a perfect fit. And the sandals made her already slim legs racehorse-slender.
She found herself wondering what Mark would say when she went to join him in the sitting room, but he merely looked her over, then nodded abruptly.
And a moment later the imperious sound of the buzzer announced that their visitor had arrived.
Tallie turned to him, apprehension twisting inside her. ‘Shall I—answer the door?’
‘We’ll do it together,’ Mark said. ‘And—relax,’ he added as they walked down the passage. ‘Remember you’re not here to make a good impression.’
The woman confronting them on the doorstep was tall and stunningly attractive, with blonde hair caught back in an immaculate chignon. Her complexion was flawless, her nose short and straight, and she had enormous blue eyes fringed by curling lashes heavily enhanced by mascara. Her reed-slender figure was moulded closely by a suit in royal blue, the skirt displaying shapely legs and the short jacket revealing rather more than a hint of cleavage.
Tallie, who’d been expecting a hatchet-faced harridan, found herself almost gaping. Kit’s mother? she queried in silent incredulity. She doesn’t look old enough.
She thought of her own mother—warm, pretty and adored by her husband, but with comfortable curves, a few first touches of grey in her hair and laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. Tried to imagine her in an outfit like that, and failed utterly.
‘Mark, darling, how wonderful to see you.’ Veronica Melrose’s voice was low and husky. The astonishing blue eyes rested on Tallie. ‘And who is this?’
‘This, my dear Veronica, is Natalie.’ He put an easy arm round Tallie’s shoulders and drew her against him, giving her no option but compliance, she realised mutinously. But she could hardly accuse him of taking advantage of the situation when she’d agreed to this charade.
She was also aware that the older woman’s harebell gaze had carried out a lightning assessment of everything she was wearing, costing it to the last penny. But she still wasn’t sure she’d passed muster.
I’m just not glamorous enough, she thought, and swallowed.
‘Do come in,’ Mark went on. ‘May we offer you some coffee?’
‘That would be pleasant.’ Mrs Melrose walked into the sitting room and deposited herself decoratively on the sofa. Not many women of her age could pout and get away with it, thought Tallie, but she managed it somehow. ‘I did hope that our conversation would be a private one. Is there any reason for your … little friend to be present?’
Mark looked surprised. ‘She lives here,’ he said. ‘With me. Perhaps I should have made that clear.’
‘Perhaps you should.’ The husky voice had acquired a metallic edge. She gave a little laugh. ‘Well, well. The eternal bachelor caught at last. And in such a young and charming trap. How fascinating.’
Tallie said coolly, ‘I don’t think Mark feels particularly trapped. I’ll fetch the coffee.’
‘You seem to have made yourself quite at home,’ Veronica commented as she returned, placing the tray on the table. ‘Although you clearly haven’t had a chance to put your own stamp on it yet—whatever that might be.’ As she accepted the coffee Tallie handed to her, she flicked a disparaging glance round the room. ‘But it so needs updating.’ She looked at Mark. ‘Kit told me he was astonished you hadn’t brought in a decent decorator by now.’
‘And is he equally amazed by Australia?’ Mark enquired politely. He reached up a hand and pulled Tallie down on to the sofa beside him. ‘I assume you’ve heard from him.’
‘Indeed I have.’ Veronica jerked upright as if a steel pole had suddenly replaced her spine. ‘He’s been telephoning me nearly every day. He’s having the most appalling time, stuck at this vineyard which seems to be miles from anywhere else. The weather’s disgusting—apparently it’s winter—and he actually saw a snake.’
She shuddered. ‘He should never have gone there.’ She gave Mark a look that wasn’t remotely seductive. ‘But I have you to thank for that.’
‘Difficult to see how,’ he returned indifferently. ‘When I was at the back of beyond myself, and in a totally different continent. Besides, didn’t you sweet-talk poor Charles into taking him on at Melrose and Sons?’
Her crimson mouth tightened impatiently. ‘I meant Kit should have taken his rightful place by now in his father’s company.’
‘I didn’t tell him to abandon his engineering course at university,’ Mark said shortly. ‘That was all his own idea. But if he’d stuck to it, he’d have found himself in places he’d have liked even less than Australia.’
‘There must be projects in this country too.’ She waved a vague hand. ‘Hotels, leisure complexes, shopping malls. Something he could have enjoyed.’
‘But we’re committed to roads, bridges and hydro-electric schemes,’ Mark said gently. ‘Long-term developments which will help rather more people.’
Veronica shrugged. ‘Until they choose to blow them up, of course.’ She added with a touch of malice, ‘Isn’t that what happened on your last site?’
‘A temporary set-back,’ Mark drawled. ‘And now that the fighting seems to be over, we’ll be going back to the Ubilisi to finish what we started.’
Tallie stared at him. When she spoke, she found her voice was shaking. ‘But that’s dangerous, surely. The previous government’s been overthrown, and the new regime tried to kill you when you were there before. You only just got out last time.’
There was an odd silence, then Veronica gave a tinkling laugh. ‘Why, Mark, the child is seriously concerned about you. How terribly sweet.’ She looked at Tallie. ‘But a complete waste of time, my dear. Mark is a law unto himself,
