off suddenly, turning away from Sadie as the older man at his side touched his arm, and murmured something to him whilst looking at Sadie with distaste.
CHAPTER ONE
“HUBBLE bubble toil and trouble.”
Sadie grinned as she met the teasing look her best friend Mary gave her as she stepped into the workroom where Sadie distilled the ingredients of her perfumes.
‘Mmm…What a wonderful smell!’ Mary exclaimed enthusiastically.
Sadie’s smile widened. ‘It’s a special personal order I’m doing.’
‘For someone famous? Who?’ Mary pounced.
Sadie shook her head and laughed.
‘You know I can’t tell you that. It’s a matter of client confidentiality.’
‘Mmm…well, since the press got wind of the fact that a certain very, very famous singer has asked you to design a special signature scent for her, I can only assume…’
‘Don’t ask me any more questions about it,’ Sadie begged fervently. Her smile changing to a look of concern. No doubt other people in her position would have welcomed the publicity she had received when it had become public knowledge that she had been asked to design the singer’s perfume, but Sadie valued her privacy and her anonymity. And besides…
‘I take it that you’re still going to France?’ Mary asked her.
Sadie’s frown deepened.
‘I don’t have any real choice,’ she admitted tersely, ‘Raoul is making it impossible for me not to go. He’s determined to sell the business to this Greek billionaire who wants to add it to his luxury goods consortium…’
‘Leoneadis Stapinopolous, you mean?’
‘Yes,’ Sadie agreed even more shortly. ‘Or the Greek Destroyer, as I call him!’
‘Destroyer?’ Mary shook her head. ‘You really don’t like him, do you?’
‘I certainly don’t like what he’s planning to do to Francine!’ Sadie told her fiercely.
‘Well, by all accounts he’s a very shrewd operator,’ Mary allowed. ‘The consortium he heads is worth billions, and since he took on that new designer to redesign the women’s wear side of his acquisitions…well, there isn’t a woman going who doesn’t secretly yearn for a little something with their label on it.’
‘No?’ Sadie gave her a grim look. ‘Well, I certainly don’t.’ When she saw her friend’s face, she protested, ‘Mary, he doesn’t just want to buy the perfume house, he wants to buy the rights to the perfume my grandmother left to me as well…. Raoul is trying to pressurise me into selling it, but there is no way I am going to. That perfume was designed by my great-grandfather for my great-grandmother. He only allowed a handful of clients to have the perfume. My grandmother left the secret of its make-up to me because she knew that I would protect it! The whole reason she quarrelled with her brother was because he wanted to do exactly what Raoul wants to do now.’
‘So don’t go to France, then!’ Mary told her forthrightly.
‘I have to. I own thirty per cent of the business, and there’s no way I’m going to let Raoul sell it to this…this…Greek…’
‘Sex god?’ Mary supplied helpfully, with a gleam in her eyes.
‘Sex god?’ Sadie queried disapprovingly.
‘Haven’t you seen his photo in the financial press?’
When Sadie shook her head Mary grinned.
‘Wow, is he something else! His great-grandparents were Greek, and they settled in Australia as a young couple.’
‘You seem to know a lot about him,’ Sadie challenged her.
‘Like I just said, he’s a very sexy man—and I’m a sexy-man-hungry woman!’ Mary grinned. ‘Speaking of which, you are crazy, you know, hiding yourself away down here in Pembroke when you could be living the high life in Paris and Cannes—not to mention flying here, there and everywhere mixing powerfully potent perfumes for your celeb clients. How does Raoul feel about your business, by the way?’ she asked.
‘Francine no longer makes one-off perfumes to order,’ Sadie responded, ‘so there is no conflict of interest there. But…’
When she paused, Mary urged her to continue. ‘But?’
Sadie gave a small sigh.
‘Well, Raoul is pressing me to produce a new perfume. The one he tricked me into wearing at the trade fair was one of his late father’s “mistakes”. Grandmère always said her brother did not have a “nose”, and her nephew seems to lack one also! Now he wants me to create a new perfume for Francine.’
‘But you don’t want to?’ Mary guessed.
Sadie gave an exasperated sigh.
‘I do want to. I want to very much. In fact it would be a dream come true for me to create a new Francine perfume. But…’ Sadie lifted her hands expressively.
‘As you know, my perfumes come from wholly natural materials, and are made in a traditional way, whereas Raoul favours modern procedures and chemically manufactured products. And it’s not just that! I just hope that I can persuade him not to go ahead with this sale, Mary. Raoul is the majority shareholder, of course, but we are one of the last few remaining traditional perfume houses, and to sell our birthright for—’
‘A mess of pottage?’ Mary interrupted obligingly, tongue in cheek.
‘I just don’t want to sell the business to this Greek billionaire, and I have said as much to Raoul.’
‘Mmm. All this talk of potions and lotions reminds me—how about mixing up a little something special and man-attracting for me?’
‘I make perfume, not magic potions,’ Sadie reminded her sternly.
Mary gave her a wicked look.
‘Same thing, isn’t it?’ Her expression changed when she saw how sombre Sadie was looking. ‘Something else is worrying you, isn’t it?’ she guessed.
Sadie frowned.
‘Everything is so complicated, Mary. As it stands now Francine is worth very little in financial terms. The business is almost all dried up, and the staff are mainly freelancers. In reality all that is left is the name. And it is the name that this Greek Destroyer wants to buy.’
‘Just the name?’
‘I don’t know! Raoul rang me last night and told me that he has informed Leoneadis Stapinopolous that I am working on a new scent, and that my scent and my skills will be part of the deal. I told him that he had no right to say any such thing. I am a minor shareholder in Francine, that is all. I do not work for the house!’
Angrily Sadie paced the floor.
