Triss shrugged her narrow shoulders and jiggled her fingers expressively. ‘Haven’t a clue! You’ll have to ask him yourself, won’t you? When’s he back?’
Romy frowned. ‘You mean—you don’t know?’
Triss gave her a puzzled look, and then a slow smile of comprehension as the reason for the blonde girl’s jumpiness became clear to her at last. ‘Oh, I see!’ She chuckled in delight. ‘You think I’m involved with Dominic, right?’
Romy’s jaw had dropped so low that she seriously thought she might trip over it. She tried to look as if she didn’t care, and failed spectacularly. ‘He said you were lovely,’ she found herself blurting out. ‘And then—when you said about the baby...’
Triss burst out laughing, until she saw the other woman’s stricken face and remembered with chilling accuracy just how poisonous and far-reaching the webs of jealousy could be. And how it had almost ruined her own relationship with Cormack. Her wide mouth softened as she looked at Romy’s chalk-white face.
‘Well, I think he’s lovely, too. But I’m afraid there isn’t a man in the world who could hold a candle to Cormack Casey. He’s my man,’ she told her proudly. ‘We’re getting married next month!’
‘You’re engaged to Cormack Casey?’ Romy grinned, relief flooding through her veins like an instant pick-me-up. ‘You lucky thing! I saw Time and Tide and loved it!’
‘Wonderful, wasn’t it?’ Triss said complacently. ‘He’s just finished another script—in record time—which has come as a massive relief, actually. I think he was seriously worried that domestic bliss might cramp his creativity! But I rather think it’s had the opposite effect. I hate to sound smug,’ she added serenely, ‘but being in love seems to suit my wild Irish rover rather well!’
‘That’s good,’ said Romy, but it was very hard not to feel a little twinge of envy at the woman’s happiness.
Triss threw Romy a perceptive look. ‘Are you in love with Dominic Dashwood, by any chance?’
Romy’s dark brown eyes widened into such huge and horrified saucers that for a moment she looked very like a kitten. ‘In love?’ she squeaked. ‘With Dominic? Oh, no! Good heavens, no! I hate him!’
A pair of disbelieving hazel eyes were levelled at her. ‘Hmm. Hate, you say? Well, in my experience, Romy, a woman who hates a man does not have that kind of dreamy, preoccupied look which is so terribly attractive,’ said Triss frankly. ‘The kind of look which you have on your face right now.’
Romy shook her head fiercely. ‘I have no chance with Dominic. I never did have, not really. And even if I did—I blew it a long time ago.’
‘So why are you here?’ Triss challenged.
‘Because he offered me the job.’
‘Oh, come on, Romy.’ Triss smiled widely. ‘Even I’ve heard of you—and Cormack and I live a very quiet life together. Everyone has heard of you. Why, there was even some snippet in the gossip columns that you and a certain prince—’
‘And that was a lie!’ said Romy immediately.
‘Well, maybe it was—but it illustrates the point that you’re a woman attractive enough to have members of a royal family sniffing around you! So why take this job, if things are as awful between you and Dominic as you imply? It can’t just be for the money. Women in your field, and with your reputation, must turn down twice as many jobs as they accept. Maybe more, I’ll wager?’
Romy had been prepared to dislike Triss. She had been convinced that she was Dominic’s lover—either current or potential—but had quickly realised that this was not the case. And she might be incredibly beautiful, and have in Cormack Casey a partner who most women would die for, but she also had very kind and sympathetic eyes. And Romy felt as though she just might burst if she didn’t talk to someone soon.
‘I took the job to try and get him out of my system,’ she explained, the words falling out of her mouth in a torrent.
‘And do you need to?’ quizzed Triss gently. ‘Get him out of your system, I mean?’
‘Yes, I do—and please don’t ask me why, because I couldn’t possibly tell you. Not in a million years.’ Because, no matter how broad-minded Triss might be, she would be absolutely horrified if Romy even hinted about what had happened between her and Dominic five years earlier.
‘I won’t ask you,’ Triss assured her. ‘I won’t ever discuss it again—unless you want me to, of course. Your secret is safe with me. All I will say, though, is that exposing yourself to Dominic Dashwood’s charm non-stop for a whole weekend sounds more like a recipe for disaster than a cure for getting him out of your system! Isn’t there any chance that the two of you could perhaps...?’ Her voice tailed off wistfully.
‘No!’ said Romy, with a fervour which startled her, even more than it seemed to startle Triss. Because she was not going to give herself any false hopes where Dominic Dashwood was concerned—and because she was beginning to recognise that maybe she should not have come at all.
But it was far too late to back out now. And besides, a weekend was only two days. Two days during which she was going to concentrate obsessively on all his bad points! And by Sunday teatime she would be heading home to Kensington, secure in the knowledge that she need never see him again.
Romy smiled at Triss, and it was a proper smile this time, a smile that made her dark eyes narrow with humour. ‘I came here with an objective in mind,’ she told the other woman firmly. ‘And I’m going to jolly well make sure that I achieve that objective!’
‘I hope you get what you deserve.’ Triss smiled back warmly. ‘Though it may not be the same as your objective!’
Romy glanced down at her watch in alarm. ‘Heck! Look at the time! I’ve got things to do,’ she told Triss apologetically.
‘Of course you have!’ Triss bent and sniffed at the rose once more before straightening up. ‘You know, you really should smile like that more often, Romy—then I can’t see any man resisting you!’
‘It just happens to be unfortunate that Dominic isn’t any man!’ Romy shrugged, then laid her hand on Triss’s arm impulsively. ‘You won’t—say anything? Will you?’
‘But there’s nothing to say,’ said Triss, giving Romy a conspiratorial wink. ‘Is there? But no, I won’t. Not even to Cormack. Not yet. Men can be so obvious sometimes! And I’m afraid that Cormack has become one of those impossible converts. Now that he’s a father and a fiancé. he thinks that every man should join him in a similar state of domestic bliss! And God forbid that he should say so to Dominic Not yet, anyway!’ she added. ‘I’ll see you tonight.’
And, giving Romy her most dazzling smile, she made her way back across the garden towards her own house.
Romy fished around in her handbag for the house-keys Dominic had sent her. But as she reached the door it was pulled open by a woman of about fifty, dressed in a chic navy dress which was obviously a sophisticated kind of uniform.
And she looked far more welcoming than the last person who had opened this door for her, thought Romy ruefully as she remembered that dark, indifferent face.
‘You must be Ellen March,’ said Romy, smiling and holding her hand out immediately. ‘Dominic told me that you would be coming over to help. I’m Romy Salisbury.’
‘I know you are,’ said Ellen cheerfully. ‘I work in his executive dining room in London, but I agreed to help out this weekend. I’ve never seen Dominic so het up before, though. Is it terribly important, do you know?’
‘Apparently,’ replied Romy, not seeing the point in keeping anything from Ellen—if she was on firstname terms with him then they obviously had a close working relationship! ‘He wants to buy some