The Monte Carlo Proposal. Lucy Gordon

was still arguing as we got into the taxi. I laid out her options.

      ‘You can go with Vanner, with the gendarmes or with me.’

      ‘That’s blackmail.’

      ‘It’s what I’m good at. Now, shut up or I’ll toss you back into the water.’

      I don’t normally talk to women like that, but something had happened to me that night. I was like a drowning man who sees his last hope and knows he has to grasp it. So my finesse went out of the window.

      Then I saw her looking at me. An incredulous, half-quizzical smile had taken over her face, and I found myself smiling back. We knew nothing about each other, except that we were on the same wavelength.

      ‘All right,’ she said.