‘And what about your brother? Is he as noble minded as you?’
‘Neither of us are materialistic, if that’s what you mean. You met him. Did he strike you as the sort of person who … who would lead Maria on because of what he thought he could get out of her? I mean, didn’t you like him at all?’
‘I liked him, but that’s not the point.’
‘You mean the point is that Maria can go out with someone from a different background, just so long as there’s no danger of getting serious, because the only person she would be allowed to settle down with would be someone of the same social standing as her.’
‘You say that as though there’s something wrong with it.’
‘I don’t want to talk about this. It’s not going to get us anywhere.’ She fell silent and watched the slow-moving traffic around her, a sea of headlights illuminating late-night shoppers, people hurrying towards the tube or to catch a bus. At this rate, it would be midnight before they cleared London.
‘Would you tell me something?’ she asked to break the silence.
‘I’m listening.’
‘Why didn’t you try and put an end to their relationship from the start? I mean, why did you bother taking us out for all those meals?’
‘Not my place to interfere. Not at that point, at any rate. I’d been asked to keep an eye on things, to meet your brother and, as it turns out, you too, because the two of you seem to be joined at the hip.’ He didn’t add that, having not had very much to do with his niece in the past, he had found that he rather enjoyed their company. He had liked listening to Mark and Maria entertain him with their chat about movies and music. And even more he had liked the way Aggie had argued with him, had liked the way it had challenged him into making an effort to get her to laugh. It had all made a change from the extravagant social events to which he was invited, usually in a bid by a company to impress him.
‘We’re not joined at the hip! We’re close because …’ Because of their background of foster care, but that was definitely something they had kept to themselves.
‘Because you lost your parents?’
‘That’s right.’ She had told him in passing, almost the first time she had met him, that their parents were dead and had swiftly changed the subject. Just another muddled half-truth that would further make him suspicious of their motives.
‘Apart from which, I thought that my sister had been overreacting to the whole thing. Maria is an only child without a father. Luisa is prone to pointless worrying.’
‘I can’t imagine you taking orders from your sister.’
‘You haven’t met Luisa or any of my five sisters. If you had, you wouldn’t make that observation.’ He laughed and Aggie felt the breath catch in her throat because, for once, his laughter stemmed from genuine amusement.
‘What are they like?’
‘All older than me and all bossy.’ He grinned sideways at her. ‘It’s easier to surrender than to cross them. In a family of six women, my father and I know better than to try and argue. It would be easier staging a land war in Asia.’
That glimpse of his humanity unsettled Aggie. But she had had glimpses of it before, she recalled uneasily. Times when he had managed to make her forget how dislikeable he was, when he had recounted something with such dry wit that she had caught herself trying hard to stifle a laugh. He might be hateful, judgemental and unfair, he might represent a lot of things she disliked, but there was no denying that he was one of the most intelligent men she had ever met—and, when it suited him, one of the most entertaining. She had contrived to forget all of that but, stuck here with him, it was coming back to her fast and she had to fumble her way out of her momentary distraction.
‘I couldn’t help overhearing those messages earlier on at the house,’ she said politely.
‘Messages? What are you talking about?’
‘Lots of business calls. I guess you’re having to sacrifice working time for this … unless you don’t work on a weekend.’
‘If you’re thinking of using a few messages you overheard as a way of trying to talk me out of this trip, then you can forget it.’
‘I wasn’t thinking of doing that. I was just being polite.’
‘In that case, you can rest assured that there’s nothing that can’t wait until Monday when I’m back in London. I have my mobile and if anything urgent comes up, then I can deal with it on the move. Nice try, though.’
‘What about that other message? I gather you’ll be missing a date with someone tomorrow night?’
Luiz stiffened. ‘Again, nothing that can’t be handled.’
‘Because I would feel very guilty otherwise.’
‘Don’t concern yourself with my private life, Aggie.’
‘Why not?’ Aggie risked. ‘You’re concerning yourself with mine.’
‘Slightly different scenario, wouldn’t you agree? To the best of my knowledge, I haven’t been caught trying to con anyone recently. My private life isn’t the one under the spotlight.’
‘You’re impossible! You’re so … blinkered! Did you know that Maria was the one who pursued Mark?’
‘Do me a favour.’
‘She was,’ Aggie persisted. ‘Mark was playing at one of the pubs and she and her friends went to hear them. She went to meet him after the gig and she gave him her mobile number, told him to get in touch.’
‘I’m finding that hard to believe, but let’s suppose you’re telling the truth. I don’t see what that has to do with anything. Whether she chased your brother or your brother chased her, the end result is the same. An heiress is an extremely lucrative proposition for someone in his position.’ He switched on the radio and turned it to the traffic news.
London was crawling. The weather forecasters had been making a big deal of snow to come. There was nothing at the moment but people were still rushing to get back home and the roads were gridlocked.
Aggie wearily closed her eyes and leaned back. She was hungry and exhausted and trying to get through to Luiz was like beating her head against a brick wall.
She came to suddenly to the sound of Luiz’s low, urgent voice and she blinked herself out of sleep. She had no idea how long she had been dozing, or even how she could manage to doze at all when her thoughts were all over the place.
He was on his phone, and from the sounds of it not enjoying the conversation he was having.
In fact, sitting up and stifling a yawn, it dawned on her that the voice on the other end of the mobile was the same smoky voice that had left a message on his answer machine earlier on, and the reason Aggie knew that was because the smoky voice had become high-pitched and shrill. Not only could she hear every word the other woman was saying, she guessed that if she rolled down her window the people in the car behind them would be able to as well.
‘This is not the right time for this conversation …’ Luiz was saying in a harried, urgent voice.
‘Don’t you dare hang up on me! I’ll just keep calling! I deserve better than this!’
‘Which is why you should be thanking me for putting an end to our relationship, Chloe. You do deserve a hell of a lot better than me.’
Aggie rolled her eyes. Wasn’t that the oldest trick in the book? The one men used when they wanted to exit a relationship with their consciences intact? Take the blame for everything, manage to convince their hapless girlfriend that breaking up is all for her own good and then walk away feeling as though they’ve done their good deed for the day.
She