A Fine and Private Place by Christobel Kent

Author:Christobel Kent [KENT, CHRISTOBEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
ISBN: 9781848877542
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2010-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Not even going back to her room to take off her coat, once she was inside the castle’s bounds Cate went straight to the office.

Tiziano and Alec Fairhead had gone their separate ways without much more than a muttered farewell; the three of them had hurried back under the darkening sky, an element of shame, of anxiety in their shared silence. Had it been the sight of the man climbing out of his car? A ghoul, like them, a sightseer? Cate wasn’t so sure about that; the slow, considered way he looked up at them made her think the bareheaded man in his shabby coat had an agenda that was more serious.

As Fairhead raised his hand to say goodbye under the great arch Cate suddenly felt rather anxious for him; he actually looked ill. And frightened. But he caught her eye and hurried away, before she could ask him if he was all right.

Outside the office door Cate hesitated at the sound of voices. Luca’s, and another, deeper – lower, angrier – voice she recognized as Niccolò Orfeo’s. ‘Impossible,’ he was saying. ‘Out of the question.’

She knocked. There was an abrupt silence, then Luca said warily, ‘Who is it?’

He sounded tired, and when she tentatively pushed the door in response to his reluctant, ‘Quickly, then,’ she saw that he looked it too. He was at his desk, shirtsleeves pushed up, jacket crumpled over the back of his chair. He seemed to have grown a week’s stubble since this morning. Niccolò Orfeo was standing by the window, his broad shoulders blocking what remained of the light; he looked at Cate over his shoulder, eyeing her up and down, then looked back outside. There was a strong smell of cigar smoke, in defiance of every rule of the castle.

Cate remained standing, in her coat, as she hadn’t been invited to sit.

‘Count Orfeo – will be staying,’ said Sandro wearily. ‘For dinner, at least.’

‘I see,’ said Cate, waiting for further instruction, but none came. Orfeo would be keeping them all dangling, she saw; it was his house, and if he decided a bed needed making up at two minutes’ notice, in whichever room he chose, then they ’d have to jump.

‘I wondered if you ’d called Beth yet,’ she said hurriedly.

‘Beth?’ Luca looked blank for a moment. ‘Oh, Beth. Right, yes. I mean, no. No, I haven’t called her.’

‘Well, she should know,’ said Cate. ‘Before she reads it in a newspaper. Don’t you think? I mean, they were close.’ From the window Orfeo looked back at her a moment down his aristocratic nose, but this time it wasn’t with quite the same casual lecherousness.

‘Yes, yes, I suppose so,’ said Luca distractedly.

Cate looked at her watch. ‘If it isn’t done tonight,’ she said, ‘the time difference and everything – it won’t be for another whole day.’

‘What is your suggestion?’ said Luca impatiently. She saw him glance back over at Orfeo; did the man have power over Luca’s job? Cate had always assumed that the Trust was a quite separate entity, but she supposed the castle was still his.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.