Beneath a Starless Sky by Tessa Harris

Author:Tessa Harris [Harris, Tessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-11-06T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 38

James suggested they dine at a little French bistro he knew just off Carnaby Street. The woodwork was very dark and prints by Renoir and Cezanne hung on panels on the walls. Although there were glass chandeliers and crisp, white linen cloths, it was much more intimate than anywhere they’d dined before. He was waiting when Lilli arrived, a candle already lit on the table and a bottle of Krug in an ice bucket on the side. He rose as soon as he saw her and the moustachioed waiter took her fur stole, while another poured the champagne.

‘So, the deed is done? The die is cast?’ James whispered after the waiter retreated.

‘It is,’ she replied.

He smiled and lifted his glass to chink it with hers. ‘To us.’

‘To us and to what we must do.’

They gazed at each other, Lilli’s diamond earrings glinting in the candlelight. There was a newfound intimacy between them, a new bond that tied them inextricably together.

‘I think you’re terribly brave,’ he told her. ‘You’re standing up to protect your people. You don’t have to. You could so easily ignore everything that’s going on, but you chose not to.’

She shrugged, partly to hide the shiver that had just run down her spine and partly to cover her guilt. When she’d left for the States, she’d put her own dreams before her family and given them little thought when she was in Hollywood. Informing on the political activities of the British elite who were colluding with and threatening those she loved, was her small way of making amends.

‘I’m doing no more than you, James. We’re both standing up for what we believe is right, that’s all.’

As he sipped his champagne the waiter arrived balancing a large plate of fat oysters on a silver tray. He laid them down on the table.

‘I took the liberty,’ James said, tucking a large, white napkin under his chin. ‘The food of love.’

They talked without pausing. Lilli told him more about her life in Munich and he went on to explain the intricacies of the English primogeniture laws, unsuccessfully as it happened. But his wit and knowledge only attracted her to him even more.

‘So as the second son of an earl, I get nothing when my father dies, although luckily my grandmother left me a tidy sum. Gwen won’t get anything, either, but she’ll marry someone frightfully rich anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’

Lilli’s lips curled at the edges. ‘You English with your titles and estates,’ she said, smiling. ‘It’s money that makes the world go round.’

Her words stopped James in his tracks, and he arched a brow in thought. ‘I suppose, in the scheme of things, it is.’

‘Money gives you more freedom to choose. To think and say what you believe. To love who you want to,’ she suggested.

James had moved much closer to her during the course of the dinner. The sleeve of his dinner jacket was now brushing her naked arm.

‘You really are truly remarkable, Miss Stern,’ he said, looking deep into her eyes.

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