[Philip & Gilbert 03] My Lucky Star by Keenan Joe

Author:Keenan, Joe [Keenan, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316060196
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2006-01-25T08:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

MONTY!” I CRIED, CLUTCHING THE BALUSTRADE, the shock having gelatinized my knees. “Has anyone ever told you you’re adorable when startled?”

“What are you doing here!”

“Surely I needn’t tell you that,” he said with a saucy wink. “I’d heard the most intriguing things about the place from sweet little Buster—who goes, can you believe it, by ‘Adrian’ here!—and simply had to try it. Makes a nice change, I must say, from ordering in. Rex, you’ll be thrilled to know, is here as well. It’s his birthday so I thought I’d treat him to a boy who wouldn’t rob him and then beat him up as those in his price range are regrettably wont to do.”

“But you said you were joining Lily on her press junket.”

“Ah, the junket!” he said, laughing heartily. “I’d forgotten you’d swallowed that one. No, Lily is not on a press junket. The last time Lily had a press junket the preferred mode of transport was stagecoach. Junkets are what Lily claims to have when she needs to hide out and heal after making yet another assault on time’s ravages. I tried like hell to talk her out of this one. ‘Lily,’ I said, ‘pull that mug of yours any tighter and you’ll look like a bongo with lips.’ But no, she’s determined to look her best for the floods of attention she poignantly expects to receive when her next picture escapes quarantine. So, this, ” he said, gesturing toward the salon, “is where you do your — cough, cough—‘physical training’? Well done, I say. A boy couldn’t ask for a swankier workplace.”

“What do you —?” I began, then stopped, gleaning his drift. “Oh, no, Monty, please! You don’t think I work here?”

“Now, now,” he clucked tenderly. “No need to be embarrassed— not with me of all people.”

“Monty, I swear! I’m here as a guest.”

“On what Lily pays you? Which, if I’m not mistaken, is thus far nothing? And did I not just hear Miss Finch remind you quite firmly that you were in her employ?”

“Actually—” I began, then paused, stymied.

Actually what?

Actually, Moira was not my employer, merely my blackmailer?

Actually, I could afford to come here as I’d been paid handsomely to write a screenplay for his estranged sister and nephew?

Actually, I was here as their guest?

No, I decided — better Monty should think I was a garçon de joie than start to question how I could afford such luxe accommodations or why I happened to be here on the same weekend as Stephen and Diana, whose presence he could not fail to note as they were even now parading into the salon.

“There, there, Glen,” said Monty, copping a benevolent feel of my biceps. “You mustn’t be embarrassed. I don’t think one bit less of you. Why if not for you and your selfless brethren this world would be a far duller place and yours truly a bitter old queen incapable of spreading sunshine. Have you known Moira long?”

I replied ruefully that we went way back.

“Remarkable girl, Moira. Like all true entrepreneurs she has perceived a need others have not and rushed to fill it.

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