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CHAPTER ONE

AS SHE stepped out into the busy London street and flagged down a passing taxi, Ca to be late for lunch, but luckily she knew that Lucy would wait for her

How relaxing it must be to be the adored wife of a wealthy businessman, with all the ti one at all, other than the need to look beautiful and give good dinner parties And then she chided herself for being unfair Lucy was not just a beautiful wo to deal with Guy French that had made her feel like this She had never liked the one into partnership with hi to do with him

Helena had been openly astonished

‘But, Campion, my dear, he’s the best in the business,’ she had told her ‘The deals he gets for his authors…’

‘He’s not my type, Helena I don’t like the man, and I don’t like his methods of business’ Nor his morals, she had wanted to add, but she had kept that bit back Now, having confronted hiht to protest She didn’t like him

Nor had she liked what he had had to say about her new manuscript

She scowled ferociously to herself, causing the taxi driver to griht of her expression in his rear-view mirror

She could have been very attractive; she had a good body, tall with long legs—he had noticed those as she’d got into his cab—and full, high breasts, even though she had chosen to drape herself in what looked like several layers of the salish skin, nor for her fair hair And fancy wearing it like that! She had it scraped back tightly into a large French pleat, a style which privately he thought did very little for any woman If she had chosen to wear it in one of the many attractive styles favoured by the new Duchess of York now…

He stopped outside a s what on earth this un in such an ‘in’ place She paid the bill and tipped hi fingers, but her nails were cut short and unpolished

But, oddly enough, he noticed as she walked away froe, that… In his experience, most women only wore perfume for a man

Perhaps she was soirl, and underneath those drab clothes… Whistling to hiination run riot, he drove off

Ca on inside his head, walked angrily into the restaurant The perfuirl had sprayed all over her as she had rushed through Harvey Nichols earlier in theto her skin Norhtest bit scented, but this was rather pleasant, old-fashioned and faintly evocative of a suarden, heavy with the scent of roses

For once she was oblivious to the ah the crowded tables full of other diners They omen, in themore attention to their fellow lunchers than to the skimpy food on their plates After all, that hat they were really paying for, to see and be seen

At last Ca at a table for two, in what Campion suspected was the best part of the restaurant

She was dressed in blue, a soft, pretty, lavender blue that suited her fair skin and dark hair and, as alhen she saw her, Campion was struck anew by her friend’s loveliness

They had been at school together, and then at university, but no one had been surprised when Lucy hadOxford The

‘Sorry I’ised, as she sat down and took the menu proffered by the waiter

‘Problems?’ Lucy asked sympathetically

Campion made a face ‘Is it so obvious? Helena’s not well, and I’ to deal with Guy French,’ she frowned, aware that there was a good deal that she was keeping back

Lucy plainly felt it too, because she pressed lightly, ‘And?’