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‘Do you wish you still had a little sister, Sophie?’ She looked up at Franz Michna and they smiled at each other while Sophie watched resentfully Then Ma a new little brother or sister, darling I’ to need your help to look after it If it is a girl we’ll call it Anya, shall we?’

Sophie stared, white-faced, cold as ice ‘NO!’ she

yelled, and began to run

1

Steve Colbourne first saw her on a chilly November day in a New York hotel bar; she walked in and stood just inside the door, her blue eyes carefully not lingering on anyone as she looked around, very obviously not wishing to catch the eye of any of theelbow to elbow in the rooirl like this the briefest ht be taken as a come-on – no doubt she had learnt that the hard way Was she there to meet any of them? He looked around curiously, from face to familiar face A nunition in any of their staring eyes Just lust

The Washington circus had come to New York by invitation froood expense accounts were staying here, in this hotel, which was one of the more expensive hotels in the city, and, as was their habit, had looked at once for thehole and taken over this dark-oak panelled bar, with its deep leather seating and polished tables, the glea the back of the bar, as their own Any other guests wanting a drink soon learnt to use one of the other two bars in the hotel, but the blonde, he sensed, had not wandered in here byfor one of them – lucky devil

She was quite soold, tall, slis, long and shapely, but above all with skin so smooth and such a luscious texture you felt it would taste like crea it, no, he wouldn’t mind at all

Just when he was about to go over and offer to buy her a drink, she turned and walked out He would have gone after her, but if she was uy it could lead to trouble and he had had enough trouble for the h emotion, too, come to that It interfered with your work, and left scar tissue A year ago he had been dealt a blow that still had not healed – how could it when there were so ton?

That hy he was glad to get out of Washington, happy to see the run-up to the pri, because that hat this was all about Don Gowrie had called a press conference two days before he was due to fly to London to begin a tour of Europe He was going as part of a Senate coht da this opportunity to renew his friendships and strengthen his ties with influential people in Europe Goas throwing his hat in the ring without actually announcing the fact and he had called a press conference to deny that that hat he was doing The political pundits had not been fooled but their votes were not what he was looking for; he was appealing to the electorate over their heads, and the voters out there in Heartland America would probably take him at his word because Don Goas a charmer, a man with fireside warmth, a man who breathed sincerity

Steve enjoyed electioneering, tra the politicians out into the real world, where the voters lived, where life was not as cocooned, as cosy and incestuous as it was back hoht into the eyes of politicians and journalists alike

They were all in the bar that afternoon, waiting for two o’clock when the ballroom doors would be opened for the press to rush in Like the Gadarene swine, thought Steve, looking at their faces in the hard electric light, faces that knew everything and valued nothing, eyes that were bright and shiny and blank as if they had not yet been switched on

They were drinking and talking, telling dirty jokes to each other, boasting about their latest lay or their handicap at golf, co about their wives or the alimony they paid their ex-wives, and the ones with the drea to anyone else A feere just drinking steadily, silently, almost relentlessly; they were the old hands, the soaks, re in bars while they waited for so to happen, men who didn’t care anymore, just did the job and then went home to an empty apartment and drank until they passed out

‘What d’ya think, Stevie?’ one of his crew shouted, leaning forward to peer at hiot a bimbo stashed away somewhere, or not?’

Steve shrugged ‘I don’t know him that well, Jack He doesn’t tell me his bedroom secrets, if he has any’

‘Didn’t I read sohter?’ another reporter along the bar called out