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Freddy glanced over the balance sheets again, scratching his chin ‘Well, I’d better go over these again and see what I think we’ll be able to raise But we’ll have to do this quietly, or we’ll start an avalanche We don’t want people to suspect we’re having problems’

‘They already do, Freddy, don’t be stupid Everybody’s aware of Salhter ship, and I want it fast’

Sal off bits of the company,’ protested Freddy

‘He isn’t the target – our shareholders are I want the heaven and earth to stop hi hard for they We don’t want hi to have a walk-over, do we? I always believe in attacking back hard if you come under attack’

The phone rang Paul picked it up and snapped, ‘I thought I told you no phonecalls?’ Then his face changed ‘Yes, put her through’ Looking at Freddy he said, ‘My wife OK, Freddy, get est we sell’

Paul had been one of the ossip columnist had been on his trail with stories about the various wo ood twenty years his junior, she was not only the daughter of a prominent American senator but she would inherit an enormous fortune one day

‘Jammy bastard!’ had said a laring at Freddy ‘If I believed in the Devil I’d think Brougha, does he? Money just showers into his lap How does he do it, eh?’

Freddy had s He rarely told anyone anything – that was one of the facets of his character that made him so valuable to Paul He could be trusted i full of ferrets

Wohter of one of Paul’s titled directors said to Freddy furiously, ‘I’d kill for him, it’s no secret – and I tell you, Freddy, I could kill her, walking in and snatching hi for hih to be his daughter’

As for Chantal Rousseau’s reaction, she was better at hiding her feelings, but Freddy suspected she was still brooding over being dumped after Paul met Cathy

Freddy had never really understood Paul, in spite of knowing hi hi hilimpses into what made Paul tick as far as business was concerned, but what made him tick where women were concerned was another matter

But one thing Freddy was certain of – however brilliant a catch she ht be, Paul had married Cathy solely because he was in love with her Every tiether he was certain of that, and he envied him Freddy had never felt the sort of sexual passion he could see between the two of them It seemed to burn the air; the way they looked at each other made Freddy blush

Any day now he expected to hear that Cathy was going to have a baby Freddy had no wife or child He had been married but his wife had left hi the experi to wish he had a child He was often very lonely He didn’t envy Paul his money, his power or his wife But he would envy hiive hient, tender, caring, no doubt – but how ht be deeply in love with Cathy, but he still spent the giant’s share of his tied that He didn’t kno lucky he was, thought Freddy, sighing The lucky ones never did

Don Goas in a h His secretary, in the conference rooiven for a temporary office, took the call on her uarded, cryptic

‘Target on the ht behind Instructions still the same?’