‘Whyareyou here?’
‘Itoldyou. My housemate has chickenpox and I had nowhere else to go. Well, I suppose I could have shelled out for a room in one of the hotels but I haven’t got money to burn. That’s why…’
‘That’s why what?’
‘That’s why this cleaning job means a lot to me. You don’t have to worry about me blabbing. I won’t breathe a word to my housemates or toanyone. I would just be grateful to hang onto this job. I’m good at it and I enjoy it. It’s peaceful cleaning this house and the pay is amazing. I know I should have asked the agency whether I could make use of the house while Alison got over the chickenpox but…’
‘Naturally they would have said no. I meant, why are you here? In Whistler? When you’re English.’
‘I thought you weren’t interested.’
‘If my ex-wife asks one or two obvious questions, then it would be convenient if I had the truth to hand. I doubt that will happen but preparation is the master of success.’
‘So you’re notactuallyinterested…’
‘No.’
‘It’s personal.’
‘It wasn’t personal five minutes ago when you began volunteering the information. Talk fast, Georgie. Time’s moving along. I need to get things sorted.’
‘Well… I was working in Val d’Isère and…’ Suddenly it did feel very personal, if she were really to tell him what had happened. Suddenly it felt likeyesterday. Hans…the hurt…her wounded pride…the humiliation she’d done well to hide.
‘And I fancied a change,’ she said, lowering her eyes. ‘It gets claustrophobic after a while, hanging out with the same people. It’s a tiny crowd. I wanted a change and Alison, who’d worked the slopes with me there for a year, had returned here to Whistler to pick up where she left off. She knew I needed a…wanteda change and she pulled some strings and here I am now.’
Her voice petered off into silence and, for a few seconds, it felt as though his dark eyes could get to the very depths of her and pull out truths she hadn’t told.
‘So,’ she said lamely.
‘It was quick thinking to pull those keys out.’ He changed the conversation with a slow, amused smile that made her go a little weak at the knees.
Why was she having this reaction to him? She hated it. She had sworn off men. One day she would find herself walking back to them, looking for a partner, but right now? Right now, she couldn’t be less interested.
She ignored the smile and the warm, fuzzy feeling his half-baked compliment had given her.
‘I don’t have any intention of asking you for anything, Mr Barbieri.’
‘You can call me Alessandro.’
‘I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. I don’t like being on a first-name basis with someone who’s just threatened to set the police on me.’
‘I didn’t think I’d progressed to threats and I’m afraid you’ll have to try because my ex-wife will be here this evening and will be spending the night before leaving first thing tomorrow. Between now and then I expect you’ll meet her again, if only briefly, and, considering she thinks we’re an item, calling meMr Barbierimight not be appropriate and, yes, if you don’t go along with that then there might very well be consequences.’
‘Why is it so important? That I… I…’ Her voice trailed off.
‘I get your curiosity, Georgie, but thewhydoesn’t matter here. I appreciate you’re confused but that doesn’t negate the fact that you’re in my chalet without my permission and what’s at stake here is important enough for me to tell you that your best option is to fall in line with what I say. No further explanations will be forthcoming. Tomorrow I’ll be leaving and your life can carry on as though this interlude had never happened.’ He paused. ‘In fact, I’ll make sure you get a generous pay rise.’
‘No need,’ Georgie said quickly. ‘I’m already paid more than enough.’
‘I doubt you mean that.’
‘Of course I do! I don’t suppose,’ she said slowly, ‘that you know how much you actually pay me, do you? Because it’s all through an agency, but trust me when I tell you that it’s a huge amount for cleaning an empty house once a week.’
Alessandro stared at her, head tilted to the side, allowing the silence to build, then he stood up and continued looking down at her.
‘I will tell you how things are going to move forward at this point,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m going to go downstairs and finalise what requires finalising. You are going to remain right here, safely tucked away under my watchful eye. You’re going to go and fetch your possessions, whatever you’ve brought here, and transfer them to my bedroom, which we will be sharing tonight. It’s the one with the locked doors. You’ll find the key…’ he nodded in the direction of a cupboard to the right of him ‘…in the safe there. Combination 1884.’
‘I’m not sharing a bedroom with you!’
