‘Sometimes,’ he replied. ‘But it’s part and parcel of my job.’
‘Which is what exactly? Because every time I ask you what you do, you fob me off with partial answers.’
‘That’s unfair. Biochemical engineering is a sensitive subject in this day and age, especially in the direction the world is moving right now. Information is no longer safe and can easily fall into the wrong hands.’
‘Don’t you trust me?’
‘Of course I do, but governments need to be assured that what I know is protected.’
‘You work for our government?’
‘I go where the work takes me. And if that means being shadowed by the two giants behind us, then it’s a small price to pay.’
It must be something to do with biochemistry that Bianca and Adrian want from him, Emilia thought. Despite her having asked them again, they had refused to elaborate on who they represented or their end goal.Are they spies? Or perhaps Ted is one? Is that such an unlikely possibility? Do Bianca and Adrian want to meet him on neutral territory to attempt to turn him?Once again, she questioned what she was getting herself involved with by luring him to the lighthouse before reminding herself that she owed him no loyalty. He’d lied to her. She had no choice.
‘Am I going to see you at all today?’ she asked. ‘How long will you be in meetings?’
‘Probably late into the evening.’
‘How about we meet for dinner?’
‘I doubt I’ll have the time.’
‘Surely you’re allowed a break, even if it’s so that we can get some fresh air. Come on, it’ll be good for you; it’ll clear your head.’
‘I’ll try,’ he replied, but his answer was noncommittal.
‘It’s just that it looks like such a beautiful city from here,’ she continued. ‘It feels like it might be the start of … I don’t know … something new.’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked, his eyes finally meeting hers.
She smiled coyly. It was the first time she had indicated any interest in him in that way. ‘Let’s see where the night takes us, shall we?’ She looked to the dashboard and noted they were two minutes from their destination of the Grand Hotel Kempinski Geneva. ‘Pull over here,’ she said. ‘Let’s walk the rest of the way.’
Visibly buoyed by his wife’s turnaround, Ted obliged. And flanked by his team, Emilia entwined her arm with his, continuing the charade that something was altering inside her. The touch of his skin against hers sent an unforeseen warmth cascading throughout her veins. It felt … familiar.
She took her mind off it by staring at the view ahead. The bay was framed by buildings no more than six storeys high. To their left was the vast expanse of the silvery green Lake Geneva itself, and in the distance, the snow-capped Alps. Under different circumstances, there might be something romantic about it.
Emilia located the Paquis Lighthouse at the end of a concrete runway. It was unmanned and resembled a scaled-down replica of a real beacon. But if all went according to plan, it was where she would lead Ted tonight and where Bianca and Adrian would assist her in learning the truth about who she was and what he’d been hiding.
After their arrival and check-in at the hotel, Emilia didn’t see her husband for the rest of the day so she passed the time window shopping around the old town. And when that failed to take her mind off events to come, she returned to her hotel where she stared from the window in the direction of the lake, the uncertainty of the night ahead playing louder than the television behind her.
Chapter 37
FLICK, ALDEBURGH, SUFFOLK
‘Somebody has mail,’ said Grace in a sing-song voice. She dropped an ivory-coloured envelope into Flick’s lap.
‘Who, me?’ she asked and leaned forward in her chair on the B&B’s balcony.
‘No, Queen Catherine. Who do you think?’
Flick hesitated before opening it, immediately wary. ‘It’s been hand-delivered,’ Grace added, returning with a rack of toast and two mugs of tea.
Flick’s name was handwritten across the front in gold lettering. She cautiously tore open the seal. Inside was a postcard; on one side was a photograph of the incomplete portrait of Elijah’s uncle. On the other, it read:
Come to the house on Wednesday and give me a hand. Wear something old x
An address was included below the signature. A spark fired inside her.
