“D’you know if anyone looked through it?” My question was muffled by oats and golden syrup, but Nate got the gist.
“I don’t. They had a few hours when it was lying in plain sight. I can’t do much more than that.”
“I’ve been thinking about Steven,” I told him. “There’s nothing more to find in James’s study, and it’s not as if we can get into his office at the bank. D’you think Steven might have some papers or something in his room? He obviously knows everything James is planning.”
Nate was silent for a moment. “I suppose it’s possible,” he allowed. “Is the probability worth the risk we’d be running?”
“What risk? We know the staff’s movements, and Steven’s car can be heard from almost anywhere in the house. My room’s on the same floor as his, so we could pretend that’s where we were heading if we didn’t have time to get downstairs.” That wouldn’t be a great idea as we weren’t supposed to be together, but it would be better than getting caught searching Steven’s room.
“I suppose we should,” Nate said reluctantly.
That settled, I drank my coffee and watched him. This morning’s conversation had reminded me of the gulf between us. It had been like waking from a dream—like the end of a holiday, something whispered deep inside me. But it was difficult to remember that when I was with him.
“If you weren’t in Bath, what would you be doing back in Cornwall?” he asked.
I told him about the village where I lived, how the cliffs were only a few minutes’ walk from my house and how the storms buffeted the old cottage every winter. He asked about our family, and I explained how geographically spread out we’d become over the years, yet how the ties between us never weakened.
In return, I asked about his life. He had little to say about what he did in London, but he talked about his brother Rufus with a gentleness in his voice that made me want to meet the man who could cause that. “He’s scarily bright and reads Latin for fun,” he said proudly. “He’s also good at catching spiders.”
He’d said something about spiders when we’d been by the river. “You don’t like them?” It didn’t seem possible that adragoncould bescared of such an itty-bitty creature.
“I pay my neighbours’ son twenty quid a time to get rid of them if one comes into my flat,” he said.
“Uh, Nate.”
His eyebrows raised.
“Aren’t you worried he’ll start shoving handfuls of them through your letterbox so he can make more money from you?”
There was a flash of real distress in his eyes.
“Shit, I’m sorry. Of course, he’d never do that.” I said quickly, furious at myself. “I’m sorry—I’m a jerk.”
“I don’t have a letterbox,” he said, as if to reassure himself that couldn’t happen. “The concierge holds the mail for me.”
He evidently lived in an upmarket type of flat. I tried to imagine him in my cottage, and despite the fact it must be different from everything he’d ever known, I could see him there. He’d learn to live with how the gales sometimes blew the smoke back down the chimney and the roof rattled in the storms. I firmly turned my mind away from that. Neither of us had mentioned what might happen once we left Bath, and it was better to ignore the subject than find out the answer wasn’t the one I wanted.
The afternoon passed swiftly as we learned more about one another’s lives. I realised, from what he didn’t say as much as what he did, that I wouldn’t trade mine for his. This, despite the fact I couldn’t get regular work and my ancient Land Rover was held together by bits of string and hope. All the money in the world couldn’t buy a loving family, and I determined to visit my parents as soon as I got home and tell them how much I loved them. They’d doubtless think I’d been drinking, but I’d say it anyway.
Sheila finally threw us out when she shut up shop for the night, and we headed back to the Fortescues’. For a brief stop, only. Tonight, there’d be swimming. There’d also be other things, and I couldn’t wait to strip him of those hideously expensive clothes until he was just Nate. Not a Mortimer, not a rich, banking dragon, butNate.
The memory of being with him tonight would keep me company while he was away in Zurich. The prospect of two days without Nate seemed to stretch before me like a desert.
Chapter Twenty-one
NATE
By the time we landed in Zurich, I realised why Tom Fortescue had brought me to Switzerland rather than introducing me to clients in England. The two-hour flight had been an uninterrupted interrogation.
He asked all sorts of questions about Bim and the rest of my family Not about the banks, which would have been easy to parry, but more personal questions. He was intent on sounding out my relationship with my family.
Thankfully, once we were on the ground, his attention turned to the clients we were meeting.
“Is there a particular line you want me to follow?” I asked him in the taxi. I’d never gone into a meeting without being fully briefed.
“Your role is to charm them. Michel likes them pretty, and you fit the bill in Charlie’s absence.” His mouth soured at the mention of Charlie. “He’s bringing some PE LPs along for a preliminary discussion, so you can dothe sales pitch.”
Do the sales pitch when I didn’t know what they were interested in? Either Tom Fortescue was negligent to the point of misconduct, or this was one hell of a test. Given how profitable the Fortescue bank was, my bet was on the latter.
