Read Online A Pigeon Among the Cats by Josephine Bell - Free Book Online Page B

you can get that straight.”
    He realised he had gone too far, too fast. This bird gave an impression of weakness but he really knew already that it was false.
    Without speaking he wound down all the windows. The car may have been in the sun when he parked, but it was now in the shade and though the air of the early afternoon had not cooled at all, where the car stood was at the top of the hill and a breeze did blow through it to replace the over-heated air.
    â€œHow about that?” he said gently, looking at her with far from gentle eyes.
    Gwen accepted the meaning of the look and climbed in, though she shot up from the seat at once, crying out that the leather had burned her. With silent patience Owen pulled forward a cushion from the back seat for her to sit on, then got in himself on the other side. His intention was as firm as ever, but he understood that he had no easy job before him.
    Gwen was flattered by his persistence. Her natural vanity had always been a danger to her, and for some months now it had not been fed to anything like the extent she required. Or so she often told herself.
    So Owen’s cautious approach was unexpectedly successful, he found. Before long he was able to slide an arm behind her shoulders and allowed to leave it there until he dared to move it where the effect could be greater.
    â€œI had to see you again,” he murmured, truthfully. “You aren’t angry with me?”
    â€œNo,” she whispered, accepting this familiar approach. “But how did you know we’d be here? Who was that funny little man in Rome?”
    â€œMy messenger? Rollo? A journalist who does me a favour now and then.”
    â€œJournalist!”
    He felt her pull away, so held her more closely.
    â€œDo you mind that? Why should you? Scared of the Press? He’s only free-lance and not often employed, I should think.”
    Allowing his curiosity a too free rein he added, laughing a little in his almost soundless fashion, “I guarantee he never leaves the Imperial City. He is never in Geneva, for instance.”
    This time she did not pull away; she froze. He cursed himself for his impatience, but he must discover soon what had taken her to that bank, for the expenses were mounting up and if it wasn’t going to be worth it he ought to pull out rather than plan ahead to Florence, where he no longer had reliable contacts since …
    â€œYou asked me that time you walked out on me …”
    â€œI never …”
    â€œYou asked me what was I doing in Geneva myself that time I saw you taking a heavy suitcase into a certain bank and coming out of the bank again to throw the case into a taxi as if it weighed nothing at all.”
    This time Gwen drew herself right away from him and he had the good sense to let her go. Besides, she had not lost her head and he wanted very much to discover how she would deal with these cards on the table now between them. Quite a girl this, quite a gir!
    Gwen, fully back on her dignity, sought some reason for this apparently reckless disclosure. She remembered the tale she had told before. Mistress of her selfish boss for eleven years, fed up with short trips abroad as his wife and no promise of any real status. Ran out on him with any money she could pick up. That was it. The firm’s money and quite a lot of it … in cash. Mostly one pound notes and you needed a lot of those to make it worth while. But to think he had spotted her and watched her go in and come out again with the empty case. So what was his game? Pretty obvious, surely? A blackmailer? Or just a con man? Ready to demand the ransom or ready with some scheme to enlarge it for her, for them both, with him working at her side?
    A most unwelcome complication, anyway. She picked up her handbag from the floor of the car where it had fallen and felt for the door handle.
    â€œYou were there in Geneva and you were watching me, you say,” she began. “I can guess