Read Online Albatross by Evelyn Anthony - Free Book Online

you’re a very attractive woman. So she thinks we’re lovers. What the hell does it matter what she thinks, as long as she gives the right answers when you’re out of the office?’
    â€˜It matters to me,’ Davina said angrily. ‘I won’t be put in a false situation.’
    â€˜For someone in your profession,’ he said gently, ‘that’s a funny thing to say.’
    â€˜My profession is one thing,’ Davina answered, ‘my private life is another. I can’t see what you find so amusing about it. Do you normally sleep with your personal assistants?’
    â€˜I’ve never had a personal assistant before you,’ he answered. She could see that for some reason he was enjoying himself, and that angered her even more.
    â€˜I have a private life, too, my dear Davina. The trouble with Frieda is, she’s never been part of it. She wasn’t bad looking when she first came, but not my type. I like them blonde and beautiful and absolutely brainless. So you don’t have to worry. When will you have lunch with me again?’
    â€˜You can’t be serious! After this conversation – certainly not!’
    â€˜What’s the matter?’ He spoke gently, teasing her. ‘Are you frightened your major would object? I’ll invite him too, if you like.’
    â€˜That,’ Davina said coldly, ‘I would like to see.’
    â€˜You don’t think we’d get on?’ he challenged her. ‘The man of action versus the man of ideas. I think it could be very interesting. He didn’t like me, did he?’
    â€˜No. You didn’t like each other, that was obvious. Look, this is becoming silly. You called me to tell me about Frieda and I’m very grateful to you for putting it right. I’ve actually got some marketing results to get ready for you, so if you don’t mind, I’ll go and do them.’
    â€˜I do mind,’ Tony Walden said. ‘I can get those results from half a dozen people, and they’ll produce them twice as fast as you.’
    â€˜Thanks very much.’
    â€˜Why don’t you stop play-acting? I’m feeding stuff to you because you took this bloody silly attitude about wanting to be useful and earn the salary. It was a nice gesture, a good conscientious attitude, and I admired you for it. But it’s becoming a bore. Will you sit down for five minutes and let me explain something to you?’
    Davina hesitated. She was on strange ground with this man; she didn’t know the type, or quite how to cope with him. If she walked out of the office now, in some infuriating way Tony Walden would have won.
    He made it a little easier for her. He said, ‘Please?’
    As ungraciously as possible she said, ‘All right,’ and sat down again.
    â€˜You don’t understand me, do you?’
    It was an opening and she took it. ‘I haven’t tried.’
    His slight grin denied her the point. ‘On the other hand, I took a lot of trouble to find out about you before I agreed to help Humphrey out. You’re a remarkable woman; you have a brilliant record in the Service. I know about your major’s medal, but I also know about your trip to Moscow. Yes, I made inquiries about you; not just from Humphrey. I wanted to know the sort of person I was giving a cover to, before laying myself and my business on the line if anything went wrong. I’m a respectable tycoon now, but I wasn’t always a fat teddy bear. That’s why I agreed to take you in and provide a cover for you. I hankered a little for the old days when there was a risk involved in living.’
    â€˜I see,’ Davina said. ‘But what you don’t understand is that this isn’t some kind of postwar game. You said I didn’t understand you. That doesn’t mean to say I didn’t make inquiries too before I came here. You got out of Poland and into the West when you were eighteen, and you