Read Online Stepping into the Prince's World by Marion Lennox - Free Book Online

enjoyed it. Then she’d won a huge legal case that had received national headlines, and she’d been head-hunted by one of the most prestigious law firms in Australia. She had been stupid enough to accept.
    Only she hadn’t been one of them .
    â€˜I was the odd one out,’ she told him. ‘An experiment. They select their lawyers on the basis of family and connections, but one of the senior partners had the noble idea that they should try something else—hire someone on merit. They broke their rules when they hired me. Three others were hired at the same time, on the old system. They’d gone to the same school and the same universities. They were the best of friends. But there was a fourth, and because of me he missed out on a job. So they hated me from day one. I tried not to care. I put my head down and worked. But the more I got ahead the more they hated me.’
    â€˜And then?’
    â€˜Then there was a problem,’ she said, talking almost to herself. ‘Insider trading, they call it. Someone in the firm knew something and passed the information on. There was a deal. Someone outside the company made seven million dollars and the media started asking questions. The company had to point the finger at someone.’
    â€˜Was there evidence?’
    â€˜Of course there was evidence,’ she told him. ‘A paper trail leading straight back to me. So I was called into the office of the managing director. I had a choice, he said. I could resign and the company’s insurer would repay costs, cover the fiasco and keep the company’s name clean and out of the courts. Or I could go to jail.’ She shrugged. ‘They had the best legal team in Australia covering their backs and I was a nobody. I had nobody. It didn’t seem like much of a choice.’
    â€˜But if it wasn’t you...?’
    She sighed. ‘A week after I left Felicity left. For Paris. I have no proof of anything, but Felicity’s partner just happens to be the nephew of the managing director, and Felicity had the desk next to mine. So here I am. I haven’t been charged with anything, but the legal fraternity in Australia is tight. My time as a corporate lawyer is over. I might be able to get back into Legal Assistance, but even there I’m now tainted. I took this job to take some time and think through my options, but I don’t have many.’
    â€˜You could sue,’ he said. ‘You could fight.’
    â€˜Yeah?’ She shrugged, and then gave a rueful smile. ‘Maybe I could,’ she said. ‘But it’d cost a fortune. I’d risk debt, or worse, and I’d also risk...’
    â€˜Risk what?’
    â€˜Attention,’ she whispered. ‘The media would be all over it. Ever since I was a kid I knew to keep my head down. To stay unnoticed. It’s always been safest.’ She took a deep breath. ‘When I left to go to university our local publican said, “You’ll be back, girl. A girl like you...raised in the gutter...you’ve got airs if you think you’ll ever get rid of the stink.” But I gave myself airs and this is where it’s left me.’
    â€˜I wish you’d punched him.’
    And the thought suddenly cheered her. She thought back to the smirking publican and wished, quite fiercely, that she’d had the skills then that she had now.
    â€˜I could have,’ she said, attempting to lighten her voice. ‘I have a black belt in karate. I may like keeping myself to myself, but physically if you mess with me you’re in trouble. Even if I’m one-handed.’
    He looked at her in astonishment. ‘You’re kidding?’
    â€˜Like the publican said, you can take the girl out of the gutter, but you can never take the gutter out of the girl. I learned karate, and the gym I went to taught me base moves as well. I can fight clean or I can fight dirty.’
    â€˜That sounds like a