Read Online Summer at Tiffany's by Karen Swan - Free Book Online Page B

divorce settlement sitting untouched in her bank account but dismissed the idea as quickly as it had come. Besides, Henry would never want to use Gil’s money to bankroll his work, she was sure of it. She sighed. ‘This was pushing it as it was,’ she said quietly, the flat tone of defeat hammering down her words. They had fallen into every cliché – put their eggs in one basket, counted their chickens before they’d hatched, run before they could walk – and with less than a fortnight until departure, it had come back to bite them. ‘Obviously he can only travel there during the summer months. Once the sea freezes . . .’ It was professional humiliation, the entire thing a shambles . . .
    â€˜Ah yes, yes, of course. I hadn’t thought of the small matter of being iced in.’ He tutted pensively, one finger tapping his lips. ‘Hmm.’
    Cassie took heart from the gesture. Was there still a chink of hope after all? ‘This was simply the final round of funding needed to make it happen, you see – obviously if he’d had any inkling things would fall through with you, he’d have lobbied elsewhere, but as you said, it was pretty much just a formality. Everything else is in place,’ she said, a pleading note sounding in her voice. ‘UNEP, the UN Conference on Climate Change – it’s taken months to get them all on board and signed up, and the National Geographic Channel was really interested in running it as a series afterwards . . .’ She looked at him hopefully.
    He looked back at her through focused eyes, as though reading her mind. ‘Well, you know . . .’ he said, stretching out the words thoughtfully, ‘maybe this thing isn’t dead in the water yet.’
    She sat straighter, feeling like her heart was doing shuttle runs in her chest.
    â€˜There’s always next year’s grant, and I have no doubt that everything I’ve just said about Henry will still apply – possibly even more so – twelve months from now.’
    No. Cassie visibly deflated, giving a polite but weak smile in return as he beckoned the waiter over for more coffees. He didn’t get it. Assurances about next year were no good to her when she and Henry were already worrying about next month’s rent. They’d been planning their finances around this expedition since the spring; they’d been banking on it setting them up to Christmas and a bit beyond. Now what were they supposed to do? The salary she drew at Eat ’n’ Mess was barely enough to cover their food and the repair bills for the car; and C et C, the restaurant in Paris where she retained a minority stake, may have a four-month-long waiting list for a table, but with significant start-up costs still to cover, the company wasn’t issuing any dividends yet. The divorce settlement flashed like a red light in the back of her mind again.
    â€˜A top-up?’ He held up the coffee pot.
    She gave an abject shake of her head, feeling suddenly uncomfortable to be sitting in this grand salon in her market clothes like a modern-day Pygmalion. She watched as the other members shook out their papers, brows furrowed as they studied the business and sports pages. If the grant was completely out of the picture, surely there must be a few high-net-worth individuals in the club – in this room, even – who could be persuaded to part with the outstanding sum? Exploring was and always would be the pursuit of rich men’s whims, and $120,000 was mere pennies to the billionaires who played these adventurous games.
    The question was, how to find them without having to beg?
    The light was fading by the time she got home, pulling into Denbigh Place with a weary sigh. After leaving Bob Kentucky, she had driven over to Zara’s flat in Stockwell to apologize and give her the lowdown on Archie – her poor business partner had had to go it alone at Ascot today, sans