Kitabı oku: «In the Australian's Bed», sayfa 4

Decent. Now, decent was a subjective word.

‘He’s a lawyer,’ she said.

‘Nothing wrong with lawyers. At least he’s got a job. Things could be worse.’

Angelina nodded. ‘You’re so right. Things could be worse.’

But not much.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘YOU don’t look too pleased,’ Dorothy said within seconds of leaving the Ambrosia Estate. ‘Did the lovely Angelina surprise you this time by saying no?’

Jake’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. ‘Things didn’t go exactly according to plan. But I haven’t given up yet.’

‘Good.’

Jake’s eyes slanted over towards Dorothy. ‘You mean my old flame has your tick of approval?’

‘She’s a big improvement on your last few girlfriends,’ Dorothy said in her usual droll fashion. ‘And she’d be very convenient, considering where I’ll be living soon. I’ll have no worries about seeing you regularly if you start going out with a local girl.’

‘I have to get her to drop some guy named Alex first.’

‘You’ve never had any trouble getting your girlfriends to drop their old boyfriends before.’

‘This one sounds formidable. A poor little rich boy. Very good-looking. Lives in Sydney. Too bad I didn’t find out his last name. I could have had him investigated. From the sound of things, they don’t get together all that often. He’s probably two-timing her with some city chick. Guys like that are never faithful.’

‘You’d know.’

‘Dorothy Landsdale, I’ll have you know I’ve always been faithful to my girlfriends!’

‘Oh, I don’t doubt it. They don’t last long enough for you to do the dirty on them. Every few weeks it’s out with the old and in with the new.’

Jake didn’t like the flavour of this conversation. Dorothy was making him sound as if he was some kind of serial sleazebag where women were concerned. Angelina had inferred the same thing.

‘I can well understand Angelina not jumping at the chance of being next in line,’ Dorothy went on before Jake could defend himself. ‘She might like a bit more security in her relationships. And a possible future.’

‘I’ll have you know she’s no more interested in marriage and having a family than I am. She told me so. She’s a career girl.’

‘What? Oh, I find that hard to believe. That girl has marriage and motherhood written all over her.’

‘You’re just saying that because she’s Italian.’

‘Not at all. I’ve known enough career women in my life to recognise one when I meet her. If Angelina Mastroianni is a career woman, then I’m…I’m Marilyn Monroe!’

Jake laughed. ‘In that case, perhaps I should be relieved that she said no to me.’

‘Perhaps you should.’

But he wasn’t relieved. He was annoyed. And frustrated. And jealous as hell of this Alex bloke.

Angelina belonged to him. She’d always belonged to him.

The sudden primitiveness—and possessiveness—of his thoughts stunned Jake. This wasn’t him. This was some other man, some caveman who believed that his taking a female’s virginity gave him the rights to her body forever.

Logic told Jake this was crazy thinking. But logic wasn’t worth a damn beside the passion and determination that was firing Jake’s belly at this moment. She was going to be his again. That Alex guy was going to be history, no matter what it took!

Angelina watched the yellow car till it disappeared from view, then she turned and walked with slow steps back down the path to the restaurant.

Wilomena—who had no doubt been waiting with bated breath to collar her alone—pounced immediately. A tall, rake-thin brunette, the restaurant’s head waitress had sharp eyes to go with her sharp features.

‘All right, fess up, Angelina? Who was that gorgeous hunk in the yellow Ferrari?’

‘Just a guy I used to know. No one special.’

‘Just a guy you used to know,’ Wilomena repeated with rolling eyes. ‘Did you hear that, Kevin?’ she called out to the chef, who was the only other staff member left in the restaurant at this hour. The rest of the evening’s waitresses wouldn’t arrive till five-thirty, which was almost an hour away. ‘He was just a guy she used to know. No one special.’

Kevin popped his bald head round the doorway that connected the body of the restaurant with the kitchen. In his late thirties, Kevin was English and single and a simply brilliant chef. He’d been on a working holiday around Australia a few years ago, filled in for their chef, who’d been taken ill, and never left. Since his arrival the restaurant’s reputation had gone from good to great.

‘Amazing how much he looked like Alex, isn’t it?’ Kevin said with a straight face. ‘If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was Alex’s father.’

Angelina groaned. It was no use. She had no hope of keeping Jake’s identity a secret, not even for a minute.

‘It’s all right,’ Wilomena said gently when she saw the distress on her boss’s face. ‘We won’t say anything. Not if you don’t want us to.’

‘I don’t want you to,’ Angelina returned pleadingly. ‘Not yet, anyway. The other girls didn’t notice, did they?’

‘No. They’re too new. And too silly. All they can think about on a Saturday is where they’re going tonight, and with whom. So! Does he know about Alex? Is that why he was here?’

‘No. He has no idea. He just dropped in for lunch by sheer accident and he…he….Oh, Wilomena, it’s terribly complicated.’

‘Why don’t you sit down and tell me all about it?’

Angelina looked at Wilomena, who at thirty-eight had a few years on her. Divorced, with two teenage girls, she lived in Cessnock and worked long hours at the restaurant six days a week to support herself and her kids. Angelina realised she could do worse than confide in Wilomena, who was both pragmatic and practical. And she needed someone to confide in. The only friends she had now were the people she worked with. Her father had been her best friend. Still, this little problem wasn’t something she’d have been able to talk to him about. He’d been totally blind when it came to the subject of Jake Winters.

‘OK,’ she said with a sigh. ‘Let’s have a glass of wine and I’ll tell you all.’

Wilomena smiled. She was really quite attractive when she smiled. ‘Fantastic. Let’s go into the kitchen so Kevin can hear. Otherwise, I’ll just have to repeat everything after you’ve gone.’

Angelina laughed. ‘You two are getting as thick as thieves, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ Wilomena said with a twinkle in her quick blue eyes. ‘We are.’

Half an hour later, Angelina made her way slowly along the path that ran from the restaurant and past the cellar door before branching into two paths. One led to the winery, the other followed the driveway that led to the resort proper, a distance of about a hundred metres. She headed for the resort, her shoes crunching on the gravel, her head down in thought as she walked down the gentle incline.

Kevin had advised her to tell Jake the truth as soon as possible, especially since Alex himself wanted to meet his father. He’d said he would want to know if he had a son and would be seriously annoyed if such news was held back from him.

‘And that’s bulldust about this Jake saying he’d be a rotten father,’ Kevin had pronounced. ‘Lots of men talk like that. You wait till he finds out he has a son for real, especially a great kid like Alex. He’ll be falling over himself to be the best father he possibly can.’

Wilomena hadn’t shared Kevin’s optimism. There again, she had more jaundiced views about the opposite sex and their ability to be good fathers.

‘What fantasyland do you live in, Kevin?’ she’d countered tartly. ‘Obviously, you’ve never been a father. From my experience, lots of men these days soon get very bored with the day-to-day responsibilities of fatherhood. Guys like Jake, especially. He admitted to Angelina he was selfish. And damaged, whatever that means. I think Angelina’s right to be careful. I don’t think she should tell him anything for a while. If nothing else, it gives Alex time to grow up some more. It’ll be weeks before this Dorothy lady moves up here. Meanwhile, Arnold’s not going to say anything.’

They’d argued back and forth, with Angelina a bemused onlooker. In the end, Kevin had thrown up his hands and told Wilomena it was no wonder she was still single, if she was so distrusting and contemptuous of men.

Angelina had done her best to smooth things over between them but by the time she’d left, there’d been a chilling silence in the kitchen. She was relieved she wasn’t working there tonight. Or on the reception desk. She’d already planned to take the evening off, to do some female things, like have a long bath, shave her legs, put a treatment in her hair and do her nails. It would be good to be alone, to think.

‘Angelina, Angelina!’

Angelina turned to find Wilomena running after her.

‘Sorry about the ruckus in there,’ Wilomena said on reaching her. ‘Don’t worry about it. Kevin will be fine later tonight. And yes, before you ask, we are sleeping together.’

‘I…I wasn’t going to ask.’

Wilomena frowned. ‘No, you wouldn’t, would you? You’re not like other girls. It almost killed you to tell us what you told us in there, didn’t it? I mean, you’re not one to gossip, or to confide.’

‘No, I…I guess not.’ When you spent the amount of time she had spent alone, you lost the knack of confiding in other people. You tried to solve your problems yourself.

‘Look, I just wanted to say that I think you should go out with Jake, but without telling him about Alex. Aside from having a bit of long-overdue fun, you can go see where Jake lives, and how he lives. See what kind of man he is.’

‘But how did you…?’

‘Yeah, I know, you didn’t tell us he’d asked you out. But I didn’t come down in the last shower, honey, and I watched you two today. Both times. He asked you out all right and you said no, didn’t you?’

‘I haven’t actually given him an answer yet.’

‘What does he want you to do?’

‘Stay at his place when I go to Sydney for the expo next weekend.’

‘Wow. He’s a fast mover all right. It took Kevin two years to ask me out, then two months to get me in the sack.’

‘It took Jake about two minutes the first time,’ Angelina said drily.

‘Ooooh. That good, eh?’

‘His kisses were. The sex itself was not great. I froze, and he just went ahead.’

‘But you wouldn’t freeze this time,’ Wilomena said intuitively.

Angelina stiffened. ‘I have no intention of finding out if I would or I wouldn’t. And I have no intention of staying at his place next weekend.’

‘But why not? I wouldn’t be able to resist, if it were me. The guy’s a hunk of the first order.’

Angelina didn’t need to be told that. Jake, the man, had even more sex appeal than Jake, the bad boy. And he’d had oodles.

‘If it was anyone other than Alex’s father, I would.’

‘If it was anyone other than Alex’s father, you wouldn’t want to,’ Wilomena said. ‘I’ve known girls like you before, Angelina. You’re a one-man woman. And he’s the man.’

‘That’s romantic nonsense!’

‘Is it?’ Wilomena probed softly.

‘Yes,’ Angelina said stubbornly whilst secretly thinking that Wilomena could be right. Why else hadn’t she accepted dates with other men? It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been asked. She couldn’t even claim to be protecting Alex any more, now that he was at boarding school most of the time.

Wilomena shrugged. ‘Have it your way. So, you’re really not going to see Jake next weekend? Not at all?’

‘I…I might go to lunch with him.’

The look on Wilomena’s face was telling.

‘Just lunch!’ Angelina insisted. ‘As you yourself said, I need to find out some more about him.’

‘Sounds like an excuse to gaze at him some more.’

‘I didn’t gaze at him today. I was just shocked at how much he looks like Alex.’

‘Who do you think you’re kidding?’

Angelina groaned. ‘I did stare, didn’t I?’

‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. The man was worth a stare. I ogled myself. So did every other woman in the place.’

‘Which is why I can’t risk being alone with him again. The man’s a right devil where women are concerned. He always was.’

‘Mmm. But aren’t you curious over what it would be like with him now? I mean, he’s sure to be very good in the sack. If what you say about him is true, he’s had plenty of practice.’

‘Too much practice. No, I’m not curious about his lovemaking abilities,’ she lied. ‘Only about his character and whether he’s going to be good for Alex.’

‘You know, Angelina, you’re a woman as well as a mother. Do you ever think of your own needs?’

‘Yes, of course I do.’

‘But I’ve never known you to go out on a date. Not during the time I’ve worked here, anyway.’

‘Dating is seriously overrated. And so is sex.’

‘Don’t knock it till you try it.’

Angelina flushed. ‘Who says I haven’t?’

‘I have eyes, honey. And ears. If you’d slept with someone around here, I’d know about it. Look, your father’s gone now and Alex is almost grown up. Time for you to live a little.’

‘Maybe. But not with Jake.’ I’d probably fall in love with him again and then where would I be?

‘Yeah, perhaps you’re right. If you slept with him, it could be awkward once he finds out about Alex. He might think you were trying to trap him into marriage.’

‘I’d be more concerned over what Alex thought.’

‘I dare say you would. You’re a very good mother, Angelina. You put me to shame sometimes.’

‘Nonsense. You’re a great mother.’

‘I try to be. Talking of kids, I have to go and ring mine. See what the little devils are up to.’

‘And I have to ring Alex and see how he did at cricket today.’

‘Being a mother just never stops, does it?’ And with a parting grin, Wilomena hurried off.

Angelina sighed and made her way down the rest of the path and through the covered archway that provided protection for arriving guests. A green Jaguar was parked there, with a middle-aged couple inside booking in. Angelina slipped through a side-gate just past Reception that led into a private courtyard attached to the manager’s quarters, a spacious two-bedroomed unit with an en suite to the main.

She and Alex had moved in there two years ago after Angelina had started doing night shifts at the reception desk. The excuse she’d used for the move was that the old farmhouse where they’d been living, and where she’d been born and brought up, was a couple of hundred metres away, far too long a walk for her at night. Or so she had told her father. Papa had not been happy with their move at first, but he’d got used to it. Besides, when Alex came home on holiday, he’d often stayed with his grandfather in his old room.

Angelina rarely ventured back there, the house not having all that many good memories for her. She’d been a lonely child living there, and an even lonelier single mother. She much preferred her memoryless apartment with its fresh cream walls, cream floor coverings and all mod cons. She liked the modern furniture too, having never been fond of the heavy and ornate furniture her father had preferred. Now that her father was gone, Arnold was living in the old farmhouse, free accommodation being part of his contract as Ambrosia’s wine-maker.

Of course, Alex hadn’t liked that at all, having someone else living in his grandfather’s house. But that was just too bad.

Another sigh escaped Angelina’s lips as she let herself in the front door. What a day it had been so far. And it wasn’t over yet.

She moved straight across the cream carpet to the side-table where she kept the phone, sitting down on the green and cream checked sofa and calling Alex on his cellphone. He should have finished playing cricket by now.

‘Yes, Mum,’ he answered after the second ring.

‘You lost,’ she said, knowing that tone of voice.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he grumped.

‘Never mind. You’ll wallop them at the swimming carnival.’

‘We’d better. They’ll be insufferable if they win that, too.’

Alex had a killer competitive instinct. He was the one who would be insufferable.

‘So how’s things up there?’ he asked.

‘Everything’s fine. Arnold sold his place today.’ And your father showed up out of the blue.

Alex groaned. ‘Does that mean we’re stuck with him forever?’

‘Alex, I’m not sure what your problem is with Arnold. He’s a really nice man. You could learn a lot from him. Your grandfather said he was brilliant with whites. You know Papa was not at his best with whites. He was more of a red man. But no, we’re not stuck with him forever. He said he’s going to buy a little place over in Port Stephens with what he gets for his place, with enough left over for his retirement. He’s well aware how keen you are to take over and is more than willing to stand aside when you feel ready to take on the job of wine-maker.’

‘Good. Because I intend to do just that as soon as I finish my higher-school certificate.’

A prickle ran down Angelina’s spine. He sounded like Jake had today. So strong and so determined.

‘I won’t stand in your way, Alex,’ she said. ‘This place is your inheritance, and the job of wine-maker is your right.’

‘And I’m going to find my father, too. Not in November. I can’t wait that long. I’m going to start next holidays. At Easter.’

Angelina grimaced. Easter! That was only a few weeks away. Still, maybe it was for the best. She couldn’t stand the tension of such a long wait herself.

‘All right, Alex. You’ll get no further argument from me on that score. Come Easter, we’ll go find your father.’

‘Honest?’ Alex sounded amazed. ‘You’re not going to make a fuss?’

‘No.’

‘Cool. You’re the best, Mum.’

‘Mmm.’

‘Got to go. The dinner bell’s gone. Love ya.’

‘Love you, too,’ she replied, but he’d already hung up.

Tears filled her eyes as she hung up too.

‘Lord knows what you’re crying over, Angelina,’ she muttered. ‘Things could be worse, as Arnold said.’

But she wasn’t entirely convinced.

CHAPTER SIX

JAKE paced back and forth across his living room, unable to eat, unable to sit and watch television or work or do any of the other activities that usually filled his alone-time.

The sleek, round, silver-framed clock on the wall pronounced that it was getting on for half-past eight. He’d dropped Dorothy off at her place in Rose Bay at seven-thirty, an hour earlier. The drive back from the Hunter Valley had taken a lot longer than the drive up. They’d been caught up in the Saturday-night traffic coming into the city, slowing to a crawl near the Harbour Bridge.

‘I won’t miss this when I move to the country,’ Dorothy had declared impatiently, which had rather amused Jake at the time. She should see how bad the traffic was in peak hours on a weekday. If there was an accident on the bridge, or in the tunnel, the lines of traffic didn’t crawl. They just stopped.

But that was city living for you.

Jake had declined Dorothy’s invitation to come in for a bite to eat, and now here he was, unfed and unable to relax, becoming increasingly agitated and angry. With himself.

He’d handled Angelina all wrong today. He’d come on to her way too strong, and way too fast. That might work with city babes in wine bars on a Friday night, but not girls like Angelina. Even when she was fifteen, she hadn’t been easy. She’d made him wait, forcing him to make endless small talk that summer before finally agreeing to meet him alone.

He could see now that her still being attracted to him in a physical sense wasn’t enough for her to drop her current boyfriend and go out with him. She claimed she was a modern woman who’d been around, but he suspected—like Dorothy—that Angelina was not as sophisticated as she thought she was. She had an old-fashioned core.

She was going to say no when he finally rang her. Nothing was surer in his mind. And the prospect was killing him.

He had to change his tactics. Hell, he was a smart guy, wasn’t he? A lawyer. Changing tactics midstream came naturally to him.

Go back to square one, Jake. Chat her up some more. Show her your warm and sensitive side. You have to have one. Edward said you did. Then you might stand a chance of winning, if not her heart, then her body.

And don’t wait till tomorrow night to call. Do it now. Right now, buddy, whilst she can still remember how it felt today when you touched her hand, and looked deep into her eyes and talked about spending a whole weekend together.

If it was even remotely what you felt—what you are still feeling—then she has to be tempted.

Jake’s hand was unsteady as he took out his wallet and extracted the card where she’d written down her telephone numbers. He had it bad all right. It had been a long time since he’d felt this desperate over a woman. Damn it all, he’d never felt this desperate before!

Except perhaps that summer sixteen years ago. He’d been desperate for Angelina back then too. No wonder he’d been hopeless by the time he’d actually done it with her.

Jake craved the opportunity to show her he wasn’t a hopeless lover now.

But first, he had to get her to say yes to seeing him again. Even lunch would do. She’d said she might go to lunch with him. It wasn’t quite what he had in mind but it was a start.

He dragged in several deep breaths as he walked over to sweep up the receiver of his phone. His hand was only marginally steadier as he punched in her number but he consoled himself with the fact she could not see it shake.

As long as he sounded calm. And sincere. That was all that mattered.

Angelina was sitting on the sofa and painting her toenails, her right foot propped up on the glass coffee-table, when the phone rang. The brush immediately zigzagged across her second toe onto her big toe, leaving a long streak of plum nail-polish on her skin.

The swear-word she uttered was not one she would have used if Alex had been home. Or if her father had been alive.

By the time she replaced the brush in the bottle, poured some remover on a cotton-wool ball and wiped off the wayward polish, then leant over to snatch up the phone from the nearby side-table, it had been ringing for quite a while.

‘Yes?’ she answered sharply. She hoped it wasn’t Wilomena with more advice. She was all adviced out. Besides, she’d already made up her mind what she was going to say to Jake when he finally rang.

‘Angelina? It’s Jake. Have I rung at an awkward moment?’

Jake. It was Jake!

‘You weren’t supposed to ring till later in the week,’ she snapped, hating it that just the sound of his voice could make her stomach go all squishy.

‘I couldn’t wait till then to apologise,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight.’

‘Apologise for what?’ Her voice was still sharp.

His, however, was soft and seductive.

‘I was out of line today.’

‘Were you really?’ Now her tone was dry, and sarcastic.

No way was she going to be all sweetness and light. She was still seriously annoyed with him for turning up in her life at this particular point in time and making her make difficult decisions.

‘I was pushy and presumptuous, as you said. My only excuse is that I didn’t want to let you get away from me a second time. I really liked you sixteen years ago, Angelina, but I like the woman you’ve become even better.’

She laughed. ‘Wow, you’ve really become the master of the polished line, haven’t you? But you can save the flattery for another occasion, Jake. I’ve already decided to have lunch with you on Saturday.’

The dead silence on the other end of the line gave Angelina some satisfaction that she’d been able to knock him speechless. Unfortunately, now that she’d voiced her decision out loud to him, the reality of it shook her right down to her half-painted toes.

But the die had been rolled. No going back.

‘Great!’ he said, sounding much too happy for her liking. ‘I’m already looking forward to it. But does—er—Alex know?’

‘I spoke to him earlier this evening. We talked about you.’

‘What did you say? I’ll bet you didn’t tell him how we first met.’

‘Alex already knows all about you, Jake. There are no secrets between us.’

‘And he agreed to your going to lunch with me?’

‘Why should he object to a platonic lunch between old friends?’

‘Old flames, Angelina. Not old friends.’

‘Whatever. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, Jake.’

‘I’ll bet you didn’t tell him everything I said to you today.’

What could she say to that?

‘You didn’t, did you?’ Jake continued when she remained silent. ‘No man—not even your pathetic Alex—would willingly let his girlfriend go to lunch with another man who’d declared his wish to make her his woman.’

Angelina could not believe the passion in Jake’s words. And the power. How easy it would be to forget all common sense and tell him that she had changed her mind, that she would not only go to lunch with him on Saturday, but she would also stay at his place on the Saturday night.

Dear heaven, she was going to make a fool of herself with him again. Or she might, if she went to lunch with him on Saturday as things stood. If he could do this to her over the phone, what could he do to her when she was alone with him in the big bad city?

She had to tell him about Alex. Right here and now. It was the only way she could protect herself against her susceptibility to this man.

‘Jake, there’s something I have to tell you,’ she began, then stopped as she struggled for the right words. He was going to be shocked out of his mind. And furious with her for playing word games with him. How she could possibly explain why she’d done such a thing? She was going to look a fool, no matter what she said, or did.

‘Alex doesn’t know you’re going to lunch with me at all, does he?’ Jake jumped in.

‘Er—no. He doesn’t.’

‘You realise what that means, Angelina. You’re finished with him, whether you admit it or not. You’re not the sort of girl to two-time a guy.’

‘I don’t consider lunch a two-timing act,’ she argued, panicking at the way this conversation was now going. Instead of finding sanctuary in the truth, she was getting in deeper. And deeper.

‘It is when you know that the guy you’re having lunch with wants more than to share a meal with you,’ Jake pointed out ruefully.

‘But what you want is not necessarily what I want,’ she countered, stung by his presumption.

‘That’s not the impression you gave me today. We shared something special once, Angelina. It’s still there. The sparks. The chemistry.’

‘Men like you share a chemistry with lots of women, Jake. It’s nothing special. Which reminds me, is there some current girlfriend who should know that you’ve asked another woman out to lunch?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘I’m between girlfriends at the moment.’

She laughed. ‘Am I supposed to believe that?’

‘You sure are. I’m a lot of things but I’m no liar.’

‘Such as what? What are you, Jake Winters, that I should worry about before daring to go to lunch with you?’

‘You don’t honestly expect me to put myself down, do you? I’m no saint but I’m not one of the bad guys, either. I don’t lie and I don’t cheat. There is no other woman in my life. But I am a confirmed bachelor. And I aim to stay that way. Which should please you, since you’re not into wedding bells and baby bootees. Or did I get that wrong?’

‘No. No, you didn’t get that wrong.’

If I can’t marry you, then I don’t want to marry anyone.

The thought burst into her mind. Shocking her. Shattering her. This couldn’t be. This wasn’t fair. Not only that, but it was also crazy. He’d only been in her life a few short hours this time.

She couldn’t be in love with him again. Not really. She was being confused and corrupted by the romance of the situation. And by desire. His, as well as her own. She wasn’t sure which was the more powerful. Being wanted the way Jake said he wanted her. Or her wanting him.

Angelina still could not believe the feelings which had rampaged through her when he’d simply touched her hand.

Wilomena was probably right. She was a one-man woman.

And Jake was the man. Impossible to resist him. She could go to lunch with him next Saturday, pretending that it was a reconnaissance mission to find out what kind of man he was. But that was all it would be. A pretence.

‘Tell me about your job,’ she said, valiantly resolving to put their conversation back on to a more platonic, getting-to-know-you basis. ‘What kind of lawyer are you?’

‘A darned good one.’

‘No, I mean what kind of people do you represent?’

‘People who need a good lawyer to go in to bat for them. People who’ve been put down and put upon, usually in the corporate world. Employees who’ve been unfairly dismissed, or sexually harassed, or made to endure untenable work conditions. I have this woman client at the moment who’s in the process of suing her boss. She worked as his assistant in an un-air-conditioned office with him for years whilst he chain-smoked. She repeatedly asked him to put her in a separate office but he wouldn’t. Yet he was filthy rich. She now has terminal lung cancer and she’s only forty-two. We’re suing for millions. And we’ll win, too.’

‘But she won’t,’ Angelina said. ‘She’ll die.’

‘Yes, she’ll die. But her teenage children won’t. She told me she’d die happier if she gets enough money to provide for them till they can provide for themselves. Her husband’s an invalid as well. That’s why she had to work and why she stayed working for that bastard under such rotten conditions. Because the job was within walking distance of her house, and she didn’t have a car. She couldn’t afford one.’

‘That’s so sad. I hate hearing stories like that. Don’t tell me any more, Jake.’

‘All right,’ he said gently. ‘You always did have a soft heart, Angelina. I remember the day we found that bird with the broken wing caught in the vines. You cried till your dad promised to take it to a vet.’