Heart On Fire Part 17

She thought about it, frowning, then asked, "And when I stop working for your father, will this file be destroyed?"

"Eventually," he said in an evasive way, and she wasn't going to let him get away with hiding anything.

"What does that mean? When will they destroy my file?"

"I'm not sure, maybe five years... Or ten?" "What?"

"After all, you might use whatever~ knowledge you've acquired, commit a crime... We have to protect ourselves, Claudia."

"And me? Aren't I allowed to protect myself?." she angrily asked.

"You had no right to investigate me like that--and, if I'd known, I would never have taken the job with your father in the first place."

"I'm sorry," Stephen began but she turned on her heel and walked away.

Before she rejoined his father, she heard his car start. A moment later and he was gone, and she felt both sorry and relieved.

She liked Stephen, but she saw that there was no point in seeing much of him in the future. They had no experience, no point of view, in common.

She had thought Stephen was so different from his brother, and of course he was; but although on the surface they were not similar, there was a basic bedrock to their natures that was identical. She kept forgetting that this was a very wealthy family she had got involved with--money set them apart and made them behave in an alien fas.h.i.+on, see life from another l ~8 angle to her own. They found it expedient to keep files on everyone who worked for them, and they were quite blind to how others saw it.

They had not learned to care what anyone else thought. She had learnt that from the start where Ellis Lefevre was concerned, when he locked her into.

his hotel suite in spite of her angry protests.

Ellis had made it crystal-clear that he made the rules in his world, and expected everyone else to keep them, and someone like her was of no importance whatsoever.

She kept thinking about that file on her all day; she thought about it even when she was in bed. She grew so angry that she would have resigned and left Quentin's employ, had he not been blind and dependent on her, but Quentin had her at a disadvantage. She was fond of him by now, and she was sorry for him--a fatal combination.

Her anger was not proof against Quentin next morning; he was too happy.

Every time he thought of rejoining the corporation, he could hardly stop smiling, and his happiness touched her heart.

So she stayed, and worked hard, wanting to get the book finished in record time so that Quentin could leave for Switzerland, and she could go back to living in London.

That first weekend, to avoid meeting Stephen, she took an early morning train back to London to stay with her sister. Annette immediately noticed the change in the arrangements for her visits, and questioned her with sisterly lack of tact.

"I don't like to rely on him for a lift, and it means I miss a whole morning of my time off," Claudia evaded.

159 "What about the other one?" asked Annette, beating egg white. until it was so stiff that when the huge bowl was turned upside down nothing fell out.

"Quentin?" Claudia asked, deliberately, and her sister gave her a wry smile.

"You know who I mean."

Claudia did, and was half inclined not to answer, but that would in

itself be some sort of admission, so she flatly said, "Ellis is in

Germany."

"I thought he was in j.a.pan!" Annette loved to hear about his travels and to fantasise a little about him, suspected Claudia, reluctantly replying.

"He was, but he had to go to Germany because of trouble in one of their factories."

"When does he get back?"

"I've no idea, he doesn't keep me posted as to his movements!"

Claudia tartly told her.

Annette gave her a taunting smile.

"I bet you wish he did!"

"I am not remotely interested in the man!" Claudia said, mentally crossing her fingers as she lied.

Annette began to laugh, and Claudia decided to go and help her

brother-in-law chop onions for a sauce he was making.

Pierre drove her back next day, since the restaurant was not open that Sunday evening, a~d he and Annette felt like taking a pleasant drive by the river.

They dropped Claudia at around six. Stephen had returned to Cambridgeby then. Quentin said that StephC~l had missed seeing her and Claudiasaid, "How nice of him." She made her voice light, but Quentin' hadears like a bat and picked up the faintly dry undertone, frowning.

"You and Stephen haven't quarrelled?"

"Quarrelled? Good heavens, no," she said, but the question enlightened her to the fact that Stephen had not indicated to his father that they had disagreed over anything.

"Well, it would surprise me if you did," Quentin said slowly, his face wry.

"People don't quarrel with Stephen much. Ellis, now... He's a horse of a different colour. He quarrels all the time. He's very die-tatotiai, and that is good, in some ways. It means he has authority in the company, he gets his own way, when he needs to--but it can be bad, too. He can put backs up, particularly when he's dealing with older men, who sometimes feel he is treating them with contempt." He stopped short, grimacing.

"I must stop doing that!" he muttered to himself, and she was puzzled, watching him.

"Doing what?"

"Talking to you so freely!" he said, his mouth crooked.

"You are insidious, girl. You're far too good at listening. I keep forgetting who I'm talking to, and I say things to you that I shouldn't. If Ellis heard me, he would think I was going senile!"

She laughed.

"n.o.body would think that! Your brain is as sharp as a razor."

The conversation underlined her realisation that she came from another world to that inhabited by the Lefevre family. Quentin had frankly said that he should not speak so freely to her, and that Ellis would not like it, if he knew. Stephen had said she could not be trusted until her whole background had been researched and filed away. She was an inferior being, apparently; only permitted into their world on a certain level, and even then not to be trusted. It made Claudia feel bleakly depressed.

161 Towards the end of that week, she got a phone call from her agent, who sounded mildly cheerful, which was unusual for him. His most normal mood was one of grim despair.

"Can you get the morning off tomorrow?" he asked. "An audition?" she guessed eagerly.

"Yes, I'm sure I can. That was part of our agreement when I took this job.

Where do I go? What is it? Anything really interesting?"

"I don't know what you'll think," he said gloomily. "A TV ad. The product is a music centre, they say. Not very exciting. Pays well, though, and it does get your face known. Do you want to go for it?"

"Why not?" she said, her face falling in disappointment. For a second she had thought it was going to be a part in a play.

"Anything is better than not working at all."

"That's the att.i.tude!" approved her agent, but he sounded offhand, and she wondered if he was beginning to regret having her on his books. She wasn't making any money for him. How long now before he told her he was having to stop representing her? In the beginning, she had looked like a winner, but day by day she was turning into a loser, and he had no time for losers.

"Sorry to hurry you, angel, but I have other calls to make," he said, wanting to move on to more important people.

Other clients he was sending to this audition? she thought with wry cynicism. He wouldn't tell her, if so, and she didn't bother to ask.

"They're apparently holding the audition at the company itself," he explained.

"It's in Long Acre, easy to get to, a short walk from Leicester Square station, OK? You must be there at eleven. Ask in the reception lobby for a Mr. Rimbaud." He gave her the full address, said, "Good luck, darling, let me know how you get on!" and rang off.

Claudia sat. staring at the piece of paper on which she had written the address. Well, it was work, anyway. She was too desperate to care what sort of work it was, so long as it involved some sort of acting.

Quentin was perfectly happy to let her have the day off, and she got up early next day and was in London long before the specified hour of the audition, so that she could spend an hour in her sister's flat, making herself look as spectacular as possible. Annette helped, both practically and with advice, giving hera pair of sheer silk nylons, producing a favourite bottle of French perfume, doing her hair, and, when they had both done their best, boosting her ego by telling her she looked terrific.

Claudia had no idea what sort of image the advertising company would be looking for, so she had chosen her most stylish dress: a cla.s.sical black wool one with a high neck, long sleeves, a narrow belt at the waist and a smooth, straight skirt which accentuated her slender figure.

"Very cla.s.sy," Annette congratulated her.

"Turn round... Yes, you look terrific!"

Claudia smiled gratefully.

"I shall have ma.s.ses of compet.i.tion, remember!"

"You'll get the job," Annette insisted.

Claudia took another look in the mirror before she left. Well, she had done her best. Her red-gold hair was swept up at the back and pinned there with a black lace bow, her pale green eyelids s.h.i.+mmered faintly, her skin was cool and clear, and her full mouth was a glossy red. She knew she looked good, and that gave her the confidence to go to the audition in the right mood.

After all these months of rejections and failures, she needed some sort of small success, or she would seriously think of giving up. She had been trying to get work for so long, and it was always the same--too many actors chasing too few parts. You had to be special to get anywhere, and she was beginning to wonder if she had the magic ingredients required.

"Well," she said, smiling bravely, "I'm as ready as I'll ever " Take a taxi," Pierre advised.

"It will make you feel successful from the start."

She kissed both him and her sister.

"Thanks, you two. I don't know what I'd do without you. Keep your fingers crossed for me!"

The taxi dropped her outside a high building in Long Acre, and she walked slowly through the swing doors into a s.p.a.cious, carpeted reception area, where a girl sat behind a desk answering a phone while she thoughtfully studied her pink nail polish.

She glanced up at Claudia, who said, "Mr. Rimbaud?"

The receptionist picked up a clipboard, said flatly, "Your name?" and when Claudia told her made a tick on the top sheet on the clipboard.

She waved a pink-tipped finger towards the lift.

"Top floor. Door at the end of the corridor. Knock before you go in.." " Claudia would have asked her a few questions about the audition, but the other girl was talking into the phone almost without a pause.

"Oh, I know... Yes... I know..." she intoned, her eyes back on her nails, and Claudia walked away towards the lifts.

164 The top floor of the building was very quiet, the floors deeply carpeted. Claudia walked to the end of the corridor, as instructed, listening with faint disquiet to the silence all around her. There were several doors along the corridor, but she heard nothing from behind them.

Perhaps the offices were soundproofed? Could they all be empty?

She paused outside the last door, hesitating before she knocked on it. She was strung up about the audition, full of nervous tension.

That must be why she had this odd p.r.i.c.kling sensation on the back of her neck.

She took a deep breath and knocked firmly. The door swung open a moment later, and she walked into the room, ready to smile at whoever was running the auditions, then stopped dead, not seeing anyone at all. Her eyes flashed around a luxuriously furnished sitting-room.

She had been expecting an office, not that, and her nerves jumped, taking in the deep, wide white couch, strewn with jewel-coloured cus.h.i.+ons, which was the centre of the room. She didn't like the look of that. It was far too much like a bed.

She swung on her heels, meaning to leave again, but as she did so the door was slammed shut and she froze, staring in shock at the man in an elegantly tailored pin-striped city suit, who was leaning on the door, staring back at her with a mocking smile on his hard features.

'"" Won't you walk into my parlour? " said the spider to the fly" ,"

murmured Ellis Lefevre with soft amus.e.m.e.nt, but Claudia did not laugh.

She was first pale, then flushed, as it dawned on her that he had lured her here, through her agent, with talk of a phoney advertis.e.m.e.nt. It had never even ] occurred to her that it might not be a genuine at it ion She had heard of this sort of thing happen ii but her agent was usually so careful, so trust wort Had he been fooled too? Or had he been in on t little plot?

"Get out of my way--I am leaving!" she mutte~ angrily, and Ellis smiled again, slowly shaking head.