LITMIR.BIZ

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She heard him go into the main bedroom and pick up the phone. Finding her jacket, Red put it round her shoulders and stood in the doorway, watching as he called the hospital.

      Tonight Linus seemed a different person from the unkempt drunk she’d met that first time. He was clean-shaven, clear-eyed and seemed to be fully alert, which made him look younger than she’d first thought. He was also smartly dressed in a well-cut dark business suit, a crisp white shirt and tie.

      And she’d been right about him being good-looking once he’d cleaned himself up; he had high cheekbones in a lean face, with a straight nose, and lips that were just right, neither too full nor too thin. His hair was thick and dark, touching his collar, and with a lock that was apt to fall onto his forehead and be pushed impatiently back, as he was doing now as he talked to the sister in charge of the ward. His level brows, too, were dark, as were the lashes that framed his grey eyes.

      ‘All right. But if she wakes please tell her that I’ll be there first thing in the morning... Yes... Linus Hunt. Thank you.’ Putting the phone down, he turned to look at Red—really looked at her for the first time, his eyes sweeping over her tall, slim figure and mass of auburn hair. ‘Just how do you come to be involved in this?’ he asked.

      She pulled the jacket closer over the silk nightgown. ‘I found her. I called round to see her about some more lessons and I saw her through the letter box, so I called an ambulance and went with her to the hospital.

      ‘She asked me to telephone you, but I couldn’t get any reply, so then she asked me to spend the night here in case you rang.’ Red gave him an assessing look. ‘She was afraid you’d be worried if you called and she wasn’t here.’

      ‘I rang a couple of times from Zurich airport but the line was engaged,’ Linus said shortly. ‘So I came straight here.’ He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Did you use the phone?’

      Red nodded. ‘I called my flat mate to tell her I wouldn’t be home.’ She said it rather defensively, but why she should feel guilty she didn’t know; how was she supposed to have known that he would call at precisely that time?

      His face didn’t soften any but he said, ‘It seems that you’ve been put to a great deal of inconvenience on Felicia’s behalf.’

      ‘It was nothing,’ Red said in embarrassment. ‘I just happened along.’

      ‘You’re Australian, aren’t you?’

      She gave a rueful groan. ‘You’re not supposed to notice the accent.’

      Linus grinned, and suddenly he seemed extremely good-looking. ‘That’s what the lessons are for, are they?’ She nodded, but he was already glancing at his watch. ‘It’s four-thirty, and I’ve been travelling all night. I’m going to get some sleep and I’d advise you to do the same.’

      ‘I don’t need to be advised to do something that simple,’ Red said shortly, strangely disappointed at his obvious lack of interest.

      He glanced at her, his eyebrows rising, but merely said, ‘I’ll use this room. Good night—er—what did you say your name was?’

      ‘Red. Red McGee.’

      His eyebrows rose yet again. ‘That’s what I thought you said. Good night.’

      She gave him a look, said, ‘Good night,’ in a cool tone, and went back to the guest room.

      This time she didn’t fall asleep so quickly. Quite naturally, she was thinking about Linus Hunt. He seemed so different tonight. But maybe he was the kind of man who went on really drunken binges for a few days and was then able to stay off the booze for a few weeks, until the craving drove him back on the bottle.

      She wasn’t unfamiliar with the type; there had been a few men who’d worked on her father’s sheep station who’d been like that. Although they hadn’t worked for him long once he’d found out. He’d been fair, though—given them a warning after the first time and only got rid of them after the second bout.

      She realised that she would have to revise her first impression of Linus. He was obviously well trained, creeping up the stairs like that and going to sleep in the guest room so as not to disturb Felicia’s sleep.

      That must have been why the guest bed was made up—all ready for him. Although, thinking about it, Red decided that if she had been in Felicia St Aubyn’s place she wouldn’t in the least have minded being wakened by a man like Linus. Because, physically, he certainty was quite a man, for all his faults.

      Red gave a sigh, feeling like a frustrated schoolgirl, and wondered if Linus was lying awake thinking about her. Then she laughed at herself for being so stupid; the only definite thing about Linus was that he wasn’t interested in anyone but Felicia. Because that was where the money was? Red stirred uneasily, somehow unhappy with the thought.

      

      At eight Red woke, showered and put on the clothes she’d been wearing yesterday: black jeans, a moss-green sweater and a black belt over it round her twenty-two-inch waist. Luckily she always carried make-up with her in her cavernous bag, so she was able to do her face and brush her long hair into its usual mass of crimped waves around her head. Looking at herself critically in the full-length mirror, she decided that she looked pretty good in the circumstances.

      Downstairs in the kitchen she started to prepare breakfast, turning on the radio to a pop programme and whistling along to the tunes. Twenty minutes later Linus came into the room.

      ‘Hi!’ Red greeted him cheerfully. ‘How do you like your eggs?’

      ‘In the hen.’ He turned off the radio and frowned. ‘Are you always this bright in the mornings?’

      ‘What’s wrong with being bright?’ She watched as he went to the fridge and took out a bottle of fresh orange juice. He was wearing different, more casual clothes this morning. ‘Didn’t you sleep very well?’

      ‘No.’ Linus hesitated, then said, ‘I was thinking about Felicia.’

      ‘She asked me to take her in some things.’

      ‘I’ll do that.’

      ‘I’d like to go too. I promised her I would,’ Red said firmly.

      Linus glanced at her as he poured the juice, then shrugged. ‘All right.’

      Red sat down at the table to eat her breakfast of cereal followed by scrambled eggs and toast, but all Linus had was the orange juice and coffee. He made the coffee, completely at home in the kitchen, knowing where to find everything he needed.

      Curiosity overcoming her, Red said offhandedly, ‘This is a really nice house. It must cost the earth to rent.’

      His grey eyes settled on her for a moment. ‘Felicia doesn’t rent it; she owns the place. It was left to her by her husband,’ he said shortly.

      ‘Oh, she’s a widow, then?’ Linus nodded without speaking. Annoyed by his reticence, Red decided to goad him and so went on, ‘Women on their own like that must have to be so careful—not to be taken advantage of, I mean. There are lots of unscrupulous men who’d happily live off older, richer women.’

      His eyes again met hers, and she thought that his mouth tightened a little, but Linus didn’t rise to the bait. Instead he set down his empty cup and said in a sardonic tone, ‘If you’re quite sure you’ve had enough, we’d better get the things Felicia asked for.’

      He came up to Felicia’s room with her and found a weekend case in which Red carefully put two or three nightdresses, a lacy kind of bed-jacket, and the stuff out of the bathroom that she thought the invalid might need. Linus wasn’t so much at home in the bathroom opening off Felicia’s room; when Red asked him which lotions she ought to take, he didn’t know. ‘Take them all,’ he said impatiently.

      Linus called a taxi, and by the time Red had collected her jacket and bag it was at the door. It was another dull grey London day; the streets were crowded with traffic and it took a while

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