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.Wasn't there a wide variance? she mused.Onlythe factual side of his life could be relied upon as being the truth.She was so engrossed in her detective work that when the phone clanged next to her Emma physically jumped and looked at it in surprise.It was Sophia on the other end.She sounded breathless and slightly hesitant as she asked whether Conrad was back yet.i have no idea,' Emma replied truthfully.There was a pause on the other end, 'Can you tell him that I called?'Emma promised, glancing at her watch which showed that it had gone twelve o'clock.'I could go and see whether I can find him for you,' she said reluctantly, relieved when the other girl told her not to bother.it's just that I'm flying out to Rome this afternoon,' Sophia explained.'And you wanted to talk to him before you left.' Why wait for her to say it? Emma thought.If she volunteered the information herself, then it somehow made her feel more in control.'Yes,' Sophia agreed, 'I wanted to tell him that I was sorry about how things ended.''I'll tell him.' Emma felt a thread of curiosity streak through her, but she was determined not to give in to it.She had already given in to too much as far as Conrad was concerned.Her first step in fighting off that desperate attraction towards him which threatened to engulf her, was to have as little to do with him, and as little to say about him, as possible.'Don't you want to know what I'm talking about?' Sophia asked.'Not really.''Well ' Sophia began, and Emma thought, Oh, no,here we go.She could recognise the lowered voice of someone who wanted to confess, to pour their heart out.Emma had been the confidante of her friends too many times for her not to see the signs.This time, she did not want to be on the receiving end.There was too much locked up inside her which she would have liked to burden someone with, but couldn't.It wasn't simply that her friends were all thousands of miles away.The fact was that she had made too much of a habit of her aloofness, had cultivated her privacy for too long, for her to suddenly break it.'You needn't talk to me about this,' she said with a hint of desperation in her voice.'I know, but it's just that I haven't anyone else to tell.Besides, sometimes it's easier talking to a stranger than to a friend.' Sophia fell silent, as though she was trying to put her thoughts into some kind of sequence, it's just that I broke off the engagement and I wanted to make sure that we were still friends.I feel so badly about it, but I chatted to Lloyd about it when he was here, and I decided that I just wasn't ready for marriage.Besides, an important job came up.''An important job?' Wasn't marriage an important job? Emma wondered.Sophia's tone relaxed, began to sound more confident and enthusiastic.'A chance-in-a-lifetime opportunity, really.I got offered a contract to work for a cosmetic firm, and part of the agreement was no attachment to the opposite sex for a year.So you see, there was nothing really that I could do.''Of course,' Emma said with mild sarcasm.'When exactly did you tell Conrad?''At the beach yesterday.Well, I sort of told him then.We talked about it properly yesterday evening—but it was while you and Lloyd were swimming that I sort of hinted.'Ah, I see.' And she did.No wonder he was in such a filthy mood on the drive back.It made sense.'Of course,' Sophia said confidentially, and Emma could imagine her adopting a suitable pose by the telephone, 'I'll be missing out on all the security I would have had married to a man like Conrad.I mean, he's the catch around.Handsome, powerful, and of course rich, rich, rich.Not just his money, but he'll probably get all of Alistair's money as well.Still' she sighedtheatrically '—that's life, as my dearest brother would say.'She chatted inconsequentially about Lloyd, but Emma didn't hear what she was saying.She felt faint.Alistair's money? Did he think he was going to inherit Alistair's money? He had never suggested anything of the kind, but if Sophia was as nonchalant about disclosing such information, then surely it must be based on fact.No smoke without fire.Tiny, suspicious thoughts were buzzing in her head, irritating insects which refused to go away.Emma blinked and shook her head to clear it.'Anyway, could you pass on the message?' Almost before Emma had had a chance to agree, the other girl had rung off, and Emma held the receiver away from her ear, absent-mindedly hearing the flat, purring dialling tone.She replaced the receiver thoughtfully, no longer in any mood to pore over old journals and newspaper clippings.The nagging uncertainties were becoming too persistent, the buzzing of one bee developing into a swarm.She didn't want to listen to them.After all, they were hardly based on fact, and Sophia might have been completely wrong in her assumptions—but then again, they answered a lot of questions [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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