The Devil You Know (48 page)

‘Look, old thing…’ Daisy beamed with pleasure as she held the receiver; she loved it when Edward used his pet name for her. She could hear his hesitancy and awkwardness at the end of the line. ‘Ah. Hmm. I need to see you.’

‘Oh, you and Wina are going to be in town?’

‘Not Wina. Just me.’ Another pause. ‘Daisy, we need to talk, just you and I. Will you see me?’

A burst of exhilaration rushed through her, but she was careful to keep any hint of it out of her voice. ‘Don’t be silly, Edward, I always have time for an old friend.’

‘How about next Tuesday night?’

‘Magnus is in town, so I’ll be having dinner with him.’

His tone darkened. ‘And when does Mr Soren leave town?’ ‘Monday evening,’ Daisy said.

‘Then Tuesday. For lunch. Can you come to my townhouse? I would rather talk to you absolutely privately.’

‘That will be fine,’ Daisy said coolly. ‘Shall we say one o’clock?’

It was hard to concentrate. She had a week before Magnus was due to arrive, and she knew better than to call Edward. Let him simmer, let him stew. She had to appear disinterested.

Daisy exercised, slept well, and wore no make-up except a tinted moisturiser with sunscreen for a week. She wanted her skin to be perfect; no way was she taking the chance of too much foundation

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leading to a disastrous spot or something. As far as it was possible, she distracted herself. Work was going wonderfully. Her book was taking shape, gradually, like clay moulded on a potter’s wheel; her characters were starting to surprise her, to want to do things that hadn’t been in her synopsis. That kind of thing was a blast.

If her nerves over Edward got to be too much, she opened and answered some fan mail. The girls and women who wrote to her always cheered her up. What Daisy was doing wasn’t rocket science, it wasn’t a cure for hepatitis, but in some small way she was making people happy.

Mostly, however, she thought about Edward. Daisy made valiant efforts to distract herself, but they didn’t really work. She had never actually had to say anything to him. And now there was no need.

Edward would say it all himself. She’d have him back, the first man to love her just as she was, to want her when she was fat, unpopular Daisy Markham, the girl who got bullied at school …

Daisy shook her head. Never mind about that. First, she had to find some tactful way to get rid of Magnus Soren. He’d been kind, and handsome, and funny, and smart… He deserved a gentle letdown.

She was there to meet Magnus when the Concorde arrived’at

Heathrow on Monday morning. ” ‘Hi.’ ….

Soren kissed her on the cheek. He was wearing a black suit with a matching overcoat, a gold lKolex, and plain cuffs, and carrying a smart navy leather briefcase.

‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

‘I thought you deserved a welcome,’ Daisy said.

Magnus beckoned to his chauffeur, who escorted them out to the waiting car, a sleek lKollslKoyce.

‘What, no limousine?’ asked Daisy, once they were settled in the back of the car and the partition had been rolled up.

Magnus shook his head. ‘When in Rome, baby.’ His green eyes looked curiously at her. ‘Are you being particularly supportive

today? Because of the meeting?’

‘What meeting?’

He sighed. ‘The 1Ketson meeting. I take it you don’t read the Financial Times.’

‘Not usually,’ Daisy said.

‘I have an important set of meetings this week. Soren Enterprises is attempting a hostile takeover of the 1Ketson Group. If we get it,’ he

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shrugged, ‘we’re on a different plane. Of course, their board of

directors opposes it bitterly.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they don’t want to get fired,’ Magnus said.

‘And you’d fire them?’

‘I sure would. They’re all mid-fifties, and they’re stuck in the management philosophy of the Seventies. We can do better. And we will.’

Daisy found the way he spoke about it rather exciting.

‘You look like you’re spoiling for a fight.’

He chuckled. ‘I am. I love it. Back in the old days, men used to conquer countries to get their aggressions out. Now warfare is corporate. I am convinced you get many of the same thrills, with a lot less pain.’

‘Unless you are a fired member of the board of directors.’

Soren looked unrepentant. ‘They all have golden parachutes, for far more than they’re worth.’

The car pulled smoothly and quietly between the lanes of traffic. ‘So you didn’t come over just to see me?’ Daisy pouted.

He looked surprised. ‘Daisy, I’ve never come over just to see you. I always mix business and pleasure. I don’t have time to do anything els e. ‘

‘Oh …’

‘And anyway,’ he added, ‘you and I, darling, are going to have to have what you Limeys call a chat.’

‘How boooring,’ Daisy sighed. A chat. She hoped he wasn’t about to declare his love for her. Or dump her.

‘Let’s say tonight, at dinner. We’ll meet somewhere near you. You can leave a message with my assistant.’

Daisy spent the day in the Dorchester spa, getting a massage, a manipedi, and her hair and make-up done. She couldn’t concentrate on work, and she was feeling unsettled. In which case, she thought, the best thing to do was to look stunning.

A chat. Magnus Soren wanted to have a chat with her. Daisy didn’t like the sound of that one bit. She liked having him around, she thought sleepily as her flesh was kneaded in a dimmed room to the sound of Tibetan wind-chimes on the CD player. Magnus was handsome, and fun. Business wasn’t Daisy’s thing, but she enjoyed seeing her date rip lesser men and companies to shreds. Like a tiger. Magnus was quite a bit older than Daisy, but for a businessman he

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was young, a babe in arms. And very masculine. She approved thoroughly of the muscled body and the brash cockiness. He’d earned it, hadn’t he?

Daisy thought, with a stab of guilt, that Magnus Soren had been her perfect cover story.

Of course, she hadn’t slept with him. That would be too much like cheating on Edward. Even though she was with Magnus, not Edward… It had never been about sex with Edward, she had never found him physically attractive, just mentally so.

Magnus, now. Magnus was hot. But Daisy was a romantic. Sex had to be more than just satisfying some bodily urge, didn’t it? She would rather be Mrs Edward Powers than have the best sex ever with Magnus.

I’m just not a sexual person, Daisy thought. She’d slept with Brad, and so she wasn’t a virgin. But the way she remembered it it had hardly been worth the effort of undressing …

Magnus met her at seven at the Car6 Des Artistes. Daisy had chosen a feminine dress, all floaty chiffon and appliqu6 roses, and matched it with a chic little Chanel cardigan in pale green that played up” ler olive skin, newly blow-dried raven hair, and beautiful face, perfectly

made-up.

Magnus grinned when he saw her and kissed her hand.

“

‘Do you like it?’ Daisy asked flirtatiously, twirling around.

‘To be honest? Not really.’

Her face fell.

‘You’re so beautiful normally,’ Soren said. ‘To me, you look best in a white T-shirt and jeans. All that make-up just obscures your skin. It’s like gilding the lily.’

‘I suppose I should find that flattering,’ Daisy said. ‘I don’t bother with make-up myself.’ ‘Very funny.’

They ordered some caviar as an appetiser, then moved on to the

hen lobsters. Soren ordered champagne; PerrierJouet.

‘Not Cristal?’

‘It’s hideously overrated. And overpriced.’

‘I thought money was no object to you.’

‘It’s not; I just don’t enjoy being ripped off.’ Soren looked at her. Daisy was startled by the expression in his eyes. ‘And so, my beauty, it’s time for us to find out what the goddam hell is the matter with you. ‘

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‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Daisy said, taking a fortifying sip of champagne. It was cold, and it gave her Dutch courage. She didn’t want to have this conversation; Soren was making her squirm.

‘Why am I always attracted to problem women?’ he sighed. ‘You date models,’ Daisy scoffed.

‘Beautiful women have problems too. Take you, for example. You’re frigid.’

Daisy started. ‘What?’

‘You heard me.’

‘Just because I don’t want to sleep with you, I’m frigid?’

‘You do want to sleep with me,’ Magnus said confidently. ‘But you aren’t admitting it to yourself. We’ve been seeing each other for

months. We’ve had a good time.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you find me attractive.’ He looked at her. ‘Don’t bother to deny it, Daisy.’

‘I do, yes,’ she said, slowly. ‘Very attractive. But I’m not ready to sleep with you, Magnus.’

‘What? You’re waiting for a ring?’

‘Maybe,’ she said, tilting h& chin upwards.

His gaze moved over her skin, undressing her, his eyes focusing disturbingly on her breasts. ‘If that were true, I’d respect it.’

‘Don’t lie,’ Daisy said, taking another big slug of her champagne. Then need sex, you’d never stand for that.’

‘If I need sex so badly, why I am sitting here with you?’

‘You could have another girl in New York,’ Daisy said mulishly.

‘I could,’ he agreed. ‘But I don’t. If I did, I would hardly need to hide it from you. I’d just leave you.’

‘You wouldn’t wait until we got married,’ Daisy insisted. ‘I’d just marry you.’ Magnus shrugged. ‘Problem solved.’ ‘It’s not that simple.’

‘Actually, it is. You’ll find most things in life are simple.’ His gaze narrowed. ‘You are one person who tends to over-complicate them. That’s always a mistake, Daisy.’

‘I don’t need you telling me how to live my life,’ Daisy hissed.

‘Tell me about my rival,’ Magnus said, reaching across the table and refilling her glass.

That surprised her. Daisy had told him there was someone else in the beginning, when they were at the farm in Dutchess County, but

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Magnus had never mentioned it again, and neither had she. Daisy

had assumed he’d forgotten all about it.

‘That’s … private,’ she said.

‘Is he married? Oh, don’t look so surprised. I’m not as dumb as you must think I am. If he were single, you’d be with him, you wouldn’t be sitting here with me.’ Magnus shook his head. ‘Saving yourself for a married man who doesn’t want you. How counterproductive.’

‘How the hell do you know he doesn’t want me?’ Daisy said, tears blinking under her lashes. She gripped her champagne flute forlornly.

‘I told you, dear. Things are simple. If he wanted you, he would have got a divorce, and he’d be with you.’

‘Well.’ Magnus discreetly passed her a handkerchief, and Daisy angrily dabbed the tears away from her eyes. ‘You’re wrong, as it happens. He does want me. And he will be getting a divorce.’

She pushed her plate away. Magnus reached into his pocket, took out a sheaf of fifties, and threw some down on the table.

‘I’ll take you home,’ he said.

When Magnus’s car pulled up outside Daisy’s building, she felt a ‘gt,,ab

of remorse.

‘Look, I’m sorry how things -‘

‘Don’t be. And don’t look so unhappy. I firmly believe in following your destiny. However, my destiny is not to be another man’s place-holder.’

Daisy went upstairs to her apartment and watched the long black car steal away through the traffic. There was an ache in her heart. But that was natural, right? It had been an enjoyable friendship, until he had started talking about her relationship with Edward.

She went into the bathroom to wash off the careful make-up job he hadn’t liked. Oh well. Maybe he’d call her tomorrow and they’d still be friends. She knew he was in town for a week.

He didn’t call. Not the next day, nor the next. Daisy found herself looking at the calendar, wondering if he would call from the airport.

Nothing..Her phone didn’t ring. Daisy told herself it really didn’t matter. After all, the important thing was that she was going to see Edward.

She spent the weekend in a fervour of excitement. Finally, she was going to be reunited with him.

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When Tuesday morning came, Daisy remembered Magnus’s advice. She wore no make-up at all, just Clarins day cream and a spritz of rosewater, and she chose a relaxed pair of Joseph navy slacks with a simple cream silk shirt and pearls.

When she arrived at Edward’s London townhouse, a beautiful Georgian place in Kensington, Daisy wasn’t even nervous. She felt strangely calm. There would be nobody here but herself and Edward.

She rang the bell.

‘Daisy.’ Edward appeared in one of his trademark dark suits. ‘Come in, won’t you?’

She smiled warmly at hfm and walked into the house. Typical Edward: paintings, faded carpet, beautiful dark woods everywhere.

‘I ordered lunch delivered from a restaurant,’ Edward said, showing her into the dining room, which was laid out beautifully for two. ‘I hope you don’t object to risotto?’

‘Not at all.’ Daisy sat down, feeling his lack of comfort and slightly enjoying it. She felt powerfully in control.

Edward uncorked the wine; Chfiteau Lafite, Daisy saw, wasted on her, but still, a nice gesture.

‘Are you hungry?’ he asked, pouring her a glass, then sitting down in the carved chair at the head of the table.

‘Not really.’ Daisy sipped the wine and took a small forkful of risotto. ‘I mean, it’s delicious, but this lunch really isn’t about food, is it?’

His face shadowed. ‘No.’

‘You wanted to talk to me about Magnus Soren,’ Daisy said. Edward’s pale, drawn cheeks actually flushed slightly. ‘Ahhm. Yes. I hope you don’t think it’s too presumptuous, but I really think you’re making a mistake.’

‘And why is that?’ Daisy asked triumphantly.

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‘Because the man’s a playboy. He’s ruthless, he has a string of girls. Pretty girls … none as pretty as you, of course …’

Edward’s gallantry was making him tongue-tied. He ploughed on. ‘Ahm, and you said you were thinking about having a child with him. But the man’s a bounder. He’s suggesting this and he hasn’t even proposed. You and any child you might have would be very dear to me, and you would both deserve better than that. I really