Краткая естественная история цивилизации. Марк Бертнесс

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СКАЧАТЬ me where Miss Roberts went when she left you?’

      Leo braced herself. ‘This is me, Roy. Mrs Silverstein wasn’t feeling well, so I—’

      He did not give her the chance to finish.

      ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? I told you to stop that old bat going on excursions, not give her personal guided tours. You should be back at the office. And what do you mean, leaving me a message that you won’t be at the dinner, tonight? You’ve got to be there. It’s part of your job….’

      He ranted for several more minutes. Mrs Silverstein opened her eyes and began to look alarmed.

      Leo interrupted him. ‘We’ll talk about this at the office,’ she said firmly. She looked at her watch. ‘I’ll come over now. See you in half an hour.’

      ‘No you won’t. I’m already—’

      But she had cut him off.

      ‘Trouble?’ said Mrs Silverstein.

      ‘None I can’t handle.’

      ‘Is it my fault?’

      ‘No,’ said Leo.

      Because it was not. Roy had been spoiling for a fight ever since she first arrived from London.

      Forgetting professional discretion, Leo said as much. Mrs Silverstein looked thoughtful. She had met Roy.

      ‘And he doesn’t like it that you’re not attracted to him,’ she said wisely.

      Leo stared. ‘What? Oh, surely not.’

      Mrs Silverstein shrugged. ‘Good at your job. Independent. Clients like you. All sounds too much like competition to me, honey.’ She struggled up among the pillows. ‘The only way you could put yourself right with the man is by falling at his feet.’

      Leo stared, equally fascinated and repelled.

      ‘I hope you’re wrong,’ she said with feeling.

      There was a knock at the door. Leo got off the side of the bed.

      ‘That must be your lemon sherbet.’

      But it was not. It was Roy. His eyes were bulging with fury.

      ‘Oh, you were calling from the desk,’ said Leo, enlightened.

      He brushed that aside. ‘Look here—’ he began loudly.

      Leo barred his way, giving thanks for the carved screen behind the tiny entrance area. It masked the doorway from Mrs Silverstein’s view.

      ‘You can’t make a scene here,’ she hissed. ‘She’s not well.’

      But Roy was beyond rationality. He took Leo by the wrist and pulled her out into the corridor. He was shouting. He even took her by the shoulders and shook her.

      An authoritative voice said, ‘That is enough.’

      They both turned, Leo blindly, Roy with blundering aggression.

      The speaker was a man with a haughty profile and an air of effortless command. A business man, Leo thought. Someone who had paid for expensive quiet on this executive floor and was going to see that he got what he paid for. The dark eyes resting on Roy were coldly contemptuous.

      Roy did not like his intervention. ‘Who are you? The floor manager?’ he sneered.

      Leo winced for him. On the face of it, the stranger’s impeccable dark suit was indistinguishable from any of the other business suits in the hotel. But Leo’s upbringing had taught her to distinguish at a glance between the prosperous and the seriously rich. The suit was hand tailored and, for all its conservative lines, individually designed as well. Add to that the air of being in charge of the world, and you clearly had someone to reckon with.

      But Roy had never been able to read nonverbal signs.

      He said pugnaciously, ‘This is a private conversation.’

      ‘Then you should conduct it in private,’ the man said. His courtesy bit deeper than any invective would have done. ‘You have a room here?’

      ‘No,’ said Leo, alarmed at the thought of being alone with Roy in this mood.

      For the first time the man took his eyes off the belligerent Roy. He sent her a quick, cool look. And did a double take.

      ‘Mademoiselle?’ he said blankly.

      Leo did not recognise him. She tried to pull herself together and search her memory. But Roy’s shaking of her seemed to have scrambled her brains.

      Meanwhile, the fact that the stranger seemed to recognise her had sent Roy into a frenzy.

      ‘You want to be careful with that one, friend,’ he said. ‘She’ll stab you in the back as soon as look at you.’

      Leo’s head spun as if she had been shot. All she could think of was that Roy must have found out who her father was.

      ‘What?’ she said hoarsely.

      The stranger sent her a narrow-eyed look. ‘It is perhaps that I intrude unnecessarily,’ he said, his accent pronounced. ‘Mademoiselle?’

      Leo shook her confused head.

      Roy snarled, ‘You’re fired.’

      Leo paled. She could just imagine what her father would say to this news.

      ‘Oh Lord,’ she said with foreboding.

      This time the stranger did not bother to look at her.

      ‘Your discussion would benefit from a more constructive approach,’ he told Roy austerely.

      Roy snorted. ‘Discussion over,’ he snapped. He sent Leo one last flaming look. ‘You don’t want to come to the dinner tonight? Fine. Don’t. And don’t come near the office again, either. Or any of my staff.’

      Leo began to be alarmed. She shared an apartment with two of his staff.

      ‘Roy—’

      But he was on a roll. ‘And don’t ask me for a reference.’

      Leo was not as alarmed about that as he clearly thought she should have been. When she said, ‘Look, let’s talk about this,’ in a soothing voice, two bright spots of colour appeared on Roy’s cheeks.

      He took a hasty step forward. Leo thought in a flash of recognition: He is going to hit me. It was so crazy she did not even duck. Instead she froze, panicking.

      Fortunately their companion did not panic so easily. He stepped swiftly in front of her.

      ‘No,’ he said.

      It was quiet enough but it had the force of a blow.

      Leo winced. СКАЧАТЬ