Page 85 of A Good Heart is Hard to Find
‘Thank you, Charles, but I’m sure I can look after myself … except that I really amnotfeeling very well at all: I don’t think I’m going to be up to it tomorrow.’
‘Always the joker!’ he said with cheery imperviousness, and rang off.
Still, at least if Max won the biddingfor my services I wouldn’t be called upon to provide them for some months, bywhich time I would either have told him definitely that it was all over, or left the country. Or both.
Leaving the country before Dante read my manuscript was something I was thinking of doing anyway, because I really didn’t think he was going to like having an evil vampire ancestor in his beloved house, so I couldeconomically kill two vultures with one stone.
Then I had an even better idea, one fulfilling my promise literally to the letter: when Eddie popped in briefly later I gave him a ghost-pale copy of the manuscript to take to Dante. He was sure to give up trying to strain his eyes before the end of the first chapter!
Saturday found me at the pub being issued with a numbered sticker, along withall the other slaves-for-the-day.
After my past experiences, this time I’d dressed down for the occasion. Contrary to popular belief I did have more practical garments than ankle-length crinkle velvet or crimped silk, and today I was wearing plain black jeans and a polo neck.
Admittedly, the said polo neck was made of stretch black velvet and clung a little, but at least it did not display acentimetreof cleavage.
‘You look terribly sexy in that outfit,’ Orla said, grinning. ‘What on earth are you offering to do this year? Cat burgling?’
‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’ I asked anxiously. ‘I was trying not to look even remotely sexy, because of all that trouble I had that time with old Mr Browne.’
‘Cass, you’d look sexy in a sack, in a hollow-eyed, Morticia Addams kind of way. Oh look– there’s Dante and Rosetta. And isn’t that Eddie?’
‘I’m afraid so. He and Rosetta do seem to be inseparable, don’t they? You can’t see where one ends and the other begins, and Dante doesn’t look too pleased.’
This was an understatement: he’d have put the Grimm into anyone’s fairy tale.
‘No, but I don’t know why,’ Orla said. ‘Eddie’s so sweet! I know he’s a bit off-beat, but—’
‘Not so muchoff-beat as off his head, but in an entirely harmless way.’
‘You don’t look too worried about who’s going to give the winning bid for you,’ Orla said curiously.
‘Because I’m sure Max is the mysterious absentee bidder, with a wallet impelled into action by sheer dog-in-the-manger jealousy. Charles says he will chaperone me if I want him to.’
‘Bit late for that, isn’t it?’ she said, then nudgedme like a schoolgirl as Dante sauntered over, tall, dark and doomy.
She went all pink when he smiled at her, but he didn’t smile at me: just eyed me dispassionately from top to toe, like I was a link in the food chain that might just put him on as a snack until something tastier came along.
Theweakestlink.
I squinted down to check I hadn’t somehow lost my clothing without realizing it, butI still seemed to be covered pretty well from chin to toes. He was definitely in a rage about something, though, unless it was just natural reaction to having bared some of his soul to me, but I hadn’tforcedhim to, after all.
‘What will you do for me if I buy you?’ he asked coolly, but there was a disconcerting glint at the back of his eyes that caused me to blurt unthinkingly:
‘Probably notwhat you think, Dante Chase!’
‘You have no idea what I’m thinking – and let’s keep it that way. But you have certain talents that interest me, and if I can’t have you one way, I’ll have you another,’ he said, and strode off.
‘What the hell does he mean by that?’ I demanded. ‘Orla, stop giggling – it isn’t funny!’
‘Oh yes it is – your face! But don’t worry, I’m sure he just means that he’s goingto enlist you as First Ghoul for the grand opening weekend of Spooky Hall B&B.’
‘He can’t ask me to do that when I haven’t put it on my list. I didn’t even put Crypt-ograms on it, in case he tried to get me to do it when I’d already refused.’
‘So you did expect him to bid for your services then?’
‘No! Yes – oh, I don’t know. I was just being cautious. And thank goodness Jason doesn’t seem tobe here. I knew you were wrong about them bidding against each other.’
‘I put the Marilyn Monroe thing onmylist.’
