Beware of the Beast Read Online Free PDF Page B

wearing?" she demanded resentfully, looking down at the navy wool suit which she had last worn at her father's funeral. "I'll have you know this suit was made to my design at a boutique where I - where I worked before..."
    "You haven't worked since your father's death," Alex stated calmly, revealing a closer knowledge of her affairs than she had imagined. "And many of the clothes sold there are cheap and badly finished."
    Charlotte caught her breath. "You don't know that"
    "I assure you, I do. Besides, you don't suit that flat shade of navy. Royal blue would suit you far better."
    "Have - have you been spying on me?"
    "Not personally, no. I left my binoculars in Greece."
    "Don't make a fool of me!" Charlotte shifted restlessly. "Well? Have you had someone watching me?"
    Alex sighed resignedly. "In my position it's necessary to investigate everybody I come into contact with - " "Oh, God! That's terrible!" "But necessary, I do assure you." Charlotte turned away, biting her lips. "I could never be like that."
    "You may have to be," he replied quietly. Then, as the doorbell chimed: "This sounds like lunch."
    They ate in the lounge from the folding table sent up from the restaurant, seated by the windows which allowed one a panoramic view far beyond the Thames, to the expanse of green which was Richmond Park. During the meal, Alex talked, general things mostly which Charlotte answered in monosyllables but which nevertheless relaxed her sufficiently to enjoy at least a part of the meal> and she guessed that this was his intention^ A clear vegetable broth was followed by the roast beef he had promised, and to finish there was a chocolate sponge pudding. He smiled when Charlotte refused the dessert, and had a second helping.
    "You must forgive me," he said, pouring custard from a jug. "Sponge puddings have always been my favourite form of dessert and I always indulge my weakness when I am in London. Henri, the chef downstairs, keeps this on his menu especially for me."
    "I'm surprised you don't have a food taster," remarked Charlotte rather spitefully, and Alex's smile deepened.
    "It may come to that," he conceded dryly. "Are you as venomous as you sound?"
    Charlotte sighed frustratedly . "Well!" she said defensively. "Private investigators, bodyguards! It's archaic! I'm sur prised they don't live in the apartment!"
    "Oh, but they do," Alex told her mildly.
    "But - we left them downstairs ..."
    "I didn't want to alarm you," he replied, finishing the wine in his glass and getting up from the table wiping his mouth with the table napkin. "I thought we would take it slowly."
    "Slowly! Slowly!" Charlotte stared at him angrily. "You call forcing someone to marry you taking it slowly?"
    Alex shrugged, regarding the array of bottles revealed by the opening of the cocktail cabinet with apparent considera tion. "I would suggest you started accepting that situation and considered the advantageous aspects of it."
    "What advantageous aspects?"
    Alex held up a bottle of cognac, but Charlotte shook her head quickly and with an indifferent gesture he poured some into a balloon glass. Then he walked back to where she was still sitting at the table in the window, cradling the glass in his hands.
    "Let me tell you about Lydros , hmm?" He paused. "It is an island approximately fifty miles off the mainland of Greece, in the group of islands known as the Cyclades ." He swallowed a mouthful of his cognac, ignoring Charlotte's apparent disinterest. "We are very lucky on Lydros - there is an adequate water supply and we are able to grow much of our own produce. Old Spiro Santos, the father of those two brothers who also work for me, makes wine, and it is rich and sweet, like the grapes from which it is squeezed."
    "I'm really not interested," retorted Charlotte tightly, but Alex merely smiled that infuriating smile and Charlotte could have slapped him,
    "You will be," he assured her. "You will be living there in a little less than two weeks. I have to leave