The Mistress Purchase by Penny Jordan Read Free Book Online

squeak of female outrage. ‘I would rather—’ she began, and then stopped as Pierre overrode her.
    â€˜But you must do so,’ he said calmly. ‘For if people like yourself do not give their knowledge and their expertise to those who are coming new into the business then how are we to go on? This is a wonderful opportunity for you Sadie!’ Pierre repeated emphatically.
    â€˜It is?’ Sadie stared at him whilst Pierre nodded his head in vigorous confirmation.
    â€˜Indeed it is, and your grandmother would be the first to say so if she were here. Ah, I can remember hearing her tell her father that she longed for the House of Francine to produce a new perfume—a fragrance which would rival that of the most famous perfumery.’
    â€˜You heard her say that?’ Sadie swallowed the emotional lump which was suddenly blocking her throat. She had loved her grandmother so much, and she knew how much Francine had meant to her.
    â€˜You are indeed fortunate to have been given such an opportunity,’ Pierre was telling her.
    â€˜I am?’ Sadie struggled to marshal all the objections she had had no difficulty in hurling at Leon’s head. ‘But I prefer to work on a one-to-one basis with my clients,’ she managed to point out.
    â€˜Pff…’ Pierre gave a Gallic thrust of his shoulders. ‘Filmstars and the like—they come and go and are as changeable and fickle as a mistral wind! They would quite happily take your perfume and claim it as their own creation if it suited them, and just as easily turn to someone else.’
    A little reluctantly Sadie was forced to acknowledge that what he was saying had a grain of truth to it. Right now her own perfumes were very popular, but that could all change overnight. And if it did…
    She frowned. What was she trying to tell herself? Surely she wasn’t actually going to give in—to sell out—let Leon walk all over her?
    But what if Pierre was right? What if she could create a wonderful new perfume—so wonderful and so popular that the whole world would want to wear it?
    Sadie began to feel slightly dizzy, almost drugged with her own surging excitement, with the thought of fulfilling her grandmother’s unexpectedly revealed dream.
    But Sadie was no fool. She knew perfectly well that it was impossible to mass-produce a perfume created only out of natural ingredients, which meant…
    â€˜I can’t do it, Pierre,’ she told him, shaking her head. ‘You know how I feel about synthetic scents.’
    Pierre nodded. ‘Indeed, we all feel the same, but theseare modern times and it is impossible to mass-produce a scent from natural materials alone. There has to be a compromise…But think of what a triumph it would be were you to create one based on a perfect combination of old and new, natural and synthetic.’
    â€˜No one has ever managed to do that,’ Sadie objected.
    â€˜Until now,’ Pierre told her slyly.
    Giddily Sadie tried to clear her head.
    â€˜Do you really think that I can do it?’ she asked Pierre shakily.
    â€˜Of a certainty! If not you, then who else? You have the history and the knowledge, the experience, the tenderness, the understanding…You have a gift and, like a truly exceptional perfume, it is only waiting to be released in order to charm everyone who experiences it!’
    Sadie stared at him in bemusement. She felt as though she was riding a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts. Could she do it? Could she create a perfume to rival that of the very greatest of houses?
    She could almost see it in her mind’s eye. She would call her perfume Francine…. It would have a similar base to Myrrh, but be a little lighter, delicate enough to make everyone who smelled it move closer to its wearer in order to breathe it again. It would be sensual and yet joyously teasing, flirtatious but still serious—a woman’s perfume, passionate,