The Rich Are Different by Susan Howatch Read Free Book Online

tremble before she pressed her mouth into a firm line.
    ‘The last thing your father should have told you,’ I said dryly, ‘is to beware of middle-aged married millionaires with few scruples and less reputation. You’re a nice little girl, Dinah, and I like you very much, but I’m not entirely a monster and I don’t want to hurt you. Have you any idea what you’re doing, involving yourself with me like this? Be realistic! Free love is a great sport but it can be the roughest game in town. Practise with youngsters in your own league before you take on a partner who could treat you as casually as a gourmet consuming half a dozen oysters between courses and tossing the shells over his shoulder into the garbage can.’
    She did not smile. At last she managed to say in a low voice which shook with anger and fright: ‘You’re brushing me off. You want to get rid of me.’
    ‘Don’t you want what’s good for you?’
    No answer.
    ‘I don’t think you know what you want,’ I said abruptly. I had succeeded in manipulating the conversation in such a way that I was now steering her towards the supreme test, but I knew she suspected nothing. She was off-guard and when I sprang the test on her there would be no chance for her to seek refuge in poses. If she stepped into the pit I was busy excavating at her feet, I would reluctantly be obliged to wash my hands of her, but if she avoided it … I would once more be greatly entertained.
    ‘What
is
it you want, Dinah?’ I was saying with hostility, and then in a sudden volte-face I sat down on the bed beside her, slipped my arm soothingly around her shoulders and said in my most honeyed voice: ‘You can tell me – I’ll understand! It’s not just the money, is it? You want someone who’ll look after you, someone who’ll replace your father, someone who’ll … well, all that talk of free love was just a pose, wasn’t it? You want to get married. You want some nice kind understanding man to take care of you for ever and ever. You want—’
    My arm was pushed rudely away. An urchin’s face with tangled hair and huge blazing dark eyes was suddenly inches from mine.
    ‘I want Mallingham!’ bawled the child, her plain little features crumpling as she burst into sobs. ‘I want my home! I want the only thing that never changes, the only thing that’s always there, and I’ll do anything to get it, anything at all—’
    She stopped. Ireleased her immediately and stood up. Terror sprang to her eyes.
    ‘Well, my dear,’ I said, when it became obvious she was incapable of speech, ‘allow me to congratulate you.’
    She stared at me blankly.
    ‘I like ambition,’ I said. ‘It’s the one currency which never depreciates in value.’
    ‘You mean … No, you can’t mean—’
    ‘I mean you’ve passed your final test with flying colours, Miss Slade. You can have your ten thousand pounds. I accept you as my protégée. Welcome to my world.’

Chapter Three

    [1]
    ‘Be at my office in Milk Street at ten o’clock tomorrow morning,’ I said to her after I had escorted her back to Chelsea, and it seemed strange to hear the response of ‘Yes, Paul,’ instead of the familiar ‘Yes, sir.’
    I did wonder if she would be on time but of course she was. The clock struck ten, O’Reilly ushered her into my room and I told her to sit down in the client’s chair.
    ‘I’ve arranged for you to have a desk and a typewriter here today,’ I told her after we had exchanged the usual civilities. ‘You will write me a detailed report of your plans to launch a cosmetics business. I want to know what kind of cosmetics you intend to sell, how you intend to manufacture them and what kind of marketing techniques you think would be the most successful. I want cost estimates, profit projections and a detailed schedule of the initial capital outlay. You will then write me a short description of Mallingham Hall listing its acreage, history, the general condition of the house and any