City Girl in Training Read Online Free

the footpath. Then, gentleman that he was, he opened his umbrella and handed it to me as I followed him, before turning to speak to the driver while I dug out my purse and found a five pound note.
    â€˜Put that away,’ he said as I offered it.
    â€˜No, really, I insist,’ I said. I couldn’t let him pay my fare. He didn’t bother to argue. He just closed the taxi door, picked up my suitcase and headed for the front door, leaving me with a five pound note in one hand and his umbrella in the other. The taxi drove off.
    â€˜Hey, wait…’ I wasn’t sure whether I was shouting at the driver, who clearly hadn’t realised he still had a fare, or Mr Tall, Dark and Dangerous himself.
    I’d been warned about the security system on the front door. You had to have a smart card, or ring the bell of the person you were visiting so that they could let you into the building. TDD bypassed the system by catching the door as someone left the building, and was now holding it open. Standing in the entrance. Waiting for me to join him.
    He wasn’t going anywhere, I realised.
    â€˜While the cat’s away…’ he’d said.
    And my memory instantly filled in the blank. ‘The mouse will play.’
    And I hadn’t denied it.
    Did he think I couldn’t wait to get started? Expect to be invited in? Offered…and I swallowed hard…coffee? Had my invitation to share the taxi been completely misunderstood?
    I realised just how rash I’d been. Naïve. Worse…just plain stupid.
    I’d allowed this man whom I’d never met before, whose name I didn’t even know, to give the driver the address. I hadn’t heard what he’d said and, too late, it occurred to me that I could be anywhere.
    And who’d miss me?
    I’d actually told him that my parents were on the other side of the world, for heaven’s sake!
    How long would it be before Sophie and Kate Harrington raised the alarm when I didn’t arrive? When I’d spoken to Sophie, she hadn’t been exactly enthusiastic about me moving in. In fact I’d got the distinct impression that she, like me, had had her arm painfully twisted.
    She certainly wouldn’t be dialling the emergency services today. Or tomorrow. Not until Don called, anyway…
    Anticipation of his agonised realisation that I might not even have got on the train, that my disappearance might be entirely his fault for not seeing me off, made me feel momentarily happier.
    The pleasure was short-lived, however, swamped by instant recall of a lifetime of my mother’s awful warnings about the inadvisability of taking lifts from strangers. And with that thought came relief.
    My mother, even from thirty thousand feet, came to my rescue as, pushing the five-pound note into my jacket pocket, I gripped my attack alarm. It was just a small thing on a keyring and I’m ashamed to say that I’d laughed when she’d given it to me, made me promise I’d carry it with me while I was in London. But, as she’d pointed out, I’d need a new keyring so it might as well be this one…
    I sent a belated—and silent—thank-you heaven-ward before forcing my mouth into an approximation of a smile and looking up at the man I’d decided was tall, dark and dangerous . As if that were a good thing.
    â€˜You really didn’t have to see me right to the door,’ I said, trying on a laugh for size. It wasn’t convincing.
    â€˜I wouldn’t,’ he assured me, ‘if I didn’t live in the apartment next door to you.’
    â€˜Next door?’ He lived in the same block? Next door? Relief surged through me and I very nearly laughed.
    â€˜Shall we get inside?’ he said coolly. He’d clearly cottoned on to my unease and was offended. ‘If you’ll just close the umbrella—’
    In my hurry to comply, I yanked my hand out of my pocket and the keyring alarm flew out with