Rogue in Porcelain Read Online Free

you get it to me soon enough, as I have no doubt you will.’
    â€˜You’re an angel, Barnie.’ She reached for her shopping bag. ‘I won’t hold you up any longer, but tell Dinah I’ll phone when Max and I have compared diaries.’
    â€˜We’ll look forward to it,’ he said, and had returned to his papers before the door closed behind her.
    Sam Curzon, who had been reading his daughter a bedtime story, paused in the doorway of the sitting room to look at his wife. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, a frown of concentration on her face, her dark head bent over The Times crossword, and he felt a lurch of love for her.
    Aware of his presence, she looked up. ‘All settled?’
    â€˜Yes; she wanted another chapter, but my voice was giving out.’
    He walked across and seated himself in the armchair she was leaning against, running his hand over her sleek hair. He loved the way she wore it, in thick, well-defined layers down the back of her head, leaving her nape exposed and somehow vulnerable.
    Feeling his caress, she tilted her head back and he gave her an upside-down kiss.
    â€˜God, I’m lucky,’ he said.
    â€˜Why in particular?’
    â€˜Having you and Victoria, my two girls. When I think of Finn and Nick going home to empty houses, it puts the fear of God into me.’
    Emma patted his hand. ‘It’s a high divorce rate, certainly, two out of the five of you. I wonder what went wrong.’
    â€˜Well, we know the catalyst in Nick’s case.’
    â€˜But things couldn’t have been right before that.’
    â€˜Who knows?’ Sam reached for his whisky glass. ‘He certainly hadn’t seen it coming, and was pretty cut up when she went, though how much was hurt pride, I don’t know. At any rate, he lost no time selling the house and moving into that luxury apartment of his, and has had a string of girlfriends ever since.’ He sipped his drink. ‘Finn, though, is a different matter; seldom seen on the social circuit, and still living in the house he shared with Ginnie. Perhaps he’s hoping she’ll come back.’
    â€˜Unlikely, I’d say, after three years,’ Emma replied. ‘Maybe we should try some discreet matchmaking; invite him to dinner with a few attractive divorcees.’
    â€˜Do we know any?’
    â€˜I’ll ask Sally to go through her clients.’
    Sally Curzon owned a day spa in Chilswood, offering more beauty treatments than Emma had ever heard of to a clientele of glamorous women.
    â€˜Pity I didn’t think of it earlier,’ she added. ‘I met her and Anna for lunch today. Anna’s a bit worried about all the gossip on the new line.’
    â€˜Surely it’s a good thing, whetting everyone’s appetite?’
    â€˜Is it true the factory dustbins have been raided?’
    Sam laughed. ‘Beloved, the factory dustbins are raided on a regular basis. It’s a way of life.’
    â€˜They can’t find anything important, can they?’
    â€˜Not a chance.’
    â€˜Nevertheless, I’ll be glad when all this secrecy’s over.’
    â€˜And so say all of us. On which subject, Uncle Charles put in an appearance at lunch today. It seems some journalist is wanting to write us up, and Uncle stunned us all by suggesting she should be told of Project Genesis ahead of the announcement.’
    Emma swivelled to stare up into his face. ‘You’re not serious!’
    â€˜ He seemed to be. So that it can be incorporated into her article, due out about the same time.’
    â€˜But how can he be sure she’ll keep quiet? You know what journalists are.’
    â€˜Well, in her defence, she’s not a tabloid one; she works for Chiltern Life. ’
    â€˜All the same,’ Emma said dubiously.
    â€˜Exactly. All the same . . . However, there’s no point in worrying about it. Uncle did promise to discuss it with