The Monte Carlo Proposal Read online

  ‘That makes this Vanner character a creep, but why Bullen?’

  ‘Because Vanner would only crawl to an even bigger creep than himself.’

  ‘I suppose that’s logical,’ he admitted.

  ‘He even sent him gold and diamond cufflinks. I ask you!’

  ‘That’s really disgusting. And who needs gold and diamonds? Look at these-’

  He flashed his own cufflinks at me and I was startled. They were really rubbish, and I mean really. My family is expert in appraising jewellery and I absorbed it with my mother’s milk.

  Not that I needed expertise with these. They looked as if they’d come off a market stall, and the mother-of-pearl was peeling.

  ‘You do know The Hawk, don’t you?’ I challenged him.

  ‘In a sort of way,’ he said vaguely.

  I wondered if he was one of the ship’s stewards, enjoying a night out. Despite his fancy shirt and bow tie this man was short of cash. His winnings probably represented a fortune to him.

  ‘You’d better pick up your money,’ I said.

  ‘Can I risk letting you go?’

  ‘I’ve got nowhere to run.’

  He released my wrist and bent to grasp some of the notes.

  ‘How about helping me?’ he asked, looking up.

  ‘I’d rather not touch your cash.’

  ‘OK, OK, you’re not a thief and I’m sorry I said it. Now, will you help me before a wind gets up and it blows away?’

  I picked some up, deciding that my first thoughts had been right. Clearly this man needed every penny.

  ‘So now tell me what you’re doing here? Or can I guess? You’re running from Vanner the creep?’

  ‘Right! And from the other creeps that he wanted me to “be nice” to. This is his dress.’

  His lips twitched.

  ‘I’ll bet he doesn’t look as good in it as you.’

  ‘Very funny. I jumped overboard to escape him, and now I don’t know what to do or where to go. I need the Consul, but Monaco is so tiny it probably doesn’t have one.’

  ‘Yes, it does-well, a Vice-Consul anyway. If you like I’ll take you to find him.’

  I nearly collapsed with relief.

  ‘Would you really? Thank you, thank you-could we go now, please?’

  ‘All right. Just let me-’

  ‘That’s her!’

  The voice came from the darkness, but it was followed at once by Vanner scurrying across the lawn like a black beetle.

  ‘Get her!’ he shrieked. ‘Arrest her.’

  He was followed by two gendarmes who headed for me.

  ‘Hold on a minute, there!’

  The man from the casino spoke in a lazy voice, but there was something about him that stopped everyone in their tracks.

  Vanner recovered first.

  ‘This woman is a thief,’ he shrieked. ‘She stole money from me before leaving my boat. Look, she’s holding it. That’s mine. I demand that you arrest her.’

  The gendarmes started to move again, but the man placed himself between them and me, and I realised again just how big he was. He could have dealt with two of them easily.

  ‘The money’s mine,’ he said. ‘This lady was helping me to pick it up. We hadn’t finished, as you can see.’

  He indicated the grass, where some stray notes still lingered.

  ‘You’re lying!’ Vanner shrieked. ‘The money’s mine. She’s a thief.’

  ‘I suppose you’re Hugh Vanner,’ the man said, eyeing him with open contempt.

  A new look, part caution, part suspicion, came over Vanner’s face.

  ‘How do you know who I am?’

  ‘I recognise you from the description.’

  This was kind of a private joke, since only he and I knew what that description had been.

  Vanner shot a look at me.

  ‘What have you been saying about me?’

  ‘That you’re a low-life who tried to force me to sleep with your business buddies,’ I said. ‘That’s why I had to jump overboard-’

  ‘With my money!’

  ‘Don’t say that,’ the man said quietly. ‘I’m warning you, don’t say it.’

  ‘You’re warning me? Who are you to tell me what to do?’

  The man looked surprised. ‘I’m Jack Bullen.’

  It was worth anything to see Vanner’s face at that moment. Even in the garden lights I could see him go green. This was the man he’d been trying to reach, to impress, and he’d met him like this.

  Of course I knew there wasn’t a word of truth in it. I’d given him the clue to dealing with Vanner and he’d taken it up brilliantly. And who was to know he wasn’t really Jack Bullen, just as long so nobody saw his cufflinks?

  ‘You’re Jack Bullen?’ Vanner said in a strangled voice that did me the world of good to hear.

  ‘The one you sent the gold cufflinks to. Remember?’

  Vanner gulped and began frantically back-pedalling with the gendarmes, assuring them that it was all a misunderstanding. They scowled at him, but finally departed.

  ‘That’s better,’ Vanner said, trying to sound in command of the situation. ‘Mr Bullen, you and me need to do some serious talking-’

  ‘When you’ve returned this lady’s property,’ he said coolly.

  ‘When I-?’

  ‘Her clothes, her passport, and whatever you owe her in wages.’

  ‘I suppose I’m well rid of her at that.’

  ‘Deliver everything to The Hawk. That’s where I’m going now.’

  ‘Fine, fine. We can share a cab to the harbour-’

  ‘No, we can’t. Send those things over and don’t keep me waiting.’

  I couldn’t see him well as he said this, but I had a good view of Vanner, and I saw the startling change that came over his face-a kind of withering. He’d seen something in this man’s face that made him fall silent and take a step back.

  The man took my arm and began to walk away.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ I whispered. ‘You were going to take me to the Vice-Consul.’

  ‘I’ve changed my mind. We’re going to The Hawk.’

  ‘Oh, no! Not another yacht. I’ve had enough of them to last a lifetime.’

  I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t release my arm. He wasn’t holding me all that tightly but there was no way I could escape.

  He hailed a passing cab and almost tossed me into it. ‘Now, look here-’ I began.

  ‘No, you look here. You can go with Vanner, with the gendarmes, or with me.’

  ‘Or I can go to the Vice-Consul.’

  ‘If you know where to find him. And just how long do you want to wander around dressed-or rather undressed-like that?’

  ‘Are you daring to take advantage of my condition?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m doing.’

  ‘That’s blackmail.’

  ‘It’s what I’m good at. Now, shut up or I’ll toss you back into the water.’

  I opened my mouth to tell him what he could do, but then shut it again. Not because I was afraid of his threats, or of him. I wasn’t.

  But I’d seen a gleam in his eyes that undermined his words. He was laughing, challenging me not to laugh with him, and despite everything I found myself doing so.

  That was the moment when it all began.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jack’s Story

  M OONLIGHT and roses. Trees waving gently in the Mediterranean breeze. Romantic music playing in the distance.

  It was twenty-three-hundred hours and I was standing outside Monte Carlo Casino, ten grand richer than when I’d gone in.

  Yes, that was the state I’d reached. Moonlight. Twenty-three-hundred hours. Ten grand.

  But what else did you expect? I’m Jack Bullen. King Midas. Whatever I touch turns to ten grand. Or, if we’re talking real money, ten million.

  But tonight was only gambling, so I made do with pocket money.

  I blame my grandfather, Nick, and his cufflinks. When he gave them to me he s
aid they were lucky and they would help me win. And, dammit, he was right.

  I don’t win every single time. It’s not quite as bad as that. But I win often enough to come out richer. And it’s all his fault.

  I blame him for a lot more than that. Starting with my father. Nick was a happy-go-lucky fellow, who loved his family, earned enough from his little grocery business to get by, and enjoyed a laugh. So, according to Sod’s Law, he was bound to have a son who thought he was feckless and worked night and day to ‘better himself’.

  I don’t know if my father got better, but he certainly got richer. He started work in Grandpa’s grocery and gradually took over, shunting his father aside. When he finally inherited the shop he built it into a chain, and raised me in the belief that my mission in life was to climb ever onward and upward to the glorious heights of tycoonery.

  I’d rather have been a vet, and if Dad had lived longer I might have fought it out with him, but he died when I was fifteen and you can’t argue with a dead man. Especially if he’s left you everything.

  Every last penny.

  Which was unfair on my older sister, Grace, who was left to look after me, our mother being already dead. She didn’t complain, because she’d picked up Dad’s ideas about my dynamic future.

  So I ended up doing business courses, computing, economics, just as if Dad were alive, because Grace said so.

  As soon as I could touch my inheritance I transferred a fair share to her, but by that time it was too late. I was trapped in business and success.

  Oh, yes, I was a success. I made money. The firm prospered. I bought another firm. Before I knew it I was a conglomerate.

  I tried to lose money, I swear it. Don’t even ask me how I ended up owning a cable television channel. It was a kind of accident. The channel showed light porn. The screen was always full of nubile girls wriggling around half dressed.

  I changed all that. Out went the girls. In came animal programmes, stuff about vets, nature expeditions, deep-sea diving. I bought up the rights to old animal series that hadn’t been seen for years, and the public loved it. Advertisers fought to give me their business.

  Suddenly I was the wonder man whose finger on the public’s pulse was never wrong, the visionary who could see past cheap smut to an audience starved of beauty, the marketing genius who could make wildlife profitable.

  Actually, I just enjoyed animal programmes.

  It was like having a pact with the devil, only this devil was called Grandpa Nick. Wherever he was, he knew the terrible things money and success had done to me. I was out of my mind with boredom, and I swear sometimes I could hear the old man cackling.

  There was nothing for me to do. Any fool can make money if they start out with a pile that someone else worked for.

  Where were the great challenges in life?

  At the moment my biggest challenge was fending off Grace’s attempts to match me with Selina Janson. I usually ended up doing what Grace wanted because I felt so guilty at the way my life had been lived at the expense of hers.

  It shouldn’t have happened that way. She’s only ten years older than me, and she could easily have married, especially after I struck out for myself.

  When you fly the nest that’s supposed to be it, right? You don’t reckon on the nest flying after you.

  But Grace nobly declared that nothing would make her abandon me, and I couldn’t hurt her by saying how much I longed to be abandoned.

  So here I was, mid-thirties and still officially sharing a home with my sister. I have my bachelor pad in town, and I’m there most nights, but Grace pretends it’s just the odd occasion.

  Maybe that was why she’d redoubled her efforts to marry me off to Selina.

  ‘I don’t know what you’ve got against that lovely girl,’ she complained to me a few weeks earlier.

  ‘I’ve got nothing against her,’ I protested. ‘I’ve never had anything against any of the girls you’ve tried to handcuff me to. But if I married every girl I’ve got nothing against, my wives would fill a city and there’d be some sort of scandal.’

  ‘I do wish you’d be serious,’ she fumed. ‘It’s no way to approach life.’

  ‘It’s a great way to approach not being married off against my will.’

  ‘You’ve got to marry some time.’

  ‘Why? For all you know I might be gay.’

  ‘Don’t give me that nonsense,’ she snorted. ‘Not after that girl who-’

  ‘Yes, never mind,’ I said hastily.

  ‘You need a suitable partner in life, and you should be looking carefully.’

  ‘Why? I’ve got you looking carefully for me,’ I said, as lightly as I could.

  As I knew she would, she missed the irony.

  ‘Yes, I am, and it takes a lot of trouble to weed out the unsuitable ones.’

  ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t weed them out,’ I said meekly. ‘It would probably do me a lot of good to meet someone unsuitable, as an awful warning. It might really teach me a lesson.’

  ‘Oh, stop playing the fool. I know all about the sort of semi-clad females who float through your apartment-’

  How did she know? She never saw them. I’d made sure of that. But Grace had her spies and they could teach MI5 a thing or two.

  I couldn’t resist teasing her.

  ‘They’re not all semi-clad. Some of them wear nothing at-’

  ‘That’s enough. We’re talking about your future wife.’

  ‘I was trying not to talk about her. Why Selina?’

  ‘Because she has the very best connections. Her mother’s related to a title, her father’s one of the richest merchant bankers in town-’

  ‘And you think I’m so hard up that I need to marry money. Thanks!’

  ‘Money should marry money. It doesn’t pay to spread it around too thin.’

  ‘Gracie, darling-’

  ‘And don’t call me, Gracie. It’s vulgar.’

  ‘We are vulgar. You talk as though we were heirs to an ancestral fortune, but Grandpa Nick made just enough to get by. Dad worked himself into the grave to make more than he needed, and, heaven help me, I’m going the same way. I’ll swear I’m getting grey hairs.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Here at the side. Can you see?’

  ‘No, I can’t,’ she said, giving me the fond smile that reminded me that I did actually like her a lot. ‘You’re too handsome for your own good, and you know it.’

  ‘I’m still going grey from the treadmill I’m on. If I knew a way to jump off it I would, but I won’t manage that by marrying Selina Janson.’

  ‘I didn’t mean to make too much of her money,’ Grace said in a relenting tone. ‘It’s simply that she has all the right qualities.’

  With difficulty I refrained from tearing my hair.

  ‘No, Grace, she has only one of the right qualities, and that’s the fact that I have nothing against her. It needs a lot more than that.’

  She eyed me suspiciously.

  ‘You haven’t become entangled with some floozie, have you?’

  ‘Why floozie?’ I growled. ‘I might have met a nice girl.’

  ‘Then I’d know about her. Who is she?’

  I was about to say that she didn’t exist when some instinct for self-preservation stopped me.

  ‘I don’t think I ought to tell you any more just now,’ I said, choosing my words carefully. ‘I don’t want you investigating her to find out if she’s “suitable”.’

  ‘Meaning that she isn’t?’

  ‘She’s suitable for me,’ I said.

  I accompanied the words with a smile which was meant to be knowing, but I had a horrible feeling I just looked foolish. I don’t think Grace noticed. She was seething at my mad dash for independence.

  ‘Surely you can tell me something about her?’ she demanded. ‘What does she look like?’

  ‘She’s beautiful.’

  ‘What else?’

  ‘She has a perfect figure and she’s very sexy,’ I im
provised wildly.

  ‘Where did you meet her?’

  ‘Around.’

  ‘Really, this is very unsatisfactory.’

  ‘Not to me,’ I said.

  ‘Well, I’ve made arrangements for the summer now, and it’s too late to change them.’

  The hairs began to stand up on the back of my neck. ‘What arrangements?’

  ‘Oh, don’t pretend not to know. We talked about chartering a yacht and you agreed.’

  ‘You vaguely mentioned a yacht,’ I said, frantically searching my memory, ‘but I don’t think we actually agreed-’

  ‘I said we should charter a yacht to cruise the Mediterranean and you said, ‘Sure.’ Which is what you always say. Raymond Keller is eager to join us. You said yourself he’s bound to be the next president of Consolidated, and you can get him tied up while we’re out at sea.’

  ‘You’ve actually invited-?’

  ‘Only in a vague sort of way. And there are one or two other contacts I’m working on-’

  She rattled off a list of names and I had to admit they were well-chosen. All of them useful, all people I’d feel easy with and could make money out of. Grace knew her stuff, which was how she got away with being a bossy-boots.

  I was beginning to feel almost relaxed about it when she said, ‘And of course Selena will be there.’

  ‘What do you mean, of course?’

  ‘Well, the others will be couples, so naturally-’

  I’ll spare you the rest. Enough to say that I made a ritual protest, but gave in when I realised how I’d been backed into a corner. There wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it without offending someone that it would be inconvenient to offend.

  I just wish that some of the financial journalists could have been there to see. According to them I am Master of the Game, he whose will is law. Minions go in fear and trembling of my lightest word.

  Hah!

  They should have seen ‘Bully Jack’ cave in to Grace, that’s all I can say.

  Before I knew it everyone had accepted the invitations I’d never given, including Selina and her parents.

  To protect myself, I issued a few invitations of my own. First there was Harry Oxton, who’d been trying to make an impression on Grace for a couple of years. He was a widower, a kindly man who put up with the way my sister used him when she needed an escort and forgot him at other times.