Cedric might not be a genius at running a company but he’d learned shrewdness. He understood bribery. But he also understood about gift horses.

‘Count on me,’ he said.

Olympia looked up from the computer as he entered her office.

‘You’d better come and study these files,’ she said. ‘They’ll tell you a lot about how Curtis and Leonate have interacted since they started doing business a year ago.’

‘I think it was actually more like fifteen months,’ he said. ‘It began when Curtis tendered to manufacture a new kind of computer plug.’

‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘You’ve been doing your homework.’ She rose and indicated for him to sit at the computer. ‘Are you familiar with this system?’

‘I think so,’ he said, choosing his words with care. It was the same as the system in use at Leonate’s head office in Naples and in all their other firms, and Curtis had adopted it recently at his own ‘urgent recommendation.’

‘I think it’s a pain in the neck,’ she said with a touch of annoyance. ‘Our old system was much better, but Leonate insisted on this one so that we can network with their other companies.’

‘Is it really a pain in the neck, or do you just hate your new bosses?’ he asked with a faint grin.

‘I can’t afford to hate them.’

‘But if you could, you would, huh?’

‘I think I’d better not answer that. Let me explain how this all fits together.’

She proceeded to give him a run-down of the firm and its relations with Leonate. Her mind was clear and well-informed, and she had details at her fingertips. When his umpteenth attempt to trip her up failed he admitted to himself that he was impressed.

He had also to admit that he was finding it hard to concentrate through the distraction of her perfume. At first he hadn’t been sure she was wearing any, so subtle and mysterious was it. But at close range the muted aroma just reached him, then faded, returned, faded again, teasing him with uncertainty.