Yancie at once saw another glimmer of hope. By the sound of it he was more interested in giving her a grilling than dismissing her. `I do,' she assured him sincerely.

'Why?' Just the one word.

Grilling? He was giving her a roasting! `I've never done anything but housekeeping before,' she began to explain, by then certain that this very thorough man who knew she had been with the firm a very short while also knew that the previous occupation she'd listed on her application form was that of housekeeper. `I thought I'd like a change. And I really love my work,' she smiled. She loved the freedom, the use of a car. `I am a good driver,' she thought to mention. Though at his steady, grey-eyed stare she felt obliged to add, `Normally.'

'You do appreciate that while you're wearing the company's uniform, and driving one of the company vehicles, that you are an ambassador for Addison Kirk?'

'Oh, yes,' she agreed, ready to agree to anything as the feeling started to grow that, by the skin of her teeth, it looked as if she might be able to hang onto her job.

'You also appreciate that any bad driving and subsequent insolence to another road user reflects extremely badly on the company?'

Oh, for Pete's sake! Yancie could feel herself getting annoyed again-what was it with this man? Quickly, she lowered her eyes. She couldn't afford to be annoyed. She couldn't afford that this shrewd man opposite should read in her eyes that she'd by far prefer to tell him to go take a running jump than answer him. She swallowed hard on her annoyance.

'Yes, I do appreciate that,' she replied as evenly as she could-and raised her eyes to see, astonishingly, the merest twitch at the right-hand corner of his mouth-for all the world as though she amused him!

In the next moment, however, his expression was as stern and as uncompromising as it had been throughout the interview. `Good,' he said, and a wave of relief started to wash over Yancie. Surely that `Good' must mean `Right, you've had a wigging, now clear off and don't do it again'. She consequently got something of a shock when, his expression lightening very slightly, he stared fully and totally imperviously into her lovely blue eyes, and enquired, `What were you doing on that stretch of the motorway yesterday?'