He lay back and looked at her meditatively. 'So, you've decided to do the job,' he said idly, at last.

Davina shot him a cold little look. 'No, I haven't, not yet. I was merely trying to make the point that I'm trustworthy and respectable.'

'It still seems to be an odd combination,' he mused, unperturbed. 'It also-' he looked down at his glass and frowned '-indicates a preference for a gypsy sort of lifestyle-how come?'

'Just the way I am, I guess,' she said blandly.

He raised an eyebrow. 'And then there's the jump from catering college to photography.'

She said nothing but sipped her drink again.

'And how come,' he pursued, 'if you're so determinedly a "Mrs" you don't wear a wedding-ring?'

'I thought I told you, that's my business-'

'Well, not really.' S. Warwick sat forward. 'I mean, were you-moonlighting as a married woman, for example, for reasons best known to yourself,' he said with soft satire and smiled a sort of tigerish little smile, 'it could be my business too.'

'I fail to see why.'

'I'll tell you-because if you were misrepresenting yourself in one thing, you could do so in others, despite being vetted from top to bottom.'

Davina grimaced. 'I still fail to see in what way it could affect this job. As a matter of fact, were I moonlighting in this respect, it would probably be to protect myself from-'

'All those ubiquitous single men that abound in the land? Ah! Is that the case, then?'

Davina stared at him with her nostrils flared. 'Unfortunately, no,' she said tautly and reached for her bag, then her purse from which she pulled a small gold object and slid it on to her left hand. 'There,' she said. 'My legitimate wedding-ring, and if you're right about one thing, Mr Warwick, the only misrepresentation involved is that I'm no longer married. But I believe I'm perfectly entitled to claim to be a Mrs, despite that small fact, and if you must know,' she went on in a goaded sort of voice, 'I do use the ring and the title when I'm on these kinds of jobs just in case I need the protection of them.'