An Immoral Code Read Free Page A

wished that he could study Anthony in that pose, gaze at his youthfulness for a long moment. But the moment passed. Anthony cleared his throat and said, ‘Yes?’ His voice was distant, preoccupied, as though the intrusion was slightly unwelcome. Leo could remember times when it would not have been so.
    ‘I just wondered whether you fancied lunch round the corner. If you’re nearly finished, that is.’ Anthony looked back at his papers, saying nothing, and Leo added, in a slightly gentler tone, ‘We don’t seem to have talked to one another properly in a long time.’
    Anthony looked up. ‘I’m afraid I’ve still got rather a lot of work to do,’ he said. It was true. Next Wednesday they were in the House of Lords, and there were still documents which he had not read. ‘Sorry,’ he added, his voice stiff.
    Leo paused, his hand on the doorknob, then nodded. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Some other time.’ He closed the door, and Anthony sat listening to the sound of his feet on the stairs as Leo made his way to his room. He did not resume his work. He sat staring at the far corner of his room, at the stacks of documents. He remembered how he had sat in this room five years ago, when he had been Michael Gibbon’s pupil andnew to 5 Caper Court, and had listened for Leo’s feet on the stairs, hoping that he would stop and look in. He had always been able to tell Leo’s footsteps; they were more rapid than the others. His heart used to beat painfully if the footsteps passed the room and went on upstairs. He could feel his heartbeat beginning to slow now. The sight of Leo always affected him in this way. Nothing about him ever grew stale or too familiar. His presence was always electrifying. But then, Leo seemed to have that effect upon most people. Look at Rachel.
    Anthony swivelled round in his chair and stared out at the grey autumn sky above the roofs of the Caper Court buildings. Of course, it was nothing to do with Rachel. Anthony had been in love more than a few times, and he couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t got over it by now. Naturally he had. Well, he assumed he had – he hadn’t seen her since just before she and Leo got married, and that was nearly a year ago. Admittedly, he had been steering clear of women since then, but that was largely to do with the burden of this Lloyd’s case, and the amount of work he had to put in. No, it was not Rachel. It was not even the fact that she had married Leo. Rather, it was that Leo had married her. That he had married anyone. Anthony thought back to the times that he and Leo had spent together, times when his friendship with the older man had seemed the most passionately important thing in the world. That was where he felt betrayed. He rubbed his hands over his tired face and turned back to his work, gazing unseeingly down at the papers before him. So why hadn’t he said yes just now? Why hadn’t he just gone for lunch with Leo, let him work his old magic, maybe make things as they had once been? God knows, he missed his company. Anthony sighed. It was because, he told himself, that now Leo was married all that was over. It should stay that way. What was the point of resuming a friendship which seemed toproduce nothing but pain? He put his elbows on the desk and propped his head between his fists, and stared down at the page in front of him:
    … a line slip is a device whereby a broker places 100% of a maximum limit for predefined classes of business, and is then able to cede risks to this line slip upon the approval of the rate and terms by the first two subscribing underwriters without having to see the remainder of the underwriters subscribing to the line slip.
    He read this sentence over and over until it made sense, and Leo’s visit had faded from his mind. Five minutes later, Felicity came in with a few pages of paper.
    ‘This fax just came in for you. It says it’s urgent, so I thought I’d bring it up.’
    ‘Thanks,’ said Anthony. He picked up the