Fortune's Lead Read Free Page B

good at talking about myself.’ Somehow, since he had taken my statement seriously, I couldn’t go back on it and explain that I had been inventing a character as imaginary as the one he had invented. Flustered, I said hastily, ‘Tell me about you instead. That would be much more interesting.’
    ‘I’m sure it wouldn’t.’ He cocked his head on one side, regarding me. ‘Now, I should have put you down as a model rather than an actress. Perhaps it’s the way you carry your head. Do you do any modelling?’
    ‘No,’ I said truthfully, but feeling fiercely disinclined to tell him that if I carried my head any particular way it was from keeping an eye on thirty beds’ in a ward at once. ‘I—I might try it some time. But you—you haven’t said where you’re going.’
    ‘Epsom. Where I shall be put upon by my sister Catherine, who unfortunately suffers from the delusion that I need looking after.’ He made a quizzically sad face at me. ‘Now really, Shah, looking at me, would you say I looked as if I needed looking after?’
    ‘No, not a bit.’ I could feel my mouth turning up into a grin. He certainly didn’t look anything of the sort: he looked prosperous, alert, and very slightly wicked, sitting there with that leprechaun twinkle in his eyes. I began to feel that, since I wasn’t myself today, I could enjoy doing and saying whatever I liked, and I leaned back in my seat and smiled at him fully. ‘Why do they think you need looking after?’
    ‘Goodness knows,’ he said comfortably, ‘and I shan’t allow it. I think they’d like to see me in a bath-chair before I’m sixty as a penance for enjoying life. Never mind. I shall run away as soon as the meeting’s over. After that I needn’t visit my sister until next season, which will save a great deal of annoyance for both of us.’
    ‘What kind of meeting?’ I asked curiously, visualizing some kind of family firm, with Henry as Chairman of the Board.
    ‘Race meeting.’ He said it with a faint air of surprise, as if I might have known. ‘Don’t you bet?’
    ‘I—have occasionally.’ A hospital sweepstake on the Derby or the Grand National was as far as I’d ever gone in that direction. I added, ‘I’ve never won anything,’ and he looked surprised again.
    ‘Never? You must be very unlucky. I could give you some likely winners for tomorrow—but I won’t.’ He was twinkling at me again. ‘If you’re really unlucky you might cast a spell on them. I couldn’t have that.’
    ‘I don’t suppose I would. But don’t tell me, just in case. Do you usually win?’ I asked politely, since he seemed to be so interested in the subject.
    ‘Let’s say I usually end up with a profit. Enough to feed my daughter’s ponies.’ He paused long enough for me to register that he had a daughter, and then added,
    ‘Tell me, Shah, do you ride?’
    ‘No. I never have,’ I said apologetically. ‘I don’t actually know one end of a horse from another,’ and waited for him to lose interest in me, but instead he looked at me appreciatively and twinkled more than ever.
    ‘Good. I should have guessed. You don’t look at all like a horse.’ The wicked look in his eye deepened, and he leaned towards me confidentially. ‘Horsy women always do, you know. It’s quite frightening. Esther—my daughter—is going to look exactly like a horse by the time she’s twenty-five if she’s not careful. I should never have let her be brought up in Ireland—it was quite fatal.’ I couldn’t help giggling at his expression—and at the mischievous delight he seemed to take in being rude about all his relations. ‘What about horsy men?’ I asked, grinning at him. ‘Why doesn’t it affect them? I mean, you don’t look like one, and...’
    ‘Ah, racing’s different. I’m talking about hunting, and showing. As far as I’m concerned a horse is something to be admired only in the flat-racing season—though a good many people I know would shoot me for