'See you as soon as I can park,' said David before he backed and rejoined the stream of traffic passing outside.
As the two women went into the hotel Ruth whispered: 'I'm so nervous! Are you? You don't look it, but then I suppose in New York you got used to places like this . . .'
Judith glanced around and one of the hotel staff came over with a smile. 'May I help you, madam?'
'Yes, we're guests at Mr Doulton's party,' Judith told him, and his smile widened.
'Of course, madam, Mr Doulton is using one of our private suites—I'll send a pageboy to show you the way.' He glanced at their fur jackets. 'The cloakroom is down here, madam, if you would care to leave your coats.'
Judith stood, glancing around her, while Ruth was in the ladies' room powdering her nose. The hotel had a distinctive period feel; you half expected Noël Coward to come sauntering out of the lifts at any moment. The decor and ambiance was strictly of the nineteen-twenties.
They heard the party before they arrived; the room was already crowded with people and Judith's first glance around the faces told her that she knew a number of them by sight. They were mostly very rich people whose faces appeared in newspapers; financiers, film stars, jet-setters. Well, had she expected Luke Daulton to invite nobodies to his party? she asked herself with a cynical twist of her lips.
Hallo,' said Luke, catching the smile before she could shut it off. 'I hope you're going to enjoy yourself.' His grey eyes mocked her and the ambiguous ring of the question made it clear he doubted that very much.
'Oh, I'm sure I'll find plenty to amuse me,' Judith said sweetly, and watched his firm mouth curl in amused enjoyment.
'Let me introduce you to some of my friends,' he offered, glancing around.
'Oh, please don't,' she refused. 'I'll just prowl around and see what I come up with, thanks.'
Baba was talking to Ruth a few feet away. She turned and gave Judith a neon smile, her eyes so bright she looked as if she might burn out at any minute. Judith wondered how she managed to move in the skin-tight wild silk dress; her tanned arms and face looked superb against the white silk, but Judith would never have dared to buy a dress that tight. You needed a figure like Baba to show it off, but how on earth did she walk? Slowly, it appeared, as Baba joined them, one step at a time, her body swaying.
'You look terrific,' Judith told her, and Baba laughed, delighted.
'Thanks, so do you—doesn't she, Luke?'
Judith met his gaze wryly. He ran his eyes deliberately from head to foot and Judith did a slow burn at the cool inspection, when his gaze came back to her face she was icy with resentment. 'Yes,' he said. 'On second thoughts maybe I'd better not introduce you to any of my friends, they're mostly with their wives. I wouldn't want t
o ruin some happy marriages.'
Baba laughed, but Judith was not amused, he didn't mean a word of that, but she wouldn't let him make fun of her and get away with it.
'I'm not the home-wrecker type,' she said, looking around the room and thinking that there wasn't one man there who looked interesting, anyway. Her eyes picked out one man under forty, though, whose face looked vaguely familiar although she couldn't put a name to it. She stared and felt him become aware of her, his hazel eyes focusing on her. Judith turned back to Ruth.
'Let's circulate, shall we? See you later, Baba.' She moved away and Ruth fell into step. A waiter offered them a tray of champagne; they each took one and as they sipped the golden wine someone halted beside them.
'Hallo, we've met, haven't we?' It was the man she had spotted a moment ago and she wasn't really surprised at his appearance. She smiled at him, her head to one side.
'I thought I'd seen you before.' He was a slim, broad-shouldered man in his thirties with fair hair and a good-tempered smile, his hazel eyes lively and warm. He wasn't handsome, but he had a face Judith liked immediately.
'I'm Robert Gordon—you're with Schewitz and Quayle, aren't you? I'm afraid I don't remember your name.'
'Judith Murry.' He was offering his hand, she shook it, then introduced Ruth. 'When did we meet?' Judith asked him after he had shaken hands and smiled at Ruth.
'John Atkins acted for us when my company went public four years ago. I met you several times in meetings with John to discuss the launch.'
It was the sort of negotiation which the bank handled frequently; Judith couldn't remember him—but then the occasion would have been much more important to him, he probably remembered it vividly whereas to her it had just been another business deal.
'Do you know everyone here, Mr Gordon?' Judith asked him.
'Robert,' he insisted, smiling at her. 'No, I hardly know a soul; I was so relieved to see you, at least I knew who you were and had some excuse for coming over.'
She laughed. 'I know how you feel—we were just wondering how we were going to get through the evening.'
'You should have brought your boy-friend,' he said, glancing at her ringless hand.
Their eyes met and Judith gave him a dry smile; he was fishing, but she had no intention of letting him catch anything.