If some devious game was being played, Sasha had decided she could play it with the best of them.
Hester Wingate leaned back in her chair, the enquiring blue eyes looking even more quizzical. ‘How very clever of you! And perceptive.’
Uh-oh, Sasha thought. Had she gone too far? ‘I hope I wasn’t being impertinent,’ she said in a swift attempt to mend fences. After all the job, bogus or not, did offer an easy and much needed income.
‘Not at all,’ Hester assured her. ‘You’ve struck on the one person I want you to concentrate on most of all. Every bit of dirt you can find. He is the greatest rogue and villain that ever lived. He destroyed my life. To get revenge on him when I meet him on the other side...my dear, I would pay you anything.’
‘And that person is...?’ Sasha prompted.
Hester frowned. ‘I thought you already knew.’
‘I’m not sure,’ Sasha replied with a sinking feeling. Was she reading this situation wrongly?
‘Why, my dear, the man in question is your benefactor.’
Sasha looked towards Nathan Parnell, desperately hoping she misunderstood. Despite his highly individual personality, and very wrong ideas about marriage, she wanted Nathan Parnell to be a good man, not a villain.
‘Seagrave Dunworthy,’ Hester said with hatred in her voice. ‘The man I want to malign and crush is Seagrave Dunworthy.’
Sasha was stunned, all her assumptions shattered in one blow. There could be no doubting the depth of feeling emanating from Hester Wingate. Seagrave Dunworthy had been a real person. His eccentric will must be real as well. Hester Wingate’s dirt-digging venture was real. The prospect of full employment for a long time to come was real. She had been told the truth.
Her eyes flew to Nathan Parnell. He was a good man. He had rescued her from Tyler, directed her to accommodation that met all her needs and more, directed her to a job that would help set her on her feet financially. He was better than Santa Claus.
Except there were two catches to the gifts he bestowed. The kind of marriage he wanted was anathema to her. And Sasha was now faced with a first-class dilemma.
If she did the job Hester Wingate required, and dug up dirt on Seagrave Dunworthy, she risked losing her low-rent accommodation at Seagrave Dunworthy’s house. It was impossible to sustain a pose of highly esteeming a man if she proved he was a rogue and a villain.
The answer came to her. Nathan would know a way around the problem. He had got her into this mess. Now he had to get her out of it. And Sasha would make sure he did.
She smiled at him.
He smiled back at her.
Sasha’s heart did a weird little flip.
How could she feel this sense of togetherness with a man she barely knew, a man who had no belief in the lasting power of love?
CHAPTER SIX
SASHA was shown the history room. Arrangements were made for her to examine all the contents the following day. Hester said Brooks, her chauffeur, would collect Sasha from Mosman and drive her home again. Nathan suggested that Hester acquire a photocopier. Hester told him to organise the purchase and delivery. She wasn’t interested in mechanical things. That was what men were for.
How different it would be if it were a horse, Sasha thought, surprising herself with how readily she was accepting what would have been an alien world to her a week ago. But she couldn’t allow herself to be swept too far from her own objectives. There were problems to be resolved, and the sooner she did it, the better.
She waited until they took their leave of Hester and were in the car again with Bonnie settled in the back seat. ‘What did Seagrave Dunworthy do with his life?’ she asked, wondering if Nathan Parnell was prepared to malign their benefactor.
‘I never knew him personally. He died around the time of the First World War.’
Sasha had the feeling it was an evasive answer. ‘Do you have a copy of his will?’
‘No.’
‘Well, I’ll soon get one. And since this job was your brilliant idea, and you do have legal expertise with wills, you can tell me how I can satisfy Hester without breaking the “highly esteemed” clause.’
‘Easy.’ He grinned at her. ‘Dig up the dirt Hester requires, then prove it’s all wrong. A vicious attack by vicious people on a highly esteemed and worthy man.’
‘Thank you. I knew you’d have an answer,’ Sasha said drily, thinking Nathan had better be proved right on this important point.
He chuckled. ‘You have quite a talent for answers yourself. You handle Hester very well.’