Free Deep and Silent Waters by Charlotte Lamb Page B

all, were they? Not aloud, anyway. Their bodies spoke, but not their minds, which were shut to each other, shuttered rooms full of… what?
    ‘Work lined up?’
    She was hot at the moment: soon producers would be beating down her door to offer her work. He watched her eyes, very green against that delicate pale skin, and her pink mouth, warm and sensitive and unbearably sexy. Did she know how desirable she was? When he first met her she had not had any idea what her body could do to men, but she moved differently now, with grace and control. She knew precisely the effect of her body. He had dreamt of being the one to teach her and hated to imagine her with some other man.
    Laura shrugged. ‘I’ve been turning stuff down. Melanie’s getting cross with me. I keep getting offered parts that are dead ringers for the girl in
Goodnight, World, and Goodbye
. Why are so many people copycats? Why don’t they ever take chances, try something new or different? I don’t want to keep playing the same part over and over again. What about you? What are your plans?’
    She was afraid to stop talking shop in case he moved on to something more personal, less safe.
    ‘I want to make a movie here, in Venice. I’ve had one in mind for years and I think I’ve even got a backer.’
    ‘How exciting. Who’s doing the script?’
    ‘At the moment I am. I’ve had a couple of people working on it, but I haven’t been pleased with anything they’ve turned in. The present version has something of the atmosphere but it needs sharpening up.’ They passed a gondola idling on the edge of the Grand Canal and Sebastian asked, ‘Have you been in a gondola yet?’
    ‘No. Mel said they’re a rip-off.’
    ‘Well, you can’t leave Venice without having been in a gondola. It’s too special an experience.’ He hailed the gondolier who, silently moved closer to the edge of the path.
    Alarmed, Laura said, ‘I have to go, I’m meeting Melanie at Florian’s.’ Floating around Venice in a gondola, alone with Sebastian – the idea was too dream-like, marvellous. She was afraid.
    ‘I want you to see Ca’ d’Angeli.’
    Her heart turned over. ‘The house where you were born?’ Was it real, after all? Were there angels and ancient, faded tapestries on the walls, family portraits, echoing marble floors, a reflection of water on the ceilings?
    ‘I’d love to,’ she said wistfully, ‘but I can’t. I have to find Mel.’
    Sebastian curled a hand around her arm just above the elbow and, without looking at her, spoke to the gondolier in Italian.
    ‘Ca’ d’Angeli?’ the man repeated, staring. ‘
Si, Signore
.’ The man contemplated the sky, thought, named a figure.
    ‘A hundred thousand lira?’ Sebastian laughed scornfully and began to argue, shaking his head.
    ‘I really must go.’ Even to herself, Laura sounded helpless, weak-willed. She should pull free and walk away, but she was paralysed, torn between her fear of getting involved with Sebastian again and her desire to see Ca’ d’Angeli, to be alone with him for an hour or two.
    The bargaining ended abruptly. Sebastian jumped down into the gondola, still holding Laura’s hand.
    She tried to move away, but he gave a little tug and tightened his grip. She uttered a faint, bird-like cry of alarm, her foot slipped on the wet edge of the crumbling canal path, and she lost her balance, toppling forward into his arms. Sebastian held her, while the gondola rocked to and fro on the petrol-streaked water.
    Clutching him, she breathed in his familiar scent, eyes closing. Hadn’t she dreamt of this many times? Venice, the canal, a gondola, herself and Sebastian, floating towards the palazzo and the carved stone angels? He pulled her down on to the dark red padded seat, and the gondolier began to pole his way slowly into the Grand Canal.

Chapter Three
    She picked up the telephone twice before she finally dialled. The operator’s distinctly Venetian voice was automatic, briskly polite.