Free All That the Heart Desires by June Moonbridge Page A

could tell what sort of fragrances would probably be best suited to them. None of them would give credit to Demain . Was she the one that Shore wanted the perfume for? I was angry at myself that I hadn’t turned around and looked at her.
    Finally, I had waited long enough. Dame called me back: he was good enough to allow me to spit out all my anger. I wasn’t easy on him.
    “Are you done?” Harry asked.
    “I think so.”
    “You think so?” he asked.
    “Just tell me; did you know about this?”
    There was a silence.
    “Dame, did you know or not?”
    “I didn’t know, although I should have guessed he was planning something.”
    “Explain.”
    “Why didn’t you call me yesterday after the race? Tell me?”
    I thought about our conversation from the day before and remembered that he had told me to call him if I’d wanted to know why Shore had come third on the Qualifying.
    “I was working on the perfumes. I forgot.”
    “Right. You went to work on the perfumes…”
    “After the race, yes!” I interrupted him. “Two of them I sent out with DHL this morning. You will get them tomorrow.”
    “Leave those damned perfumes now.” He sounded angry. “You were the reason he was third on Saturday.”
    “What the hell…” I started, but Dame interrupted me.
    “Don’t curse!”
    “This goes both ways, Harry—not only one way! How was I responsible for him coming third?”
    “He called me on Friday evening again. He was sure he had seen you at Friday’s free practice when he had driven past the hotel. He almost crashed.”
    I needed a moment that Dame’s words to set in.
    “Why have you gone quiet?” Dame asked.
    “What did he want from you?”
    “Not much. Just everything about you. Who are you? What’s your name? Where do you live? Your family background.”
    “My God. You didn’t tell him, did you?!”
    “Are you mad? Of course, not.” I was relieved. I could trust Dame not to give me away, to anyone. He was my rock. Always.
    After some more questions, I learned about almost everything what had gone on over the last few days. Harry had given Shore the details of the House of Dame’s advertising agency, thinking they would be glad to be in touch with a potential new client.
    “I actually called Luis to tell him to do anything Shore wanted.”
    “How did he manage to get a free billboard place so soon?” I asked him, my anger slowly dying.
    “Well, House of Dame booked that billboard long ago. We don’t use it often, but we have exclusive rights to it – it’s paid in advance for five years. And with everything being digital nowadays, well, Luis did that overnight. ”
    “Ok. Now this makes sense.”
    “What will you do now?” Dame asked me.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Will you put Demain on sale? You have the best ‘free’ commercial.”
    “You know when I’ll put it on sale,” I said.
    Harry sighed.
    “When you’ll find him.”
    “Yes.”

    The next two weeks were even crazier. I was free of Shore, as the Formula 1 caravan had moved to Canada, but every day new customers came and demanded Demain and I was still not ready to sell.
    All three of us somehow managed to keep the perfumery going, although it was tough. Some of the customers threatened to sue me for false advertising. I tried to get the billboard taken down, but, although House of Dame had exclusive rights to it, the space had been double commissioned for the whole summer, and paid for. I begged Harry and Luis to put up another advert to that billboard what was the House of Dame right, but in the end, it was House of Dame’s product. I was unable to do anything.
    Blackbird made his new move after Friday’s free practice in Montreal was finished. I was surprised to see from his message that he was in Canada. He didn’t say where, only that he was convinced my son was there.
    “I want to meet you in person!” I wrote on Skype. But the connection was already lost. And I was lost, too. Totally. Blackbird was toying