Free In Vino Veritas by J. M. Gregson Page A

term discretion.’
    Vanda shrugged her shoulders hopelessly. How could she explain to a man like this the excesses induced by an overwhelming sexual attraction? She had signed this hideous tract at the height of her passion for Martin Beaumont, very probably after an intense session between the sheets. It was a lover’s concession, a lover’s declaration of trust, a lover’s assurance to a man who held her in thrall that she trusted him with the rest of her life, that she did not need dry legal agreements when she was throwing in her lot with him. How could she ever make this dry stick of a man, this Dickensian caricature of legal caution, understand a vulnerability which at this distance she could no longer understand herself?
    She reminded herself sternly that she was paying this man handsomely for his services, that there was really no reason why she should slip into the role of chastened schoolgirl. ‘I realize now that I should have taken legal advice at the time, that I was very foolish not to do so. What I want to know is whether I have left myself any room at all for manoeuvre.’
    James Dolby nodded his acknowledgement of the query, then looked once again at the brief document and shook his head sadly. ‘Very little room at all, I fear. May I ask how good your present relationship with the senior partner in this enterprise is?’ He made a great show of turning back to the beginning of the document, though she was certain he knew perfectly well by this time the name he was seeking. ‘This Martin Beaumont.’
    She suddenly wanted to shock this paragon of respectability, this moving statue of decorum. ‘At the time when this agreement was drawn up, I was sleeping with Martin Beaumont. He was rogering me daily and I was thoroughly enjoying it, Mr Dolby. I’m afraid my feelings at the time affected my judgement, as you can see all too easily from what is in front of you.’
    He was disappointingly unruffled. He raised the grey legal eyebrow the merest fraction, then nodded his head. ‘I wondered if something of the kind was involved. You did not strike me as the sort of woman who would normally tolerate something like this.’
    Vanda supposed that was meant as a compliment. He knew more about the way life worked than she had given him credit for. She had a distressing image of a pinkly naked James Dolby, standing with a lascivious smile at the foot of her bed and launching himself upon her with a most unlawyerlike bellow of ‘Geronimo!’. It was most disconcerting. She told herself sternly that she must banish this most unsuitable of pictures, but it was vivid enough to rear its unwelcome head at various moments during the rest of her day. She said as steadily as she could, ‘I acknowledge now that I was a fool, and I don’t want you to pull any punches to save my feelings. What I need to know is whether this agreement is of any use to me at all at this moment.’
    â€˜Do I take it that your feelings for this gentleman are no longer so . . . er, warm?’
    â€˜You do indeed. I would willingly put a gun to his head, if I thought I could get away with it.’
    Dolby held up a restraining hand. ‘You should not voice such thoughts, Ms North, even in jest.’ But a tiny smile played about the edge of his mouth as he spoke the words, and Vanda apprehended for the first time that he was quite enjoying the rituals of this little exchange. She had no idea whether she was pleased or outraged by this realization. Dolby enquired innocently, ‘And am I right in presuming that Mr Beaumont no longer retains intense and intimate feelings for you?’
    â€˜We haven’t slept together for at least eight years. And you can see from what is in front of you that he never entertained intense feelings for me. I was infatuated with him and I persuaded myself that he felt the same way about me. I know now that that was wishful thinking, mere