Free A Calculating Heart by Caro Fraser

along in the late afternoon sunshine, he realised that ringing the estate agents had rekindled in him the desire for a more settled life. Maybe he and Camilla would work out. Maybe it would be the best thing for him. He would get rid of the flat, find a nice, friendly house, and wait to see if it changed him. In the meantime, he would concentrate on Camilla, on being with her and making her happy. Perhaps if one was single enough of purpose, determined to make it with one person, it could be achieved.
    Camilla came to the flat a little after seven, weary from a tedious day spent working on an opinion in a case concerning repudiatory breach of a charterparty. She found Leo in a more buoyant, tranquil mood than she had expected. It vaguely irked her that he should apparently have put the scandal of yesterday behind him so quickly and easily. Was it part of his duplicitous nature that he should jettison problems, be they troublesome events or people, so effortlessly?
    He kissed her. ‘You look done in. Glass of wine?’
    ‘I’d rather have a cup of tea, thanks.’ She followed him through to the kitchen. ‘You seem remarkably cheerful, all things considered.’
    ‘My way of dealing with adversity. I’ve decided to make fundamental changes in my life. I’m getting out of this place, finding somewhere better for you and me and Oliver. A house. Would you like that?’
    She should have been relieved that he was so upbeat, not switching off and becoming distant, as he could when beset by problems, but for some perverse reason she couldn’t capitalise on his good mood. ‘Yes. Of course.’ She nodded.
    ‘Don’t sound too thrilled.’ He glanced at her. What’s up?’
    ‘Nothing. Bad day. Horrible case from Eversheds. And Sarah, winding me up about you.’
    ‘Ignore Sarah. She has a talent for making trouble. What did she say?’
    ‘Oh, talking about the thing in the papers, suggesting there had to be something behind it.’
    ‘Come on – you know it’s a complete fabrication. Everything there is to know about that woman, I’ve told you.’ He handed Camilla her tea.
    ‘I know … But the way Sarah talks, that smile of hers … as though she knows things about you I don’t.’ She regarded him with solemn eyes, ‘How well do I really know you, Leo?’
    He put his hands on either side of her face, smoothing back her hair. ‘As well as anyone. As well as anyone I’ve ever loved. You make me feel I could be a better person.’
    ‘I can’t change anything about you, Leo. I’m not that deluded. You’re who you are. I just don’t think you tell me everything, and that frightens me.’
    ‘We’ve been through this before.’ He sighed. ‘Come on. What’s brought this on? Not just the thing in yesterday’s papers.’ Tartly, she moved away from him. ‘What else?’
    ‘The way you still keep things from me. I think I know it all, and then something else crawls out of the woodwork.’
    With a past as chequered as his own, Leo knew there was no point in remotely trying to guess what she’d stumbled upon. ‘Such as?’
    She hesitated for some seconds before replying. ‘That man, that civil servant who died a couple of weeks ago. Gideon something.’
    Leo’s heart sank. ‘Smallwood. Gideon Smallwood.’ He had been enough trouble alive. With his death, Leo had hoped never to have to think about him again. ‘What about him?’
    ‘You said you hardly knew him, that he was just one of the Lloyd’s Names.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Is that the only way in which you knew him? Professionally? Merely as a client?’
    In the few seconds in which Leo hesitated, Camilla could tell he was trying to work out what exactly she knew, and whether or not to lie. ‘Why does it matter?’ he asked. His tone was remote, evasive. She felt heartsick.
    ‘It matters because I need to know how far you’re prepared to lie to me. You say you hardly knew him, but on the day the Lloyd’s case finished, I saw a letter addressed