Free A Calculating Heart by Caro Fraser Page A

to him, in your handwriting, on Robert’s desk.’
    ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake! It was to do with something that happened a while ago, nothing that concerned you. Yes, all right, I knew him personally, not just professionally. He’s dead now, and it doesn’t matter. You can’t be privy to every aspect of my private life, you know.’
    She regarded him unhappily. ‘I know. It worries me. I don’t want you to have to lie to me.’
    ‘The bastard was trying to blackmail me, okay? Are you surprised I didn’t particularly want to discuss it with you? When he died, I thought that was the end of it.’ Leo opened the fridge, took out a half-drunk bottle of white wine, and poured himself a glass. ‘In fact, as far as I’m concerned, it is. Now I’m going to cook us some supper.’
    ‘Leo! Someone dies alone in his flat, in mysterious circumstances, you tell me he was trying to blackmail you – and you expect me to regard that as perfectlyreasonable? What else is there that I don’t know?’
    ‘
You
don’t have to make it sound as though I killed him. Look, the little sod was screwing me for a hundred thousand pounds. The fact that I was more than a trifle relieved by his untimely death doesn’t mean I was responsible for it.’
    Camilla stared at him. ‘What on earth did you do that was worth a hundred thousand pounds, Leo?’
    He returned her stare. ‘Believe it or not, sometimes people are blackmailed for things they
haven’t
done.’
    ‘All right-what was it you
didn’t
do that was worth so much?’
    He looked away. These were things he didn’t want her to know, mainly because there was no need … But the conversation had reached a point where there was no possibility of further evasion. ‘He had some photographs, taken in – in unfortunate circumstances!’
    ‘Which is a euphemism for – what, exactly?’
    Leo set down his wine glass. ‘Right. I’ll tell you, exactly as it happened – it’s not going to sound good, but I want you to believe me that it is the truth. Gideon and I went out for the evening, to dinner, and afterwards he suggested going on somewhere, I had no idea where … It turned out to be some kind of gay brothel. Nothing happened, I was there for no more than five minutes, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out, but some – some boy kissed me. That was all. It happened in seconds, a complete set-up. Gideon got it on camera. The boy was fifteen, in care at the time. A couple of weeks later, Gideon let me know, and demanded a hundred thousand to keep it from the papers.’
    Camilla leant against the sink, gazing at him, absorbing this. ‘You were never going to tell me about this, were you?’ She shook her head, looking at him with a hopeless, lost look. ‘I take it this man Gideon was gay. And you were spending time with him, going out with him? It must have been when you had already begun sleeping with me. What do you
do
when you’re not with me, Leo?’
    ‘I told you! Don’t you listen? We merely dined together! I had no idea where he was taking me afterwards! It was a set-up, the whole thing was fabricated!’
    ‘Just like the piece in the papers yesterday? Sarah was right. It can’t all be false, can it, Leo? There has to be some element of truth in it. Something you don’t want me to know. There’ll always be something you don’t want me to know. You and this man Gideon. You and Anthony. That’s another thing you never meant to—’
    The violence of Leo’s reaction to the mention of Anthony’s name astonished her. He threw his half-drunk glass of wine into the sink, smashing it, making Camilla jump. ‘Don’t bring Anthony into this! Don’t mention his name! You will not judge me, do you understand?’
    In the silence that ensued, Camilla’s fear quickly evaporated, leaving her cold and angry. She could tell from Leo’s eyes that he immediately regretted what he had done, but she wasn’t going to wait for him to try to make it better.
    ‘I think I’d better