Free The Doll’s House by Evelyn Anthony Page B

fresh fruit in a ribboned basket. Lavish curtains and a handsome antique bed.
    Not much like the seedy doss-houses and safe flats where he’d spent so many dangerous days and nights when he was active.
    In the last few years when he left his desk to travel, it was second-class accommodation with a tight expense account. Some stingy bastard scrutinized the items and queried them down to the last glass of beer. The office was mean to its servants, and their meanness to him was going to cost his former masters dear.
    He knew the manager would be coming up to welcome him. He and his assistant were a pleasant, efficient couple and had run a first-class hotel. They’d be eager to please him. They had no reason to suspect that he had come down to sack them both. It was time to bring the dolls into the doll’s house.

3
    Rosamund Bennet’s marriage broke up on the Fourth of July. There was a private party at the American Ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park. Rosa had met him and his wife several times and thought them a charming couple. They formed the same opinion of her. She arrived early, hoping not to get home too late. It was a lavish party, in the splendid neo-Georgian mansion given by the Woolworth heiress, Barbara Hutton, for the US Ambassador’s home in London. A band of US Marines played in the large reception room.
    Her name was announced and she shook hands with her hosts.
    â€˜Nice to see you, Rosa,’ the Ambassador welcomed her. His wife said something complimentary about her dress and moved to the next guest.
    It was more of a personal invitation than the big official party in Grosvenor Square. Rosa was surrounded by familiar faces; she was caught up very quickly by people glad to see her. She was elegant and charming, rather a rarity in the Foreign Office female complement.
    â€˜Hi there, Rosa! I was looking out for you – how are you?’
    A hand grasped her lightly by the elbow.
    â€˜Hello, Dick.’
    Dick Lucas was a regular on the diplomatic circuit. He was a US Naval attaché, a popular and attractive bachelor in his mid-thirties.
    Whenever possible he monopolized Rosa. The message was clear enough; she chose to disregard it. But she liked him. He was amusing and his persistence was flattering. He always took her refusals in good part. He tried plying her with champagne, making her laugh with bits of gossip.
    â€˜No,’ Rosa resisted. ‘No more for me, Dick. I’ve got to drive.’
    â€˜OK. I’d offer to take you out to dinner, only I know you’ll say no.’
    She laughed. ‘Then why do you keep asking?’
    â€˜Because one day I might get lucky.’
    She always came alone. He had been surprised to learn she was married when he asked about her.
    The husband was an investment banker. Nobody showed much interest in him. Rosamund Bennet was very bright and destined for big things in the Foreign Office. She was Sir Hugh Chapman’s protégé.
    Dick Lucas had always admired Rosa Bennet. She had style and class. He watched her edging her way out through the crush of people. She was a very attractive woman, but she was a loner. She was dedicated to her career. Too bad, he decided and went in search of a dinner companion. The party was full of pretty women who wouldn’t turn down his invitation.
    Rosa hurried out of the residence into the grounds. US Marines were calling for official cars. She found her own car and drove out into Regent’s Park.
    Damn, I’m going to be so late again, she worried as she turned into the Marylebone Road. The traffic moved like sludge. It inched forward a few yards and then halted again. It took twenty minutes to go down Baker Street, and Park Lane was another frustrating crawl. It would be nine o’clock before she reached Fulham Road.
    James would be furious. There’d be another row. She felt sick with the anticipation of it. Things had got so much worse between them in the