Стефани Баррон - The White Garden - A Novel of Virginia Woolf

Margaux had left her contact number on the document she’d signed that morning. It was a simple matter to persuade her to meet for drinks; and Gray let her choose the bar. He knew that posed a difficulty: How to guess what Gray liked? Or what would impress him? What could appear too tawdry, too hip, too cheap? He expected Margaux to settle for the obvious and safe choice of the Connaught itself — and was pleased when she didn’t.

And there she was: Dramatic in black and red, a variation on the theme of the morning. Black matte jersey wrap dress, the hemline well above her knees; black leather boots almost reaching them. A red swing coat. Her black hair falling nearly to her waist in a mass of waves. She was a gorgeous woman, without question — but Gray was unmoved. He had seen so many gorgeous women before. They always knew their worth — and expected it to buy them more than it did. His lips quirked slightly as he thought of a woman who remained unforgettable, despite being long gone: His mother, Barbara. Lightning doesn’t strike twice , she used to say. Meaning: If she’s gorgeous, she’s probably lacking a soul. Or a heart. Or a mind. It was rare to find all three, and beauty, too, in the same person. Although Barbara Westlake had certainly managed it.

Gray raised his glass to her memory as Margaux swept toward him, turning heads all through Bar 190. She ignored them. She turned heads every day.

“Gray.” She extended a hand but didn’t lean in, as he expected, to brush his cheek with hers. “Sorry I’m late — my last meeting ran hideously long, but then they always do.”

He suspected she’d spent the hours since he’d last seen her shopping. How many changes of clothing could she have brought, realistically, for a single morning appointment? But perhaps he wronged her. Perhaps, as she clearly intended him to think, her life was one long series of important commitments. Or maybe she kept a flat in London filled with black and red clothes.

“Please. Sit down.” A waiter had already materialized. “What would you like?”

“Pellegrino and a lime,” she said briskly. “I can’t afford to be muddle-headed when talking to the smartest man in the room.”

And now she certainly had surprised him.

Gray slid his glass to one side of the table and studied her.

She studied him frankly in return. “Although I should like to take the compliment, I don’t reckon you met me here tonight on the strength of my good looks. Am I right?”

“Not solely on the strength of your good looks. No.”

That won a smile. “Excellent. It gets so old, that sort of thing.”

“Male admiration?”

“Male underestimation.” She turned her head slightly as the Pellegrino appeared, and reached for it with one long-fingered hand. “I’ve spent years persuading a world populated by males that I’ve a brain inside this head of mine.”

“You could always cut your hair,” he suggested.

“That’s just another way of losing the battle, isn’t it? Why scarify myself to be taken seriously?”

The bar was beginning to fill; a steady buzz of voices made it necessary to shout. Gray had no desire to broadcast his message to the better part of London; he spoke at a normal level. As he’d hoped, Margaux leaned toward him.

“You’re correct in thinking I wanted to talk to you. Without the rest of those folks from this morning pitching in.”

She nodded, waiting.

“I want to know why Jo Bellamy gave you that notebook.”

Margaux frowned. “Surely I told you? My ex-husband is a Book Expert. He brought it to me to be verified.”

“Understood. But that doesn’t explain why you still had it this morning. I’m surprised Jo parted with the thing. It’s very important to her.”

Margaux’s eyes slid away; she shrugged slightly, a beautiful movement, her breasts rising slightly with her sculpted shoulders in a fluid shift of jersey. “Peter — my ex — can be fairly vague. I think we agreed to talk over the next several days. I merely kept the notebook with me for safety’s sake.”

“And handed it off without a second thought to Marcus Symonds-Jones.”

“Well, he is Peter’s bloody employer!”

“Have you talked to your ex? Since Monday?”

She took a sip of Pellegrino, buying time. “Actually, no, I haven’t. May I ask what this tends towards, Gray? An examination of my mobile-use habits, or of the status of my divorce?”

She was attempting umbrage, a mood that suited her; it went well with the flowing hair and chocolate eyes.

“Why were you in Cambridge last night?”

“I’m often in Cambridge. I’m a don.”

Gray held her gaze. “Somehow I don’t think you were showing the notebook to a colleague. This is too important to share.”

Her lip curled. “Too bloody well right.”

“ — Even with the people who gave it to you: Jo, and your ex-husband.”

For once, she had no answer.

“What do you think they’re doing, right now? Why haven’t they come back to London?”

“Why do you care so much?”

Gray eased back in his seat, his fingers still caressing the stem of his martini glass. “I understand your hesitation to be frank with me — after all, we only met ten hours ago — but I confess I’m surprised that you’re lying to Marcus. He could cut off your access to the material completely. Should he learn of it.”

“I’m not lying!” Her voice had risen; she was leaning so far over the table toward him, she was nearly prone. In other circumstances, he would have enjoyed this view of her cleavage. In this case, he kept his eyes steadily on her face and held a finger to his lips. A warning. Steady .

She glanced sidelong, then raised herself upright. “I took the effing notebook Monday night and told Peter I’d give it back in the morning. Only I decided to go to Cambridge instead.”

“Why?”

“You saw that there are pages missing from the back?”

“Maybe Woolf didn’t like what she wrote.”

“I doubt it. I think someone else edited that manuscript for her. There’s a tantalizing phrase scribbled on the inside of the back cover. Peter saw it, too, I’m sure he did — a sort of envoi. A clue . In any case, I thought it possible the rest of the manuscript was hidden for a reason. And that it might be found.”

“At Cambridge?”

“Cambridge was supposed to tell me where to look. But I’m not as good at solving puzzles as Peter is — making abstruse connections. I’m better at emotional analysis.”

Abstruse connections . Gray’s pulse had suddenly accelerated. Peter Llewellyn was hunting for the rest of the notebook. And Jo with him .

“It’s frustrating to see the possibilities and lack the technique,” Margaux was saying. “Honestly, I was ready to chuck the whole thing in the River Cam when Marcus called.”

“But you decided instead to make the best of a… partial… situation.”

“Exactly.” She placed her hands on the table, fingers linked. “I don’t want cash, Gray. I’m not in it for a payoff. This isn’t about greed.”

“Of a financial kind.”

“It’s about access,” she pushed on, ignoring his gibe. “I want exclusive rights to this new material — no sharing, for the first time in my entire career. Marcus has the power to stipulate my terms — you have the power to grant them.”

Gray frowned. “Limit access to information? That’s profoundly un-American. I’m not sure I can agree.”

“You already signed a paper to that effect this morning.”

“Paper, as we’ve seen, can be torn in half.”

Margaux’s teeth worried at her lower lip. “Tell me you’ve never closed communications about a deal you’ve decided to make. A fund you intend to set up. A client whose millions you’ve decided to squander. I won’t believe you.”