Falling for the Rebel Falcon

Amos Falcon, Perdita thought, recognising him from pictures she’d seen in the press. Research had told her far more about him than Leonid realised, how he’d been married several times but seemed incapable of being faithful to any woman.

One by one his sons went to greet him. Darius with an extended hand, Jackson with an embrace, Marcel with a thump on the shoulder. Only Travis and Leonid held back, approaching him slowly and greeting him with restraint.

Perdita saw the way Amos surveyed his sons, and the way they surveyed him. There might be some affection in this family, but there was also a lot of suspicion. She had an instinctive feeling that the young men had inherited enough of their father’s nature to be his combatants as well as his sons.

Leonid brought Amos across the room.

‘Father, I want you to meet Erica,’ he said.

There was the same look of surveillance from Amos, studying her, asking himself if she was a threat to what he wanted.

You bet I’m a threat, she thought. Because I like getting my own way too.

Amos brought his wife forward. There were more introductions. Champagne was served. The atmosphere was convivial. Perdita tried to stay modestly in the background, but soon Amos bore down on her.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ he declared formally. ‘Leonid hasn’t mentioned you before. How do you come to know each other?’

She drew in a swift breath. She and Leonid had prepared their story as far as the wheelchair was concerned, but they hadn’t had time to cover this. Feeling his tension, she thought fast.

‘I took a holiday in Moscow,’ she said. ‘I love the city but I got into a silly muddle, and Leonid rescued me.’

‘How did that happen?’ Amos asked.

‘I really couldn’t tell you,’ she said, improvising fast. ‘I don’t speak the language so I didn’t understand much of what was happening. I remember I lost my way and took the wrong street but—’ She gave Leonid an urgent look.

‘It was a lucky chance I happened to be there,’ he said quickly. ‘After that, I had to keep an eye on her in case she was lost again. And we just … got on well.’

‘So when you heard about this wedding you took the chance to see each other?’ Amos asked.

Luckily Janine intervened, patting her husband’s arm and saying,

‘Don’t interrogate them, darling. This is a party, not a court case.’ She smiled at Perdita. ‘See you later.’

She led her husband firmly away.

CHAPTER THREE

LEONID BLEW OUT his breath in relief. ‘I blame myself for not being ready for that. Luckily you saved us by your quick thinking.’

‘But you’re going to have to dream up the story,’ she said. ‘I know nothing about Moscow.’

‘Then weren’t you taking a risk setting it there?’

‘What else could I do? If I’d said we met in England, or any other part of Europe, your father would have asked when, and whatever I said he might have known that you hadn’t been travelling on that date. Moscow was safer because you’re there all the time. Oh, goodness!’ A terrible thought struck her. ‘You are, aren’t you?’

‘Not quite all the time, but most of it. You’re right. Saying Moscow was more convincing.’ He turned his head slightly to one side, regarding her with admiration and a hint of suspicion. ‘I was wrong about you. You’re really good at this.’

She regarded him satirically. ‘You mean you don’t really think I’m an innocent after all?’

‘It means I think there’s more than one kind of innocent,’ he said, returning her look and speaking carefully.

She burst out laughing. ‘Well, you said it.’

‘How am I supposed to take that?’

‘I couldn’t tell you. Only you can decide.’

‘Perhaps I should be wary of you.’

‘Certainly you should. Behind the mask of innocence I’m just a natural schemer. Don’t trust me for a moment. People who know me really well don’t even call me Erica.’

‘What do they call you?’

‘Perdita. It’s been my nickname since my father said he’d go to perdition when he heard my mother was pregnant again. It’s a family joke that I’m a bit wicked, so Perdita it had to be.’

His eyes gleamed. ‘And just how wicked are you?’

She shook her head. ‘That’s another thing you’ll have to learn by experience.’

‘Am I a likely victim?’

She appeared to consider this seriously. ‘Not really. I don’t think you’d be easy to take for a ride.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Because you’re even more cunning and conniving than I am. You as good as told me so yourself.’

‘Very astute of you. All right, we’ve warned each other. Cards on the table.’

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed. ‘On the table? You mean you won’t even keep one little ace up your sleeve? How disappointing!’

‘I take that as a warning that you’ll keep a concealed ace yourself.’

‘Naturally. Without aces, the world would be no fun.’

‘Fun?’ For a moment he looked puzzled, as though he’d never heard the word before.

‘You do know what fun is, don’t you?’ she challenged him.

‘I think I heard of it once, somewhere,’ he said, playing up to her.

‘But you don’t know how desperately important it can be. How it can light up life so that you have something to hold onto in the dark times.’

‘There are many things I’ve never discovered,’ Leonid said seriously. ‘Who knows? Perhaps I shall learn them from Perdita. Or do I mean Erica?’

‘They come and they go,’ she said lightly. ‘Sometimes even I can’t keep track. But it makes life interesting.’

‘Yes, I should imagine that life with you is very interesting.’