The Millionaire Affair

And the man laughed. He looked her up and down with those cat’s eyes, suddenly lazily appreciative, and he laughed.

‘Oh, find her yourself,’ snarled Lisa.

She whipped back into her flat and banged the door.

CHAPTER TWO

NIKOLAI cornered his aunt under a silver birch and came swiftly to the point.

‘Who is she?’

Tatiana looked at her great-nephew in surprise. Nikolai could be very irritating. But he was usually much too laid-back to lose his temper in her experience. Now he was looking positively grim.

‘You sound just like your Uncle Dmitri. In fact in that ridiculous suit you even look like him.’

They both knew it was not a compliment. Dmitri Ivanov was a merchant banker in New York. Tatiana thought Dmitri was a pompous ass and frequently said so at family reunions.

Nikolai waved the irrelevance aside impatiently.

‘Who is she?’

Tatiana sighed and put down her trowel. She had been enjoying her gardening. ‘Who is who?’

‘The fierce person in the basement.’

In the middle of stripping off her gloves, Tatiana stopped, arrested. ‘Lisa? My tenant Lisa? She’s not fierce.’

Nikolai grimaced. ‘She is if you get her out of bed before she’s ready,’ he said with feeling. ‘She nearly bit my head off.’

‘Oh?’

Tatiana stared into the middle distance, suddenly thoughtful.

‘So where did she come from?’

‘Mmm?’

‘Lisa Whatever-her-name-is,’ Nikolai said impatiently. ‘Where did you find her?’

Tatiana remained distracted. ‘Oh, around,’ she said vaguely.

Nikolai curbed his irritation. Tatiana, he reminded himself, was old and eccentric, and probably worried about money.

So he said carefully, ‘Why this sudden urge to become a landlady again?’

She shrugged. ‘I’ve always let out rooms when I needed to.’

‘But the point is,’ said Nikolai patiently, ‘you don’t need to. I went through the figures last year and I saw your accountant again a couple of days ago. You don’t need to do this. You can pay your way easily.’

Tatiana sniffed. Since she had given Pauli carte blanche to manage her affairs more than forty years ago, she could hardly claim that this was high-handed. But she could and did say that her decision was nothing to do with Nikolai.

‘I like Lisa. I wanted her to have the flat.’

Nikolai looked at her narrowly. ‘Is running the house getting too much for you?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Tatiana impatiently. ‘I have a cleaner twice a week. What more do I need?’

‘You are lonely, then?’

‘I do too much to be lonely.’

‘Then why—?’

Tatiana folded her lips together stubbornly. ‘I told you. I like her. She needed somewhere to live and I—’

He pounced on it. ‘Needed. Aha. She is a vagrant. From what I saw this morning, I can well believe it.’

‘Oh, Nicki, don’t be pompous. Of course she’s not a vagrant.’

‘What do you know about her? Have you taken any references?’

‘No, but—’

‘I knew it. She is exploiting you.’

‘Nikolai, will you listen to me? She has a perfectly good job.’

‘Doing what?’

Tatiana had to admit she didn’t know. She had simply not taken in what Lisa did for a living and had only the vaguest idea of where she worked.

Aware of this, she said defensively, ‘I have known her for over a year. We go to the same dance studio.’

Nikolai was not stupid enough to look triumphant. But the faint hint of scepticism about his mouth infuriated Tatiana.

‘And she is not exploiting me. In fact she’s the one who has been insisting that we have a legal agreement.’

If anything, Nikolai’s scepticism increased.

‘Protecting her position,’ he diagnosed. ‘Very shrewd.’

‘You know, it’s very unhealthy, always thinking the worst of people. It gives you ulcers,’ Tatiana informed him.

‘So do great-aunts,’ said Nikolai ruefully. He sobered. ‘Now, are you going to ask her for references? Because if you don’t I will.’

Tatiana looked infuriatingly ethereal. ‘You must learn to trust more.’

‘Right. I’ll deal with it.’