She put down the phone without saying goodbye, in the end, because every time she tried to get away the reporter thought of a new question. Liza had a strong suspicion that the girl on the switchboard in the outer office was listening to every call and retailing what was said to the rest of the girls, because as the day wore on the excitement in the office seemed to mount with every call.
Even the models who came in for interviews seemed to know more about it than Liza did. Tawny Holt asked outright, big-eyed with coy interest.
'Are we going to hear wedding bells soon?'
Freezing, Liza said, 'Are we?' without commenting, and Tawny batted her long, false lashes, giggling.
'He's so rich too, but sexy with it! My boyfriend plays squash with him, you know; he says Bruno is all muscle.'
'Your boyfriend?' Liza stared and Tawny gave a naughty grin, one hand twining a bright red-gold curl .mil pulling it to her mouth to nibble it.
'Don't tell anyone, it's a deadly secret. I'm dating Jeremy Bell, but all hell would break loose if his wife found out.'
'The Earl?' Liza was amazed as she remembered the lovely face of the Countess, a famous model herself some ten years ago. 'But, Tawny, she's pregnant, isn't she? I read somewhere that this is her third try—she lost the other two.'
'That's why she has to stay in bed the whole nine months!' Tawny said indifferently. 'And no sex! How do you think poor old Jerry feels? She can't go to parties or the races or dancing—I mean, nine months of utter boredom, poor darling. He couldn't stand it—could anyone?'
Liza eyed her coldly. 'His wife doesn't seem to have much choice, does she?'
'Oh, well, it's different for women,' Tawny said, tossing her vivid head and looking impatient.
'Sometimes I feel like giving you a good slap,' Liza said to herself and Tawny looked amazed.
'Why? What did I do?'
'Oh, get out!' Liza said.
'What about that perfume ad? No news yet?'
'None,' Liza said, although she had heard that Tawny was the front runner among the girls being considered for the job. She was too annoyed with Tawny to tell her. Let her eat her heart out over it for a little while longer. The only thing that did have any real impact on Tawny was success. She wanted fame and money, she wanted to get to the top and she might well do it because she had a thick skin. She didn't care what she had to do to get up there and, of course, she was lovely. Liza looked at her coldly, admitting that much. Tawny was beautiful in a gypsyish way, but she was not someone Liza liked, or approved of, especially today.
'I hope it never happens to you, Tawny,' she said as the other girl swayed to the door, and Tawny looked back blankly.
'What?'
'What you're doing to Jeremy's wife,' Liza said. 'It's indecent. It's mean. One day you may realise that, if it happens to you in turn.'
Tawny wasn't shaken. 'Oh, come off it!' she said tartly. 'She's done OK for herself—little Cathy Black from Hoxton, going to school without socks when she's seven according to the gossip columns and a Countess with a stately home and a private plane when she's twenty-three ? Don't ask me to cry for her, because I wasn't born with easy tear-ducts. I'm from Hoxton too, or near enough. I know where she comes from and I know where she landed up— and so do you, don't you, Liza? You're not from a silk-lined drawer, either. We both had to fight our way up and we know it's a jungle out there, and if you want to survive you have to fight tooth and nail.'
'I didn't,' Liza said flatly. 'And I didn't marry to get where I am. I worked and I used my head, not my body.'
'How moral, darling.' Tawny said viciously, showing her teeth and looking ugly. 'Haven't you forgotten Bruno? Don't tell me it's purely platonic, because I wouldn't believe you if you swore it on a stack of Bibles.
He's not middle-aged, like poor old Jerry, and you may really fancy him—I can see how you would, he's got a good body, and he isn't bad-looking at all, but he's also a Gifford and has a bank full of the green stuff, and that's what it's all about in the end, isn't it?'
'Oh, get out!' Liza said, feeling sick. 'And take your mind to the cleaners.'
'I love you, too, honey,' Tawny said, laughing angrily and slamming the door on her way out.
That was the last straw for Liza; she sat behind her desk staring at nothing, shaking with rage, then she looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly three o'clock. She had had enough; she had to get away. She wouldn't bother to dictate a batch of letters for Maddie to do on Monday before she got back. She would just go now, drive down to the cottage and forget all this madness.
She kept her packed suitcase in her car boot, she was ready to leave and she was the boss, after all. Why stick to a routine she had worked out herself?
Maddie looked up in surprise as Liza put her head round the door. 'Sorry, did you buzz for me? I didn't hear you, something must be wrong with the console.'
'I didn't buzz, I just came to say I'm off. See you on Monday, usual time, have the coffee ready.' Liza used a light tone but Maddie wasn't deceived; she stared, frowning in concern.
'Are you OK?' They had worked together for nearly five years, ever since Liza had started the agency. They had built it up together, and Maddie could run it all on her own if she had to, Liza knew that. Maddie was more or less the same age, but she had never been pretty. Liza sensed that that bothered Maddie; she would have liked to be beautiful and she envied the models who came in and out all day. She was kind-hearted and calm and unflappable, tall and bony with short brown hair and dark, rather melancholy eyes. Liza liked her face; it was full of gentle warmth. Maddie hated it, herself; she looked at it in mirrors and wished it didn't belong to her because it was plain, and not all the tips Liza had given her could make much difference to its broad, raw-boned lines. Maddie was an incurable romantic; a dreamer. She would have loved to meet Prince Charming; instead she looked after her invalid mother when she wasn't working. Liza wished she could think of some way of convincing Maddie how much more lovable she was than someone like Tawny with her vivacious looks and her mean, selfish little heart and mind.