Dead Clever (23 page)

Alvarez answered. ‘Nothing, if he can think up a convincing shipwreck and rescue and his mates back him up.’

She put her hands on her hips. ‘So! You have finally decided that it is after all your duty to help your own flesh and blood.’

He was too despondent to correct her.

Her tone became forgiving. ‘Then perhaps, after all, I can sacrifice myself and find something a little nicer for supper.’

Alvarez was aware that a man whose heart had been broken should be totally indifferent to food, but he could not prevent himself wondering whether that ‘something a little nicer’ might not be lechona or even a shoulder of lamb, cooked with sage, tarragon, and garlic . . .

THE
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