Siege at the Villa Lipp (42 page)

‘Why should that disturb you?’

‘It’s a lie.’

‘You’ve had too much to drink, Paul.’

‘Very likely. They say there’s no taste in vodka. There is in
this
vodka. There’s a taste of scorched paint.’

She filled her own glass again. ‘Bid you really say it?’

‘What?’

‘That thing about always failing the people who loved you.’

‘I may have said something to that effect. I was wallowing in self-pity at the time. Even so, Mat’s version sounds a bit mawkish to me.’

When Melanie thinks hard, her lower jaw droops a little, giving her a hangdog look. She had it now.

‘Failing people who loved me is something I have never done,’ she said after a while.

‘Good for you.’

‘Not good at all.’ Her mouth resumed its normal shape. ‘
I
have always been the one who loved.’

‘Oh.’

She disposed of the subject firmly. ‘Food, that’s the important thing.’ She emptied her glass again and banged it down on the table. ‘I must tell you, Paul, that I shall think a lot tonight about food. About the good food I’m going to have away from here.’

‘Yes. Yes, so shall I..’

I did.

I thought of good food, cold days and decent glasses of wine.

Published by House of Stratus

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