Page 21 of Fire Must Burn

‘Except to you and Mike.’

‘Except to us. And we might have broken it off anyway, given it’s me we’re talking about, so maybe there isn’t any weight to that any more.’

‘Well, our Miss Lowle doesn’t seem to possess any real feelings, so this won’t weigh much on her, either.’

‘Not now,’ said Iris. ‘Down the line, it will or it won’t. And if it doesn’t, then she’s clearly cut out for this work. What did you think of her?’

‘She’s interesting,’ said Gwen. ‘Once she dropped the outer layer of lies, she was still lying to us. I guess she has to.’

‘She was very good at irritating me. “I’m pretty, blonde, and young!” Honestly, I suspect a bottle of peroxide was liberally applied.’

‘Some of us blondes are actually blonde, you know,’ said Gwen mildly.

‘She was trying to top me in so many ways, did you notice?’ commented Iris. ‘The new girl competing with the veteran.’

‘You were being just as competitive.’

‘I was not!’ said Iris hotly. Then she paused. ‘Was I?’

‘You do bring up Cambridge a lot,’ Gwen pointed out.

‘Do I?’

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘That must be irritating,’ said Iris. ‘I wasn’t aware I was doing that.’

‘It’s something you have in common with every other Oxbridge person I’ve met,’ said Gwen. ‘Honestly, if I weren’t so envious, I would chalk it up to them overcompensating for frail egos.’

‘You’re envious of them? Of me, I should say?’

‘In my family, Brewster girls were raised to be accomplished up to a point, then married off,’ said Gwen. ‘My brother went to Oxford as did generations of Brewster men before him, but there was never any suggestion of me going to university, and I never knew enough then to question it. And now that I do, it’s too late.’

‘You could attend lectures, couldn’t you? Take some adult courses?’

‘With the other rich, bored dilettantes, you mean? No, thankyou. I have a business to run, a child to raise, a home to manage, a corporate board to sit on and a lover to love. I couldn’t possibly squeeze in a university education right now. And I’m ten years past the age where it could have given my brain a taste of the infinite, which saddens me because I know by now that my brain is a good one.’

‘It certainly is.’

There was a knock on the door, then Mrs Billington came in.

‘How did things go?’ she asked.

‘Three new clients,’ said Iris, handing her the forms and the money.

‘We should be able to repopulate England at this rate,’ said Mrs Billington. ‘Or London, at least. Any ideas as to matches for them?’

‘As a matter of fact, we thought we’d give Mr Lonsdale first crack at the third woman, Miss Lowle,’ said Iris.

‘Really?’ exclaimed Mrs Billington. ‘So soon after the worm incident?’

‘Miss Lowle seems unperturbed by the thought of impaling invertebrates,’ said Iris. ‘Send him her information right away, would you?’

‘Very well, Miss Sparks,’ said Mrs Billington. ‘Eighth time’s the charm, I guess. It will be in the afternoon post.’

She left.

‘Stage One has commenced,’ said Gwen.