Page 52 of The Other Lady Vanishes

Adelaide smiled. “Can I assume that this isn’t your first visit to the Paradise?”

“I’ve spent some time here in Burning Cove over the years, so, yes, I’ve been in the Paradise. But I’ve also been in a few other nightclubs around the world. Take it from me, they all have a lot in common when it comes to how they treat their celebrity guests.”

“The celebrities pretend they want to be incognito but of course what they really want is to be noticed,” Adelaide said.

“Even if the stars don’t want to be noticed, the studio publicists go to great lengths to make sure that they are.”

“When you think about it, being an actor or actress must be a very stressful career.”

“There’s a price for everything,” Jake said.

“Yes.”

Jake studied her from the opposite side of the small booth. “What did you do before you became a tearoom waitress?”

She hesitated and then decided there was no harm in telling him some of the truth. “I was a librarian. I worked in a research library that specialized in the botanical sciences.”

“Did you enjoy the work?”

She brightened at the memories. “Oh, yes. The library is very highly regarded. The collection is excellent. My colleagues and I conducted literature searches for scientists and medical researchers from around the nation. It was fascinating work.”

“And now you’re in Burning Cove working in a tearoom.”

She tensed. “My parents died. I was alone. No family. I felt that I needed a change.”

She held her breath, afraid that he would press her with more questions.Should have kept my mouth closed,she thought.

But Jake simply nodded in understanding. “I know the feeling.”

She relaxed. “Some people think I’ve lived a sheltered life. They think I’m naïve. My parents were always afraid that some man would take advantage of me.”

Which was, of course, exactly what had happened, she thought.

“Maybe a dose of naïveté is the price you pay to be a good, decent person,” Jake said. “Seems like the only alternative is to become cynical like me. I can’t really recommend it.”

Adelaide picked up her sparkling water and looked at him over the rim of the glass. “I may be inclined to be naïve but I’m not stupid. Once I know for certain that I can’t trust someone, I never make the mistake of trusting that person again.”

“Sounds like a reasonable policy to me.” Jake raised his glass and touched it lightly against hers. “To naïveté and lessons learned the hard way.”

The orchestra launched into a slow, smooth dance number.Adelaide watched couples drift out onto the floor and into each other’s arms. There was a time when she had danced with Conrad Massey in the same romantic fashion. Naïveté didn’t begin to excuse the huge mistake she had made with Massey. She had been a fool.

The thought reminded her again of the man in the dark blue coat she had glimpsed in the shopping plaza that afternoon. She had been unable to get the memory out of her head. She tried to tell herself that she had imagined the similarity between Conrad Massey and the stranger on the street.Paranoia is a sign of mental instability. But she could not convince herself that she had not seen the bastard.

“Will you dance with me?” Jake asked quietly.

Jolted out of her grim thoughts, she turned away from the view of the dance floor and saw that Jake was watching her with a brooding intensity.

“What?” she said.

“I asked you to dance with me.”

“Why not?” She summoned up what she hoped would pass for a bright, vivacious smile. “The damage has already been done, hasn’t it?”

His ascetic face, illuminated in candlelight, became even more forbidding than usual.

“Damage?” he repeated in very neutral tones.

“I’m sure that by tomorrow morning what’s left of our cover story will be in tatters, anyway. It’s not exactly customary for boarders to go out to nightclubs with their landladies.”