sabella said,

question. He seemed, if anything, to have been waiting for

said

and Tessa shot her a look. "Five minutes.

ent. Gideon Marsh slid into the booth beside Tessa, who moved over six inches exactly and no more, and set his leather folio on the table.

l, it is time-sensitive, and it is, I should say at the outset, entirely lawful. I recognize that you hav

t card," Isabella said, "I'

about the c

send letters. They don't send, you know." S

ot the h

it's a

small sound

ead. "A reasonable conclusi

s heavy stock, engraved, not printed. Marsh Whitcomb LLP. Gideon

picked up

," Tessa

d me to

private clients, fiduciary litigation. Forty-one lawyers. Under Our Partners she found him in the second row: the same long face, the same silver hair, a more flattering photograph. Admitted to the New York bar

as r

l cold weight settled in her stomach, because reality

re a lawyer. You're very expensive. What does y

prefer to expla

ure he

months. It carries compensation, ove

still muttering something in the corner, and a fork scrap

laug

ed with some embarrassment that her hands were sha

require you to leave the city. I am not authorized to describe the terms here." Hi

said flatly. "It's

that kind

lways s

ss Miss Carter should herself require it in the contract, which I rather doubt. There is a lawyer-to-lawyer review process. You would retain independent cou

end's name," Isa

how my client chooses his colleagues." He paused. "It is also a function o

went ve

he black one. It's been sitting

client. He is cautious. He wanted to be sure you were not, ah, othe

been wat

it is the first and last time it will happen without your kno

as entitled to be furious about. But what she mostly felt was something she hadn't had in so long that sh

the c

der Kin

ctured tire. "The billionaire

the head of Kin

n at Bellevue, and on the front page of the Times business section roughly once a month, next to words like acquisition and reclusive. She had seen a photograph once, in a waiting roo

e five million dollars for a year o

es

y m

a tick at the corner of his mouth, a fractional shift of his hand on t

N

new she'd decided. Tess

at says there's five million dollars on the other end. I'm sorry. I've got a mother in the hospital and a job in th

d. If anything, he looked, for just a moment, like a

k less of you if you didn't. May I make one furt

ah

linical trial at Whitfield-Aldrich Cancer Center and

dropped. Her nails

in your mother's name, as a first-cycle deposit. It is not a loan. It is not conditional on anything you decide tonight. You may telephone the hospital at nine and confi

uld he

d Gideon, "that he is not asking you to

old-fashioned courtesy. "Thank you for your time, ladies. Miss Carter,

ass she watched him step out into the rain and lift one hand to

weirdest thing that has ever happened to me in thi

M

seriously co

N

abe

aid

like a woma

uzzed again

d the world narrowed to a

egins in three weeks, your provisional seat can only be held until this Friday at 5 p.m. The first-cycle deposit m

three week

first two had not changed it, and her eyes went, against her w

witched songs. Outside, a cab pulled to the curb with its yel

the booth before she

a!" Tess

face like a slap. The apron was still tied around her waist and

Mar

his face change: not triumph, which she would ha

h the black car idling behind her and the whole bright

ere and whe