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Matteo walked through the sea of white-linen-covered chairs and cotton-draped tables to where the local old ribbons encased each area, along with banners of golden silk Bouquets of white roses were draped artistically across the tables and around the arches Under one of these, the first guests to arrive had gathered—the kids who had sailed in the Medaille d’Argent thattheir own bravado

He envied the his life could be built on his passions instead of being the pure, hard slog it had become

‘Looks like it’s shaping up, David,’ he said as he took a beer fro to plan?’

‘So far so good Arturo and Marie-Isabelle will arrive in half an hour I’ll hold back all the other guests until they’re safely inside Couple of pictures and then you can take them onto the west terrace The sunset will be beautiful You’ll be irresistible, I’m sure’

‘And Claudio?’ he said ‘Do you think he’ll try and pull off any more dirty tricks?’

‘Well, the ht wasn’t exactly helpful, but what else has he got?’

Matteo paused What else did he have? Soirlfriends, trying to raise questions about his ability to lead the bank, never mind his morality

‘Nothing that I’ht claier fish to fry and we still need to cover every angle I don’t want a single drop of his poison to land on this’

‘I’ve analysed it fro co at you now that we’re not prepared for We’ve lived through Faye-gate, after all Could it get any worse? Nothing came of those pictures of you with that dancer at the ballet premiere, despite how they tried to paint it’

‘That’s true,’ he said

They’d reached the edge of the lake Matteo stared across the dark green water, his es of a beautiful woman with fear in her eyes