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Now, as her security screen announced the arrival of the police, she prepared to play her role with dignity and discretion

She answered the door herself, a sternly attractive woe Her hair was a rich auburn threaded with silver The lines around her hazel eyes fanned out without apology She wore a hip-ski trousers over a short, sturdy body She offered Eve a hand glittering with rings, smiled coolly, and stepped back

“Good afternoon,” she said in her sland “It’s co to see the police are prompt”

“I appreciate your time, Ms Rothchild”

“Well, I don’t really have a choice, do I, but to give it to you”

“You’re free to speak through or with a lawyer or representative”

“Of course My lawyer is standing by, should I decide to do so” She gestured toward the living area “I know your husband, Lieutenant Quite the most fatally attractive man I’ve ever encountered He may have told you I was reluctant to come out of retirement and accept the role of Miss Plimsoll But quite frankly, I couldn’t resist him”

She sh-backed chair with a tapestry seat, rested her elbows on the wide arms, folded her hands “Who could?”

“Roarke persuaded you to come out of retirement”

“Lieutenant, I’ Roarke couldn’t talk a woman into Or out of”

Her eyes ed Eve, then shifted idly to Peabody “Still, you’re not here to discuss Roarke but another fatally attractive h, in …we’ll say decency, for lack of a better word”

“Were you and Richard Draco involved romantically?”

Eliza blinked several tile “Oh, irl, should I be flattered or insulted? Oh me”

With a sigh, she patted her breast, as if the bout of humor had been a strain on the heart “Let me say that Richard would never have wasted that particular area of his skills on , he considered me much too plain, too physically ordinary ‘Too intellectual,’ I believe was one of his terms He considered cultural intellect a flaw in a woman”

She paused, as if realizing she’d gone too far in the wrong direction, then opted to finish it out “Gallantry was not one of his talents He often made snide little jokes about my lack of appeal I chose to be neither amused nor offended as what it cae, you see Which meant I was years too old for his taste And if I may say, several notches too self-reliant He preferred the young and the vulnerable”