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assure you, my dear, that in the ten years I’ve known Andy, he has never breathed a word about any confidential deal, no matter how juicy the story was.”

    “ I’m glad to hear that. But I wish you’d warned me. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.”

    “ I just assumed that you would call Andy when you had time to start looking. I’m flattered, of course, but I didn’t realize that you were in such a hurry,” Graham pointed out. “And I’m sure the afternoon wasn’t a total waste of time. When you see the house Andy’s got in mind for us, you’ll appreciate it, after looking at all those dumps today.”

    She bit her lip. There was no point, she told herself, in arguing about the houses she had seen that afternoon. Of course they hadn’t been dumps—Brendan wouldn’t have dared show her a dump—but it was a silly thing to quarrel about. If she had liked one of those houses and wanted to buy it, that would have been a different thing, of course.

    “ Andy knows quite a bit about this house,” Graham went on. “I think I mentioned that the owners are friends of his, didn’t I? I’ll tell you all about it over dinner. Shall I pick you up in half an hour?”

    “ All right,” she said. I should go and get dressed, she thought. After an afternoon of houses, she felt a little grimy. And of course she wanted to go to dinner with Graham; it wasn’t often that he was out of the office at this hour on a week night.

    But instead of going straight to her closet, she went back to the couch, where the Persian had settled down again on his cushion and was staring at her accusingly. “Sorry, Omar,” she said. “I didn’t mean to dump you like that.”

    Omar considered the matter, and then graciously forgave her and snuggled into her lap. She scratched his ears and reminded herself that Andy Winchester had known Graham for ever. They moved in the same circles, shared the same friends as well as the same clubs. Andy would know what sort of house Graham and his new bride would need, without any casting about wildly or exploring houses of all types, as she had spent the afternoon doing. That meant that dealing with Andy would be a lot easier for her in the long run, too.

    Besides, she told herself, what did it matter, as long as they got the right house?

    But she wasn’t looking forward to calling Brendan McKenna tomorrow to tell him that. He had gone to a great deal of trouble today. He would probably think she was nothing but trouble – with the dent in his car and now this, she thought gloomily.

    The doorbell rang. She looked at the clock, startled. Surely she couldn’t have daydreamed away a full half-hour! If Graham had arrived to pick her up and she wasn’t ready—

    But it had only been five minutes, which meant it couldn’t be Graham. She shifted Omar up to her shoulder and went to answer the bell.

    The man at the door stretched out a finger for the Persian’s inspection. He was holding a white paper bag. “Hello, Omar,” he said. “Your house-companion forgot her sandwich… Dare I call it a doggie bag, Kaye, or does he have a complex about the creatures?”

    “ Hello, Brendan.” She took the bag. “Thanks for bringing it over—it was an awful lot of trouble to take for half a sandwich.”

    “ Oh, but it’s not just any half-sandwich—it’s your dinner, and I didn’t want you to starve. Besides, I thought the sauerkraut had interfered with the atmosphere in my car for quite long enough. What’s the matter? Something’s bothering you.”

    Kaye bit her lip. “We’ve hit a snag, I’m afraid. Can you come in so we can talk?”

    “ Sure.”

    “ I’ve only got a minute,” she warned, leading him to the couch. “Graham’s picking me up for dinner, and I have to get dressed.”

    “ And the poor Reuben sandwich will be orphaned again?” Brendan sounded quite unhappy about it. “I’ve got a dinner date, too, or I’d eat it myself. After smelling it all