I was angry now, and just a little tickled too. Darcy was actually jealous. I savored the notion before I went on. “I was about to say that Mr. Hart is kindly looking after me while my mother is filming. He took me out to dinner and was just escorting me back to my front door. Over here in Hollywood people hug and kiss all the time. It doesn’t mean anything.” I turned back to Craig. “I’m sorry about this, Mr. Hart. Thank you for a lovely dinner. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Craig grinned and touched my cheek with his finger. “So long, sweetheart. Sweet dreams. And don’t let this guy boss you around. You do what you want.”

He sauntered away, leaving Darcy standing there, still glaring at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But there really was nothing to worry about. I made it quite clear to him that I wasn’t interested.”

Darcy was shaking his head. “I’m trying to come to terms with this. I leave my sweet but innocent young lady, shy and awkward around men, for a couple of weeks. I come back and she is calmly dating one of the world’s hottest heartthrobs and telling him she isn’t interested. Has someone I don’t know taken over Georgie’s body?”

I laughed then. “I don’t understand it either. My mother and I were introduced to him and he made a beeline for me and not Mummy. So of course I wasn’t going to turn down the chance to be wined and dined by him. It was such a feather in my cap when my mother is always telling me how plain and gawky I am.”

“She is?”

“All the time. ‘You poor child. Too bad you didn’t inherit my looks.’ She even said, ‘I wonder what Darcy sees in you.’”

“Then she’s blind if she doesn’t see it too,” he said. “I knew she was completely self-centered, but I’d no idea she was catty too.”

“She’s an actress. It goes with the territory,” I said.

“Your mother and my father. What a pair.” He grimaced.

“Have you seen him lately?”

“No, but I got a letter before I sailed. It said, ‘Isn’t it about time you made something of yourself? You can’t expect to inherit anything other than the title from me, and since I plan to live a damned long time you won’t get that anytime soon.’”

I slipped my hand into his. “It’s good to have horrid parents in common,” I said, “but what are you doing here? You didn’t come all this way just to see me, did you?”

“If I had the kind of money my father spent as a young man I would have answered yes to that. But as it happens I’m still on the trail of our jewel thief.”