“Don’t play coy with me, sweetheart,” he said. The words were slurred enough to tell me that he had been drinking for some time. He reached across and grabbed my arm. “What are you trying to do, push up the price? I wasn’t born yesterday, you know. Come on, drink up your bubbly and we’ll go back to my hotel, or you’ll be charging me by the hour.”

I attempted to stand up. “I’m afraid there’s been a horrible misunderstanding here. I think I’d better go.”

His grip on my arm tightened. “What’s the matter, girlie, don’t you fancy me, or what? Isn’t my brass good enough for you?” The smile had disappeared from his face. He was blowing beery breath in my face. “Now you come with me like a good girl or you know what I’ll do? I’ll have you arrested for soliciting.”

He stood up and attempted to drag me with him.

“Let go of me, please,” I said. I sensed people at the tables around us watching. “Just let me go and we’ll forget the whole thing.”

“No, we bloody won’t,” he said. “I’ve had to pay for a bottle of champagne. And we made an agreement, me and your agency. We struck a bargain and Harold Crump doesn’t take kindly to people who try to back out of business deals. Now stop playing the prissy little miss and get moving.”

“Didn’t you hear the young lady? She will not be coming with you,” said a voice behind me.

I recognized that voice and spun around to see Darcy O’Mara standing there, looking amazingly dashing in a white dinner jacket and bow tie, his unruly black hair combed into submission, apart from a wayward curl that fell onto his forehead. It was all I could do not to throw myself into his arms.

“And who are you, butting in like this?” Mr. Crump demanded, blustering up to Darcy only to find he was several inches shorter.

“Let’s just say that I’m her manager,” Darcy said.

“Her pimp, you mean.”

“Call it what you like,” Darcy said, “but there’s been a mistake. She should never have been sent out tonight. Our agency only deals with clients of the highest social echelon. We have a new girl answering the telephone and she omitted to put you through our normal vetting process. And now I’ve seen your behavior, I am afraid there is no way I could allow one of our girls to go anywhere with you. You simply don’t pass muster, sir. You are, to put it bluntly, too common.”

“Well, I never did,” Mr. Crump said.

“And you’re not going to now,” Darcy replied. “Come, Arabella. We’re leaving.”

“Here, what about my champagne?” Mr. Crump demanded.