Fire in the Wind by Alexandra Sellers Page A

about Canadian politics, and she was sure that Tom's lecture on the swing to the Right in America could only bore these women, in whose country they were, after all, guests. Surely she could think of something to ward off Tom's imminent lecture?
    "Tell me," she heard herself saying to the disgruntled buyer, "do you think that the way the West was opened in Canada has an effect now on the level of crime you have here, compared to the States?"
    "How do you mean?" asked the buyer, her eyes showing a glint of real interest for the first time. With a silent salute to Jake Conrad, Vanessa presented the theory he had outlined to her last night, complete with the Northwest Mounted Police and (hoping she had the name right) Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and his dog, King.
    "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon!" exclaimed the buyer, beginning to laugh. "Wherever did you hear of him? My God, it must be twenty years since I heard that name!"
    Tom was looking at Vanessa in surprise, but the discussion of crime and law and order in Canada lasted for much of the meal and launched the important buyer and Margaret into a political discussion that kept the buyer happy, even if Tom and Vanessa didn't understand a word of it.
    It was only eleven o'clock when she said goodnight to them in the lobby and headed toward the elevators. She had made up her mind. She wasn't going to call Jake tonight. She knew he would read a message into it if she did; she knew she would be walking into the lion's den.
    Vanessa stepped off the elevator on her floor and walked slowly down the hall and opened the door to her room. There was a soft light burning beside the bed and the draperies were open. The lights on Grouse Mountain and Hollyburn Mountain twinkled in the surrounding blackness. Vanessa opened the window and breathed in the sweet sea-scented air.
    Pity. She would have liked to tell him about how Sergeant Preston of the Yukon had won another battle tonight. She knew she could make him laugh with that, and with an imitation of Tom's self-important lecturing. She would have liked to thank him for telling her about Sergeant Preston and the Mounted Police. She might even have liked to tell him about Colin's offer, just to see what he thought of it....
    With a short self-deprecatory sigh, Vanessa dropped her hand from the drapery and turned back to the room. Then she crossed the room to the bed and picked up the phone receiver. "Mr. Conrad's suite, please," she told the switchboard operator.
    "Hi," she said softly when his voice answered. "Does the offer of a nightcap still hold?"

Chapter 5

    She had expected to be going down to the private lounge off the lobby, where she had been twice before, but instead Jake had told her to come to the top floor of the hotel.
    When she stepped out of the elevator there were only four numbered doors opening onto the small lobby, and she blinked when she realized how big each of the four suites must be. These could only be the presidential suites, where royalty and foreign dignitaries stayed. Each of the four doors was a large and ornate double door, and one stood open onto a softly lighted interior. With a gentle tap on the panels Vanessa slipped inside.
    It was a huge room, deeply carpeted, luxuriously furnished, and Vanessa leaned her back against the door as she closed it and gazed around. There were several lamps shedding soft light around the room, but the light was still low enough for the room to be dominated by the view out of the far wall. It was all glass, at least twenty-five feet long and ten feet high, and beyond the glass there seemed to be a very large expanse of grass and shrub and even trees on the roof balcony. Beyond that was the city, and then the broad black expanse of the ocean.
    Jake was standing by the window, a glass in his hand, staring out as though completely absorbed in his thoughts. He hadn't heard her; he didn't know she was there. For a moment Vanessa enjoyed the luxury of watching him without being