Elusive As The Unicorn. Carole Mortimer

‘No,’ he said again, as if trying to convince himself, ‘I’ve dreamt of the moment I would meet The Unicorn …’ he added flatly, his frown pained.

      ‘You might not even like him if you met him,’ she frowned, moved by the intensity of his emotion; The Unicorn’s paintings obviously meant a lot to him. ‘You could be disillusioned,’ she said slowly. ‘Disappointed.’

      ‘I—I couldn’t be.’ Adam shook his head. ‘Artists paint from the heart, the soul,’ he insisted, the uncertainty still darkening his eyes.

      She shrugged. ‘Some of them just paint for the money.’

      ‘Not The Unicorn.’ He sounded more firm.

      Eve could see that, although she had shaken him slightly with the things she had said, his belief in the artist was complete.

      ‘You’re right,’ she told him softly. Annoying as this man had been to her all evening, she couldn’t bear for the disillusionment in his eyes to continue a moment longer. ‘The Unicorn doesn’t paint for the money.’

      His expression instantly brightened, and he moved a step closer to her. ‘You know who he is!’ he pounced with restrained excitement.

      Eve instantly regretted her lapse, looking around the room searchingly for Paul, panic welling up inside her; he would be most displeased if he knew she had revealed even this much to a complete stranger. Especially one that had already irritated him so much!

      Narrowed brown eyes moved questioningly over the pale distress of her face, Adam’s head turning as he followed the direction of her frantic gaze.

      His loud swallow could be clearly heard. ‘Hell, no …’ he groaned, as if in pain.

      Eve turned back to him sharply. ‘What is it?’ she gasped nervously.

      He had the look of someone who had just been punched in the stomach and was still reeling from the blow. ‘You were right,’ he said weakly. ‘It would have been better if I’d never tried to find out who The Unicorn was.’

      She blinked, paling even more. ‘You know who it is?’ She swallowed hard.

      He nodded. ‘And I’ve only spoken to the other man once, briefly, but I disliked him before I even met him,’ he said dully.

      Eve continued to look at him frowningly for several dazed seconds before his complete meaning became clear to her. And then she realised that he thought Paul was The Unicorn.

      When, in actual fact, she was …

       CHAPTER TWO

      ‘DELICIOUSLY wicked of me, wasn’t it, darling?’ Sophy said with undisguised glee, her movements graceful as she strolled around Eve’s studio; the mid-afternoon sunshine, as it shone through the huge window overhead, highlighting the brightness of her hair. ‘I would have given anything to have seen Paul’s face when he rejoined you, and Adam asked him outright if he was The Unicorn!’

      Eve hadn’t found it in the least amusing at the time, and she didn’t particularly find it so now; Paul had made his displeasure at being taken for the artist more than plain on several occasions since the incident. However, Adam couldn’t exactly be blamed for making the mistake; it had been generally accepted for some time that the artist had to be a man, and she had admitted to knowing the artist.

      She grimaced now. ‘You should have seen Adam’s face when Paul replied, “Good heavens, no!” and walked off.’ Dragging her along at his side!

      Sophy made a face. ‘The trouble with Paul is that he’s a damned snob.’

      Eve gave a rueful smile, having long ago given up trying to curb Sophy’s acid tongue where Paul was concerned; simply ignoring her where possible. ‘He’s a respectable lawyer who likes to be thought of as such,’ she corrected chidingly.

      The other woman shrugged. ‘As I said, he’s a damned snob. The mistake wouldn’t have been made at all if he wasn’t so damned adamant about keeping your identity a secret,’ she added disgustedly, her make-up as perfect in the clear light of day as it had been at the party two evenings ago.

      Eve sighed, having heard the argument many times before, from both sides. ‘Sophy——’

      ‘I wouldn’t mind,’ the other woman continued angrily. ‘But he isn’t at all averse to using the money you earn from your paintings to help further his political ambitions.’

      Sophy was the daughter of an old friend of Eve’s grandmother, and it had been through her grandmother’s urgings that Eve had finally shown the other woman some of her paintings four years ago. Sophy, in her usual fashion, had turned out to be abrasively honest about her work. But her criticism of Eve’s work then had been justified, and it was because of that honesty, and the faith Sophy had had that she could be a great artist, that she had been able to have her first small exhibition almost a year later.

      Her criticism of Paul, Eve felt less able to accept without demur.

      ‘We’re going to be married, Sophy,’ she reminded stiffly. ‘It’s only natural that I should want to help further my husband’s career.’

      Sophy gave a disgusted snort. ‘It isn’t natural for him to be ashamed of your success to the point where he doesn’t like people to know you’re The Unicorn!’

      Warm colour darkened Eve’s cheeks. ‘He isn’t ashamed of my success,’ she defended stiltedly. ‘He’s just trying to protect me.’

      ‘From what?’ the other woman challenged, her beautiful head thrown back.

      Eve shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’

      Auburn brows rose over snapping green eyes. ‘Do you?’ Sophy drawled hardly.

      Eve gave a heavy sigh. There had been a continuing argument between Paul and Sophy in recent months, because Paul, as her adviser and lawyer, refused to let Sophy launch the publicity campaign concerning The Unicorn that would, without it actually coming to the point of revealing her true identity, seriously endanger her anonymity.

      The Unicorn, because of the subject of her paintings, had been a name she and Sophy had come up with for her during that first frank discussion about her work. And while the name, coupled with her work, had added a certain amount of interest during the early years, Sophy now insisted that it was no longer necessary, claimed it would only add to the success of her work if it should come out that The Unicorn was a woman, and not the man everyone had so readily assumed it to be.

      Paul insisted as strongly that her identity remain a secret. And so the argument went on, with Paul coming to the point where he had advised Eve not to take part in the winter exhibition at all if Sophy couldn’t do what they asked.

      ‘Let’s not talk about that any more today, Sophy,’ she dismissed wearily. ‘I hope you managed to placate that man Adam after the rash promise you had made him,’ she added teasingly.

      ‘I only told him The Unicorn would be at the party; it was up to him to discover who that was. Besides,’ the other woman gave a wicked grin, ‘he was so relieved to learn that Paul wasn’t The Unicorn that I didn’t need to placate him at all!’

      ‘Sophy——’ Eve chided wryly.

      ‘Well, it’s true,’ Sophy insisted with wide-eyed innocence. ‘He almost got down and kissed my feet when I assured him Paul was telling the truth.’

      She couldn’t help smiling; Sophy really was outrageous! ‘Who is he, anyway?’ she queried lightly, deciding she might just as well ignore the other woman’s sarcasm at Paul’s expense; Sophy took no notice of her reproof, anyway!

      ‘A successful entrepreneur, worth millions,’ Sophy confided. ‘And he also owns one of the most prestigious