Page 99 of Under Her Protection

"Oh, darling, please. You were not at the last dinner. Isabella told Nadine, and Nadine told me, and I tell you. She has been letting the bodyguard fuck her every which way until she can’t remember her own name.”

"No."

"Yes."

"Vivienne Strauss?”

"Yes, the Vivienne Strauss!”

“I mean the bodyguard is hot, if that is your thing.”

“I think it is certainly Strauss’s thing.”

"Well, to be fair."

"Oh, quite. Very handsome. Good for Vivienne. At her age."

"Don't."

"I am only saying. If she is going to have a crisis, she may as well have the crisis on that."

Third laugh, low, private.

"Has she a name?”

"Who."

"The bodyguard."

"Does it matter."

"I suppose not."

"I could not tell you. We call her the hot bodyguard."

"The hot bodyguard."

"The hot bodyguard."

Fourth laugh, harder.

"That is funny."

"It is funny."

"It is, in its way, very Vivienne."

"What is."

"Acquiring the hot bodyguard as though one were at auction."

"Darling, she has always done that with her help. Every housekeeper she has ever had has been rubbish at hoovering and good at something else."

"Don't be cruel."

"I am not being cruel. I am being observational. Vivienne Strauss fucks her staff. We all know that.”

"Mm."