Kathleen Tessaro 3-Book Collection: The Flirt, The Debutante, The Perfume Collector - Kathleen Tessaro


KATHLEEN TESSARO 3-BOOK COLLECTION: The Flirt, The Debutante, The Perfume Collector


Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

The Flirt first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2008

The Debutante first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2010

The Perfume Collector first published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013

Copyright © Kathleen Tessaro 2008, 2010, 2013

Ebundle cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013

Kathleen Tessaro asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007330676, 9780007366019, 9780007419838

Ebook Edition © December 2013 ISBN: 9780007548521

Version: 2017-11-29

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

The Flirt

The Debutante

The Perfume Collector

Keep Reading

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

KATHLEEN TESSARO

THE FLIRT


Praise

More heart than youll ever find on a catwalk written with élan and panache.

Daily Mail

Its friendship, not elegance, that proves Louises real saviour, and the friendships that develop through the book are drawn carefully and with insight.

Independent

A perfect pick-me-up.

Cosmopolitan

Its surprising that this is Kathleen Tessaros first novel as her style shows the confidence and ease of a more seasoned writer. A charming, entertaining novel.

Punch

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Chapter 2: A Self-Made Woman

Chapter 3: Tea for Table Five

Chapter 4: 45 Chester Square

Chapter 5: Free Lunch or a Shag

Chapter 6: Armenian Plumbers

Chapter 7: The King of the Tennis Ball

Chapter 8: A Stranger at the Garrick Club

Chapter 9: 111 Half Moon Street

Chapter 10: A Subtle Twist of Fate

Chapter 11: The Interview

Chapter 12: The Rules

Chapter 13: Professional Massagers of the Female Ego

Chapter 14: La Dame aux Camélias

Chapter 15: High Tea at Claridges

Chapter 16: A Brief History of the Professional Flirt (A Small Digression)

Chapter 17: The Worlds Most Exclusive Hairdresser

Chapter 18: Another Moriarty Original

Chapter 19: A Mans World

Chapter 20: Nick the Nose

Chapter 21: Make Me a Willow Cabin at Your Gate

Chapter 22: The Cardinal Rule (A Moment of Silence, Please, for Freddie)

Chapter 23: A Clean Break

Chapter 24: The Ghost Chair

Chapter 25: The C Word

Chapter 26: Breakfast at Graff

Chapter 27: Professional Massagers of the Female Ego at Large (Part One)

Chapter 28: Professional Massagers of the Female Ego at Large (Part Two)

Chapter 29: No Ordinary Mark

Chapter 30: Drip, Drip, Drip

Chapter 31: Professional Massagers of the Female Ego at Large (Part Three)

Chapter 32: To the Lighthouse

Chapter 33: The Savoy

Chapter 34: All Hail Athena

Chapter 35: Love According to Flick

Chapter 36: The History of the Cyrano (Another Digression)

Chapter 37: The Perfect Plan

Chapter 38: The Perfect Plan (Hughies Version)

Chapter 39: Venus Blinks

Chapter 40: The Invitation

Chapter 41: On the House

Chapter 42: Its Me Emily

Chapter 43: Walk with Me

Chapter 44: Into the Care of Mr Lewis

Chapter 45: International Polo Player

Chapter 46: Leticia Eats

Chapter 47: The Last Resort

Chapter 48: The Next Generation

Chapter 49: Waiting

Chapter 50: Meant for Better Things

Chapter 51: A Suitable Client

Chapter 52: Unusual

Chapter 53: The Opera

Chapter 54: Liberty

Chapter 55: Professional

Chapter 56: Perspective

Chapter 57: Two for the Price of One

Chapter 58: Domestic Harmony

Chapter 59: Faux Pas

Chapter 60: Speed

Chapter 61: A Deadly Virus

Chapter 62: The Good Wife

Chapter 63: A Cold November Evening

Chapter 64: Life Jogs On

Acknowledgements

La Vie Bohème

The ad appeared in the Stage in the second week of September, when the Edinburgh Festival was officially over and real life made its unpleasant appearance again in the collective consciousness of the large number of unemployed young actors who populate the London area.

It read:

Unique situation available for an attractive, well-mannered, morally flexible young man. Hours irregular. Pay generous. Discretion a must.

Please send photo and brief romantic history to:

Valentine Charles

111 Half Moon Street

Mayfair, London

Hughie Armstrong Venables-Smythe was sitting at his usual table, next to the window in Jacks Café, armed with a pen hed nicked from the waitress, a strong cup of builders tea and his mobile phone, which was running out of credit. Outside, the sun was radiant, the air sharp with a brisk autumn breeze. Elderly shoppers, dragging battered tartan trolleys, paused to examine the merits of the half-price bleach in pink plastic baskets outside the Everything For a Pound shop on Kilburn High Road. Others hurled themselves into bargaining sessions with the red-faced Irish butcher, his bacon suspiciously reasonable.

Here, Hughie was among his people; living the front-line, hand-to-mouth existence of a jobbing actor in NW6, still quite a rough neighbourhood according to his mother, despite the recent boom in house prices.

Spotting the ad, he circled it and leant back, satisfied. In his trade, buying the Stage and circling ads was considered an entire days work. He lit a fresh cigarette to celebrate.

Hed only just started smoking; Marlboro Lights. It was a disgusting habit. Hed picked it up from his girlfriend Leticia, who was full of the most delightfully disgusting habits known to man, of which smoking was easily the most socially acceptable. At twenty-three, it made him feel sophisticated. But then Hughie needed all the help he could get, especially as Leticia was a great deal older than him and more sophisticated than he was ever likely to be. Although theyd only been (he was thinking of calling it going out. But was it really going out if in fact you never went anywhere or did anything but just met several times a week in strange, dark places to have wild, wordless, pornographic sex? Probably not. The proper social heading was more likely to be seeing one another, which theyd only been doing for about two weeks), Hughie was already violently in love.

Ah, Leticia!

What was not to love?

Everything about her was perfect from her glossy, black bob, doe-like brown eyes and soft, pink Cupids bow lips, to the way she screamed, Spank harder, you horny little bastard! in the alleyway behind the bespoke lingerie shop she ran in Belgravia.

Closing his eyes, he silently thanked the Lord above, as he did many times a day now, for the particular good fortune that forced him to sit down next to her on that crowded number 12 bus. From the first moment he felt her delicate hand creeping up his inner thigh as they passed Marble Arch to the hasty exit they both made at Piccadilly Circus, hed known that the course of his life was changed for ever. Until that day, God had been little more than a vague concept but afterwards, Hughie concluded that no other force in the universe couldve so perfectly answered all of his prayers.

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