“Yes, of course, I will do exactly what you tell me,” the Marchioness agreed. “And, as you have the Elixir for me, Comte, I have something for you.”
As she spoke, she drew from her bag a cheque made out for ten thousand pounds and held it out towards him.
For a moment the Comte hesitated and Susi knew that his instinct was to refuse it, to be honest and say that after all what they offered her would not work, as the Marchioness wished it to do, and tell her to keep her money.
But even as she held her breath, she knew that the Comte had remembered Antonio di Casapellio waiting in Italy to hypnotise and rob the poor foolish woman.
“Thank you,” he bowed slightly.
The abrupt way he spoke told Susi just how much he disliked now, at the very last moment, what he was doing.
He put the flask
