A Cat Called Kat

Chapter Seventeen - A Vision of the Future

That evening, Slimeball had invited me to join the others on the main terrace for dinner. I decided to wear the long dress that Zi'Anna had organised for me for church at Christmas - it would send out the right message to him and, anyway, with the number of straying hands that there seemed to be about the place, it was probably safest. I waited until I'd heard Slimeball passing my room before sending my little helper on her way - she seemed scared of him - understandable, I suppose! Then I sat in front of my dressing table mirror and put on a gesture by way of makeup. When I was done, I carried on sitting there for a moment, basically getting my head together, ready for what was to come. Then I slipped on the lovely blue cardigan that Zi'Anna had knitted for me and made my way up through the gardens.

The sun was setting as I stepped out onto the main dining terrace. Slimeball had his customary whisky glass in his hand, and I had to stop myself from flinching when he took my hand and greeted me with a slimy kiss on the cheek. I could smell the stuff on his breath. "You are having a different dress," he said, holding me back to study me.

"Yes," I replied. "The Vanguard was kind enough to allow me to collect some things from my old room," I explained.

The Vanguard looked across at the mention of his name and nodded at me. I nodded back but carefully avoided smiling at him. The last thing I needed was Slimeball getting all jealous.

One of the senior waiter guys stepped across and, when Slimeball let me go, he asked me what I would like to drink, in English.

"Just a glass of fizzy water, please," I replied. I needed to keep my wits about me. Slimeball drained his glass and shoved it in the direction of the guy too, wordlessly demanding a refill.

Of course the drinks arrived within moments and, for a while, we sipped them as we enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Then a horrible cold shiver passed down my spine and I just knew that there were creepy eyes looking at me.

So I wasn't at all surprised when Captain Moretti put in a noisy appearance. "Boss," he said in Italian, nodding at Slimeball, "Your ladyship," he said to me in English. And before I knew what was happening, he had taken my hand and leaned down. I expected him to kiss it but instead he gave me a sly little lick. My whole body sort of cramped together in disgust and I was too shocked to look to see whether anyone else had noticed.

Then he stood back up and, still holding my hand, he stared at me... well... at my body... for much too long.

"Enough of that!" Slimeball said in Italian. He was trying to sound all serious but you could tell he was really laughing. "Get your filthy eyes off my woman."

"Just making sure she knows she's got other options for when you get bored of her!"

I found myself comparing this ugly scene to the quiet grace and dignity of dinner with Nonno and I pretty much wanted to weep... but luckily Slimeball was too busy to notice. "Go and get me another drink!" he demanded, thrusting his empty glass in the direction of the vile captain.

The two stood together and drank and chatted for a while. They were getting loud and moderately obnoxious and I was glad I could pretend not to understand what they were going on about.

I thought that perhaps I ought to circulate a bit... get some sort of feeling for who the rest of the guests were.

But I didn't think Slimeball would appreciate seeing me with other men so I stepped over to a group of three women who were clustered together towards one end of that beautiful V-shaped table.

They looked distinctly uncomfortable as I approached but I couldn't really run away now so I said. "Hi! I'm Cat," as casually as I could manage.

One of them seemed to speak quite good English but, when I looked her in the face, I noticed that she had a black eye and bruising round her neck. She'd done quite a good job of covering it up with make-up but you could still see it. I was so shocked by this that I managed to completely miss their names.