Chapter 1471

• Hidden Treasure
• Sylvie fastened her fake pearl necklace with a sigh. The piece of jewellery had been a present from the boy who’d plucked her virginity away, two years previously, and it always served to make her feel romantic and whimsical. It had also inspired her stage name, Pearl Necklace. In her act she shimmied around the stage to the Dance of the Cygnets, pretending she was a naive nymphette discovering parts of her body for the first time.
• But now both the act and the cheap necklace were getting tiresome. She looked in the mirror and brushed her long blonde hair. Usually this served to soothe her but tonight she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had let her new lover down. They’d met a few weeks before. He’d been coming to the club off and on for about a month, always sitting on his own in the corner, sipping his single malt and occasionally tapping his foot to the music. Dressed in a uniform of fedora and double- breasted suit, he was like a figure from another time. And,