Back in the hall, Mia did exactly as she'd promised Neil. With a tactical brilliance, she smoothly extricated him from at least a dozen business conversations. The moment the discussion began to get too deeply involved in business, she interrupted to sweetly remind him that he had promised to get her a drink, take her for a walk, show her the grounds or whatever ploy occurred to her at the moment.
And Neil let her do it, observing her highly effective tactics with a mixture of frank admiration and veiled amusement. With his drink in his left hand and his right arm around her waist, he kept her by his side, shamelessly using her as a voluntary shield. But as the evening progressed and the wine flowed, conversations became louder, the laughter more hilarious, the jokes more bawdy. And the men who wanted to detain Neil became more persistent.
