Acquired Tastes by Simone Mondesir

have no ice,' said Alicia hopelessly. 'The men drink whisky with water or soda. But Shirley could run down to the kitchen and see if they have any.'
    'God forbid! I'll have it with water.'
    'And I'll have a drop of that nice Amontillado, if I may,' Alicia added.
    Shirley gave her a grateful nod and hastily poured their drinks.
    'Can we go over by the window? If I don't get some air I shall simply die,' Vanessa said loudly, taking her drink and leading the way. 'Would you mind?' she asked two elderly professors who were standing in front of the windows, deep in conversation. They moved hurriedly away.
    Vanessa put her drink down on the windowsill and tried one of the windows. At first it stuck fast, but with a sudden whoosh of air and encrusted dirt, it shot open. Fresh cool air flooded the room.
    The surrounding academics backed away as though nervous of this unheard-of intrusion. Alicia and Vanessa were left standing alone, separated from the rest of the room by an invisible no-man's land.
    'Dr Binns,' a deep voice suddenly boomed from the back of the room.
    It was so deep, that for a moment, Vanessa thought the speaker was a man, but an imperiously-bosomed woman was elbowing her way through the common room towards them. She had dark, mannishly cropped hair and a pronounced Roman nose. Her dark-green, tweed suit looked decidedly military, but instead of the comfortable lace-ups Vanessa expected to see on her feet, she wore feminine, high-heeled court shoes below surprisingly slim, shapely calves.
    'Alicia, my dear girl,' the woman said as she reached them, putting a beautifully manicured hand on Alicia's arm to emphasise her greeting, 'how nice to see you. We thought you were in London.'
    For a moment Vanessa couldn't see the 'we'. Then, peeping round the large woman's elbow, she noticed a thin balding man with watery blue eyes. His mouth constantly twitched, which had an unfortunate effect on his wispy goatee beard.
    'Dr Zelda Drake and Professor Ernst Gruber, I'd like you to meet my friend, Vanessa Swift,' said Alicia.
    'Ah, you must be the television director we have all heard so much about,' Zelda said, grasping Vanessa's hand firmly. 'I'm afraid you have Ernst and me at quite a disadvantage. We never watch television, do we, Ernst?'
    Ernst appeared to both nod and shake his head at the same time.
    Vanessa was surprised to find herself looking down at Zelda. Her bearing had given the impression she was much taller, but the eyes looking up at her yielded supremacy to no one.
    'You mean a television set won't fit into your ivory tower?' riposted Vanessa.
    She hit her mark but Zelda did not flinch. With barely the suggestion of a hesitation, Zelda smiled, although it did not quite reach her eyes. 'No, no my dear, I was saying to Ernst just the other day, that it's time we academics tried to communicate more to the masses. So often they are fed either wishy-washy pap or downright rubbish, don't you think? I am of the opinion that they deserve something a little more challenging, perhaps even provocative, and certainly more original than most of the fare that is served up on our screens these days.'
    Zelda's thrust was the more effective. The two women stared at each other for a long moment and then Vanessa's eyelashes flickered and she looked away.
    Years of intellectual sword play had sharpened Zelda's ability to find an opponent's vulnerable spots, but she had found few worthy opponents since coming to Heartlands two years ago. She was a psychologist, and before Heartlands had lived in Vienna for twelve years, where she had been pursuing her research into patterns of emotional response and arousal. It was there she had met Professor Ernst Gruber, who was a palaeontologist. Their passion for uncovering the hidden past - in people's unconscious minds on her part, and in the earth's rocks on his - had developed into a passion for each other, according to Zelda. They felt no need of marriage for they were both well past forty,