Chapter Twenty Four

It was almost eight when Elena pulled up outside the Rectory’s front door.

Her earlier hunger had turned into a gnawing irritation that was making her head ache and her temper on edge. Low blood sugar, she told herself sternly. All you need is a sweet drink. All she needed maybe, but not all she wanted. What she wanted... What on earth was the matter with her? she derided herself as she opened the front door. Other women her age daydreamed and fantasised about having men,

not meals. Eight o’clock. She just had time to get showered and changed before her meeting with Roth. She wanted to run through her figures again, but if, as he said, he had paid for the work himself and he had the receipts to prove it... Perhaps she had been too quick to accuse him...

‘Elena..’

She froze at the bottom of the stairs as she heard Roth's voice. When she turned her head he was standing in an open doorway several feet away from her.

‘Mrs Elizabeth is going to serve dinner at eight-thirty so you’ve