Ten minutes later Elena was on her way downstairs when she heard voices in the hallway, and as she rounded the curve of the staircase she could see the housekeeper talking with a tall, elegant woman in her late thirties. ‘So you’ll tell Roth that I called,’ she was saying to Mrs Elliott. ‘Yes, I will, Mrs Edwards,’ the other woman was responding respectfully. Thoughtfully and discreetly Elena studied her. Tall, slender, expensively dressed, immaculately made up, she was the type of woman whom She could remember Roth favouring and she immediately guessed that she must be Roth’s current woman-friend. There was certainly that very confident, almost proprietorial air about her that suggested she was far more than simply a mere visitor to the house. She turned away from the house keeper and then saw Elena, her expression changing slightly and becoming, if not challenging then certainly assessing, Elena recognised as she continued on her way downstairs. ‘I’m just on my way to Haverton H

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 herhead ache and her temper on edge. Low blood sugar, she told herself sternly. Allyou 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 thefront 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 hermeeting 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... Perhapsshe had been too quick to accuse him...‘Elena..’She froze at the bottom of the stairs as she heard Roth's voice. When sheturned 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

When her mother had first married Lucas father and they had gone to live inhis ancestral home, she had been overwhelmed at first by the darkness of thehuge house. It had been Roth who had guessed her fears and apprehensions afterhe had found her sleepwalking that night. Roth who had been staying at the houseinstead of his cottage one weekend, ‘babysitting’ her in the absence of hermother, and who had taken her, not back to bed, but to his own room where hehad made her a hot drink and talked to her, showing her the telescope he used towatch the night sky.The binoculars beside it he had used for another, more mundane purpose. Asthe estate manager one of his jobs had been to keep a sharp look-out forpoachers. The night had no fears for Roth, and through him she too had learned toappreciate its special beauties. It had been Roth who had taken her to watch thebadger cubs at play, earning her mother’s anger. Elena quickly stopped that lineof thought. Since she couldn’t sleep

monthly allowance. She had felt uncomfortable about doing so, but after a small pause,when she had stammeringly explained that she had loaned some money to afriend, he had said quietly that she could leave the matter with him.Naively she had assumed that that meant that he would send her a cheque, andsuddenly she’d had more important things to worry about than money. David,her friend, was dead. He had collapsed at a rave party and been rushed intohospital, but it had been too late to save him.His family had taken him home to bury him and they had also made it plainthat they did not want any of his university friends to attend his funeral.‘They blame us for what happened to him,’ one of his other friends told Elenaangrily. ‘They’re the ones who are at fault. He never wanted to come here...’Elena was too upset to make any comment when Wayne asked for anotherloan, and he was moody and sharp-tempered with her, mocking her upbringingand taunting her with her naiveté and i

And then, without waiting for his response, she turned her back on him andwalked very slowly and very deliberately to her bedroom door.Once there she turned round and looked at him gravely.He was still standing where she had left him, his face unfamiliarly pale, hiseyes blazing with...Quickly she looked away and then, before her courage could desert her, shetugged open the buttons of her borrowed shirt and shrugged it off.Standing still and naked in full view of Roth whilst he watched her in silencewas probably the hardest thing she had ever had to do, she acknowledged, but,somehow, doing it made her feel strong and brave and very, very womanly.There was an odd glittering brilliance in Roth's eyes, and her stomach musclestensed as she saw the way his jaw tightened as he looked away from her.‘Roth....’ she commanded softly.‘Elena for God’s sake...’Ignoring the tough grimness in his voice, she turned her back and walked fullyinto her small bedroom. Seconds later h