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man who had swept in and out of her life with the force of a hurricane, leaving desolation in her heart.
    One evening before their departure she spent reading a book, borrowed from the Public Library, about her nephew's future home.

    Antigua, twelve miles by sixteen, was the largest of the Leewards, she learned. The other islands in the group were Nevis, St. Kitts, Montserrat, Barbuda and Anguilla.
    Although small, they have a monumental past, she read. Around them raged many historical naval and military battles.
    Christie lifted her gaze from the page, a troubled frown between the delicately marked eyebrows which, like her long lashes, were several shades darker than her hair.
    And if I don't like what I find, and don't think John will be happy, another battle will rage between Ash and me, she thought.
    For although he had discouraged her from attempting to resist Ash's superior claim to the child, her solicitor had added that, if Mr Lambard's life style could be shown to be at all irregular, then she would be on stronger ground.
    Christie had been apprehensive that the eight-hour- long flight across the Atlantic might prove too exacting a test of her small nephew's usually good behaviour.
    She need not have worried. From the moment they boarded the huge aircraft which had ten seats in each row, separated by two gangways, he was as quiet and contented as some of the other children on board were restless.
    Luckily they had been allocated side seats, and she put him in the one next to the window from which, once they were airborne, he was able to gaze in wonder at the sunlit world above the clouds.
    This limitless snowscape was the view for several hours, during which time they were served first with drinks and then with lunch.

    After lunch the stewardess handed out headsets to those who wanted to hear the inflight movie or listen to music. On her own, Christie would have watched the film, of which she had an excellent view because each section of the cabin had its own screen on the wall of the central blocks which housed the many well-equipped washrooms.
    But as John was too small to see over the seats in front of them, and too young to enjoy an adult film, she paid for one set of earphones so that he could listen to the Junior Jet Club Show, a programme specially for children.
    This lasted an hour, and before it was over he had curled up and fallen asleep with his thumb in his mouth and his other arm cuddling Sammy, his toy baby seal.
    Very gently, Christie removed the headset without disturbing him and was able to hear the dialogue of the last part of the film.
    When it was over she leaned across John to open the shutters over the porthole which passengers had been asked to close for the film show.
    Now, outside, the shining white snowfields had given place to a deep blue ethereal lake on which floated hundreds of royal icing islands.
    The service of afternoon tea roused John from his slumbers to find another plastic tray on the folding down table in front of him, this meal including a packet of his favourite digestive biscuits.
    'I like flying, don't you, Aunt Christie?' he said, as she helped him to unwrap his scone and spread it with blackcurrant jam.
    'Yes, I do,' she agreed with him, smiling.
    No doubt seasoned travellers, such as his uncle, found nothing extraordinary about air travel. To her it still seemed a miracle that four hundred people, tons of luggage and the food for a three-course meal as well as this light snack could be wafted miles into the air and sped across a vast ocean which had once taken weeks to traverse.

    She had already put back her wrist watch to five hours behind London time, because when they arrived it would still be mid-afternoon in Antigua's time-zone.
    Thinking about landing, and of the man who would be there to meet them, she began to feel tense and keyed-up. She told herself it was merely the excitement common to all holidaymakers on nearing their destination, but deep down she knew