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War. She was only twenty then and pregnant with Dad. It was fifty-two years ago!'
    'She never remarried?'
    'I don't think she wanted to.'
    He made no comment on that but presently asked her if she knew many people in Charding, apart from the hospital crowd.
    'Quite a few, yes,' she said offhandedly, well aware that she wasn't being strictly truthful but she wasn't going to have him think that she was friendless, or anything like that. Anyway, she knew the Marriners and one or two of her grandmother's friends.
    'It's essential, I think, to have a life apart from the hospital—to be able to socialise with people unconnected with blood and guts.' He said this perfectly seriously, not laughing even when she did.
    'When I first came here,' he went on, 'my cousin and her husband, who live out at Crowdean, took it upon themselves to get me socialised. At the time I found this irksome; I dislike being "done good to". I wanted to concentrate on my job and very little else. Now, however, I find myself looking forward to my free time.'
    'Do you get much of it?'
    'In a word.. .no!' He did laugh then and bent to pick up his paper, which had fallen from the seat. 'Anna, about Alice Fotheringay,' he said as he straightened up, 'We can't be sorry, can we, that she went as she did? I know everything had to be tried to get her going again, but it was merciful that she switched off and refused to come back again.'
    'The last thing she did was smile at us but, like you, I'm glad she's gone. When the team were working on her I actually hoped she'd stay as she was.'
    'So did I.'
    'She told me I walked like an angel,' Anna smiled, remembering.
    'Light, effortless walking... Yes, I think she got that right.'
    His eyes met hers and something in their depths made Anna's heart beat faster; made her catch her breath and say, looking away from him, 'Alice was a dear.'
    'Discerning, too,' Simon said as he got up to go. 'Are you coming now, or staving for a while?' He bent a little towards her, as though about to take her hands and draw her to her feet.
    Quickly she reached for her drink, which she'd set down on the seat. 'Oh, I'm staying put, just for a bit; it's called unwinding,' she laughed.
    'I hope I didn't spoil the process.'
    'Only put it on hold.' Her hands were gripping the beaker, denting the sides again. Then he moved and she began to breathe normally, even managed to reply to his quick 'Goodnight' in an ordinary voice as she watched him walk away.
    He was attractive, and he was attracted to her—she knew that without conceit. He had sought her out, and she had glimpsed the sexual interest in his eyes. She was flattered, thrilled—what girl wouldn't be? But she was also on guard. Simon Easter had the power to overturn her life exactly as Daniel had done. She had no intention, ever , of going down that road again so it was up to her, wasn't it, to look the other way?
     

CHAPTER THREE
    As Anna turned into the driveway of The Gables some thirty minutes later it was to see a green Range Rover at the kerb and a small boy in the porch, pulling heads off the clematis and dashing them onto the ground. When he saw her get out of her car he turned to sidle through into the house but she called out to him, darting swiftly across the strip of drive. 'What do you think you're doing?' Her voice wasn't loud, so much as sharp.
    He faced her—a slim child , in jeans and patterned shirt. 'I'm Tom Marriner, and I'm waiting for my father!' He met her eye defiantly at first and then looked away, pulling at the front of his shirt.
    'I see.' So this was Alex's son. 'Why spoil the clematis?' she asked, aware now of a mumble of voices coming from the sitting-room.
    'I got bored.'
    'That's no excuse, is it?' The voices were getting louder: her grandmother and Alex were coming out. Swift as lightning, Anna stopped and scooped up the severed flower-heads and thrust them into her pocket, noticing Tom go red as she did so—and serve him damn well right.
    'Oh, Anna,