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Van de Naude has got over the shock yet. Janet had been with her since she was sixteen. She came here straight from school.”
    â€œHow old was she?” he asked quietly.
    â€œNineteen.”
    He put his whisky down. “Poor kid,” he said feelingly. “Poor, dumb kid.…”

Chapter Five
    Danielle recovered remarkably well from the accident, very proud of how brave she had been. Leonie had raised her pencil-thin eyebrows, saying: “ These mountain roads are so narrow that it’s possible it was your fault, Lucy. Ian thinks you didn’t pull over far enough to let him pass.”
    I didn’t give a damn what Ian Lyall thought. I said: “If I’d pulled over any more I’d have been in the Mediterranean!”
    She closed her eyes, stretching langorously out in the hammock, her face tilted to the sun. “Palma has an interesting visitor?”
    I came in right on cue. “Who?”
    â€œMax,” she said lazily. “He flew in yesterday. Don’t you read your papers?”
    â€œI’ve had more on my mind,” I said curtly, my heart beginning to race.
    â€œI must say your Mr Patterson pales into insignificance beside him. I never did go for that fresh faced American boy look.”
    â€œSteve Patterson is very attractive,” I said defensively.
    The mocking smile deepened. “I’m glad you think so, Lucy.”
    Annoyed with both her and myself I picked up the book I had been reading and walked back into the villa, the sound of Leonie’s soft laughter echoing behind me.
    I was beginning to find the after dinner gatherings on the terrace increasingly claustrophobic, the only relief, Steve Patterson’s company. We had gone into Palma for dinner the night of the Cadillac incident, and he was picking me up again that evening. Until Leonie had mentioned Max I had been looking forward to it. The breath was tight in my chest as I walked along the sunlit corridor to my room.
    Why should Max come to Majorca unless it was to see me? Aunt Katherine must have told him where I was. He could only have one reason for seeing me.… I stood at the open window of my room, hardly able to breath. If he came tonight and I was out with Steve.… Yet if I stayed in, waiting, wouldn’t that be what I had always done where Max was concerned? I turned decisively, my mind made up. I would go out with Steve. It would do Max good to find me out with another man. He would just have to come again in the morning. It wasn’t a decision that brought peace of mind. For the rest of the day I was like a cat on hot bricks, my heart leaping when I heard the sound of a car, plunging again when it turned out to be only Mario returning from the market. Even Danielle noticed.
    â€œYou don’t look very happy,” she said as I tucked her up in bed.
    â€œI was thinking about something,” I said truthfully, sitting down beside her. “ What would you like to do tomorrow?”
    â€œCould we go to Valldemossa? I went there once with Janet and we saw where Chopin lived and saw his little piano.”
    â€œThat sounds nice.” I opened the book I was reading to her my thoughts far away.
    â€œWe’ve nearly finished it now, haven’t we?” she said pensively.
    â€œWe’re on the very last chapter.”
    Her bottom lip quivered.
    â€œWhat on earth is the matter. Danielle?”
    â€œI don’t want to finish it,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
    â€œBut we’ll read another one.”
    â€œThat one is special.”
    â€œIt’s a very nice book, but the man who wrote it wrote other books too. We can start another one tomorrow night.”
    Two large tears slid down her cheeks.
    â€œDon’t be a goose, Danielle,” I said gently.
    â€œI’m not a goose. But Janet began reading that book and now it’s finished and Janet is dead and.…”
    I held her close, her tears wetting my