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face. “ Janet would want you to finish it and read other books.”
    â€œYou won’t go away, will you?”
    â€œNo, darling. I won’t go away. Snuggle down under the covers and I’ll hold your hand while I read.”
    It was half an hour before I left her. By then she was asleep, her arms around Mr Sam, her teddy-bear. I turned the light off and went back into my own room to get ready for Steve, but my thoughts were not on him as I brushed my hair and sprayed perfume on my wrists and throat. If Max had flown in yesterday he had had plenty of time to get in touch with me. What could be delaying him?
    There was the distant sound of a car approaching the villa and I ran to the window, swallowing my disappointment as minutes later Steve stepped out onto the terrace, his shock of fair hair nearly blond in the dusk. What I had said to Leonie had been the truth. He was attractive. Tall and loose-limbed, with an easygoing friendliness that put people at their ease. I liked Steve Patterson. I liked him very much, and I wasn’t going to let the shadow of Max spoil our evening. Not even if the effort killed me.
    He gave me an appreciative whistle as I went out to meet him.
    â€œThat’s what I call a dress. How do I live up to it?”
    â€œEasily.”
    He grinned down at me. “Now I know why I like you. You flatter me.”
    My heels tapped metallically on the terrace and I saw Peggy’s curtain drop back quickly into place. I smiled. There wasn’t much that Peggy missed. We walked quickly down the corridor that led to the courtyard, the empty rooms on either side seeming to whisper with a life of their own. I was glad when we finally reached it and heard the sound of the gently falling water of the fountain. The night was warm and scented. In the darkness a frog dived with a soft plop into the lily pond, the rings of water silvered in the moonlight.
    â€œHeard anything from the police yet?” Steve asked as he opened the car door for me.
    â€œNot a thing.”
    The car surged forward between the bronze studded courtyard gates and dropped down to the track across the darkened headland.
    â€œStrange. I would have thought a powder-blue Cadillac with half the paint ripped off the side would be an easy enough car to spot.”
    â€œMe too. I get the uncomfortable feeling that they think I imagined it.”
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œThat they think I simply overshot the road and cooked up the drunken driver story to cover myself. They haven’t bothered to speak to me themselves, only Helena.”
    â€œWhat about what I said about the car speeding?”
    â€œI think they’ve put you down as a romantic attachment!”
    He grinned. “ There’s an idea to brighten up the evening. But from what Leonie was saying, you’re still involved in one.”
    The car bucked off the headland onto the mountain road, gathering speed as it swooped round the first of the bends.
    â€œJust what did Leonie say?”
    â€œThat you’re engaged to Max Wyndham.”
    â€œWas.”
    â€œI must have heard her wrong.”
    â€œI don’t think so. It’s the sort of deliberate mistake Leonie would make.”
    â€œI thought it might be. I’m not so unobservant not to notice an engagement ring. Not that it would have made any difference. It’s the little gold ones that have me running for the hills!”
    I stared out of the window as we plunged into a tunnel of trees, hardly aware of him, my thoughts riveted firmly back on Max.
    He drove on in silence for a while and then said: “I gather it went deep?”
    I said simply: “ I’ve known him all my life.” It seemed unnecessary to say I had loved him all my life as well.
    â€œI see.”
    From the tone of his voice I thought perhaps he did. The lights of a small village swam up to meet us, then streamed by, swallowed in the darkness.
    â€œHow is Danielle? No