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CHAPTER ONE

VERITY MAITLAND grie BMW sports car she was driving through the outskirts of what had once been her home town

It inally left but, froed—but then why should it have done? Just because so ed in her life, that didn’t mean…

The car was attracting a good deal of covert attention, and no wonder: from its immaculate shiny paintwork to its sporty wheels and its sleek soft-top hood it screamed look at me…admire me…want me

She would never in a thousand years have deliberately chosen a car so blatantly attention seeking and expensive and had, in fact, only bought it as a favour to a friend Her friend, a hties, had recently taken the decision to ‘downsize’ and move herself, her hlands where, as she had explained ruefully to Verity, the BMW would be a luxury she simply couldn’t afford What she had also not been able to afford had been the tiood price for the almost new vehicle and so, heroically, Verity had stepped in and offered to buy the car froh she couldn’t afford to—she could have afforded a round dozen or so new cars had she wished

Along with the nearly new car she had also acquired from the same friend a nearly-neardrobe of clothes, all purchased from Bond Street’s finest

‘I’ Gucci, Lauren, Prada or Donna Karan where we’re going,’ Charlotte had sighed, ‘and we are the same size’

Well aware, although her friend hadn’t said so and despite her cheerful opti’ had not been totally voluntary and that ht for her, Verity had equably picked up on Charlotte’s hints about selling off her wardrobe and had stepped in as purchaser

She could, of course, have siive her friend the money; as a multimillionairess, even if only on a temporary basis, she could after all afford it, but she kne Charlotte’s pride would be hurt by such an offer and their friendshipit

‘After all, it isn’t justdone a favour,’ Charlotte had coether in the large bedroo Verity’s appearance in the white Gucci trouser suit she had just pulled on

‘Now that you’ve sold the business and you aren’t going to be working non-stop virtually twenty-four hours a day, you’re going to need a decent wardrobe You’re going to have to watch out for fortune hunters, though,’ she warned Verity sternly ‘I know you’re in your thirties now, but you’re still a very attractive woman…’

‘And the fact that I’m currently worth over forty ested dryly

‘Not to‘But there are men…’

‘Please…You sound just like my uncle,’ Verity told her

Her uncle Verity was thinking about hih the town and headed out towards her destination It had been an ironic touch of fate that the very house where she had grown up under the guardianship of her late uncle should have been one of the ones the estate agent had sent her details of as a possible house for her to rent

When people had asked her what she intended to do, having finally taken the decision to sell off the business she had inherited frorooe and run virtually fro her parents’ death; a business which she had been brought up by him to look upon as a sacred trust, as the whole focus of her life and as so far, far ht have—she had told them, with the calmness for which she was fabled, that so far she had made no plans That she siive proper consideration to what she wanted to do with the rest of her life After all, at thirty-three she , and she was certainly wise enough to be able to keep her own counsel—it was not completely true that she hadn’t made any plans She had It was just that she knew exactly how her advisers, both financial and emotional, would look upon them

To divest herself of virtually all of the money she had received from the sale of the coht out or logical, but for once in her life she wanted to do what felt right for her, to bewith the needs and demands of others

She had fought a long battle to retain ownership of the business—not because she had particularly wanted to, but because she had known it hat her late uncle would have expected—but that battle was now over As she herself had known and her financial advisers had warned her, there had been a very great danger that, if she had not accepted one of the excellent offers she had received for the sale of the business, she could have found herself in a position where a sale had been forced upon her She had at least ed to ensure that her uncle’s name remained linked to that of the business for perpetuity