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CHAPTER ONE

'Honestly, Jess, I don't knohat that family of yours would do without you,' Colin Weaver told his assistant with a wry smile 'Well, what is it this tiotten to collect his new cheque book?'

'Neither,' Jessica Forbes told hi her own s her at work for assistance every time there was a family crisis, but they weren't really used to the hectic pace of the modern-day commercial world—Uncle Frank, for instance, still lived in a pre-war daydream fostered by the leisurely pace of life in the sal practice he had inherited from his father, and Aunt Alice wasn'tin bewildernised it any hed; the problehteen-year-old cousin s

'Okay, okay, I'ised with a wry smile "I suppose I'm just jealous really,' he ad and co for me if I locked myself out?'

'It wouldn't do any good if I did,' Jessica pointed out with a grin 'You live in a penthouse aparte with a pantrythat sih, whereas yours truly…'

'U appreciatively over her slender five foot eight fra they would stop depriving me of your valuable assistance'

'I have to go this ti the soft fullness of her bottoether in a worried frown The probleently into e when Isabel had arrived unexpectedly on the scene and neither of them had ever totally recovered from the shock

'Oh, Isabel,' Colin said gririht her here…'

'Here' was his exclusive London salon where he showed the alluring ranges of separates that bore his name Jessica had worked for him ever since she left art school She loved her job as his assistant, and if he neededoccasionally, he more than made up for his lapses when they were over In Jessica's view there was no one to n of separates His secret, he had told her on more than one occasion, lay as much in the careful choice of fabric as the style the materials were eventually ue described them, and Jessica reckoned there could be feealthy wo to the well-dressed lists who didn't have soned individual ranges, but it was, as Jessica knew, his great dreah streets at prices every woman could afford

'She is a little iht of her cousin— pretty, headstrong Isabel, who re into whatever came her way on a momentary whim

'She's exactly two years younger than you hen you first cariirl wrapped up in too much cotton wool, Jess, you spoil her, and she laps it up What were you doing at eighteen? I bet you weren't still living at home, financed by Mummy and Daddy?'

'No,' Jessica agreed sohteenth birthday They had been killed in a car crash on their way ho friends She could still re to break the news; Aunt Alice's white face They had offered her a home, of course, but by then she had her career planned, first art school and then, she hoped, a job in fashion design, and so instead she had used soht herself a small flat in London, but she had stayed in close contact with her aunt and uncle; after all, they were the only farew older the ties between thethened Family came to mean a lot when there was so little of it left

Isabel had been a little girl of ten at the ti to remember very much about Jessica's parents, and somehow Jessica had found that as the years went by she was called upon to e in the storrew into her teens, Isabel urging her to support her on the one hand, while her parents were pleading with Jessica to 'make Isabel realise' on the other

The plan was that Isabel would go on to university after leaving school, but in the sixth for, that she didn't want a career at all, and so at eighteen she orking in her father's office, and co bitterly to Jessica about it whenever they met

'I wanted to talk to you about our visit to Spain as well,' Colin said sulkily, interrupting her train of thought Jessica gave hiht he could sometimes display all the very worst characteristics of a little boy in theso to et her attention when he felt the need arise Jessica excused hiner and an excellent employer, flexible and with sufficient faith in her ability tohe had been dangling in front of her for several o alone, and: then he had suggested that she should go with him He heard by word of mouth about a Spanish firm who had discovered a series of new dyes for natural fibres, and that the results were stunningly spectacular Their fabrics were sold only to thefor an introduction to their Managing Director

'I don't knohether I'll be able to go,' Jessica frowned, hiding a sudden shaft of a satisfaction to anxious concern

'Not that daain!' he protested 'This time you'll have to tell them to do without you I need you, Jess,' he told her plaintively

'Very well, but no more unkind comments about Isabel,' she repri…'