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‘You have a visitor, Mia’

Mia’s heart stopped dead Monsieur Michel had just entered the staffroom A visitor? There could only be one visitor Who else knew she was in Monte Carlo?

‘If you want I can send him away?’ Concern clouded Monsieur Michel’s face as he cah to see the shock on Mia’s face

‘No—No, that’s fine,’ she said, licking the sugar off her fingers and rallying fast ‘I’ll see hi down frooing to turn this preet it over with She wasn’t a child to be overawed by him

No, Mia th ar ‘n’ Spice these days

Chapter Three

‘I HAVEroom available to you,’ Mia’s kindly old employer told her with obvious concern

‘Thank you, Monsieur’

‘And you only have to tug on the bell-pull if you need me’

Monsieur’s concern was genuine and it touched her ‘Thank you, Monsieur, but I’m happy to see him’ On this occasion, a small white lie surely wouldn’t hurt

Bold resolutions were one thing; acting the anxiously around as she crossed the salon full ofon as normal, which seemed odd until she re at the prescribed speed But why should she worry about how she looked or what Raht of her? This was her life and Ram could accept it or not But he was in for a shock—and not just because of the unconventional outfit She’d always been alternative where fashion was concerned, but she hadn’t always been scarred But she had wanted this No one had forced her to e and the chance to prove herself on her own terms

And it couldn’t be worse than Tom and Ram’s Leavers’ Ball The event had been held in aid of charity and was the hottest ticket of the year She’d been sixteen, so of course she didn’t have a date—she never had a date She usually hten boys ahatever outlandish new look she happened to be sporting

On this occasion Ra up a foursoirlfriend, when Raone down last minute with flu He’d even told her she looked lovely when they both knew that was a lie—she had cut her black hair aggressively short that year and had dyed soly duckling to turn up with a hot, eighteen-year-old prince and shock all those pretty girls had proved irresistible Not that she had improved any on the fashion stakes She could never coirls and so she didn’t try Her dress was a hand- aunt had passed on to herRareen chiffon with its s of sequins hat she wanted to wear Tall, hard-ed and offered her his aruessed it must have been a charity event for him in all senses of the word

But she was a very different person now—she could cope with anything Ram threw at her

Which hy her heart was going crazy?

Opening the door onto Monsieur Michel’s private quarters, Mia shut the bustle of the salon out She needed a moment to clear her head and leaned back on the door She and Ram hadn’t parted on the best of terement party when Ram’s behaviour had confused her She had been so desperate for him to see her as a woman and had really taken trouble to look nice for once They were both adults, Rae hi in a different direction He oodbye present—and there was even ato kiss her, but nothing came of it Why did he have to huift, she’d realised later—a rich boy’s pay-off for a childhood friend he would no longer have any time for

She wasn’t pretty enough or interesting enough to hold Ram’s attention—she could see that now, but back then she’d been young and so very vulnerable Ra had been like a licence to run wild The endless and ulti in his place transfor the thin line between thrill and disaster became her only purpose, until the accident and an enforced stay in a burns unit brought her into contact with people far worse off than she was, by which tione

And noas back