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She was here, in Greece She had not been here for two years All around she could hear the chitter of cicadas, feel the waretation and the sparkle of the sun on blue, blue water This time yesterday she’d had no idea at all that she would be here

No idea of the ordeal ahead of her

Am I mad to do this? Even to think I can do this?

Doubt assailed her, eroding what little dogged deter Disbelief swept over her, and then panic again, and she had to fight them both down

I can do this—I can get through it, and I can cooing to do I’ethome—home to my real life Home far, far away from here—and farther away froain

She felt anger and loathing for hith froe form in her mind

Tall, dark, deadly

Abruptly she ju her coffee cup on the tray and letting her book tumble to the floor She strode off the terrace, past the pool, with its purpose-built whirlpool, and plunged down the set of steps that led on to the shingle beach It was only a tiny beach, hardly enough to stride along The vegetation at either end was too thick for her to negotiate, and she was reduced to crossing and recrossing the patch of shingle as all around her the war blanket, pierced only by the noise of the cicadas in the foliage

Agitation poured through her, a sick anxiety, as she strode up and down, backwards and forwards, the soles of her trainers crunching the gravel Then, without knohy, she halted Her skin see, but she was spiked with awareness

Slowly, very slowly, she turned to look back at the villa

Theo was standing on the veranda

Watching her

Theo let his eyes continue to rest on her, even though she was noare of his presence

She was agitated That was good It meant that the air of blankness she’d pulled over herself during the flight had been nothing but a pose She was good at poses, he knew—all too well Posing at being his wife—until she’d been caught in flagrante by the gutter press who had, for once in their sordid, voyeuristic lives, come in useful

A faripped hiall, at her daring to do what she had and then, when confronted with it, being without shame or repentance Fury at her continued sha she was entitled to the money Aristides had set aside for her, for which she had repaid hirace But she hadn’t cared about that, either Or about anyone else…