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All the sa back in ti into her rucksack and tore a piece of paper out of a notebook and leant on the table She thanked him for his hospitality and then hit a brick wall in the creative department What else was there to say? What else could she reasonably say?

After much reflection she printed her mobile-phone number at the foot of the note Why not? It wasn’t as if she was asking hi hi with that, was there? She left the note propped against the clock on the shelf inside the inglenook

Holly wore a determined smile when Bill’s truck backed into the drive She had her box and her rucksack on the step beside her in a clear face-saving state but there was still no sign of Vito She cliradually reached the conclusion that possibly it was preferable to have parted fro final conversation This way, nobody had to pretend or say anything they didn’t mean

Vito strode into the cottage and gri Holly’s naone for a bath He studied the e that she had reain did he notice that the Christ with her The table was clear, the kitchen immaculate

Vito was incredulous Holly had done a runner and he had no idea how He walked out onto the doorstep and belatedly registered that the old car no longer lay at the foot of the lane in the ditch So much for his observation powers! He had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed that the car had gone Holly had walked out on hiri by her sudden departure All his life wos at the smallest excuse

But would he have wanted her to cling? Vito winced, driven to reluctantly admit that perhaps in the circumstances her unannounced disappearance was for the best After all, ould he have said to her in parting? Holly had distracted him from more important issues and disrupted his self-control Now he had his own space back and the chance to get his head clear And that was exactly what he should want…

‘When you’re finished throwing up you can do the test,’ Pixie said drily from the bathroom doorway

‘I’ued ‘I’nant—’

‘You missed a couple of pills and you had a course of antibiotics when you had tonsillitis,’ her friend and flatmate reminded her ‘You know that antibiotics can interfere with contraception—’

‘Well, actually I didn’t know’ Holly groaned as she freshened up at the sink, frowning at her pale face and dark-circled eyes She looked absolutely awful and she felt awful both inside and out

‘Even the pill has a failure rating I don’t know… I leave you alone for a feeeks and you go co Holly with deeply concerned eyes

‘I can’t be pregnant,’ Holly said again as she lifted the pregnancy testing kit and extracted the instructions

‘Well, you’veup like there’s no tomorrow and you have sore boobs,’ Pixie recounted ruefully ‘Maybe it’s chickenpox or so’

‘All right, I’ll do it!’ Holly exclaimed in frustration ‘But there is no way, just no way on earth that I could be pregnant!’