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‘Is it? You only had to pick up the phone any day to hear it, Annie,’ Pat said with a chuckle to soften the admonishment

Marianne blinked and then found herself shtforward Pat It was her friend’s habit of plain speaking that had got under Zeke’s skin even before he had ht, though; she should have contacted her before this, Marianne told herself silently But with all that was happening between Zeke and herself she had felt—ridiculously, perhaps—that it would be a betrayal of her husband She didn’t feel like that any ht

‘You’re in town?’ Marianne said now ‘Can we ?’

‘Great Do you want me to come round to the apartment?’ Pat asked briskly

Marianne glanced round the suffocatingly exquisite interior and shut her eyes tightly for a second before she said, ‘No, we’ll eat out My treat There’s a great little French place a few blocks away: Rochelle’s, in St Martin’s Street I’ll meet you there at twelve if that’s okay?’

‘Terrific See you then And, Annie—?’

‘Yes?’ she asked carefully

‘Are you all right?’

Marianne took a deep breath and said quietly, ‘No, no I’ht, Pat’

‘Didn’t think you were Twelve, then’ And in characteristic fashion the phone went dead

Oh, Pat Marianne replaced the receiver and stood staring at the telephone for soreat flood of relief and expectation swept through her She hadn’t realised just how much she needed Pat’s down-to-earth common sense and no-frills approach to life until this very second, but now she couldn’t wait to see her

She glanced at the siven her for her twenty-first birthday, a few ht o’clock Four hours to go But suddenly the day which had stretched endlessly in front of her just minutes before had been transformed

A long, hot soak in the bath Marianne nodded to the thought, and, leaving the breakfast table just as it alked through to one of the two guest bedrooms whic

h both had their own en suites

She rarely used the h it boasted an Olympian Jacuzzi bath—unless Zeke was around, and then she only did it to avoid yet another row She couldn’t quite explain it, but the flamboyant, lavish black-and-silver bathroo in their rown apart in two years