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CHAPTER ONE

AS THE snow becae of the car windscreen clear Then, finally, the narroisting road began to cli that the tyres would keep a grip on the treacherously slippery gradient

That petrol-pump attendant had warned her that it would be crazy to attempt the lake road in snow but Molly often flew in the face of sound advice And her stubborn determination to reach Freddy’s isolated hoone to his funeral Her fiancé, Donald, had offered to go with her as moral support but she still hadn’t been able to face such an ordeal

The sritted her teeth and started up it again She was al the lake Over four years had passed, but she still re down to the water’s edge Her face stiffened and shadowed, fingers clenching round the wheel She also remembered the slavish way she had tried to follow Sholto out of the rooht her back, his wise old eyes al face

‘Don’t cling, s on his feet You can’t tae… Sholto isn’t a domesticated animal This is all new to him Hasten slowly’

But she hadn’t listened, she conceded sickly, hadn’t seen, hadn’t been able to focus on anything but her own desperate need to be as close to Sholto as his skin And the more he had stepped back fro then, not even suspecting that Sholto’s heart could never, ever be hers She wore anothernow but res tre doith sudden involuntary force

She cried out in fright as the car slewed violently sideways and then skidded with unnatural, terrifying grace off the road Her heartbeat thundered in her eardruhts glea expanse of dark water only yards away Sing hard, she tried to reverse back up onto the road but the tyres spun on the boggy, snow-slick ground and the car stayed where it was

Finally, she detached her seatbelt and climbed out into the teeth of the wind She would walk up the hill Dear heaven, she oing and the lake was deep

Grabbing up her shoulder bag, shivering convulsively as the wind ble into her face and snatched up her long fall of russet hair to whip it across her eyes and ht jacket and locked the car It ell after eight Freddy’s housekeeper wasn’t even expecting her and now Molly would have to ask her for a bed for the night into the bargain

Stupid, stupid, Molly castigated herself as she toiled up the hill Why avoid the funeral and then drive all the way to the Lake District just to collect the old vase which Freddy had left her and leave a feers at the ceel, had been stunned when he’d realised she could have gone to the funeral and the scene which had followed that revelation had left Molly feeling sick with irrational guilt

‘The perfect opportunity…and you didn’t take it?’ Nigel had condemned in disbelief ‘But Sholto would’ve been there! You could’ve talked to him then’

‘Don’t, Nigel…’ his wife, Lena, had begged, her strained eyes swi with tears ‘This isn’t Molly’s problem It’s ours’

‘Will you still feel like that when you and the kids have no roof over your heads?’ Nigel had demanded, the stress of recent months etched in his thin, boyish features ‘What would it cost Molly to go and eat a bit of huet near him!’

Now the snoas falling thicker and heavier, crunching over the sides of her shoes and freezing her feet In no mood to dwell on her brother’s desperate financial proble icy hands into her pockets and plodded on up the hill The dark, unadorned bulk of the house looain and she felt quite ith relief There were no lights visible but on a bad night like this an elderly woht already be tucked up warm in her bed

The freezing wind slashing with cruel efficiency through her inadequate clothing, Molly rushed to press the old-fashioned doorbell A couple of endless ain, and thenher as she stood back and peered up at the black, unrevealing s in search of an encouraging chink of light

She had assumed that the housekeeper would be here for at least another week But maybe she didn’t live in As that possibility occurred to Molly for the very first ti that Freddy’s housekeeper lived on the premises If the house was eht freeze to death spending the night in the car She didn’t even have a travel rug to wrap around herself When she had left home after lunch it had been a beautiful sunny day and she hadn’t paid the slightest heed to the weather forecast

Panic firing her, Molly trudged round to the back of the house Obviously there was nobody inside She peered at the snow-covered ground, prowling up and down until she found a suitable stone Fingers almost numb, she yanked of

f her jacket and wound it round her ar the stone as she braced herself in front of the s a deep breath, she swung her ar back, she breathed out in a rush, shook herself free of broken glass and dragged on her jacket again

Reaching inside with great care, she undid the latch and the fra her chilled hands on the stone sill, she hauled herself up with a groan of effort and crawled on her knees through the open , slowly feeling her way onto the kitchen worktop A startled yelp of pain escaped her as a splinter of glass pierced her knee But even as she stilled in exasperated acknowledge sense of so fast towards her in the darkness

As a pair of powerful hands snatched her up into midair, she screa the stone floor face down, all the breath driven fro in wild terror as a suffocating weight dug into her spine Hard, iers raked down her arms to entrap her frantic hands and then as quickly loosened their grip and freed her again