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But she hadn’t found therateful for his generosity She’d trusted him He’d sent out letters and hired ht he had s

Or at least that hat she had believed at the tier

But despite all the efforts to find theone, and as the days, the weeks, the reeaker For a whole year she was ill, and her friends wondered if she would recover But she was strong; she had to be

Today I returned to life I rose fro—I voill alearfrom now on—and I made my way to the club I have co How can it be otherwise? I have lost my children

And as the years slip by, I begin to think I knoas behind the taking of them

She ith a start Francesca was sitting beside her, holding her hand She realized with a flash of insight that although her daughters had been returned to her alo, it was only now that that reunion was cohter had been restored to her

“Francesca,” she murmured, and smiled

“How are you feeling, Mother?”

“A little better, I think” She gris to me, petit chaton”

Francesca couldn’t help but smile “If it makes you better, and cleans the poison from your body, then it orth it, surely?”

But Aphrodite had fallen asleep again

Francesca heard Dobson coently upon her shoulder “She is sleeping,” he said “We are very fortunate that Maeve administered such small doses”

“Fortunate,” Francesca breathed, and shook her head over the word “Where is Maeve now?”

“Locked up in a police cell, where she belongs, but I think she’ll always be in a hell of her own ” Sebastian was there, too, on the other side of the bed He atching her face, trying to read her thoughts “She loved Aphrodite, and to harrief”

“I can’t understand why she didn’t stand up to Mrs Slater and say no She could ’ave come to us,” Dobson said