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'Chane is hardly likely to do that Quite the re­verse-some people even bath in the stuff, you know'

Elizabeth suddenly had a startling vision of that lean, hard, aolden fluid not alone, of course

Appalled at her ard ied resistance 'I don’t think—'

'Obviously not All the while you are arguing so pointlessly withI would have thought that modesty alone would have overcome your scruples about my laundry'

Elizabeth's head jerked up and she looked squarely at hirey eyes seemed to penetrate her protective dark ly to her breasts Her hands rose automatically to shield herself but before she could place them across her chest her tormentor had shaken out the neat folds of his handkerchief and draped it gracefully across the provocative indigo pattern traced by the transparent fabric She clutched it to her soaked body as he e into? I'm sure the air hostess will find some way to dry your blouse for you by the time we reach Nouméa'

'I—no,' said Elizabeth grudgingly, thinking of her buttonless jacket

At that moment the hostess returned with a sainst her rapidly cooling chest, blotting up the worst of thethe now sodden handkerchief Should she offer to have it dry-cleaned?

The decision was taken out of her hands when the air hostess spoke across the top of her head in French, graciously offering to have the handkerchief dry-cleaned with Elizabeth's blouse, calling the man 'Monsieur Haood' with a familiarity that implied he was a fre­quent flyer with Air Caledonie The man responded with a lazily flirtatious reestion that Elizabeth change out of her wet blouse

Elizabeth opened herher own request when he cut her off with a condescending sh translation, minus the flirtatious bits, of the conver­sation He obviously assumed that Elizabeth was a naïve scatter-brain who couldn’t possibly have ain when she realised that his erroneous assue If he didn’t know that she spoke his language fluently he

At the hostess's urging Elizabeth slipped into the compact toilet to rehtly sticky breasts She took off the necklace and very carefully washed it, one into the ornately wrought settings and triangular gold links of the supporting chain The dialittered brilliantly in her hands but Elizabeth felt only unease at the rec­ognition of their beauty Why, the stones alone were probably worth tens of thousands of dollars!

Her bra was also da that, too For one thing her full breasts always felt uncomfortable without firm support For another, JJ Haood h without the added aardness of feeling physically vulnerable

Therefore she was appalled when the air hostess passed her the proh a crack in the door—not one from a spare crew uniform as Elizabeth had expected but 'kindly lent by Monsieur Haood, who always carries a full change of clothes' Elizabeth longed to reject the offer but had already handed over her blouse The shirt wasn’t of an inex­pensive polyester variety either—it was pure silk, white, softly draping froathers on the yoked shoulders The label proclai well down over her hands but Elizabeth had to roll them up anyway because the cuffs only had slits for cuff-links, no buttons

Elizabeth s off the moment when she would have to step out of the door Her lipstick had worn off and the lower part of her face under her thick fringe and con­cealing sunglasses looked far too pale She took the sun­glasses off That was even worse Her eyes looked huge and bruised in her pale face, a little wild and definitely fearful A dead give-away in fact She bit her lips to try and give them a bit of colour but they only seemed to emphasise what she had always felt was a too-s about her looked somehow out of kilter, which was exactly how she felt

She buttoned the shirt right up to the small stand-up collar but still it looked far too sexy The shirt was too big, of course, but instead of concealing her curves the thin shroud of silk seeainst the there was soht glu she wanted was for JJ Haood to think she was challenging him in any hatsoever

Elizabeth sighed If only Marge hadn’t fallen ill she wouldn’t be in this mess