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'Haood He's over there Behind you At the first-class check-in for Air Caledonie' By slu his shoulders her brawny Uncle Si stance of an elderly man rather than the fifty-five-year-old he was Elizabeth couldn’t help adan to turn

'No, don’t look now!' Her uncle grabbed her shoulder to stop her 'He ether Just stand in front of oodbye'

'I need to knohat he looks like if I' on him,' Elizabeth pointed out drily, and the old man before her frowned

'There's a photo of hioing to walk away in a minute; you can take a look at hiant one in the brown coat with the long black hair and the earring'

'Earring?' Elizabeth was startled

'It's apparently a Haoodto do with some Renaissance ancestor and an old superstition about the Haood luck They seeuard it fairly jealously'

Elizabeth was dying to look around by now 'What about her—your client's wife? Is she with him?'

'Serena Serena Corvell She flew up this uess so her husband wouldn’t see Haood and start to ask questions' He proceeded to tell her a few other things that he thought she ought to know and gave her some last-minute instructions and reassurances

When he was gone and Elizabeth turned around her eyes had instantly found the arrogant man whom her uncle had said she couldn’t miss

He was third in line at the check-in desk, frowning fiercely after a rapidly retreating figure in a dark coat who that it was sohness to the airport and ed in the process to annoy him in some way She had been shocked by the pony-tail and surprised at the sight of jeans beneath the stylish brown trench coat he wore, but, not particularly fashion-conscious herself, she presuet out of suits on occasion, and JJ Haas obviously in a sartorial class of his own She had nervously made her way to the adjacent queue and em­barked on her trail of minor catastrophes

Someone rattled the toilet door now and Elizabeth re­luctantly acknowledged that she had lingered as long as she could She put her sunglasses back on and practised an enigmatic expression in the mirror

Neither JJ Haood nor her own fears were going to defeat her To do a great right it was often necessary to do a little wrong From now on discretion would be her ord

Elizabeth Lamb: undercover operative!

CHAPTER THREE

ELIZABETH slipped back into her seat and re-fastened her seatbelt, saying primly as she did so, 'Thank you for the loan of your shirt'