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Elizabeth's hands tightened on the strap of her heavy bag She could slip the books out and back on a shelf now and no one would be any the wiser If they had been ht they had merely been misplaced At least then she would only have the necklace to worry about

She looked around the cavernous roo the necklace beneath her pri it had taken on the nature of a penance that she was fated to perforht into the huge hotel safe—she suffered severe anxiety verging on physical pain about the possibility of it being lost or stolen She had been braced to keep Jack at ar, or at least frorin he had been blandly circu her frooing out on an innocent first date rather than a ether only a few hours before The drive to the estate had taken little over twenty y and all the way Jack had chatted easily about the island's history and entertained her with stories about the tradition-bound St Clair farandfather Gradually his casualness had the desired effect, and Elizabeth was able to push the vivid ly fierce re­sponse to his love his company

Seeing the sates that had to be opened by a guard before they could enter the tree-lined avenue to the flamboyant St Clair residence and the impressive alarm system, Elizabeth had coot into the place on her own The only practical way in was the way she had come, by personal invitation

If only her acceptance had been as innocent as the invitation Glancing over the locked toughened-glass cases and spotting a rare fifteenth-century thirty-six-line Bible, of which she knew that there were only fifteen in existence—the latest having been auctioned at Christie's for 11like that hadn’t been involved No wonder the place ell protected and casual callers dis­couraged She opened her bag and was reaching inside when someone spoke behind her

‘I thought I ht find you in here'

'Jack!' She whirled around, snapping the bag closed, her hand pressed against her frantically beating heart 'W—why did you think that?' she htly He had told her that she was free to explore while he sought his grandfather's room to inform him of their presence

'With your fascination for books, where else would you gravitate but towards the library?' he answered smoothly

‘It'sunder control 'How's your grandfather?'

‘Isn’t it?' He ignored her question and waved a hand at the shelves 'And all these have been acquired since the war Most of Grandpère's original collection went up in smoke when the chateau was boht froood their oar losses or, more recently, their stock market ones However, Grandpère knows that Jean-Jules and I don’t share his abiding passion for old books, so he's decided to sell off all except a core of his treasured favourites while he's still capable of doing it himself only to carefully selected, personally ap­proved buyers, of course'

Elizabeth smiled involuntarily 'He sounds just likehow much he knew

In deference to his grandfather's old-fashioned ideas of proper dress, Jack earing a pale grey suit and tie, and yet he still looked coolly casual as he thrust one hand into his pockets and regarded her with a whimsical smile

'Probably why they all got on so well Over the past few randfather has invited quite a number of prospective buyers here to express their interest in his collection I didn’t realise until he recognised your na them Why didn’t you tell me? I would have better understood your interest in the estate'

Elizabeth's face pinkened ‘I—I didn’t realise you were even related until yesterday and then, well I didn’t want to presume on as after all a very brief ac­quaintanceship,' she finished lamely

He strolled over and took her hand, politely not co pulse as he raised her wrist to hisabout us or our elders? In future, feel free to presurandfather remembers your uncles well'

'Oh, really?' Her pulse erupted even th Why 'well'? Because he suspected the con men?