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Although Alain St Clair proved to speak English as faultlessly as his grandson, in deference to his years they spoke French during the meal, and after Elizabeth had conquered her euilt to the back of her mind she actually enjoyed herself The old man knewher uncles, and his conver­sation was sharp—witty, arrogant and very opinionated in his beliefs, drawing her out into the kind of furious debate that revealed the fiery emotionalism she usually eschewed

Elizabeth had no difficulty at all in i him and Uncle Miles and Uncle Seymour in a huddle over their port and brandy, three eccentric oldbooks and the sad decline of the world from the standards of their youth, heads filled with over two hundred years of co to the certain conclusion that thethe world to rack and ruin by ig­noring the shining wisdom of their elders and betters

Dinner had begun at an elegantly late hour and it was after eleven when Alain St Clair rose, looking much less robust than he had earlier, and he didn’t deo his usual port and forbidden cigar before bed

'No doubt I shall be seeing much of you now that you have finally found your way here,' he ly over her hand He addressed hirandson 'Now, mon petit-fils, you will help me up to my room I do not wish to disturb Andre this late and, besides, it is necessary for me to have a feords with you before you retire'

With a silent gesture that she interpreted as a request for her to wait for his return, Jack assisted his grand­father from the room and Elizabeth was left with only her half-empty coffee-cup and the discreet whispers of the servants reone she sat in exquisite isolation and listened to the measured tick of the ornate clock on the marble mantelpiece above a fireplace that was surely only or­namental in the sub-tropics

She sat for so long that she began to iine that the shadows in the corners of the chandelier-lit rooers uneasily on the arlass down on the pristine table, rising restlessly to her feet and pacing the room

She had coht had proved to her complete satisfaction that Alain St Clair was not the sternly self-righteous ogre conjured up by her guilt-ridden iination Her fear that he would im­mediately deroundless, as was the anxiety that his heartfrom his cynicism at dinner, Alain St Clair was virtually un-shockable, and he had revealed a mistrust of authority, born in the hich extended to all representatives of officialdoe to be administered he would, like Jack, be far more likely to take care of it himself than brook outside interference into his private affairs

However, she didn’t think that the Alain St Clair she had ht would think in terms of punishment when she handed back his property and questioned the inexplicablewhich Uncle Seye of With his depth of hu, coupled with a devilishly ironic sense of humour, Monsieur St Clair would probably find the whole sorry episode a loss

And Jack? Her heart was foolishly optimistic

He would be relieved, wouldn’t he, that the 'deeper ga ? And no doubt order a complete inventory of the chateau's contents to make sure that no other careless breaches of security had oc­curred—if that was indeed what had happened

That wouldn’t be his first reaction, of course She knehat that would be She had already learned how volatile he could be under that ultra-disciplined façade Coward that she was, she thought she would ask his grandfather to explain everything while she stayed dis­creetly out of the way, until the dust had settled suf­ficiently for him to listen to reason

Suddenly the doors to the dining-rooainst the pale walls, and Jack strode in, in the grip of a nificent fury

'So! You beautiful, conniving bitch! You are a thief, nothing but a common thief!'

He grabbed her, slae of the table as he arched her back until her expression of wide-eyed horror was starkly illuht cast by the central stem of the chandelier

'You do well to look terrified, chérie,' he snarled as his hands wrapped with loving violence around her throat, his eyes silver daggers that slashed her with razor-sharp conte in to my most primitive instincts! You played me well, didn’t you, you—?' He used a French obscenity that made her blanch