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he spat out the word as if it revolted hi youhim about a suspect provenance of one he had sold you'

‘I haven’t been trying to steal the necklace, Jack,' she croaked insistently 'For God's sake—I've been trying to give it back!'

Deep, dark colour flushed across his face as his lips pulled back in a rictus of a s into her so that she felt the hard grind of his hips against her treainst the table

'No—Jack—I' the truth this time'

'Huh!' The pressure didn’t ease one iota Elizabeth thought about bursting into tears but she realised he would probably enjoy hearing her sob—or, worse, think that she was still trying to manipulate him with her vul­nerability She was bleakly aware of the miserable fate of the Boy Who Cried Wolf

‘It's true,' she said huskily, trying to speak calh her severely restricted airway 'The necklace and those books—they were sent to my uncles by randfather Obviously your grandfather couldn’t have packed them so it must have been someone who didn’t know books, who didn’t check the inventory properly, or was careless By the time they realised what had happened '

'Why—if they were totally innocent of guilt?' he chal­lenged harshly ‘If they had returned everything straight away Grandpère would have been grateful rather than suspicious of any wrong-doing'

Elizabeth sed, sternly re herself of the clean breast that she had promised herself to display Her voice quavered bravely 'Well, actually Uncle Seyht away but—"well, he's old and he loves beautiful old things Since no one was shouting for their iht that it wouldn’t hurt if he enjoyed them for a while

'He never intended to withhold his finding indefi­nitely,' she added desperately 'He just looked on it asAnd when Uncle Miles realised—well, they did try to arrange a return through the proper channels Uncle Miles phoned and wrote, but your grandfather never replied and we couldn’t just send the necklace back in the post! So-so I offered to bring it back and try and explain and apologise—'

'And since you were already set for a spy mission on Ile des Faucons it was all incredibly convenient!' There was not a shred of belief in the sardonic interruption, but irip on her throat eased

‘It was the other way around,' she said quickly, hoping that the worst of the explosion was over and that noould start to think ‘I told you the truth last night— the Corvell thing was sprung on me at the last minute at the airport I had no idea that the Haoods and St Clairs were the same familyor whether the dis­appearance of the necklace had even been discovered I had to knohat the situation was before I blundered blindly into it I'd promised Uncle Miles that I'd be very discreet Don’t you see, I had to get into the estate and ' Heartened by the slight easing of his hand, she ventured tentatively, 'Could you—do you think you could please get offme'

She hadhis body settledthe weakness of her position and the power of his His eyes, as cold and grey as dead ashes, contrasted with the fla tension that smouldered in the bunched muscles of his body

'And you think you haven’t hurt rated 'Did you think that I was so far under your spell that I would believe any ridiculous fabri­cation you chose to feed me?'

Her description of events sounded absurdly unbe­lievable even to her own ears, and the fact that some of his condemnation was deserved undermined her feeble flutter of confidence His reaction seemed to confirm her earlier decision not to confide in him until she had proof of her honest motives

She realised wearily that she was paying the price for two crimes here—one of which was not even her own In Jack's ed into one The other woeance, but she, Elizabeth, was right here, literally within his grasp