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‘It's just stupid superstition!' she said wildly 'But if it did happen you'd never know! Because I'd hide at the ends of the earth rather than let you near your son! And I'd never tell him that he was the spawn of a devil without a soul!'

CHAPTER ELEVEN

'SO THIS is what the end of the earth looks like?'

Sitting at the top of a slightly rickety ladder in the poetry section of the narrow shop, Elizabeth wobbled dangerously as she stared down into the dark,face that she hadn’t seen for alht horrible, infinitely elastic days that seemed to have the ability to stretch themselves out until it seemed they would never end

'W-what are you doing here?' she said uncertainly, wondering if she was talking to just another fevered il­lusion, the cunning work of a weary uished fixation that every black head in a croas a taunting Frenchman with a sold in his ear

'Where else would a devil without a soul be except wandering the depths of purgatory?' So he reht Good! So did she Unfortunately she also remembered that not all of it had been horrible 'Actually I'randfather'

Elizabeth's hands clenched on the catalogues in her lap She couldn’t believe the old man would be that cruel He knew the way she felt about his son Knew that she hated Jack and that Jack despised her She had told him She had practically sobbed her life story out on his shoulder as she begged hie for her to leave the Isle of Hawks, and he had been very kind, con­sidering that she had forced her way past his outraged manservant at the crack of dawn and confronted him while he was still in bed He had patted her on the hand and thanked her for returning his property at such enore for a helicopter and a connecting flight from Tontouta to Auckland Elizabeth, who had spent the rest of the hours of darkness lying stiffly awake on her bed waiting for a thundering assault on her door, and ter­rified byher babies, had been inexpressibly stricken when Alain St Clair had ed to spirit her away exactly as she had requested

She had half expected to be stopped at the airport for soh for a deeply rery Jack to snatch her back under his possessive control, but Alain St Clair's nah Custoration and on to the plane before she could draw breath

One consolation had been that at least she had fin­ished the job that she had gone there to do Her uncles would suffer no lasting dae from her reckless jaunt About herself she wasn’t so sure

Now she looked inside herself for the courage to be civilised when she longed to fly down and tear hiht she loved him, but how could she love such a ht choices when he only had to touch her and she was overwhels and desires she couldn’t control? The idea of being in helpless thrall to her sexual cravings for a man who despised her was more repulsive than the idea of herself as a closet nymphomaniac!

‘I did write to your grandfather and explain that ouldn’t be doing any more business with him'

'Yes, I know He was very disappointed He hoped I would be able to change your mind'

‘I never change my mind,' said she who had been so indecisive since she ca what to have for dinner each night She picked at a bit of fluff on her winter skirt She had lost sohts and thick sweater probablyout of a silly bun and she knew she looked awful He, in contrast, looked wretchedly marvellous, lean and beautiful, even in the open trench coat that was spattered on the shoulders with rain

'Won’t you come down and talk to me, Eliza-Beth?'

She hadn’t heard her name drawled that particular way for a lifetime Tears filled her eyes She had been very emotional lately and she knew her uncles orried They tiptoed around her as if she was an invalid, or dangerously insane Andherself off the ladder into his arms