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CHAPTER ONE

Sian did not have second sight, or she would never have said on the phone to her editor thatto have a slow, peaceful drive back to London today and I'll see you at work on Monday I' this weekend, whatever you say, Leo, so forget it'

'But you'll driving right by the place,' he had protested in his rational, coaxing fashion 'It wouldn't take you long'

'You never give up, do you?' Her voice ry, affectionate, but fir 'I a for you Got it? Anyway, I''

'I see,' he

'What do you see?' she snapped, which was a mistake, she shouldn't have let him see she picked up the implication

'Love-life still hurting?' he asked sympathetically, and her teeth met

'I have to pack See you'

She hung up before he could co else, and stared into space for aat the paper? She thought they had forgotten it by now; she and Louis were an old item, surely? It eeks since they had split up, after all, and Sian was sure she was over hi her holiday She had been enjoying herself too iven herself time to brood over past mistakes and she wished Leo hadn't res to talk about, but the trouble with having lots of friends, or working in a big organisation, was that people took far too close an interest in your private life and felt quite free to comment on it, either to your face of behind your back Sian hated being talked about It put her back up Her life was her business and nobody else had a right to an opinion about it, she thought, glowering, as she set about packing to go back to London

It didn't take her long She hadn't brought much; just jeans and shorts and a lot of cotton shirts and T-shirts She had long ago learnt how to travel light; travelling was part of her job She lived with a suitcase ready packed; she never knehen Leo would despatch her to some remote corner of the British Isles That was part of the fascination of the work; Sian had always been excited by the glaypsy-like nature of a reporter's life She would hate to be in an office all day, doing nothing but staring out of theas the rest of the world went by

It was really her job that had wrecked her relationship with Louis, of course She was always going away, spending time in hotels with other men, as he saw it; and when she was around she was often tired, she used up too y elsewhere to have much to spare for a man

She and Louis had begun to argue, then to quarrel When he started on the 'Choose! Me—or your job!' theme that was more or less it The affair had died out in one violent explosion on both sides Now that she had cooled down she could see it frole and didn't bla, always preoccupied Louis had knohat she should have known, that she was more interested in her work than she was in him

He was seeing so for a second, but she wouldn't be a dog in a er about Louis At the sa involved with another ht her that she wasn't yet ready for a serious affair, or to give herself entirely to loving anyone, and that was sad, too; that did worry her

She feltat Poole, staying with cousins who lived in a delightful harbour cottage Sian had been weary and irritable when she'd arrived; but she was returning in a very different reen eyes tranquil, after days of physical hard work and mental rest on sun-dappled water The weather had been perfect—just enough wind, not too much heat She had been out every day from dawn to dusk, her blonde hair looped up in a ponytail, her shirt and shorts leaving enough of her figure exposed to give her a glowing tan It had been just what she needed

'Thanks for having oodbye on the harbour road 'It onderful'

'You look better, anyway,' Jenny said, grinning at her

'I feel it—and when you and Roger co with me!'

'We won't,' Roger chiot behind the wheel of her little Ford and gave the towards London

It was June; thewas already quite warm by the time Sian reached the New Forest, and she drove with the ide open and cool air blowing through her blonde hair which she earing loose around her face She was playing a tape of popthe road, hershe etting back to work on Monday

As she paused at a crossroads her eye noted the nanpost Crasby? Wasn't that where the big wedding was being held? Sian had never been asked to cover a society occasion before; it wasn't her line of territory, the gossip colus, but the reporter who should have covered this one had apparently rung in earlier to say she was in hospital after crashing on her way down Leo always liked to kill two birds with one stone, so he had ihbourhood and could drop in at the church on her way back to London He would just have to send so trees

The girl in white caht in front of the car a ht for a flash of tihosts, then with a jolt of horror that she was going to hit the girl