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Jen wasn't easy to convince, and Sian asked her urgently, 'You won't mention this to anyone else, will you? I et in touch, or anyone fro you, tell them what I said, it's all invention'

Her parents were in New Zealand, visiting her elder brother, and had been there forperiods because her father had been in the Air Force, often based overseas, and Sian had gone to school in England, boarding forsummer vacations She had learnt to be independent very early; she had learnt how to be tough and think for herself, and those lessons had stood her in good stead when she became a reporter

Sian knew that her parents wouldn't worry about her if they heard that she was seeing Willia questions froht be ossip

The rest of the as uneventful Sian worked in the office, or was sent out on stories, hton, and spent a wistful afternoon by the sea When she phoned in her copy, she strolled around the town, adlittering in the sun, like soo in because she preferred to walk by the sea A veil offar out over the entle colour fro; now in sun, now overcast,Sian's low-key mood

She knew soht joke with friends as usual, argue and swap professional chitchat,day with her old efficiency, but she wasn't the sao Her world had spun helplessly into a new orbit, she was in hiatus, waiting—but for what?

She couldn't bear even to think about it It was irrational, but she kept hoping that, if she ignored it, it would go away, this strange, drifting, volatile mood She had been quite happy with her life She didn't want anything to change Why was this happening to her?

On the Friday, the pulse of ti the clock, nervously anticipating, wondering if Cass would get back, working out the route by which she would drive to his aunt's house in Buckingha the invitation and suggesting when she should arrive A hand-drawn map had been helpfully included

, and Sian thought she shouldn't havethe house

She promised Leo that she would phone in soarden party, which, as it was for charity, was presumably very much a public event Since Mrs Cassidy had cheerfully stressed that the press would be there, Sian saw no reason why she shouldn't do a piece on that

She left London at five-thirty and took sole herself from the usual homeward-bound traffic jam, heavier than usual since it was the start of the weekend Eventually, though, she was out of the suburbs and driving through the green belt surrounding London: a half-rural, half-suburban landscape Sian much preferred the Hampshire countryside in which Cass lived

At last, though, she began to drive through a richer landscape: green and fertile, softly folded entle valleys in which lay old cottages of faded red brick or black and white Tudor ti roses cliold and white sweet-scented honeysuckle flung everywhere over wall and fences The colours assaulted the senses: delphiniue white cabbage roses, glorious, glowing orange ht began to descend birds flew calling across the deep-sunk lanes through which she drove; there was a heavy, daweed and woodbine

Sian drove slowly, her eyes darting everywhere She didn't know this part of England and had to keep consulting the er seat beside her

Drawing up at a crossroads in the npost A white-flannelled cricket gaures ran to and frolish sounds—sothe bat, the running feet, the sleepy desultory clapping, the voice raised in protest, the clatter of teacups fro up during these closing stages of the lazy ritual

Sian was in no hurry to reach the end of her journey Thatherself, and she was reluctant to do that, but at last she drove on, as the signpost directed, along the left-hand lane, narrow, deserted, the hawthorn hedges on each side, and below them ditches and wild flowers for which so far the bureaucrats had not given orders of extinction No doubt weedkillers would spray them soon, but as yet they blew softly in the warm summer breeze— creamy white sprays of wild parsley, pink calove and tall yellow toadflax Sian was delighted to see the aside at them, fascinated

That hy she didn't see the other car co round the corner One , white sports car flashed past with a screech of tyres, shaving the side of her car so closely that, in panic, she wrenched the wheel and her car slewed sideways into the ditch