‘You have to talk to her. Explain that it was all a misunderstanding.’There was another long silence, and when he spoke again his voice was roughened with emotion. ‘I wish to God I could look her in the eye and tell her truthfully that I never even thought it. But I did. And nobody will ever know how guilty I felt afterwards.’She longed to put her arms round him, even take his hand, but she didn’t. Any word or movement, she felt sure, would make him clam up.‘Until she was born, I felt very little,’ he went on. ‘Anna had this big lump that squirmed now and then, and I knew eventually it was going to come out and there’d be nappies and sleepless nights and a non-existent sex-life for weeksafterwards. I pretended, for Anna. But when she was bom . . .*He paused. Td had this idea that it was like shelling peas. I was utterly unprepared. Anna was in agony for hours, and I’ve never felt so helpless in my life. I got angry with the nurses, told them for Christ’s sake to give her somethin

Guy had stopped waving. He had swum a little further with a powerful crawl. He stopped again, and gave another beckoning wave. Claudia waved back. ‘We’re coming!’ she yelled, but knew he couldn’t hear.Anoushka was suddenly rigid. ‘Get out!’ she screamed, waving her arms frantically. ‘Get out!’Claudia stared at her, aghast. ‘What on - ’‘Can’t you see?* She ripped off her sunglasses, handed them to her. ‘Look! In the water!’Claudia went cold.Without the sunglasses she could never have seen. But with powerful lenses cutting out the glare she could see all too clearly.There must have been a half a dozen of them. Dark, streamlined, stealthy shapes, circling beneath him.'Where there's food about, there are always predators .’This time, she knew they weren’t dolphins.- - -What must have gone through his mind when he finally realized why they were yelling and waving their arms so frantically she could not bear to think.He glanced behind him, but there was nothing to see, no fins br

For the rest of the meal Claudia avoided Guy’s eyes as if they were death rays.What exactly had that ‘but’ been saying? I want you, but that's all it is, so don't get any ideas. Or, I want you, but it's just not on at the moment . Or even a bit of both. I want you, but I'm not sure whether it's any more than that, and in the circumstances I'm not that bothered about finding out.By the time their coffee arrived, the strain of keeping up airy smiles and chat was a nightmare. When he suggested a liqueur, she shook her head. I'm ready for bed. I didn’t sleep very well last night.’‘You slept this afternoon,’ he pointed out.‘I’m still tired,’ she fibbed.Anoushka gave a large yawn, covering it belatedly with her hand. ‘I’m shattered too.’ She glanced up at Guy. ‘Do you mind if I go up now?’‘I’ll come with you,’ said Claudia, a little too quickly.‘If you’ll both wait one minute till I’ve signed the bill,’ he said patiently, ‘we can go up together.’Until they were in the lift, she avoi

One could hardly storm out and slam the door. She said, ‘Night, everybody,’ and smiled apologetically when her aunt said, ‘Going up already?’ She managed another smile when her uncle made a crack about the younger generation having no stamina, and escaped.Room five at Weeping Ash Inn was half the size of her Muscat room but just as comfortable, in a rose-sprigged, English way.Bloody Ryan! If only I could go home now.It was out of the question. The do proper wasn’t until the following night, and she’d never, ever be forgiven.Twenty minutes after she’d gone up, there was a tap at the door. ‘Claud, are you asleep?’‘Yes, so shove off.’He rattled the door anyway. ‘Claud, let me in.’‘Bugger off!’‘ If you don’t let me in, I’ll go and get a pass key. ’ He sounded positively injured. ‘I have every right to know why you want me willyless after I just gave you a sodding great cheque.’‘I’ve earned a sodding great cheque, after what you put me through. Now get lost!’The old, mischievous

If you actually needed an excuse to come to Barbados , Claudia thought, as she collected two rum punches from the bar, a wedding isn't a bad one.The tree frogs were just beginning to tune up as she padded back through the gardens to the beach. Guy was sitting in the sand, gazing out at the placid Caribbean, where the dying sun cast liquid gold on the water.‘If Kate gets through the next two days without murdering her mother, it’ll be a miracle,’ she said as she sat beside him. ‘They’ve had another row. Kate simply cannot share a room with Paul the night before the wedding. It’s bad luck. She’s insisting that I move in with Kate and you move in with Paul for the night.’‘Fine,’ he said absently.Not for the first time in the past few days, she gave him a searching look. She’d thought she was imagining it at first, but it had steadily got more noticeable. It had started even before they’d got on the plane - a certain preoccupation, as if something were on his mind.Hesitantly she aske