BOOK 4

For a long time they lay like that without speaking. Then he shifted his weight off her and lay beside her, still close, still without speaking, and raised himself on one elbow. She put a finger on the hard, wonderful curve of his shoulder, and traced a line down to the swell of his biceps, which moved and rippled as his hand played some delightful game with her navel.

'I thought you didn't like me,' she said at last.

His hand stole from her navel to her breasts. 'I . . . like you very much.'

'I thought after you met Robert . . .'

'Amy, darling, living is making mistakes. I've made them too.'

'With women?'

He didn't answer, but his hand left her breasts and pushed her damp hair away from her face.

'Grand'mere,' Amy said, 'told me to ask you about someone called Carol.'

He turned abruptly away from her and sat up against the old-fashioned mahogany bedhead. 'She was nobody. It was a long time ago.'

Amy lay back, staring up at his straight, strong profile. Something had happened to her i