41

Peter had to stop the BMW at the pedestrian crossing from Hyde Park to St Mary’s Cathedral, just short of where he had dropped Erin this morning. The dashboard clock read eleven thirty-one. He’d timed his arrival almost perfectly.

Was she waiting for him?

He checked the sidewalk that curved down to Elizabeth Street. His quickly scanning gaze caught sight of a woman standing in the shade of an overhanging tree, just past the end of the taxi rank—a stunningly attired woman who looked as if she’d stepped out of the fashion pages of Vogue magazine.

Was it Erin ?

A very stylish black hat dipped over her face, making her identity uncertain for a moment, though the hair was right, the body shape was right. Her head turned towards him and his heart thumped with a great leap of excitement. It was her. She saw the blue BMW, smiled, waved, moved out from the shade towards the edge of the sidewalk, ready to join him.

The dress she wore was a sleeveless, silky wraparound, a deep jade-green with bi