Chapter 10

Elena could not recall afterwards how she had succeeded in garaging her car without a mishap when she arrived at her cottage. She was shaken to the core, and she had entered her bedroom like an automaton to lie face-down on her bed. It had taken a long time for those terrible tremors to subside inside her, and afterwards she had been left with an uneasy feeling that she had not seen the last of Stephan Lynch.

She had know that meeting him again after all this time might be an ordeal, but the shock of their near collision in the lane had shattered her calm, and it had very nearly snapped her rigid control. She forced herself to eat and drink something before she went to bed, but she slept very little that night, and she awoke the following day with a head that felt twice it’s normal size. She had wondered for weeks how she would feel if she had to see Stephan again, but when she analyzed her feelings that morning she could recall only the shock and the near-hysteria.

‘You’ve been look