Chapter 5

There was nothing strange about Stephan’s buying a farm. Many professional men possessed farms these days, and they used them as a retreat from their pressurized lives in the city, but life had in some co-incidental way guided Stephan to choose Mystic Falls to buy a farm. Why? Oh, God, why? It had to be sheer coincidence. No one would have told him where she lived; Damien would have kept her secret, and there was also no reason to suspect that Stephan would go to any great length to meet her again. Not after what she had done to him.

Dear God, she had no choice! Stephan did not know that, and she wondered what his feelings were when he thought of her. If he ever thought of her.

Elena changed into an old pair of jeans and a faded polo. Her headache was subsiding, and she had always found it therapeutic to work in her small garden. Barefoot, and with a dilapidated old straw hat planted firmly on her head, she went down on her knees in her flower garden to loosen the soil between the seedlings she had planted a week ago.

She worked steadily for more than an hour before she went inside to pour herself a glass of fruit juice which she had forgotten to take out into the garden with her. She seated herself on one of the garden chairs which stood in a shady spot, and she drank thirstily from her glass while she glanced around her appreciatively.

The lawn was green, but the edges needed to be trimmed again. At the farthest end of the small garden the tulip was blooming, it’s flowers shine brilliantly in the sunshine. Besides the gate the hibiscus was flowering, and her pink and yellow roses were ranked in profusion along the low picket fence. The cottage was small with white-washed walls and green shutters at the windows which were more decorative than functional.

It presented a peaceful picture, and Elena began to relax at last. It was silly to get herself into a panic about Stephan, she told herself eventually. The fact that he had bought Rose Garden does not necessarily mean that they would be bumping into each other at every turn. It was quite possible that he might never even discover that she was living in Mystic Falls. He was, after all, not going to take up permanent residence at the farm. Was he?

Despite all her efforts to the contrary, Elena lacked her usual calm during the ensuing weeks. Lady Mint’s departure from Mystic Falls had aroused an anxiety in Elena which made her quake inwardly every time her telephone rang at the cottage and, when she did her shopping in town, she could not prevent herself from repeatedly glancing over her shoulder as if she expected to see Stephan coming up behind her.

‘You haven’t been quite yourself these past few weeks,’ Dr Cleave commented over a cup of tea one Friday morning before the expected rush of patients.

‘I didn’t think it was that obvious,’ she replied helplessly.

‘ I doubt if anyone else has noticed, but I happen to know you better than you think.’ He observed her intently from behind his

gold-rimmed glasses. ‘It’s Stephan Lynch, isn’t it?’

Elena nodded and smiled self-consciously, ‘I have this unreasonable fear that I’m going to turn a corner and bump into him.’

‘Are you afraid of him in particular,or are you afraid of yourself?’

‘I think a little of both,’ she admitted, placing her empty cup in the tray on Cleave’s desk. ‘I’m afraid of what he might do and say, and I’m not at all sure how I would react if we should meet again.’

‘Forewarned is forearmed,’ Dr Cleave pointed out, and Stephan doesn’t have that advantage, you do.’

‘I’m not sure that being forewarned is such a wonderful advantage,’ she smiled with unaccustomed cynicism. ‘If I hadn’t known about Stephan buying Lady Mint’s farm, then I wouldn’t have been in this state of anxiety about a meeting which I’m beginning to suspect is too good to be a co-incidence.

Dr Cleave frowned and pushed out his lower lip in characteristic thoughtfulness, then he changed the subject abruptly.’ I hope you haven’t planned anything in particular for this coming Sunday.’