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She’ll have to do me first, I’ve an appointment with my stylist at one. Party at Pen’s tonight, and my hair’s a complete and utter mess.’ She gave her perfectly groomed mane a petulant flick; then added, in Anna’s direction, ‘They won’t mind if you tag along. You can do the driving, I’ll be having a few drinks.’
    Just as Anna opened her mouth to object, Walter intervened. ‘I’m afraid she’s wanted at Uppercross, darling. Mona’s not well and it’s Harvest Festival tomorrow morning at St Stephen’s, someone has to take the boys and Charles is off fishing as usual.’ He half-turned to Anna. ‘And you really need to go there this afternoon and make their harvest baskets. The boys want a dinosaur theme, nothing too taxing.’
    Anna weighed up her options. Stay at Kellynch and have Lisa throw a tantrum if she refused to act as her chauffeur, or go to Uppercross and witness Mona’s wall-to-wall misery? But Mona had two redeeming features: her children – Oliver, seven, and Harry, almost three. And there’d be no chance of Rick Wentworth visiting his sister; according to his website, he was starting his book tour in London and had two solid days of signings arranged.
    She looked straight at her father. ‘I’ll go where I’m wanted, then. And I might as well go now.’
    No one voiced the slightest objection, so she got abruptly to her feet and left the room. On her way to the front door, she paused to stare mutinously at the two full-length portraits that dominated the hall: her parents, in the second year of their marriage. On the left, Walter preened in front of a banner carrying the Elliot coat of arms, one hand resting reverently on Burke’s Peerage ; the 106th edition, of course – an anachronism added many years later. On the right stood Irina, stunning in a coral-pink evening dress, a diamond tiara in her dark hair and more diamonds at her throat. The expression in those grey eyes was enigmatic; Anna suspected a mixture of disenchantment with Walter and relief at being apart, if only in an oil painting.
    ‘I’ll never – ever – understand why you ended up with him. Except – well, sometimes I wonder if you were an even bigger snob than he is.’
    She must have said the words out loud, because here was Minty beside her, resting a heavy hand on her shoulder and saying quietly, ‘As I told you after she died, your mother made a mistake that she regretted all her days. She was very young when she met Walter, and she couldn’t wait to marry him and settle down at Kellynch.’ A heartfelt sigh. ‘She wouldn’t contemplate divorce, so she lived for her children – especially you. But that youthful haste cost her dear. That’s why–’ She stopped.
    Anna stiffened. ‘That’s why you talked me out of …’ it had been a taboo subject for so long that she stumbled over the words, ‘out of going to Australia, with Rick Wentworth.’
    Minty pursed her lips. ‘Your mother wouldn’t have wanted you to make the same mistake and put your life, your many talents, on hold for a man who didn’t deserve you.’
    ‘Were you and Walter the best people to judge?’
    The bitterness in Anna’s voice suggested this was a purely rhetorical question, but Minty chose to answer it.
    ‘Absolutely. You were completely under his spell, remember? And your cousin Natasha backed us up–’
    ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
    ‘But Anna, if he’s back in England he may come looking for you!’
    ‘Fat chance, when there’s been no communication between us for ten years.’
    A slight pause; then Minty said, ‘Exactly. If you’d really been the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, wouldn’t he have been in touch?’
    Anna stifled a small stirring of sadness. ‘Yes. Yes, he would.’

Chapter Three
    In the back seat of the black Jaguar, Rick slumped against the cool leather upholstery and enjoyed his first scowl of the day. What a prospect – another twenty or so events like