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crossly.
    'I think you're over-reacting,' her sister said, and she grinned suddenly. 'He's very attractive, isn't he?'
    'That has nothing to do with it!'
    'No? All right.' Marina checked the percolator and put the dessert dishes into Dani's hands. 'Now just you calm down,' she said severely. 'The man is my guest and I'd like you to be civil to him.'
    'Civil?'
    'That's what I said.'
    Back in the dining room there was an atmosphere of cool politeness. Dani slid into her seat and kept her head down, guiltily aware that she was partially the cause of the constraint and not daring to look in Prentice McCulloch's direction. The headiness of her anger had vanished and she felt stupid, like a schoolgirl who had been reprimanded by her teacher. She longed to escape.
    Then she became aware, not for the first time that evening, that her right shoe was pinching her slightly, and she wriggled her foot to try to ease the discomfort. She felt the high heel descend upon something that was not carpet, and the man by her side stiffened.
    Oh no. Dani knew immediately what she had done. She had put the heel of her shoe down on to his foot and he would never, never in a million years, believe that it was an accident. She waited for the storm, head bent and with a terrible feeling of panic rising in her, but when he did not instantly exclaim with pain, she found the courage to look at him.
    He was talking to Elsie Chamberlain across the table, and not by word or tone or movement did he indicate that anything unusual had happened. He did not even look at her. Dani relaxed slightly, grudgingly grateful to him for not compounding the trouble that she was in already, and after a few more seconds she found the courage to talk to Harry about a London show that they had both seen recently.
    When she first felt a knee nudging hers, she thought it was an accident and moved her leg away slightly. The persistent knee followed, moving gently against her own in a subtle but insistent pressure. Outraged, Dani turned her head to glare at Prentice McCulloch, but he was still talking, not looking at her, and any form of verbal protest died away in her throat before it could be uttered.
    How dare he! The knee moved again and Dani shifted her leg as far away as she could, furious that such a small action could make her feel so nervous. It was difficult to equate Prentice's calm, businesslike manner with the knee that had rubbed so suggestively against her own.
    The dinner party was not a success. Dani was unsurprised when Prentice got up to leave after the coffee had been served, declining a brandy on the grounds that he was driving. Then he looked at Dani.
    'May I offer you a lift home?' He faced her and smiled, and Dani's heart seemed to lurch into her throat.
    That smile changed his whole face; lightening it, transforming it, giving it a vitality that up until then had been missing. Dani found herself returning it simply because it was so warm and so irresistible. For an instant she would have sworn that there was no one but herself and Prentice in the room.
    'Thank you.' She accepted his invitation gravely and then wondered why. Surely she was not so young and so naive that she could be swayed by one smile?
    She was still wondering why she had acquiesced as he closed the passenger door of the Volvo for her and then went around the car and slid behind the steering wheel, the width of the car making a safe gap between them.
    Safe? Dani wondered why the word had crossed her mind. Of course she was safe! He could hardly pounce on her while he was driving, and he could not get lost between Alder House and her home. Neither did he look like the kind of man to indulge in an unprofitable wrestling match in the front seats. Dani smiled at the picture the thought invoked.
    'Something funny?' He started the engine and waved to his host and hostess before setting the car into gear, releasing the handbrake and moving away.
    'No.' A minute later she was frowning as the car