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Penny Jordan Collection(75)



                ‘I saw the way she reacted when Lloyd left her to go to London with Vicky,’ Ran told her tersely.

                ‘Lloyd has never been her lover, Ran,’ Mollie reasserted. ‘She doesn’t love him in that way, but if you doubt my word, if you really want to know the truth, there’s only one person you need to talk with, isn’t there? If you don’t believe me, Ran, then think about this: why should a woman, any woman, not just allow but encourage a man to make love to her when she has been deliberately celibate for years and when she believes that he cares nothing for her? Why, unless it’s because her own emotions are so strong, so powerful, that they are outside her own control? Very few human emotions come into that kind of category, Ran.

                ‘Oh, and by the way...’ Mollie paused and turned round as she started to walk away from him. ‘I nearly forgot. Sylvie telephoned last night. She’s spoken to Lloyd and he’s agreed that she can leave Haverton whenever she wishes. She’s booked on a flight from London tomorrow.

                ‘Sometimes, for a woman, just being loved isn’t enough.

                Sometimes we need more than an act of faith and sometimes we need to be told, shown, to see it, to hear it, touch it, taste it.’

                * * *

                ‘What’s the matter with Ran?’ Alex asked Mollie curiously half an hour later as he walked into her sitting room. ‘I’ve just passed him on the lane; he said he was going back to Haverton. He said something urgent had come up.’

                ‘Mmm...did he...?’

                ‘Mollie...’ Alex said perceptively. ‘What’s been going on? What have you—?’

                ‘Oh...’ Putting her hand to her mouth, Mollie got up and raced for the door.

                Morning sickness—what a euphemism, Alex decided. Poor Mollie suffered from it all day. Sympathetically he went to follow her.

                * * *

                Her bags were packed, a note left for Ran explaining that someone else was going to take over her work, her files were all in order; there was nothing left for her to do other than get into her hire car and drive it to the airport. Still Sylvie couldn’t quite bring herself to go.

                Irresolutely she made her way upstairs, pausing outside Ran’s bedroom. She had the house to herself. Mrs Elliott had left for the day. Impulsively she opened the door and went inside. The room was just as she remembered it from that single night she had spent here. She went over to the bed, smoothing a trembling hand over the pillow which had been Ran’s.

                Tears burned behind her eyes but she refused to shed them. Instead she walked determinedly towards the door and through it.

                Outside the air was warm with the heat of the late summer sun. She could see the lavender which grew in huge drifts alongside the drive.

                Silently she turned to give one last look at the house. Where Haverton was a mansion, this was a true home. Very gently she touched the warm mellow brick before wheeling round and hurrying unsteadily towards her hire car. She had booked herself into a London hotel overnight ready for her morning flight to New York. It was time for her to leave. There was, after all, no reason for her to stay.

                * * *

                All the way north as he drove, Ran told himself that he was a complete fool, that Mollie was wrong.

                ‘If Sylvie does love me, there’s nothing to stop her saying so,’ he had told Mollie sharply.