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"He may not have long to wait," Elizabeth murmured, to which remark Adele made no reply.

When they finally reached Kilchoan, Jenny and Charles had returned. One look at Jenny's radiant face was enough to tell them that the specialist had given them hope.

"It's going to be all right!" Jenny cried, flinging herself into Mrs. Abercrombie's arms. "Oh, Grand'mere, I'm so happy! I can't really tell you how happy I am."

"Ma chere!"
Adele kissed her cheek. "This is a wonderful day for us all." She turned to her grandson. "What did the great man say, Charles? I gather he gave you lots of hope."

"More than I had expected." Charles led the way into the house. "Things aren't going to happen all at once, of course, since this isn't a miracle. It will be a gradual process, and Jenny must go on with her exercises, but in a month or two—even less—she should be using her arm again as if nothing had happened. Heavy weights are out, naturally, and so I'm afraid is horse riding, but that shouldn't be much of a price to pay for complete recovery."

"You know it isn't," Jenny said, "even though I would love to ride again." She turned to the silent Elizabeth. "What about you, Elizabeth?" she asked. "It would be fun for you exercising one of Charles's horses."

"Why not?" said Charles. "They're eating their heads off over there at the stables most of the time. Get Natalie to show you round. Tara would be a good mount for you. She's about the right size and as docile as a lamb."

"I'd need a quiet one," Elizabeth agreed, her eyes glowing at the prospect.

"You can borrow my jodhpurs," Jenny offered, "and I could almost come with you on my bike when my arm gets a bit stronger."

"Don't jump all your fences at once," Mrs. Abercrombie cautioned. "You have all the time in the world to ride a bicycle, and a horse, too, for that matter."

Wonderful plans, Elizabeth thought, if she had the same sort of time as Jenny in which to practise them. Charles, like Jenny, appeared relaxed and happy now, his stern mouth curving more readily into a smile, and when he heard Jenny's laughter he looked content.

They wandered down to the stable block the following morning, Elizabeth in her borrowed jodhpurs and a yellow sweater, Charles in a disreputable-looking hacking jacket which must have been tailored for him while he was still at school. The sleeves were short and he had to leave it unfastened for absolute comfort, but once up in the saddle he was in his element.

They had walked the length of the yard where Natalie kept her ponies and he had saddled up a docile little mare, a small, friendly animal which Elizabeth took to on sight. His own mount was a silver-grey stallion with a lively eye and a habit of stepping quickly to one side when agitated, but he had it under firm control as he led both horses out into the sun.

"I'm taking an awful lot of time off," Elizabeth suggested, "but I'll make up for it by working this afternoon or in the evening."

He looked down at her.

"You can't argue with Grand'mere," he said easily. "She insisted you should come."

She wanted to ask why he had agreed to take her when he could so easily have relegated the task to someone else, but in the end she allowed him to help her into the saddle without comment For today, at least, she would accept his companionship unquestioningly, allowing herself to dream.

They rode far out on to the moor, with the west wind in their faces and the sun beating down on them from a clear sky. It was so utterly different from Hawaii yet, somehow, the same.

"When are you taking your holiday?" he asked as they drew up on the crest of a hill. "My grandmother mentioned it," he added by way of explanation.

She drew in a deep breath.

"There shouldn't be any question of a 'holiday' I haven't earned yet," she told him. "I have to leave some time, Charles. I'm here in Scotland and that was what I wanted, and, your grandmother has made everything so pleasant for me, but I do realise that she doesn't need me any more. There can be no further question of—obligation for either of us."

He looked down at her from his superior height.

"You don't believe in personal attachments, in that case," he said.

"Oh, I do, but this is something quite different," she declared. "Surely you're—detached enough to understand what I mean?"

"Usually I am," he agreed, "but I was thinking of Jenny, too. She means a great deal to me, and I think she needs young companionship—not always going around in Grand'mere's wake."

"There's Natalie," Elizabeth suggested.

"Who isn't interested in anyone but herself." He swung the stallion's head round to face the wind. "Natalie has always been selfish, seeing only her own narrow horizon and ready to trade her sister in to preserve it."

His dark face was full of anger, the mouth hard as he saw the subject of their conversation riding towards them. Natalie drew up on a higher level of the moor, reining her horse in with an abruptness which suggested that she had only just seen them.

"She won't crane down," said Charles. "She'll be on her way to the hotel."

"Does she know about Jenny?" Elizabeth asked. "About the specialist's verdict."

"Jenny will have told her this morning. She went down to the stables to ask about the sick pony."

"I hope it's going to be all right," Elizabeth said.

"I had a word with Fergus on the phone—he's our vet. There's nothing serious to worry about"

"Natalie will be relieved."

He frowned.

"I hope she's going to be as glad about Jenny."

"Oh—surely!" Elizabeth protested. "They're sisters, and she must have been terribly upset by the accident."

"Upset—yes, but Natalie's mind works in a peculiar way which you wouldn't understand. Neither would Jenny," he added. "It takes someone like my grandmother to see through the Natalies of this world."

"You certainly don't like her!"

"I distrust her. I'm sorry if that sounds unreasonably hard," he added, "but it's the way I've always felt about Natalie." He allowed the stallion more rein. "Would you like a quiet gallop down to the road?"

"I'll follow you," said Elizabeth. "I'm not so hot at galloping!"

He set the stallion to a steady canter.

"Anything you say," he agreed. "Tara is a lazy creature at heart, but that's why die's so safe. Jenny used to ride her."

They went smartly down the road with the sun in their faces and the wind behind them, the horses' hooves clattering sharply against the hard stone. Elizabeth tried to push time away from her, wishing their ride would last for ever because Charles had changed so much in the past twenty-four hours. Although she knew that it was because of Jenny's miraculous reprieve, she allowed herself to savour the warmth of it to hold against the chill of the future.

Natalie had reached the stables ahead of them and was loosening a girth as they approached.

"The vet's been over," she announced in a tone which could only be described as sullen. "He says the pony has improved. If you send me the Bill when it comes in, Charles, I'll settle it right away." She did not look at Elizabeth.

"You know what Fergus is like when it comes to sending out bills," Charles answered, helping Elizabeth to dismount. "It could be six months or more before we see it."

"All the same, I'm trying to run this place as a business, so I have to pay my own bills." Her voice was firm.

"I see your point," Charles agreed. "I'll separate the account."

"Thanks." She led her mount towards the nearest loose-box. "Are you going to be here every week-end?" she asked abruptly.

"As often as I can," Charles told her. "Why?"

Natalie faced him, dropping her eyelids in the peculiar way she had so that her eyes appeared to be hooded.

"I wondered," she said briefly. "That was all."

She turned from the loose-box to look directly at Elizabeth, her expression so full of venom that Elizabeth caught her breath.

"I hope you enjoyed your quiet ride," was her scathing comment. "You certainly need someone to take care of you on a horse."

"Sorry about that!" Charles apologised as she marched away. "Someone should certainly 'take care of Natalie!"

"I've known from the beginning that she doesn't like me," Elizabeth confessed.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," he said. "There are very few people she really likes, and most of them are horses!"

They laughed at Natalie's expense, but an odd chill had fallen over the morning as far as Elizabeth was concerned. It was disconcerting to be hated as much as Natalie appeared to hate her, and for no very obvious reason.

CHARLES remained at Kilchoan until the Monday morning, leaving early so that he could be in his Clydeside office by ten o'clock, and for the remainder of the week Elizabeth was kept too busy with Mrs. Abercrombie's correspondence to think about another ride across the moor.

One letter which intrigued her came from Sydney. It was from Jason, enclosed in a business despatch to Charles and sent on from Glasgow on the Wednesday morning.

"Read it," Mrs. Abercrombie commanded, "and tell me what you think." She thrust the letter across the littered desk. "This girl he writes about must have been a friend of yours."

Biba's name jumped out at Elizabeth before she had scanned the first page. Had Jason fallen in love with Biba? Surely not! Mrs. Abercrombie was watching her closely.

Tell Elizabeth I've been seeing quite a lot of Biba Carrington since she left', Jason had written. 'We've been going places and doing things together and we seem to have a lot in common, but Biba tells me she's not interested in marriage. I'm fated, I suppose, to be eternally crossed in love!'

"Blague
!" commented his grandmother. "He just doesn't know his own mind—that's Jason's trouble. You can read on."

Elizabeth did as she was told.

Tell Liz there's no romance between Biba and me— she wouldn't wear it. We're just terribly good chums who like going out together, Biba's married to her career, I guess, but she likes male company now and then. That's where I've been coming in. I take her around when we can both make it, but that's all.'

"Well?" demanded Adele. "What do you think?"

"I'm sure Biba means what she says."

"I hope she does," Adele rejoined, "for I'm sure someone will have to make up Jason's mind for him. in the end. Then he will come to the conclusion that it was what he wanted all along. What else has he to say?"

"It's mostly business." Elizabeth scanned the final sheet. "Do you want him to come to Scotland for the board meeting in April?"

"So that he can have a nice little jaunt at the firm's expense? Well, we shall see," Adele declared. "Most of the things Charles wants to do I agree with, so Jason would be the voice crying in the wilderness if he did want to object. Of course," she added thoughtfully, "the day will come when we will have to give him more power, but I'd like to see him more settled by then. I won't always be here to back Charles up in all the things he does. We had better tell Jenny that Jason may be coming," she added briskly.

Jenny took the news of Jason's likely advent quietly. Very quietly, Elizabeth thought, facing her across the dining-room table at their evening meal.

"I suppose it will have to happen one day," she said. "He's been away for almost two years."

"Which is a long time," Adele agreed. "He hasn't changed much, I would say. You'll recognise each other."

"I hope so." Jenny forced a laugh. "When you consider we were practically brought up together, I should know Jason very well."

Adele went to bed early, and soon afterwards Jenny rose from the settee beside the fire, folding the skirt she had been making on top of her workbox.

"Have you ever been really, truly in love, Elizabeth?" she asked.

Completely taken by surprise, Elizabeth countered the question with one of her own.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I have been," Jenny confessed in a shaken whisper. "I still am. I can't forget Jason, you see. It wasn't that we were engaged or anything," she added quickly. "There wasn't even what Mrs. Murdoch calls 'an understanding' between us. It was just that—we knew. Then there was the accident and I couldn't move my arm. My face was scarred, too, and it didn't clear up for a long time afterwards. Even now, you can see some of the marks. That's why I keep my hair long." She drew her hair back from her forehead to reveal a white, jagged scar near her scalp which she would bear for the rest of her life. "It isn't much, and it's out of sight if I keep my hair like this, but at the time I believed I was going to look hideous for ever. You see, Jason was a perfectionist and he couldn't bear to look at me when I was so—disfigured. I sent him away, telling him I didn't want to see him again— ever."

"And now he may be coming back."

Elizabeth thought suddenly of Charles, of what he would feel if he had come to love Jenny instead of just being sorry for her and feeling responsible.

"Yes." Jenny stood gazing at her for a moment. "He's had a long time to make up his mind, and I haven't made mine up yet I want to be absolutely sure that we're right for each other.
Absolutely."

Elizabeth sat on by the fire for a long time before she finally went to her room. It seemed that their whole world had been turned upside down, of a sudden, and it was hardly fair of Jenny to keep Charles dangling while she waited for Jason's return.

The idea of Charles Abercrombie playing second fiddle to anyone seemed ludicrous, but she recalled the moment when he had first told them about the specialist's verdict and the elation in his eyes as he realised that Jenny was going to get well. He had changed from that moment, coming home to Kilchoan each week-end, as if the miracle of Jenny's recovery drew him like a magnet. He had even been magnanimous about the 'holiday' Adele had suggested, although Elizabeth had acknowledged fairly enough that she had not earned it.

Long after the others were asleep and the great house was still she lay gazing at the panel of light between her half-drawn curtains, looking for a star which she could not find. It had been there on the first night she had slept at Kilchoan, shining brightly above the hills, but now a drifting cloud had covered it and the sky looked dark.