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'Well, I'm sure everything will be fine,' Harry said heartily. 'We mustn't judge before we know.'

All eyes turned to him. Prentice smiled slightly, but the eyes of all the others accused him of siding with the enemy. Harry, Dani realised, could not be considered impartial. He was prepared to carry out the work that would turn the Manor from a shabby—yes, Dani had to admit that it was shabby—house, loved and known by all the villagers, into a smart hotel.

She had been very quiet all the evening, earning herself an annoyed stare from Marina for not contributing enough to the conversation. Now she felt she should enter into the discussion.

'I think it'll be a terrible thing for the village,' she said clearly, and Marina's eyes opened wide in surprise. Dani looked directly at Prentice McCulloch and the icy emerald green of his eyes looked back at her.

'Why?' he asked quietly. 'What's so terrible?'

She was ready for that question. 'We're a small community,' she informed him, 'just as Elsie said. The Manor is partly within the bounds of the village. It's going to affect all of us. The noise—cars coming and going— maybe music late in the evening. This is a peaceful parish . . .'

'Parochial.' He nodded. 'Just the word I'd have used.'

Somehow he made the word sound like an insult. Dani laid down her knife and fork and nodded.

'I'm sure you would,' she agreed pleasantly. 'We aren't exactly living in the dark ages here, but it's true that big changes tend to affect everyone.'

'You think it's a bad thing for an hotel to create jobs in the village?'

'Not necessarily, but. . .'

'Do you think your local shopkeepers will object to the extra trade?'

'If there is any.'

'There will be.' He turned in his seat so that he was facing her directly. 'What you're saying,' he continued implacably, 'is that this village doesn't want change. Not change of any kind. Are you speaking for everyone or just for yourself?'

'I think we're all concerned,' Bill Chamberlain said. 'My own cottage is next to the grounds...'

'I know, Mr Chamberlain.' Just as swiftly Prentice turned his attention to the older man. 'Believe me, there will be no facilities for swimming or golf any where near your house or anyone else's.'

'The Manor is very olds' Dani retreated to her second line of attack. 'If you're going to turn it into a . . . country
club ...
I assume that you'll be altering the existing structure quite a bit.'

'Naturally.' Again she was subjected to a cool scrutiny.

'Then you'll be spoiling a very beautiful house.' Dani had a momentary feeling that she had won a victory. 'It would be criminal to change it around.' There was a sudden ominous silence. Dani watched Prentice's face and saw it harden into a mask of granite. 'It should be preserved,' she continued defiantly, 'not turned into some kind of money-making machine for . . .'

The gleaming jade eyes and the lips that suddenly thinned into a hard line warned her that she had gone too far.

'Come and help me, Dani.' Marina's voice made the request into an order. Dumbly, a scarlet tide of embarrassment staining her face, Dani left her seat and followed her sister into the kitchen.

'What are you trying to do?' Marina hissed as soon as the door was closed behind them. 'God knows, the man isn't exactly the world's best guest, but for heaven's sake don't antagonise him any more!'

'Do you want an hotel right on your doorstep?' Dani challenged her sister in a hushed whisper that did not hide her anger.

'No,' Marina admitted, 'I don't. Not really. On the other hand, the man is right. If Harry gets the contract to do the renovations, then he'll keep his men in work for quite a while.' She held up her hand as Dani exclaimed. 'All right, so that's selfish. Maybe it is. But how many youngsters around here can you think of who can't get a job? I can think of seven or eight without trying. The man's right. This hotel, country club, whatever you want to call it, will create jobs.'

'And ruin a beautiful old house,' Dani snapped back. 'Or doesn't that matter?'

'Of course it matters!' Marina began to arrange coffee cups on a tray. 'But the man has bought the place. We can't stop him.'

Dani suspected that her sister was right. She was also honest enough to question her own motives. Perhaps she would not have spoken so strongly had it not been for the casual arrogance of the man. She felt her anger rise again.

'Hey,' Marina's voice softened. 'Take that light of battle out of your eye. Heavens, I haven't seen you so angry for years!'

'He's treating us like village idiots!' Dani whispered furiously. 'I've never seen such an infuriating , . .' She stopped. Marina was regarding her with her head tilted on one side. 'What are you staring at?' Dani asked 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 turned right, away from her flat.

'You're going the wrong way,' she said.

'No I'm not. I'm taking you to see the Manor.' He did not look at her, but she had an impression of anger simmering below a veneer of calmness.

'Why?' She refused to protest.

'Because I want to show it to you.'

'I've seen it before. And it's dark.'

'So I'll put the lights on.'

'All right.' She would not give him the satisfaction of asking more questions. She knew it would probably please him to know that her curiosity was aroused.

Dani sat quietly by Prentice's side while they negotiated the long drive of the Manor, and preceded him silently into the blackness of the big hall, standing quite still while he moved around in the dark looking for the lights. When he found them and the hall was illuminated, she blinked and stared around her. She had not been in the house since the death of Mrs Desmond.

'Look at this staircase!' She walked over to it and ran her hand lovingly over the smooth wood of the newel, following the line of the banister upwards. 'It's beautiful.'

'Yes, it is.' A white handkerchief was passed to her. 'It's also dirty.'

He was right. The dust lay thickly on the wood, and she scrubbed at her palm abstractedly as she followed him into the biggest of the reception rooms, her eye immediately going to the fireplace that was the focal point.

'Come and look at this.' He led the way across to the windows and she followed him obediently, high heels echoing hollowly in the emptiness of the room. He pushed at the window frame. 'Dry rot,' he said succinctly. 'Some of these will have to be replaced.'

'Some renovation is bound to be necessary,' she pointed out reasonably.

'Work out how many windows there are in the house. They'll all have to have attention some time soon.'

'You didn't have to buy it,' she reminded him quietly.

'No.' He did not seem prepared to say any more, and she walked over to the fireplace and stared down into the grate.

'What will this room be?' she asked. 'One of the bars?'

'Possibly.'

'Hmm.' She was still smarting over the knee-rubbing incident and the fact that he had assumed that she was willing to be brought to the Manor late at night.' I can see it all now.' She glanced around the room, carefully avoiding looking at Prentice who stood in the centre of it. 'You could call it "the Hawaiian bar". Pictures of Maui and Oahu on the walls, fairy lights and plastic pineapples . . .'

Why was she provoking him so badly? She heard the hiss of his indrawn breath although she was several yards from him.

'Don't be such a fool!' His voice cut across the space between them like the lash of a whip. 'What do you think I am?'

'I don't know,' she retorted. 'The Manor has always been someone's home. I hate the idea of it being turned into some fancy place with saunas and . . .' She could not think of anything bad enough.

'Come with me.' He turned and stalked, straight-backed from the room, and she pulled a face at his retreating figure and wandered after him, saddened by the dingy dilapidation of the place. It had always looked a little shabby in Mrs Desmond's day, had always given an air of being slightly frayed at the edges, but now that the house was empty, the faded wallpapers and the scuffed woodwork made the place look neglected and without dignity.

Dani followed Prentice up the stairs, stopping at the top to peer at a group of tiny holes in one part of the banister that he indicated with a silent, pointing forefinger, and then wandered behind him along the dark, dusty corridors to the back of the house. Here it seemed that the decay was even more advanced, and she wrinkled her nose at the musty smell.

Prentice opened a door, reached in to switch on the light, and the naked bulb illuminated a small, bare room. Dani stared. '

'What am I supposed to see?' she asked. She walked past him as he leaned against the doorframe, intending to step into the room to see what she was missing. He caught hold of her arm, and his grip was fierce.

'I shouldn't actually go in there,' he said mildly. 'Not unless you'd like a quick trip to the kitchen.'

'What?'

'The floor,' he said patiently, 'wouldn't stand your weight.'

'Oh no!'

'Oh yes.' They were wedged together in the doorway and his hand was still tight on her arm. 'I've got two other rooms in the same state. The Desmonds locked them up and, I would imagine, forgot about them.'

'Mrs Desmond didn't even go upstairs for the last year she was alive,' Dani remembered.

'I've also got wet rot, damp, unsafe chimneys, roof timbers to replace and a few minor details to attend to like bringing a Victorian kitchen up to date.'

'So why
did
you buy it?' Dani tried to wriggle her arm free, but he seemed reluctant to release her.

'Because I liked it and it suited my purpose.' Finally he released her. 'I shall renovate where I can, and what can't be saved . . .' He let the sentence tail away into silence.

'I didn't know it was so bad,' Dani said softly, almost to herself.

'It doesn't take long for a place like this to deteriorate.'

'But the Desmonds loved it so much! They'd been here for generations.'

'I know.' Prentice closed the door and locked it. 'But they didn't have the money to keep it going. Not in recent years, anyway.'

Dani turned away from him, depressed by what she had seen. Yet she was still not reassured of the Manor's ultimate fate. This man could do anything he liked; totally obliterate all the character in the house in his determination to make his investment pay.