She had stared up at him as he had released her, shaken and dazed by the strength of her own

reaction. Luke's eyes had been narrowed as if he was taken aback at suddenly finding her in his arms, and he had stepped back abruptly. Kate had read disgust in the gesture, and she had flinched as the stinging slap of humiliation had hit her with the force of a blow.

`He said, "Go home, Catherine, and grow up,"' Kate said slowly, reliving that devastating moment before she had turned and stumbled away from the contempt in his eyes.

`Catherine? Is that what he called you?' Serena asked, diverted. `I thought you were always Kate.'

`Not at home. My mother always called me Catherine in the French way, and I was known as Catherine in Chittingdene. It was only when I went away to school that I became Kate to you lot.'

'I see.' Serena risked another glance at Luke. `What happened next time you met him?'

`I never saw him again. He left the village a few days later. I don't know if he ever went back. Dad died a couple of months later and my mother couldn't wait to sell the manor and take us to France, so I never went back to Chittingdene. This is the first time I've seen him since.'

`I wonder if he would recognise you,' Serena said thoughtfully.

`Not a chance. Remember what I was like at sixteen, Serena? All bottle-bottom glasses and straggly hair! I've changed a lot since then, thank goodness. There's no way he'd recognise me. It's not as if I'm like Helen.'

`Why, what was she like?'

'She was-' Kate broke off, staring into the mirror, where Luke's face had lightened as a woman walked towards him. She laid her hand on his arm possessively, and took the drink that he handed her, apparently unconcerned that she had kept him waiting.

`See for yourself,' Kate said in an odd, toneless voice. `That's Helen with him now.'

At eighteen, Helen had had a golden, provocative beauty, and the past ten years had merely added gloss and a subtle exoticism to her looks. She had slanting green eyes and silver-blonde hair that fell in a glittering, rippling fall to her waist. In a short strapless turquoise dress, she looked literally breathtaking.

`But that's Helen Slayne, isn't it?'

'That's right.' Kate looked at Serena in surprise. `Why, do you know her?'

'Hardly! But she's a famous model. I've seen her in all sorts of things. That hair's a sort of trademark. I suppose you wouldn't have seen her while you've been in France. She's stunning, isn't she?'

'Yes,' said Kate flatly. `She always was.'

There was a dull ache in her chest. Why was she so surprised to see Helen here with him? It was stupid to feel disappointed because Luke had evidently allowed himself to be taken in by that glittering beauty a second time. Why expect him to have had more pride? It was none of her business if he'd chosen to make a fool of himself again.

With Helen standing next to him, Luke wasn't going to be noticing anyone else in the room. Kate turned round and allowed herself to study him properly. It was strange that after all this time everything about him should be so familiar. The way he stood, the way he turned his head, the hard line of his mouth… especially his mouth… There had always been an air of arrogance about him, a kind of reckless pride. How could he stand there, smiling at Helen like that after the way she had treated him?

As if she had shouted it aloud, Luke lifted his head and stared over Helen's shoulder straight into the unguarded criticism in Kate's eyes.

Kate's heart lurched alarmingly as she found herself staring into those slate-grey eyes. He was nowhere near her, but she felt skewered by that cold, hard look. She wanted to look away, but the eyes held her immobile. They might have been alone in the room. The crush and hubbub in the bar faded to insignificance, Serena and Helen were forgotten. There was only a narrowed slate grey gaze and the nervous jolt of her heart.

And then a couple in front of her stepped back to let someone through en route to the bar and cut Luke from view.

Kate swallowed and dropped her eyes, annoyed to find herself flushing.

`Do you think he did recognise you after all?' Serena said excitedly. She had watched the look Luke and Kate had exchanged with interest.

`No.' Kate sounded curt, but she was having difficulty bringing her heart under control again. It kept jumping around in an alarmingly erratic manner. `No, I don't think so,' she said again, more lightly. The eyes had been as unreadable as ever, but she would swear that there had been no recognition in them, only a speculative sort of contempt.

To Kate's intense relief, a bell began to ring insistently over the noise of the crowd just as Serena opened her mouth to pursue the matter.

`Come on, drink up,' she said, taking a hasty swig of her gin. `The second half's about to start.'

They joined the queue shuffling noisily back into the auditorium. Serena seemed to have forgotten Luke, and was telling Kate about her not-so-subtle attempts to get her handsome neighbour to notice her. Wedged in the middle of the crowd, Kate rolled her eyes and laughed at her friend. She had a warm, arresting smile that lit up her quiet face-but which switched off abruptly as she found herself looking once more into Luke Hardman's hard eyes.

He and Helen were unhurriedly finishing their drinks while the crowd pushed past them. Luke Hardman had never been a man to waste time standing in a queue with everyone else.

Someone was pushing Kate from behind, but she hardly noticed. Luke had lifted his glass in a silent toast and sent her a swift, mocking smile that flamed the colour in her cheeks.

`Can you get a move on? You're blocking the door and the play's starting in a couple of minutes!' The impatient voice behind her jerked Kate out of her trance and she looked quickly away from Luke.

'Oh-er-sorry,' she muttered as she hurried to catch up with Serena.

She had been enjoying the play, but she sat through the second half without hearing a word. Seeing Luke again after all these years had left her feeling edgy and unsettled. She tried to concentrate on the stage, but her mind was tugged back irresistibly to that hot afternoon and the woods and how it had felt when Luke had pulled her round into his arms.

Suddenly Kate became aware of a storm of applause around her, and, as Serena gave her an odd look, hastily began to clap. There was no point in dwelling on the past, she told herself, still thinking about Luke. It had been a remarkable coincidence, seeing him here tonight, but it was unlikely that she would ever see him again.

Even so, she couldn't help searching the crowds for a glimpse of him as they left the theatre, slowing her steps deliberately until Serena asked her what the matter was.

`Nothing,' said Kate, quashing a feeling of inexplicable disappointment. He must have gone already.

`You're awfully quiet,' Serena said suspiciously.

`My contact lenses are killing me,' Kate lied as they headed towards the Underground. `It was so smoky in that bar.'

They flipped their season tickets open at the gate and joined the crowd filing down the escalators. `How's the job hunting going?' Serena asked, turning round from the step below to look up at Kate. `Have you managed to find what you want yet?'

Kate forced her mind back to the present and her most pressing need to find a job. `Not yet, but I've got an interview for tomorrow that sounds promising.' She rummaged in her handbag as they stepped off the escalator. `I've got the ad here. What do you think?'

Serena took the newspaper cutting. "'Parlezvous franchise?"' she read the heading. `Well, you can certainly do that, Kate!

A bilingual PA is required for dynamic director of this successful company. Fluent French required, plus excellent secretarial skills, preferably with director-level experience. Must be confident, super-efficient and free to travel.

`Kate, it sounds perfect!' Her eye fell on the salary quoted at the bottom of the advertisement and she whistled. `I wouldn't mind pay like that!'

'I know.' Kate took the cutting back and they walked slowly down the platform. `It sounds a bit too good to be true, doesn't it? But I need to get something soon. If I'd realised how difficult it would be to get a good job here I don't think I'd have given up my job in Dijon quite so quickly!'

'You're not regretting coming back to England, are you?'

`No.' Kate shook her head. `I'd been in that job four years. It was time to move on. Solange coming to school in England gave me the impetus to make the break.'

`I do think it's a bit of cheek for Veronique and Alain to go swanning off to the Ivory Coast and expect you to look after their daughter for them,' Serena said, indignant on Kate's behalf.

`They'd have had to send Solange to boarding school anyway,' Kate said mildly. 'Veronique always had this thing about making sure Solange is bilingual by sending her to school in England for a year, just as she had to do. It just seems a convenient time when Alain's job takes him to Africa for a year.'

`Convenient for them that you're prepared to give up your job to be near her,' Serena commented tartly.

`Oh, Solange is just an excuse, really. I could hardly tell my mother that I can't stand her new husband, could I? It was all getting rather uncomfortable with Thierry and me being extra polite to each other, and poor Maman stuck in between. She'd be terribly upset if she thought I'd left home because of Thierry, so I said I was coming to keep Solange company. It's partly true, anyway. I feel rather sorry for Solange: I remember what it's like being at boarding-school with no one around to take you out at weekends and make a fuss of you. I remember what it's like being a foreigner too. I always felt French in England, and English in France, so I sympathise. After all, I am her aunt-and it's hardly a great sacrifice to come back to England.'