'I'm aware of that,' he snapped back. 'I'm English too, and I'm perfectly familiar with the rules of the road.' His voice had a vigour that didn't suggest age.

'No one would guess it who saw you drive,' she said with heavy irony. 'I take it you're not going to deny being entirely responsible for this accident.'

'I most certainly am.'

'What?' Lee shouted above the noise of the rain. 'You were driving on the wrong side of the road.'

'I don't deny that,' he shouted back. 'I merely deny being entirely responsible. You had a long stretch of clear road to see me, yet you did nothing until the last minute.'

The sheer effrontery of this took Lee's breath away. While she was struggling for an answer a tall woman in a headscarf emerged from the other car. She ran over to the two combatants and held a large umbrella over them in protective fashion. 'That's better,' she said. 'Now you can fight in comfort.'

They both glared at her. Even in the heat of the moment Lee's professional eye noted that this was one of the most beautiful young women she'd ever seen. But she gave her only a cursory glance before returning to the fray.

'Am I to blame because you don't know your left from your right?' she demanded.

'No, madam, but you are to blame if you weren't paying attention to the road. You could have taken avoiding action before you did-'

'If you'd been driving properly there'd have been nothing to avoid.'

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and rubbed his head until he was no more than dampish, enabling Lee to see that he was younger than she'd thought. He could have been in his late thirties, with a lean, strong-featured face that would have been handsome if it hadn't been rigid with outrage.

'May I remind you,' he said, breathing hard, 'that the first rule of the road is to act as if all the other drivers are fools?'