humiliatingly painful to acknowledge now, into her

fears and her dreams. No way was she going to risk

having another man treat her as John had done — one

minute swearing eternal love, the next…

And as for John himself, he was welcome to

Louise, and they were obviously suited to one another,

too, since they were both deceitful cheats and

liars. But she, coward that she was, could not face

going home until the wedding was over, until all the

fuss had died down and until she was not going to be

the recipient of pitying looks, the subject of hushed

gossip.

"Well, let’s look on the bright side," Andrea had

said lightly when she had realised Jodie was not going

to be persuaded to abandon her plans. "You never

know — you might meet someone in Italy and fall

head over heels in love. Italian men are so gorgeously

sexy and passionate."

Italian men — or any kind of men — were off the life

menu for her from now on, Jodie told herself furiously.

Men, marriage, love — she no longer wanted

anything to do with any of them.

Angrily Jodie depressed the accelerator. She had

no idea where this appallingly bumpy road was going

to take her, but she wasn’t going to turn back. From

now on there would be no U-turns in her life, no

looking back in misery or despair, no regrets about

what might have been. She was going to face firmly

forward.

David and Andrea had been wonderfully kind to

her, offering her their spare room when she had sold

her cottage so that she could put the sale proceeds

towards the house she and John were buying — which

had not, with hindsight, been the most sensible of

things to do — but she couldn’t live with her cousin