He was everything that Ben had wanted to be, she thought-a handsome, healthy animal, with a face that, despite its strength and good looks, was also shrewd and wary, giving him an edge of danger. His eyes were the darkest she had ever seen, yet an all-seeing light came from their depths. He looked as if he’d mastered life, and intended to go on mastering it.

The chief lion in the pack, she thought. So why is he here?

He was abstemious-eating nothing and making one glass of wine last for two hours-and, to her heightened imagination, there seemed something ominous even in that.

The woman Elise had noticed ate and drank with gusto. Like the man, she seemed to be waiting for something.

At last the goodbyes were said and Elise turned with a fixed smile to address her unknown guest.

‘I’m so sorry, we haven’t been introduced,’ she said politely. ‘It was so kind of you to-’

‘Don’t waste time with that stuff,’ the woman interrupted rudely. ‘Don’t you know who I am?’

‘I’m afraid I don’t. Were you a friend of my husband?’

‘Friend? Hah! You could put it like that.’

‘I see.’

‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Perhaps you were with him when he had his heart attack?’

The woman gave a squeal of laughter, full of wine.

‘No, I heard about that, but it wasn’t me. I must say I’ve got to hand it to you, cool as a cucumber in front of all these people, when you must have known what everyone was thinking.’

‘What matters is that none of them knew what I was thinking,’ Elise said.

‘Oh, good for you! You’re diamond-hard, aren’t you?’

‘When I have to be,’ Elise said quietly. ‘Perhaps you should be careful.’