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CHAPTER ONE

REVENGE IS A DISH best served cold

Lizzie thought about her father’s words as the transport plane lost height, bringing them closer to their destination Determination was an admirable quality, her father had insisted with his usual bluff confidence, founded on nothing s from a bottle of Scotch His Lizzie wasn’t short of determination She would rebuild the family pride where he had failed

How many other apparently confident people put on an act in order to reassure others? Lizzie wondered as she peered out of the s to eramme with horses in Brazil for years, and just hoped she wasn’t shooting too high She was deter for hours over ness in Brazil had thrown her She felt so far away froain after all these years was going to dent her confidence even more

‘How coroohtly to Lizzie’s hand as the plane dropped like a stone

She put on one hell of an act? She wasn’t a great traveller, and probably felt the saround came up to meet them like a slap in the face, her stolaeon to the staff of Fazenda Fernandez, appeared to dive-bo ranch in the middle of the pampas in Brazil

‘We’ll be fine,’ she soothed Danny, hoping for the best

Would they make it?

Would she make it, more to the point? Never mind that the runas short, and the plane was loaded doith horses, groo ranch of the infaht round safely, but would she make it safely out of here with both her heart and her reputation intact? It seemed incredible now that Chico had once meant so much to her, but she’d been fifteen the last tilorious summer, Chico had been her closest friend and confidant, until her parents started referring to him in the same tone people reserved for the devil

> Chico Fernandez was supposedly the Fane family’s nemesis, yet here she was, to suck hi to her father, before returning hoain, according to her father, Chico Fernandez had destroyed She kne her father’s bluster covered for his faults, and had learned to make up her own mind where his e that had awarded her this scholarship to train with Chico Fernandez was spending good uessed they, like her, also hoped to ‘suck the fa Chico could teach them

Any thoughts her fathera wonderful opportunity for Lizzie to get back at a man he considered his enemy were so far off the mark as to be ludicrous But she’d listened patiently, as she always did when her father was on one of his rambles, as he assured her that this trip was si froood name, his business, his wealth and success, and his horses ‘Chico took everything froet that’

How could she forget her father’s impassioned speech, when he constantly reminded her that thanks to Chico he had been reduced to a drunken husk, while her o and live in the South of France with the latest in a long line of er men?

But not before her mother had been seduced by Chico? The rumours put about by her parents were even worse They said Chico had forced her mother to have sex with hih her mother, who she could to destroy Lizzie’s friendship with Chico, saying he was just a poor boy frohter was Lady Elizabeth Fane

Lizzie had thought herself in love with Chico, and had cared nothing for her so-called status She still cared nothing for it, but she was no longer a gullible adolescent and could see her parents’ faults Whatever her father said, Lizzie doubted Chico was to blarandmother, who had taken over Lizzie’s care when her parents lost interest, had confir Lizzie’s parents hadn’t needed any help where ruining the family was concerned

What had hurt Lizzie the most was that Chico had prohtened her, before her grandmother had moved back in, ot drunk and did things behind locked doors that Lizzie could only guess She hadn’t shared these suspicions with Chico, just her unease, though she had told hi for a cause, Chico hadn’t demanded too much of an explanation, but had promised to rescue her, only to return to Brazil without even saying goodbye

It was hard to reconcile the friendship they’d shared with the way she felt about hiot over what she’d seen as his betrayal They had shared so ot to the point of exchanging silly gifts, though Chico’s ardo, had made sure their friendship never went any further than that

The only way to deal with her s for Chico, Lizzie decided, was to concentrate on the one thing that ift had made him her hero when she was fifteen years old, and if she could pick up everything Chico could teach her here on his world-fa the fa hier into an individual as every bit as driven and as deter him every day, failure wasn’t an option when the people of Rottingdean were depending on her to get this right

Her thoughts were interrupted when Danny yelped as the plane landed

There was no going back now

As she looked outside her confidence took another knock Everything was so ined, and potentially erous

Like Chico?

The ground was parched The sun was blazing down According to the weather forecast, the huh The horses would be restless after such a long confinerooms, which here Lizzie excelled Horses were her life, and seemed to sense how deeply she cared for theh to reassure the her seat belt, she was out of her seat before the pilot had turned off the engines

Lizzie remained with the most fractious horse until the back of the plane had been opened and sunlight streamed in as the ramp was lowered into place—and the sound of a huskyterse couese, froze her to the spot

‘Queeladas em pedra? Tremos trabalho a fazer!’