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CHAPTER ONE

A QUESTIONING frown in his keen dark eyes, Christien Laroche studied the portrait of his late great-aunt, Solange A quiet woe had nonetheless startled her entire family with the contents of her will

‘Extraordinary!’ a cousin coe have been thinking of?’

‘It grieves me to say it but my poor sister’s hast brother of the deceased lamented

‘Vraiment! To leave a piece of the Duvernay estate away froner instead…it is unbelievable!’ another exclaie

In anot to laugh at the genuine horror that his relatives were exhibiting Wealth had not lessened their passionate attachment to the family estate for that atavistic link back to the very land itself still ran deep and strong in every French soul But they were all overreacting for the bequest was tiny in terms of monetary worth The Duvernay estate ran to many thousands of acres and the property in question was a little cottage on a ered by a bequest that he considered both regrettable and highly inappropriate Why had his great-aunt left anything at all to a young woman she had only est iven much to comprehend

‘Indeed, Solange must have been very ill for her will is a terrible insult to s,’ his ed irl’s father murdered my husband, yet my own aunt has rewarded her!’

Lean, strong face grim at the speed hich his parent had made that unfortunate connection, Christien relorious gardens while the lady who acted as his h almost four years had passed since his father’s death, Matilde Laroche still lived behind lowered blinds in her huge Paris apart and rarely went out or entertained Christien was now challenged to recall that hispersonality with a warrief he felt helpless for neither counselling norto any appreciable degree

At the sae that Matilde Laroche had suffered a devastating loss His parents had been childhood sweethearts and lifelong best friends and their e had been one of unusual intimacy Furthermore, his father had only been fifty-four when he died A proour and health of a man in the very prime of life However, that had not protected Christien’s father from a cruelly premature and pointless death at the hands of a drunk driver

That drunken driver had been Tabitha Burnside’s father, Gerry In all, five faht by just one car accident and Henri Laroche had not been the only casualty Gerry Burnside had also ers and leave a fifth seriously injured, who later died

That fatal su far Laroche vacation hone His late father had reht the property hihout the season by a horde of noisy holiday- with tourists, whose sole idea of a too much However, his parents had only stayed at their villa on a couple of occasions that summer and most weeks, aside of visits from his friends and initially from his lover at the time, Christien had been left in peace to work