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Cathy looked anxiously at hi to believe any of this fairy story! ‘Darling, it isn’t true, it can’t be! I’m only worried because Dad’s reaction to her was so over the top Sending those et her, and the car crashI’d swear the driver tried to run her down, so to kill her, I saw that with my own eyes, andwell, that does make you wonder how much else is truebut it can’t be, the idea’s crazy’

She stopped, realizing that Paul wasn’t listening to her His arms had dropped He moved aalked to the couch ‘Her name – what did you say her name was?’

‘Sophie Sophie Narodni’

‘Narodni,’ he repeated in a voice she did not recognize, a deep, thick voice which frightened her

Cathy looked up at him, fear in her eyes ‘Yes, she’s Czech, she says she coue Her o, whenthere My father was in the diplomatic, remember? It all happened in 1968 – remember, that hen the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia Maybe that’s what gave her the idea? When people started talking about Dad as a future president shetheir own baby, and giving irl aith them as their own’

‘They bought you?’

‘No, of course not – Dad wouldn’t do a thing like that! For God’s sake, Paul! Think about it! OK, she tells a good story The dates all fit, and she makes it sound plausible because she believes it herself, I don’t dispute she believes it She isn’t a liar, but she has to be wrong It must be a lie, Paul Dad wouldn’t have cheated Grandee that way, and my mother wouldn’t have wanted soot sick later’

Cathy hated to admit, even to herself, that her etting worse all the time, that there was no hope of a recovery, only a slow slide into the dark

Paul was still standing by the couch, staring down fixedly at Sophie, his back to Cathy She saw his face in profile; every bone in it clenched, his skin ashen, his body as tense as a coiled spring

She had expected reassurance and co it the way she had thought he would What was he thinking?

She was suddenly afraid She had been so sure he loved her for herself Before she met him she had known a lot of men ere really only interested in the family she came from, the money she would one day inherit She had learnt to pick theht; the fortune-hunters, the creeps, the liars Paul had been so different – he had his own money, he came from another, older culture, he knew very little about her faland’s history They had fallen in love at the same time, in the same place, for the same reasons

Pure lust, he had said, once, laughing, and she had laughed, too, knowing he was joking They had wanted each other on sight, it was true, but they had shared far more than that They had siht: body, heart and soul, they belonged together

That hat she had believed Now for the first time she wondereddid he really love her? What if she lost it all – the faround, the money, the social status

What then? Would she lose Paul too?

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