Follow a Stranger

against her chair.

Feebly she stood up, refusing Kate’s offer of help with a

silent shake of the head.

“I do not feel very hungry tonight,” she said. “I think I

will go back to my room. Will you call my son?”

Kate obeyed and Marc came in quickly, looking at his

mother with natural anxiety.

“Give me your arm, my son,” she said heavily.

He moved to her side at once and they left the room

slowly. Kate sank back into her own chair, baffled. Why

had Mrs. Lillitos suddenly altered? Was it just that she

had begun to feel ill, or had something Kate said upset

her?

Before she could think too closely about it, Pallas and

Sam had come in together, talking loudly.

“Oh, you’re alone,” said Pallas, with obvious relief. “I

thought Marc might be in here. Heavens, Kate, if you had

seen his face when he discovered we had let you go up to

To Angkistri alone! He practically burst a blood vessel.

Marc has such set ideas about women. He likes to wrap

them in cotton wool for safe keeping.” She grinned at

Sam. “Although these days he does seem to be making an

effort to turn a blind eye to my new clothes and hairstyle.

So perhaps he is improving.”

“He’s a throwback to the knights of old,” Sam teased.

“His recipe for life starts, first catch your damsel ...”

Pallas giggled. “Club her,” she suggested, “and throw

her over your horse.”

Sam played up. “Gallop away with her to your castle,”

he added, twirling an imaginary moustache, “and shut