Follow a Stranger

stay here until dawn. Giorgiou is bound to be back

then. He is probably visiting his sister in the village.”

He threw some more wood on the fire and the flames

leapt upwards. She watched them, feeling lazy and at

ease.

“You can sleep upstairs,” Marc told her. “The bed is

only a straw mattress, but you must have some sleep.”

She looked at the wooden ladder. Yawning, she got

up and went towards it, then heard a distinct scam-

pering above her head.

Marc leapt towards her as she screamed, and she

flung herself into his outstretched arms without think-

ing, clinging to him, shuddering. “Rats! I saw one ... its

tail ...” She was almost physically sick, her teeth

chattering with repulsion and horror.

He held her tightly, one hand clenched on her

shoulder, his thumb moving over her thin-boned

shoulder blade. “You’re quite safe,” he whispered, his

mouth just above her hair.

“I hate them,” she stammered. “Horrible, creeping

things ...” burying her face in his chest with tightly shut

eyes.

“Kate, stop this,” he said, in suddenly hardened

tones, holding her away from him. “You have been brave

up till now. Stop it!”

The shock of his sudden coldness snapped her back to

self-awareness. She was scarlet at once, realising what

she was doing. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly, and drew

away from him, her eyes on the floor.

“I am relieved to see you have some feminine re-