Follow a Stranger

pushing him into the sitting-room.

Peter Hardy was a few years older than Kate, but looked

less, because his features were less mature. Sam had once

said that Peter looked like a Viking, talked like a professor

and hardly knew one girl from another. Blond, grey-eyed and

pleasant, he was too passionately involved with his work to

be aware of anything else.

Kate, who had fallen in love with him years ago and had

only managed to make him notice her by being continually

underfoot, often wondered if he remembered that they were

engaged to be married. Certainly he never suggested a

wedding date. But she curled up beside him on the sofa and

let him talk of Roman urns while her mind wandered to more

romantic ideas.

A few days later Miss Carter came into the music room and

&

nbsp; introduced her to Pallas Lillitos.

Kate was taken aback to find her new pupil to be far more

adult than she had expected. She was wearing a plain black

skirt and white blouse, the usual sixth form version of the

school uniform. But she managed to invest it with a Parisian

chic which, with her sleek black hair and matt complexion,

made her look nearer twenty than sixteen.

Miss Carter left them alone together after a moment or

two, and Kate looked thoughtfully at the new girl.

“Perhaps you’d better show me what you can do,” she

suggested. “Shall we start with the violin?”

Pallas shrugged indifferently. Taking out her violin, she

played a dazzling piece of Paganini, her face remote and

austere beneath her black cap of hair.