Paradise Found by Dorothy Vernon Page B

‘Goodnight, Zoe.’
    She turned and went up the stairs. Not until she rounded the curve and was out of his sight did she hear the thud of his crutches as he made his way to his room.
    She sat on the bed meditating for endless moments. It was quite a while before she kicked off her sandals and reached her arms up round her neck to unfasten her pendant—and discovered that she was no longer wearing it. Oh, no! Her distress as she wondered when she could have lost it was acute, and disproportionate. It was no good trying to fool herself that her torment wasn’t because Matt had given it to her.
    She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she’d tried to find it. She slid her feet back into her sandals and retraced her steps downstairs. There was no sign of it anywhere on the stairs, or in the downstairs rooms, which were now also empty of the other occupants. Obviously everyone had decided to follow her lead and go to bed.
    She knew that she had definitely put the pendant on before coming down the first time, but now that she thought about it she couldn’t remember seeing it round her neck when she went up again to retouch her makeup after that encounter with Matt in the garden. Of course! She remembered—rather too vividly for her peace of mind—the way Matt had massaged and manipulated her neck to ease her headache. That’s when it must have come loose.
    She let herself out the door and followed the path she had taken earlier, stopping at the spot where she had stood with Matt.
    â€˜We’ll have to stop meeting like this,’ a voice said.
    â€˜Matt!’ She swung round, shrieking his name in frustration at the ill fate that had brought about this second confrontation. ‘What are you doing here?’
    â€˜Taking a much-needed breath of air. Thinking what a pity it was I wasn’t sharing the moment with a suitable companion . . . and here
you
are,’ he said with dry mockery.
    â€˜I didn’t come in search of you, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
    â€˜No?’
    â€˜No. I’ve lost my pendant. The one you bought me to wear for the wedding . . . for my wedding to Tony,’ she emphasized. ‘I was wearing it earlier this evening. I thought it might be here, so I came to look.’
    â€˜I’d suggest that we look for it together, except that in this light it might be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. Not being a smoker, I carry neither a cigarette lighter nor matches. But I’m forgetting; knowing the mission you were on, you would have come better prepared.’
    â€˜No, I . . . I didn’t think,’ she said, dropping to her knees and combing the ground with her fingers, feeling foolish and angry. Foolish because she hadn’t thought to come equipped with a flashlight, and angry with him for what he obviously thought—for his arrogant assumption in thinking that she had seen him leave the house from her bedroom window, which did happen to look out on this part of the garden, and had made up the excuse of losing her pendant so she could follow him.
    He bent to take an elbow in each hand and eased her back up. ‘It’s useless, Zoe. If it’s here, it will come to no harm. I promise to look for it for you first thing in the morning.’
    â€˜It
is
here. At least’—she bit her lip—‘I don’t know that for certain, but it’s possible that it may be.’
    â€˜Yes, yes, of course.’
    â€˜Stop humoring me. Why won’t you believe me?’
    â€˜I do believe you, Zoe.’
    â€˜I’m being honest about this,’ she insisted.
    â€˜So am I. Honest in admitting that we’re two of a kind.’
    â€˜What do you mean by that?’
    â€˜We both like playing with fire.’
    â€˜You might. I don’t,’ she denied.
    â€˜Come off it. You were playing with fire when you got entangled with Tony.
    â€˜What are you talking