Chapter 1

"How was Samantha, Gloria?"

"Cheerful enough, Mrs. F, but she won't be rejoining us for at least three weeks. That's when the hospital say she can be discharged, but they are keen for her to take it easy for a while after that. She lost a lot of blood before I found her. Lucky still to be alive, they said. So you have to rely on me for a while. I'll try to do the work of two."

Gloria and Edwina were sitting in the lounge at Edwina's large country house. But Gloria would sooner have been in her own cottage. Since going there to get away from her vengeful gangster ex boy friend she had come to love it. She worked at the Hall, some thirty miles away, several days a week except when doing something dangerous for Edwina. But her free time was spent there these days. Occasionally the weekends were spent with Samantha, with whom Gloria was still great friends. But Sammy had a boy now and Gloria had been much taken with the son of a millionaire whom the Agency had been protecting recently.

Allen Westerby had insisted that he was more than able to look after himself and he certainly looked it! Six feet three, slim hipped, broad chested and extremely muscular, he had quite taken Gloria's breath away when she had been introduced to her unlikely protégé. Allen had looked furious to be treated like a child and Gloria had felt deeply for him. In any just world he would be protecting Gloria from harm and she would be sheltering timorously behind his manly protective frame as he fought off dastardly foes. But this is not always a just world, as Allen discovered on the second night staying with Gloria.

Two would-be kidnappers had burst into the cottage and Allen had pushed Gloria behind him, facing the pair himself. When he had recovered he found two trussed kidnappers lying on the carpet while Gloria was phoning for the police. He'd felt such a fool and Gloria had felt terribly sorry for him. She'd taught him a few tricks in the days that followed and by way of showing his gratitude he had taught her just how much a man can do to satisfy a woman. It had never been like that with Sammy, darling girl though she was!

"You aren't so close these days, are you, Gloria? You and Samantha, I mean?" asked Edwina, seeing Gloria deep in thought.

"We still mean a lot to each other, but we've discovered Men recently! And there was something missing this last year in our relationship. I guess we're just growing up fast!"

Gloria knew what was missing between her and Sammy. They had kept their promise to each other and to their employer and had kept their hands to themselves, apart from making love - that is. Not once had Gloria thumped Samantha in the mouth and not once had Samantha blasted Gloria with a sizzling right cross, spreading her nose across her face. And tender loving kisses, sweet though they might be, were no substitute. They were getting bored with each other.
Mrs FitzWalter nodded. She knew as well as Gloria what was missing between the pair. In a couple of years both would be married off and raising families. The wild mad times would be over for good. She was pleased in a way and bitterly sad in another. The couple had been eighteen when the adventure with Alfredo and Jack had begun. They were nearly twenty now and it was only natural that they should be looking ahead. But Edwina had hoped for a few more years before they settled down.

"Anyway, I need to get back to the cottage. Allen is waiting for me. He's going to work on a bit of heavy digging. Silly boy thinks it's too much for a weak woman like me!"

And Gloria was off, leaving Edwina to contemplate the sloping lawns and the distant lake, now fenced off after the strange accident that had killed Alfredo eighteen months ago.

Gloria reached her home and, sure enough, there was Allen, shirtless in the late September sun, and incredibly thrilling to look at, digging up the waste ground at the end of the garden. She took a fork from out of the garden shed and took off her own top. Soon two bare chested sweating people, one male and one female, but both strong and muscular, were reclaiming the neglected ground for cultivation. Finally Gloria indicated that enough was enough. She needed a drink!