A Most Determined Bachelor. Miriam Macgregor

was a phone call while you were out.’

      He stopped in his tracks to stand very still. ‘Did you get a name?’

      ‘Yes—she said to tell you that Cynthia Birch rang.’ Judy swallowed, but said nothing further, while watching for a reaction of some sort. How would he cope with both Cynthia and Verna—when she arrived? As for herself—it seemed clear that she wouldn’t stand a chance.

      

      

      A short time later they were in the Range Rover, which sped along a country highway where stands of evergreen trees gave shelter from winter southerlies, and where the bare wood of golden willows made splashes of orangeyellow beside streams. Away to the west the high Kaweka Mountains were thickly coated with snow, their dazzling whiteness giving evidence of winter.