Island of the Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

crush, of which she'd been secretly ashamed. After all,
    she'd told herself, she was far too old for fairy-tales. Yet now, it
    seemed, incredibly, as if the fairy-tale might be coming true.
    With a sigh, Sandie pushed back the blankets and eiderdown, and
    swung her feet to the floor. She had to do something positive to
    relax herself—switch her mind to a more tranquil path, or she
    wouldn't close her eyes all night, and would be fit for nothing in the
    morning—certainly not to undergo her first trial as Magda Sinclair's
    accompanist, which had been mentioned over dinner, or to make
    any attempt to play Crispin's Elegy.
    She was still dubious about her technical ability to interpret the
    composition, but it was obviously important to Crispin that she tried
    at least, and she wanted to please him, so what choice did she have?
    She put on her dressing gown and let herself quietly out of her
    room. The wall-lights were still burning as she made her way to the
    main gallery and looked over the banister rail down into the hall.
    The house was totally quiet, and clearly everyone was in bed,
    although there were lamps on downstairs as well. A deterrent to
    burglars, perhaps, Sandie thought, as she trod silently down the
    stairs, wondering if there could really be such a menace in this
    remote and peaceful spot.
    The music room was in complete darkness as she let herself in,
    closing the door quietly behind her. Jessica had said the room was
    soundproof, and she hoped it was true. Music was the only way to
    relax herself, but the last thing she wanted was the rest of the
    household roused because of her own sleeplessness.
    She would play safe by playing softly, she resolved. She walked to
    the huge window and stood looking out over the lake. The rain
    seemed to have eased at last, and a strong golden moon was in
    evidence between ragged, racing clouds, its light spilling across the,
    restless waters.
    'Sandie caught her breath in delight. No need to think too hard about
    a choice of tranquilliser, she thought, as the first clear, gentle notes
    of Debussy's Clair de Lune sounded in her mind.
    As she turned away to switch on the overhead light above the piano,
    her attention was caught fleetingly by another flicker of illumination
    moving fast on the other side of the lake. Car headlights, she
    realised, and at this late hour the driver was probably counting on
    having the road to himself.
    She sat down at the keyboard, flexed her fingers, and began to play,
    feeling the tensions and doubts of the past twenty-four hours
    dissolving away as the slow, rippling phrases took shape and clarity
    under her hands. As she played, she became oblivious to everything
    but the mood of peace being engendered within her.
    The last notes sounded delicately, perfectly, and were overtaken by
    silence. Sandie lifted her hands from the keys with a little sigh, and
    looked at the window for a last glimpse of the moonlight on the
    water. And saw with heart-stopping suddenness that she was no
    longer alone.
    Reflected plainly in the glass was the tall figure of a man, standing
    motionless in the doorway behind her.
    For a moment Sandie stared with fascinated horror, a hand creeping
    to her throat. Someone had broken in, she thought. All those lights
    left burning had been no deterrent at all—just a waste of electricity.
    And even if she could summon up a scream, which was doubtful, as
    the muscles of her throat felt paralysed, who would hear it—from
    this of all the rooms at Killane?
    'My God, I don't believe it!' His voice, low, resonant with a faint stir
    of anger just below the surface, reached her. 'I thought you'd have
    more bloody sense...' A small choked cry escaped her at last, and
    she twisted round on the piano stool to face him, her last, absurd
    hope that it might after all, by some miracle, be Crispin seeking her
    out killed stone dead.
    He took a swift stride forward, his face darkening with furious
    incredulity as they took their first