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welcome here for as long as you like, and you know it. Why don’t you give up your idea of moving?’
    ‘Because it’s not right,’ she snapped. ‘I’m old enough to look after myself, but Liz is easily influenced. You’ve already made quite an impression on her, in case you weren’t aware of it. I don’t feel that we should live in such close proximity. It can do nothing but harm.’
    ‘I think we should let Liz speak for herself,’ he said. ‘She’s not quite the ingénue you make out, I feel sure.’
    Debra shot him a wide startled glance. ‘What makes you say that? What were you up to that day you came to our house?’ Her heart raced and every fear she had ever felt regarding this man came rushing to the surface.
    ‘I’m not sure I like the way your mind works,’ he said with swift aggression. ‘Do credit me with more sense than to involve myself with someone half my age. What I’m trying to say is that girls of seventeen in this day and age are not the precious little virgins they were twenty years ago. They get around a bit, they see life. Half of them are more experienced, I would say at a guess, than you.’
    Debra ignored the innuendo to herself. ‘Not Liz,’ she asserted stoutly. ‘Don’t forget I’ve lived with her most of her life. I know exactly what makes her tick.’
    He smiled at her outrage. ‘What interests me,’ he said slowly, ‘is what makes you tick. You’re a funny mixture, half woman, half child. One minute all businesslike and self-assured, the next temper out of control and saying things that I honestly don’t believe you mean.’
    ‘Like what?’ she demanded savagely.
    ‘Like the fact that you think I’m a bad influence on Liz. Let me tell you here and now, Debra Delaney, that I have no designs on your friend. If she romances a little, sees me as some sort of glamorous figure—well, it can’t be bad, can it? Especially if it will help her get over her parents’ death.’
    ‘And what happens when she realises her feelings are all one-sided? How do you think she’ll feel then? No, Mr Oliver, I reckon the quicker we’re out of here the better.’
    ‘And I think you’re exaggerating a situation that doesn’t exist,’ he retorted, quite angry now, his eyes more silver, his jaw firm. ‘Liz is ripe for romance, I’ll grant you that, anything to draw her out of her misery, but as for her and me, it’s ridiculous, and you have nothing more to go on than your own unfounded suspicions. You also have my word that I won’t lay one finger on her.’
    Debra supposed she had to be satisfied with that, but it did not alter the fact that the sooner she was away from here the better. She would take every opportunity to look around for a place of their own.
    They finished their meal in silence, Debra fuming inwardly over what she considered Vane’s offhand manner. He seemed to think that she was making a fuss about nothing. He had no idea how she worried about Liz.
    Vane left the room before her. ‘Give me a shout if you want to go anywhere,’ he said. ‘I’ll be around.’
    She did not even bother to answer. If she had her way she would go nowhere with him. He had tricked them into coming here to his villa and she was sure he had no intention of letting them go.
    Quite what motive lay behind his planning she did not know, but it was not a situation which appealed to her. No man invited two girls to stay with him for no reason at all. He would need careful watching, especially where Liz was concerned.
    Liz came in as she was about to leave, still wearing her nightdress over which she had slipped her dressing-gown. But it was unfastened, and Debra frowned.
    ‘We’re not at home now, Liz,’ she said sharply. ‘Please remember that there’s a man in the house. Go and get dressed at once.’
    Liz yawned and stretched and looked at Debra rebelliously. ‘Don’t boss me about, Deb. I’m hungry, I want my breakfast first.’
    Looking at her friend, Debra thought it