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gave her a ,chance to escape from herself, gave her an enthralling mystery to unravel, the secrets of another human being to glimpse. She loved language, delighted in expressing it with her voice the way she had murmured the Wyatt poem a short time ago. The theatre gave her far more than just a hope of reaching final security; she knew she would have become an actress even if she hadn't needed success. It had always been what she wanted, right from the first play she ever saw.
    "What did you do before you got this part?' Laird asked, and she turned her head to smile at him lazily.
    'I was a fairy mushroom.'
    His brows flicked up. 'What did Parsons put in that milk?' He leaned forward and picked up her empty glass, sniffing suspiciously at it.
    Anna laughed. 'I'm serious—I really did play a fairy mushroom in a panto. It was rather fun, actually, and the pay was good. I ate well while I was with them.'
    He leaned back, his head turned towards her and his arm along the back of the couch, his long body casually relaxed beside her so that their knees touched. He wasn't smiling, though, his eyes were cool and thoughtful.
    'How much do you earn a week?'
    Normally she would have prickled at that question and refused to answer, but she was in a soporific trance conjured up by warmth and good food on top of bone-cracking weariness, so she told him cheerfully, and he frowned.
    'And your rent? What's that?'
    Anna as calmly replied and was surprised when he swore. She stared blankly at him then. 'Why are you so angry? Try and find anywhere cheaper, mister! That is the bottom of the market, let me tell you, I'm lucky to have got it.' She made a little face. 'And today's rent day and I haven't got the money, so when I go to work tomorrow my landlady's going to be lying in wait for me and I shall have to think fast and talk fast to stop her chucking me out.' She didn't sound too worried. Ever since she moved in there she had had the same running battle with Mrs Gawton; she always paid her rent within a day or two and she felt sure the woman would give her the usual time to find the money. Seeing the dark frown on Laird's face, she went on lightly, 'Don't worry, I'll get the money. I've asked for an advance on my salary and they'll give it to me, they always do in the end.'
    'It sounds to me as if you permanently live ahead of your income,' Laird said grimly.
    'Who doesn't?' Anna looked sideways at him, her mouth curling. 'Present company excepted, of course. You obviously don't have to live hand-to-mouth, lucky you; some of us aren't so fortunate." Her green eyes mocked him. 'Maybe it was time you learnt how the other half lives—I'm broadening your education.'
    'Thank you,' he drawled, watching her with narrowed eyes. 'Let me do the same for you.'
    Anna had forgotten her suspicion and doubt of him over the last hour, her worries lulled by the food and the way they had talked. She wasn't prepared for his swoop, she just stared helplessly at his face as it came down towards her, her eyes focusing on his hard mouth.
    As it touched her own she stiffened in shock, as if she had touched a bare wire and had had a massive jolt of electricity sent through her veins. His arms "'closed round her, pulling her down with him as he sank backwards on the couch, his mouth moving coaxingly on her lips, parting them, the kiss a heated intimacy against which Anna found she had no defences.
    She didn't even know she had shut her eyes at first; she thought that the velvety darkness into which she fell was one consequence of that kiss. She was shaking violently, her hands clinging to his shoulders and her ears singing with a strange music. It didn't occur to her that it was the sound of her blood running far too fast, but she found the wild responses of her body to his lovemaking increasingly disturbing.
    It was the first time a man had ever kissed her, ; except as a stage exercise. Whenever anyone had tried in the past she had firmly repelled them, never