Ahead of her she saw loneliness beyond anything she had ever contemplated before, a loneliness more poignant and more terrible, because she had once known love, once found in that springing rapturous moment of Rex’s first kiss the fulfilment of all her dreams.
She closed her eyes, recapturing for one second the feeling of Rex’s arms around her, his lips against hers.
When she opened them again, she heard a movement through the trees behind her.
For a moment she thought that it must be Rex and despite her misery her heart leapt and then she saw that the man approaching walked with a stick and realised that it was Nicholas Coleby.
He came across to her and sat down beside her. She looked at him without a word and then he held out his hand and she put hers into it.
“I am – so sorry, Fene
