With some annoyance Michael said: ‘He could have given them another five minutes. It was a damned good fox.’ ‘Too good,’ Rosemary said casually. ‘If they found him now they would lose him again on...

The Paolinis and the van Beins went in the first gondola. Jessica, Bill, Rosemary and Michael were in the second, with the stooping, tattered figure of Harding at the oar. The two boats pushed away...

Harding smiled, a grim and somehow impressive smile. Speaking almost for the first time, he said: ‘All Catholics are deceitful and treacherous and avaricious, but Catholic priests are the baneful, malignant fruit of that tortuous,...

Half-way up, the wide stairway turned back on itself, dividing to left and right. They heard feet clattering down the left-hand stair and he appeared suddenly, running down towards them. Michael noticed a clear, rosy...

Jessica came running down the wide staircase to meet them as the Italian butler took Michael’s hat and gloves. She grasped Rosemary’s hands eagerly. ‘The honeymooners!’ she said. ‘How sweet you both look. A radiance...

Rosemary said: ‘I believe you will be glad to be back in Hampshire.’ He smiled at her, relieved that she should imagine his thoughts so far from where they were. He said: ‘I shan’t be...

Rosemary stirred, moving against him on the narrow seat. She said: ‘Your friends – the Danvers, all of them … They don’t really like me. They put up with me because of you. But that’s...

Round the bend the Grand Canal narrowed towards the Rialto Bridge. As they drew near it the water was turning to gold until they saw, framed in the narrow arch of the bridge, the whole...

He drank the champagne and sat down. The others were talking and laughing. Ignoring them, he twisted the champagne glass in his fingers, trying to balance it at awkward angles, spinning it round between his...

He heard voices calling for him and crouched down over the table, his arms falling across his books. For a while he sat motionless, active only in his hate for the importunate voices. He heard...