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stay here until dawn. Giorgiou is bound to be back
then. He is probably visiting his sister in the village.”
He threw some more wood on the fire and the flames
leapt upwards. She watched them, feeling lazy and at
ease.
“You can sleep upstairs,” Marc told her. “The bed is
only a straw mattress, but you must have some sleep.”
She looked at the wooden ladder. Yawning, she got
up and went towards it, then heard a distinct scam-
pering above her head.
Marc leapt towards her as she screamed, and she
flung herself into his outstretched arms without think-
ing, clinging to him, shuddering. “Rats! I saw one ... its
tail ...” She was almost physically sick, her teeth
chattering with repulsion and horror.
He held her tightly, one hand clenched on her
shoulder, his thumb moving over her thin-boned
shoulder blade. “You’re quite safe,” he whispered, his
mouth just above her hair.
“I hate them,” she stammered. “Horrible, creeping
things ...” burying her face in his chest with tightly shut
eyes.
“Kate, stop this,” he said, in suddenly hardened
tones, holding her away from him. “You have been brave
up till now. Stop it!”
The shock of his sudden coldness snapped her back to
self-awareness. She was scarlet at once, realising what
she was doing. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly, and drew
away from him, her eyes on the floor.
“I am relieved to see you have some feminine re-
