Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       About the Author

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       Endpage

       Copyright

       CHAPTER ONE

      ‘IT’S THE PERFECT SOLUTION. You can go in my place.’

      Margot Trant’s airy remark was followed by a silence that could have been cut by a knife.

      Meg Langtry cleared her throat. ‘Let me get this straight,’ she said slowly. ‘You want me to go to the south of France next month and stay at your godmother’s château, pretending to be you.’ She paused, giving her stepsister a long, steady look. ‘Those are the basic elements of the scenario?’

      ‘Well, what’s wrong with that?’ Margot demanded. ‘The old bag wants someone to keep her company for four weeks while her regular slave has a well-deserved break. As long as someone turns up claiming to be Margot Trant, what problem can there possibly be?’

      ‘Oh, none of course,’ Meg returned with terrible irony. ‘The fact that we don’t even look alike is quite immaterial.’

      Margot shrugged. ‘I’m blonde—you’re brunette.’ She gave Meg’s simply styled fall of brown hair a disparaging look. ‘That can be easily fixed. As for the rest—Tante’s practically blind—that’s why she needs a companion. You’ll just be a blur.’

      ‘Always my ultimate ambition,’ Meg murmured.

      Margot leaned forward. ‘Oh, come on, Meg.’ Her voice sharpened. ‘You could do it easily. You’ll have no job to worry about once that grotty second-hand bookshop you work for closes at the end of the week. And I can’t possibly get away. You must see that.’

      ‘Why not?’ Meg countered. ‘I thought Parliament “rose” in the summer. Surely Steven would give you leave.’

      ‘Probably, if I asked him.’ Margot’s pretty face was suddenly intense. ‘But he’s just on the point of asking Corinne for a divorce. I simply can’t afford to be away at this juncture.’

      ‘I see,’ Meg murmured drily. However distasteful she might personally find it, this was what her stepsister had been working towards, ever since she’d got the job as secretary to Steven Curtess MP, the young back-bencher who was being tipped for junior ministerial rank in the next government.

      ‘And Godmother has no right to summon me like this—right out of the blue,’ Margot went on petulantly. ‘Good God, I haven’t seen her since I was nine.’

      ‘I wondered why I’d never heard of her.’

      Margot hunched a shoulder. ‘She’s my great-aunt, actually—Dad was her favourite nephew, and I was named for her. So we’re all three of us called Margaret,’ she added triumphantly. ‘Isn’t that convenient?’

      ‘Amazing.’ Meg shook her head. ‘But irrelevant. Wouldn’t it be simpler just to write and tell her that you can’t get away?’

      ‘No, it would be extremely stupid,’ Margot snapped. ‘She has no children, and no other living relative as far as I know. And a château in the Languedoc isn’t to be sneezed at as an inheritance. It’s imperative I keep on the right side of her.’ She gave Meg a suddenly limpid smile. ‘Or that you do, on my behalf.’

      ‘No way.’ Meg bit her lip. ‘Ethical considerations aside, we’d never get away with it.’

      ‘Of course we would. Margot Trant is sent for. Margot Trant, presumably, turns up on the appointed day. And you’re far better suited to running round after some dreary old lady than I’d ever be. Keep her sweet for me, and I’ll be eternally grateful.’

      ‘That’s just the incentive I need, of course,’ Meg said levelly. She pushed back her chair. ‘You’re the total limit, Margot. Do your own dirty work.’

      ‘Oh, are you going?’ Margot inspected a fleck on her fingernail. ‘I thought the bookshop closed on Wednesdays.’

      ‘It does. I’m spending the day with Nanny Turner, as I usually do.’

      ‘Of course, in that sweet little cottage of hers—or should I say ours?’

      There was a pause. Meg’s eyes narrowed. ‘Brydons Cottage is Nanny’s for life,’ she said. ‘My father made that clear before he died.’

      ‘Yes, but not in writing, sweetie. There’s nothing legally binding. Oddly enough, Mummy was looking into it all the other day. Some friends of hers, the Nestors, are looking for a weekend place, and Brydons would be ideal.’

      Meg stared at her. ‘You’re not serious? Nanny adores that cottage.’

      ‘I bet she does,’ Margot said acidly. ‘It’s a very desirable property.’

      ‘But she’d have nowhere else to go.’

      Margot’s face was a mask of malice. ‘There’s always Sandstead House. Mummy has friends on the Social Services Committee. I’m sure they could pull a few strings.’

      Meg