I didn’t know what to make of Isobel Van Allen or of the conversation I had overheard between her and Mr. Roberts. Why should she want to keep her book a secret from her secretary? Granted, he was not operating solely in a professional capacity where she was concerned, but it seemed she should have wanted to confide in him if no one else. She had told me it was not always possible to follow the heart. What had she meant? Why had she come back seven years later to gather the members of that ill-fated party together? I tried and failed to think of what her motive might be. Though it was perfectly apparent she didn’t care what others thought of her, I didn’t think that she was motivated by malice alone. If it had been only that, she could have come back long ago. Or she might have written the book from the comforts of her home in Kenya with the handsome Mr. Roberts to type for her. She might have whipped up a scandal from half a world away if that had been her inclination. No, there was some other reason she had chosen to return to Lyonsgate, to make this very public announcement.
