When the aristocratic Dom Julyan was jilted by Lois’s cousin, he seemed concerned only that he had lost a future stepmother for his small son, Jamie. Julyan’s unemotional reaction surprised Lois, who finally agreed to remain in Portugal and be the boy’s governess. But she soon found she had lost her heart not only to Jamie, but to his father as well! Yet how could she compete with the beautiful Gloria who now laid claim to Julyan? CHAPTER ONE Lois stood looking out across the balcony of her room to the blue sea beyond. It was not the sort of blue English seas ever achieved— not even Cornish seas, when they came sweeping in to fill the golden floor of a secret sandy cove. Instead of reminding her of a blaze of larkspur in a well-tended herbaceous border, she thought of gardens of coral and weeds, and magnificently bright fish swimming in and out of the long streamers of succulent growth. There were patches of indigo where the hidden gardens might well have their being, and all around a translucent splendor of turquoise that broke into a flurry of white where the long waves hit the shore.
