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alternating with thin bands of mist, made driving dangerous.
    After an hour’s driving she left the tar-seal behind and the road wound steeply down to a small bridge, then corkscrewed its way tortuously up another steep grade. The mist was thicker now and Serenity slowed accordingly, straining her eyes to follow the narrow ribbon of road. For a moment the mist cleared. As she put her foot down again she realised she was travelling downhill and far too fast for comfort. Then around the corner only yards from her raced a beautiful deer, bounding and frolicking.
    Serenity swung the wheel wide to avoid it, and her wheels spun in the gravel as she skidded violently, barely managing to control the car. She straightened out with a breath of relief and drove round the corner, into a sea of sheep. She stared for one horrid second unable to respond, and the last thing she saw was a man almost over the bonnet of her car as she wrenched the wheel violently and knew she was off the road and somersaulting end over end through trees and fern. She had killed him. She knew it, and Serenity hoped that she would die too. She felt herself free of the car, flying through the air and then . . . nothing.
    Serenity opened her eyes slowly then closed them for a long time. The lids seemed so heavy but she tried again, and stared, straight into the face of a man who was gazing at her with such compassion and concern that she knew he wasn’t real. He had the kindest face she had ever seen. Perhaps he was an angel come to collect her. She turned her head slightly and knew it must be paradise. She was lying on a soft grassy bank beside a lovely lake and by the edge of the water stood a small deer with a red-jewelled collar, its ears pricked forward, watching her with enormous eyes, and by its feet lay two dogs. Dogs and deer did not play together, not on earth they didn’t. Then the mist in the centre of the lake swirled and lifted, rolling in threads and spirals into the sunlight, and she looked right across the lake and beyond to the most glorious valley she had ever seen.
    The luxuriant grass-clad slopes rose gently upwards towards dark purple bush-clad hills, and higher yet to snow-clad peaks. At the edge of the bush on a plateau surrounded by a sheltering of trees was a white homestead shining pure white in the morning sun, and the windows shone pure gold.
    Serenity turned back to examine the man who knelt in front of her, his warm hazel eyes watching her. The odd feeling of weightlessness took over again as if she was floating above the earth. She had seen him before, and as the sun struck sharply on the strong planes of his face, she remembered the man in front of her car. So she had killed him, and he was here waiting with her in the wonderful place.
    ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill you.’
    He smiled and deep smile lines grooved each side of his cheeks.
    ‘You missed, but it was a fairly determined effort.’ His voice was deep and pleasant.
    Carefully she put out her hand and touched his tanned face, feeling it firm and hard under her fingers. ‘You’re sure?’
    ‘Absolutely. Although I hope heaven looks a bit like this. Now, how do you feel?’
    ‘I fell beautiful, woozy and warm and . . . nothing.’
    ‘No pain at all?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I’ll just check for broken bones then I’ll carry you up to the Land-Rover.’
    She felt his hands move over her body, firm and impersonal, but with skill. ‘Nothing broken and no bleeding. How lucky can you get?’
    ‘My car?’
    ‘Not so lucky, I’m afraid—it’s a write-off. You could not have had your seatbelt on. Most reprehensible, but this time it saved your life because you must have been flung out on the way down.’
    ‘I forgot. I wasn't thinking straight.’
    The man’s well-defined lips curved into another smile. ‘You weren’t driving straight either. If you had been I would have been flattened. Thanks for dodging me even if you risked your own neck to do it. What is