"What will we do now?" asked Bella. Edward didn't answer immediately but wandered down the street a bit. "Let's just have a look at these little shops," he suggested. "They're too cute for anything".

Bella admitted that she was happy for some retail therapy so they spent a pleasant half hour wandering in and out of shops selling soaps, shoes and miscellaneous handicrafts. One of the nicest things about Edward, she reflected, had been the way he was willing to enter into her enthusiasm for shopping in all its forms; dedicated shopping trips where he happily waited around to give her the benefit of his opinion, or meandering window shopping like today, where he examined incense sticks and handmade potholders with the same degree of interest that he might bring to a new paper about orphan nuclear receptors. Bella's mood continued to lift. Hedonism had been very successful.

By the time they had walked the length of the street of shops, they were feeling hungry, so they packed into the car and drove to one of the nearby wineries. They selected a bottle of sparkling wine and a huge antipasto platter and settled down at an outdoor table in an idyllic setting, the vines in the background, clear blue sky and pale sunshine, warm but not hot. The wine was pale yellow and crisp to taste with dry bubbles that melted on the tongue. Bella felt herself relaxing. Nothing was going to happen to her here and San Francisco and tomorrow's conference were both a long way off.

"Have I thanked you yet for all this?" she asked. "Yes" he said immediately, winking at her, "But you can thank me again, I don't mind". He was grinning but she was trying to be serious. "I mean it," she said.

He leaned forward across the table. "So," he began, "Tell me about your husband. How's marriage treating you?"

His voice was bluff and hearty. Bella was shocked by the abrupt change of conversation but recognised that they could not go on ignoring it. She sat back again and looked away, considering. What could she say?"

"It's good," she said finally aware that this was an inadequate response but unable to offer more. "I mean we fight sometimes, sometimes he drives me crazy and I have to admit that I had to get used to him just being around all the time, if you know what I mean. His singing drives me nuts, it's so bad and his taste in music is even worse than his singing but despite all that we usually get on together pretty well."

"Do you love him?" he asked. His voice was low and after he said it, he looked down at the table carefully. "Well, of course I love him" she replied matter of factly "But it's different I suppose after you've been married for a while. You get used to the other person I think. Perhaps you take them for granted a little".

"I never took you for granted" he said softly. Their eyes met. Bella looked away first.

"No, but look you wanted to further your career and you were willing to give me up for it" she pointed out. "And you weren't willing to move to the US, even to be with me" he replied. Bella sighed. "I just thought that one day we would be having an argument, and I wouldn't be able to stop myself from saying 'look at all the things I've done for you, moved to the other side of the world, left my parents, my friends, my home' etc etc. And I think that would get old rather quickly, don't you? I thought it was too much pressure on the relationship. I thought there would be problems" she fell silent.

"Well, we'll never know" he said.

"How about you? What's this girlfriend like who you've been so mysterious about? How long have you been going out? Tell all!" she ordered. "Why didn't you say anything at first?" He shrugged. "The right time hadn't really presented itself" he protested. He appeared to sink into a reverie, making Bella impatient. "Well?" she prompted.

"Well, she's a lab assistant but not in my lab and her name is Tanyah" he shot Bella a glance, knowing that she would be unimpressed with this. As he expected she had pulled a wry face. "She's great. Really fun, nice personality, all round nice girl". Bella nodded, thinking that there was not much to say to that. She thought it was a bit lacking in enthusiasm but then what was she expecting, that he would say he was madly in love? Had she said that about her husband? Maybe he was concerned about hurting her feelings, she reasoned, although why it should hurt her feelings was a thought that she didn't want to have.

"That's great" she enthused. "I'm happy for you!" she schooled her expression to reflect only cheerfulness and grinned at him.

He seemed thoughtful. "Are you?" he asked.

"Yes" she affirmed. "Why wouldn't I be?" she wished she hadn't asked him that. She found that she didn't want him to answer.

He didn't.

"I can't believe you didn't mention your girlfriend!" she exclaimed again, more to break the silence than anything else.

"Let's go for a walk," he suggested.

There was a beautiful, manicured garden in front of the winery. They wandered along a sandy path. Bella was feeling just slightly fuzzy from the wine they had drunk with lunch. She stepped awkwardly on a rock in the path and lurched against Edward's shoulder. She felt the contact but he didn't put his arm around her as she half expected. They came to a small pond surrounded by large trees. Under one of the trees was a slatted garden seat.

"Let's have rest," said Edward, taking her hand and directing her towards it. They sat down next to each other, Bella hardly noticing that Edward kept his arm along the back of the seat. There was a few moments' silence broken only by birds and the distant sounds of people eating at the outside tables at the winery.

"What –" Bella turned to ask Edward a question and was startled to find herself swept into his arms. Her kissed her gently and sweetly with a tenderness that she had forgotten but which was characteristic of him. She had no ability to resist. The kiss deepened, she was greedy for more, open-mouthed, exploring his lips with her tongue.

Edward, she remembered, was an exceptionally sensual man. One of his best points in her opinion was the way in which he seemed to genuinely enjoy every touch for its own sake, not just as an exercise or a prelude to other things. Perhaps as a result, he was an exquisite judge of touch, his caresses were always perfect, gentle but demanding, just like his current stroking of her shoulders. He understood how to start with the subtle gestures and when to move on to the more obviously sexual ones. He had a great sense of timing so that things always built at the right pace. It seemed he could sense when she was and was not ready to move on.

He stroked her cheek and his fingers travelled lightly down her neck and over her shoulders. She murmured her appreciation of his touch. Putting her arms around his neck she kissed him very lightly, a bare brushing of her lips against his. He moaned slightly and curved his hands around the tops of her arms to bring her closer to him and deepen their kiss, but she pulled away whenever he got close, only to go back to those light, teasing lip touches. He growled in frustration, making her laugh. She relented, kissing him gently on his cheek, his forehead, his eyelid. He started to do some gentle exploration of his own, kissing her gently behind her ear and in a trail leading down her neck. He continued in a trail down into her cleavage. She thought he could read her mind because he judged exactly the moment when she wanted her breasts to be stroked although it may also have had something to do with the way she arched her back, lifting her breasts toward his face. He peeled down her top and pulled back her bra slightly to gently suck on her nipple.

She moaned slightly lost to all but the sensation of touch and arousal until suddenly she heard a number of voices and the scrunch of feet on the pathway. Instinctively she pulled away but Edward only held her tighter. They didn't look up until the walkers had passed them by, but she had the impression that they were elderly and that their voices were excessively loud in order to disguise their embarrassment. Or maybe the embarrassment was all hers.

Becoming aware of herself and her surroundings all of a sudden, she discovered that somehow she was seated on Edward's lap with her legs spread out to either side balancing on her knees on the bench. Embarrassed, she climbed off him to sit demurely on one side. "Perhaps we should calm it down a bit" she suggested. "Or next thing we'll be having sex on a public bench!" she laughed.

"Wouldn't be the first time" he reminded her. She blushed. She had forgotten that episode in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens on a very warm night in January. "Do you remember that?" she asked, cringing. He was laughing. "Are you kidding? That is one of my fondest memories! You pushed me down on the bench and jumped on top of me and you were so hot and wet…"

Bella interrupted him, screwing her eyes shut against the embarrassment caused by his reminiscence. "Well we had been walking around with you kind of teasing me for about an hour!" Suddenly, she was seized by a burst of laughter. "I can't be sure but I think someone walked past us" she said. "I think I remember someone making surprised coughing noises at some point". Edward nodded. "Yep, a couple of people came past but it didn't seem to bother you".

Bella put her head on his shoulder. His arm came naturally around her and they sat in silence for a while, enjoying the closeness.

"What happened Bella?" he said softly after a few minutes. "Why did we let this go?"

She sighed. "I bet you none of those people who passed could begin to guess our story," she said. "You know, I mean what we are to each other and what brought us here". "You got that right," he agreed feelingly. Maybe we could start again," she suggested. "Some sort of alternative lives where we could be together. You know, maybe another time I'll choose to be a children's book author or something and after all, you can write anywhere, right?"

Edward grinned and entered the spirit of the game. "Instead of biological sciences I'll go back to Uni, retrain in IT. I've always been interested in computer systems. You can get IT jobs anywhere." "I'll go back to Uni and study literature, or maybe creative writing or even my first academic love". "What was that?" wondered Edward. "Archaeology" she announced triumphantly. "You didn't know that did you? See, you don't know everything about me".

Edward kissed her again, bending her back against the seat then abruptly released her. "I know the important things," he said softly.

The sun appeared to have past its peak and Bella was struck by the feeling that the day was passing. "Come on" she said "We'd better go. I just had a thought. Today was supposed to be given over to mindless hedonism and it wouldn't be a totally hedonistic day without shopping! Didn't we see an outlet mall not that far from here? Come on, let's do thoughtless excessive consumerism just to make the day complete. Please?" she ended on a pleading note.

"Right" agreed Edward good naturedly rising from the seat and heading back to the car.

They climbed into their mini and got back on the highway. Not far away they had passed a large outlet mall which Bella had commented on ("Oooh, Banana Rebublic! Ann Taylor Loft! Emporio Armani!") They parked the car and Bella led the way to the shops with a purposeful air. She plunged into the shopping strip starting at one end. Cheerfully she rummaged through the stacks, selected armfuls of clothes and headed to the change rooms, sending Edward out for changes of colour or size.

Her bargain hunting was not as successful as she hoped and after about half a dozen shops she had only one top and a dress to show for it. Also, her midday jet lag was beginning to settle in and everything began to look unreal to her. Then they came across an internet café.

"Let's have a cup of coffee," she suggested. "Honestly, I don't know whether it's the lag or not but I'm feeling dead." As usual Edward agreed.

Bella ordered a tall latte and eyed the internet charges. As expected, they were exorbitantly high but the temptation was too much. "I think I'll just log on and check my e-mail," she said. Edward pulled a face at the charges. "We could have gone to a Starbucks and got free WiFi!" he commented. Bella looked rueful. "I could use my phone," she said pulling out her Nokia, "But checking my e-mail on it takes ages and typing anything is worse". Edward frowned "Why don't you get an iPhone?" he asked, pulling his out of his pocket.

"Because the camera's crap, I don't really like touchscreens and most of all because iPhone users are so bloody sanctimonious about them! 'Oh you really must get an iPhone' they say at every possible opportunity. And they think they're so cool. Well, I don't actually need something that makes noises like a lightsabre duel and I don't bloody want one! Aaaagh!" she finished emphatically. "Jacob has an iPhone," she added inconsequentially.

As she had hoped, that was enough to make the subject drop. She went to one of the desktops, bought some credit and logged in. Immediately she went to one of the web based e-mail programs and checked her e-mail.

Her inbox was full and over half of them appeared to be increasingly distressed messages from her husband, Jacob. They started with titles like "Your conference on the news" and then went on to "Possible skype time?" The last two had subject lines "WHERE ARE YOU?" and "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" Guiltily, she realised that she had not replied to the text message she had received a couple of hours earlier. She quickly hit reply and started to apologise and explain. It was early in the morning at home in Melbourne, she realised and he must have been awake at 5 o'clock in the morning, worrying about her. Tears came to her eyes as she considered her selfishness. She dug her phone out of her bag and sent an SMS "Sorry it's taken so long to reply, on silent still, all well, sending e-mail to explain all".

Having written that in her text however, she did not find it so easy to "explain all". She couldn't bring herself to write about her experiences of being harassed and blackmailed. He would think she was hallucinating. Nor did she particularly want to mention Edward, as she knew that Jacob had a noticeable antipathy to all her ex-boyfriends, especially the ones she remained friends with. Any discussion involving her ex-boyfriend's doings was likely to be greeted with silence, as she knew from long experience. At length, she settled for telling him that her laptop had disappeared at the conference, but that she still had some hopes of it being returned. She wouldn't be able to skype him but she would try to keep in touch by e-mailing at internet cafes. She promised not to ignore her texts. In the meantime an SMS reply "Thank god you're all right. I was beginning to wonder!" added more fuel for guilt.

Quickly she scanned down her other e-mails, most of which were routine sort of work things that could wait until later. One untitled message caught her eye from Prof Volturi. "What does he want?" she wondered. She opened the message which had been sent the day before, the first day she arrived in San Francisco.

"Dear Bella, I hope you will consider the recommendations I made to you regarding your presentation during our brief meeting yesterday" it ran. "If you have any trouble you may find that I can be of help. Don't hesitate to ask me. Cheers, Aro Volturi"

Bella sat back in her chair after reading this e-mail and stared at the screen. Her first thought was that it was nice of him to offer his support but as she reread the message there was something about it that puzzled her. She wasn't surprised that he reminded her of his suggested changes, after all she was still slightly astonished at her own temerity in refusing to make the changes that he suggested. But why should he think she would have "trouble"? And how could he be of help?

She wondered, she doubted, she thought she was just being paranoid. Then all at once she remembered something. Prof Volturi was terribly busy, always involved in clinical trials of various new therapeutic drugs. Someone had told her once that really he had a conflict of interest and that he should actually declare it in any publication but that he didn't always do so. Something about a drug company.

Thinking fast, Bella went to the Google box in the toolbar. "Professor Aro Volturi" she typed "AND drug company". She hit the search key, briefly distracted by wondering for the ninetieth time whether anyone ever used the 'I'm feeling lucky button' and what it actually did. She came up with a worrying 3,610,000 hits and started to sift her way through them, after turning off the surf canyon option.

Half way down the second page, she found what she was looking for. A web page showing photos and brief biographies included the smiling face of her Professor. Then she clicked on the "Home" tab to show her the name of the company which listed Professor Aro Volturi on its board of directors. When the page came up she gave a sharp intake of breath. It was the homepage of Sprague and Dowley.