Amanda was posing by the flower arrangement in the foyer:

"Reach out towards one of the flowers." said Stark, "Perfect!"

He snapped a photograph. "Now let's try it with you coming down the staircase."

Just then, Rachel burst through the front door.

"Oh, Mother!" said Amanda, "David's taking pictures for a photo essay in BRAVA."

"My goodness, you're a photographer too!" said Rachel.

"Merely an amateur." said Stark.

"I'm sure you're being too modest." said Rachel, "It looks like fun. Let me try!"

Before Stark could react, she plucked the camera out of his hands and snapped his picture. He recoiled, throwing his hand up before his face.

"I hate having my picture taken." he said.

"Afraid of losing a piece of your soul?" Rachel, "There's an easy way to fix that!" She opened the back of the camera, and exposed the film.

"Mother! " whined Amanda, "You've ruined David's pictures!"

"It's - not important." said Stark, looking daggers at Rachel.

****

The food had just been delivered from the Harbour Club when Sofia arrived at the ICU.

"I ordered the rack of lamb." Matthew was saying, "The Chicken Kiev, and the Beef Wellington. Two servings of each. And for dessert, a chocolate mousse cake. Not a slice, the whole cake."

"Yes Sir," said the waiter, "It's all here, just like you wanted."

"Matt?" said Sofia, "What's going on? Are you having a party?"

"Wizard Wallace is working on Lila." he replied, "He's going to need a really big meal when he's finished."

"You called in a wizard? Then, you want Lila to recover."

"Of course I do!" said Matthew, "What kind of question is that?"

"Come on, Matt, you gotta admit it would be more convenient for everybody if Lila died. You'd have custody of Jasmine, and me and you could get married and raise her together."

Before Matthew could frame a reply, Wizard Wallace came out of Lila's room, looking drained.

"Is the food here?" he said.

"Here it is." Matthew indicated the serving cart. Each dish was under a silver cover, spelled to keep the food at the optimum temperature.

"I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I ordered lamb, chicken and beef."

"Anything, as long as it's food." Wallace sat down and uncovered the nearest dish, which happened to be the Chicken Kiev.

"How is Lila?"

"She's coming along nicely." said the wizard, taking up knife and fork and starting to eat.

"Can I see her?"

Wallace nodded, his mouth full of chicken. He swallowed and said, "She won't look any different, yet. I concentrated on repairing the damage to her internal organs. Once that's done, I can work on the broken bones. Which reminds me, do you have the photographs I asked for?"

"Here they are." said Matthew.

Wallace put down his utensils and looked at the pictures.

"You wife is a woman of rare beauty."

"Yes, she is." said Matthew.

"On the outside, anyway." said Sofia.

****

As soon as Stark left, Amanda turned on Rachel.

"Mother, you were positively rude to David!"

"I don't like him, I don't trust him, and I don't want him in this house!" said Rachel, switching on the intercom, "Claudia, come in here, please."

A moment later, the housekeeper appeared. "Yes, Mrs Hutchins?"

"David Halliday is not welcome in this house in future. Don't let him in. And we are not accepting his phonecalls, either."

"Mother!"

****

"Josie, it's Nick. You told me you don't think I'm the one who did the hit-and-run on Lila Cory."

"I don't."

"Then, why have you got a cop car watching my house? It's been there all morning."

"Not by my orders." said Josie, "I'll look into it."

****

"Maybe I over-reacted," Rachel told Akageno, "But all I could think about was all the stories about putting a spell on someone by sticking pins into an image of them."

"That can be done." he agreed.

"Two can play at that game." said Rachel, "Stark avoids being photographed, but there's more than one way to skin a cat."

She found a sketchpad and pencils, and being drawing Stark's face from memory.

****

Josie drove to the Hudson farm and, as she had suspected, found Toni's patrol car parked by the mailbox.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I'm keeping an eye on Nick Hudson."

"I didn't tell you to put Nick under surveillance." Josie pointed out, "You're supposed to be on patrol. You're neglecting your job, in order to harrass a citizen. "

"Just because his sister backs up his story doesn't make him innocent!"

Josie shook her head. Toni was her friend, but this was a situation which was going to strain that friendship to its limits. "Get back on patrol, Officer Burrell." she said, "If I catch you bothering Nick again, you're on suspension."

To be continued