The Ring by Danielle Steel Page A

been happier. And you? Has the last year been too hard on you? He still worried about that much of the time. She was one with the pressures, with Walmar and the children, especially now that Walmar knew. She had told him of Walmar's warning.
    It hasn't been hard. It's been lovely, She looked up at him with the fullness of their loving in her eyes, It's all I ever wanted and always thought I couldn't have. And she still couldn't have it Not really. Not all the time. But even this was enough. Just these precious afternoons that she shared with Dolff.
    You'll always have me, Kassandra, Always. Even long after I'm dead and gone.
    But she looked up at him unhappily. Don't say things like that.
    I meant when I was eighty, silly lady, I'm not going anywhere without you. She smiled then, and they found themselves running hand in hand along the lake. Without explaining or asking, they made their way home and wandered happily upstairs after making tea. But they drank it quickly, they had other things on their minds, and their lovemaking was passionate and urgent, as though each of them needed the other desperately and more than anything on earth. At the end of the afternoon they lay sleeping, Kassandra curled tightly in her lover's arms.
    It was Dolff who stirred first, aware of someone pounding on his door on the floor below them, and then there was the sudden battering of feet on the steps leading up from the main floor He lay listening for an instant and then came fully awake and sat straight up in bed. Feeling the motion of his body, Kassandra stirred, and then, as though sensing danger, her eyes went wide. Without saying anything at all to her, he flung the covers over her and sprang from the bed, standing naked in the center of the large bedroom just as they pressed through the door. At first glance it looked like an army of brown uniforms and red armbands, but there were only four.
    Pulling his robe around him, Dolff stood firm. What is this? But they only laughed. One of them grabbed him roughly and spat in his face.
    Listen to the Jew! He was suddenly pulled taut between two of them, as a third delivered a ferocious punch to his belly, and Dolff grunted with the pain and bent double toward the floor. This time the third man kicked him, and instantly blood gushed from a gash near his mouth while calmly the fourth surveyed the room.
    What have we here under the covers? A Jew bitch keeping our illustrious writer warm? With a sudden motion he pulled back the covers, exposing every inch of Kassandra to their interested gaze. And a pretty one. Get up. Immobile for a moment, she did, sitting upright, and then gracefully slipping her legs onto the floor, her lithe, supple body trembling slightly, her eyes wide in terror as she stared silently at Dolff. The four men watched her, the three around Dolff questioningly gazing at the fourth to see what he would do. He surveyed her carefully, his eyes scouring her flesh, but she could only watch Dolff, still gasping, standing hunched and bleeding between the two uniformed men. And then the fourth turned to them with a sneer. Get him out of here. And then in amusement as he touched his belt, Unless he'd like to watch.
    Suddenly Dolff came to his senses, his eyes frantically reaching for Kassandra and then turning furiously to the man in charge. No! Don't touch her!
    Why not, Mister Famous Author? Has she got the clap? The four men laughed in unison as Kassandra gasped. The full realization of what was about to happen filled her with a terror she had never known. At a signal from their sergeant, they shoved Dolff from the room, and an instant later a resounding crash told her that Dolff had just been pushed down the stairs. There was an exchange of angry voices and Kassandra heard Dolff's above them all. He was calling her name and attempting to fight his captors, but a series of scuffling noises silenced him quickly, and then there was a dragging sound at the bottom of the stairs, and Dolff's