Sister of the Bride "Isn't it possible, Esther," Vance asked, "for a man to love you for your own sake?" But Vance Ashmore was a highly experienced man, and Esther began to believe that it was just a cruel game he was playing with her. Things would have been simpler if she could hate him — but that was impossible. The Scented Hills Tessa hadn't liked what she'd heard about Neil Stanton, and didn't much care for him when they first met. Nevertheless, he was the one man with the power to wreck her happy relationship with the devastating Barry Devereux. But that was before she came to know Neil—and in fact, before she really came to know Ban-y! Feast of the Candles I've stayed too long in Perugia, Antonia thought, reflecting on how little those words conveyed; for her whole world had been shattered, remade and destroyed again by the idiotic belief that she was in love with Talbot Drury. Now nothing lay between them but distrust and bitterness. It was time for her to go!