the box. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to cook you something?’
He shook his head and got up with gratifying reluctance. ‘I’d better take myself off to the study for some of that whisky I mentioned.’ He gave her the smile that had bowled her over when she was seventeen and was doing pretty much the same right now, all the more potent because it was the first time she’d witnessed it at full power since then. ‘You must be desperate to get to bed. Tomorrow I’ll get something sent in for once to give you the evening off. And I’ll put Lowri to bed myself,’ he added, collecting his briefcase. ‘Don’t mention that I’m home when she wakes in the morning. I want to surprise her.’
‘Of course. Goodnight.’
Hester cleared away, then went straight upstairs to check on Lowri. Later, armed with a paperback thriller her mother had given her, she settled down in bed in a glow of well-being which soon faded when she traced it not only to Connah’s return but because he’d seemed as pleased to see her as she was to see him. She sighed. This was something to be nipped in the bud right now. He was a very different man from the mysterious Mr Jones who’d set her teenage pulse fluttering. But, although he still had much the same effect on her ten years on, no way was she getting involved again with someone related to a child in her care.
Lowri was utterly delighted when Connah walked into the kitchen during breakfast next morning.
‘Daddy! I didn’t know you were home,’ she cried, jumping up to hug him.
‘I came late last night and asked Hester not to tell you so I could give you a surprise,’ he said, taking her on his knee. He kissed her and smiled down into the sparkling eyes. ‘You’re getting so big I won’t be able to do this much longer. I won’t have room on my lap.’
She beamed up at him. ‘Did Hester tell you what a great time I had at her house yesterday?’
‘Not yet; she said you’d want to tell me yourself.’
‘Before Lowri starts on her saga,’ said Hester quickly, ‘what would you like for breakfast?’
Connah smiled at her warmly. ‘Oh, just toast and coffee, please.’
While Lowri launched into her account of the tea party, Hester made a pot of coffee, poured orange juice, filled a silver rack with wholemeal toast and put it all on the tray she’d laid ready for the breakfast Sam had told her Connah ate in the study while he caught up with world news and the state of the stock market. Hester took the tray upstairs and left it on the desk, but Connah frowned as he came into the room with Lowri. ‘I could have brought that up myself, but thank you, Hester.’
‘Not at all. It’s my job. Lowri can tell me when you’ve finished.’
‘I was just telling Daddy about your flat, Hester,’ said the child eagerly. ‘I can’t wait for him to see it.’
‘We can’t intrude on Hester’s home, cariad,’ Connah told her, and gave Hester a questioning look.
‘You’re welcome to any time,’ she said casually. ‘Not that there’s much to see.’ She left father and daughter together and went back to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee she could drink in peace on her own. She wondered why Connah had objected when she’s taken his breakfast up to the study. After all, it was what housekeepers did. Or would he have preferred Sam to do it, as presumably he’d done before she arrived on the scene? If the appropriate moment presented itself, she would ask to save further embarrassment. It presented itself sooner than expected when Lowri came to tell her that her father had finished his breakfast.
‘He wouldn’t let me bring the tray down myself,’ she said crossly.
‘Only because he didn’t want you to slip on those stone stairs and hurt yourself,’ said Hester briskly. ‘Now, you think about what you’d like to do today while I fetch it.’
Connah turned from his computer screen as Hester knocked on the study door. ‘Come in. Sit down.’
She took the chair in front of the desk and looked at him warily.
‘Lowri may be unaware of your true role in this house, but I am not,’ said Connah bluntly. ‘Which means I don’t expect you to fetch and carry for me, Hester.’
‘You obviously prefer Sam to do it.’
He frowned. ‘I wouldn’t put it that way exactly; I just think he should. You were engaged to look after Lowri, not wait on me. The fact that you also cook for us is more than enough.’
‘As you wish,’ she said, feeling rebuffed, and got up. ‘But I’ll take the tray since I’m here.’
All through the day, while she was making lunch and walking with Lowri in the park, Hester found herself wondering why Connah’s edict had annoyed her. Any Norland-trained nanny worth her salt should have been glad that he refused to have her wait on him. But she felt hurt that he didn’t want her in and out of his study on a regular basis. The rapport of the night before had obviously been a figment of her imagination.
‘What’s the matter, Hester?’ asked Lowri, eyeing her anxiously.
‘Nothing, why?’
‘You were frowning.’
‘The sun’s strong today.’
‘I know. I’m hot! Can I buy us some ice creams again, please?’
‘Of course.’ Hester fished in her purse for change. ‘Only this time let’s sit down to eat them.’
‘OK.’ Lowri ran off to the café, but before Hester could find an empty bench she spotted a man speaking to Lowri and raced towards them, pressing the button on her phone for Sam as she went, by which time Lowri was in possession of two ice cream cones and the man was nowhere to be seen.
‘Who was that man, Lowri?’ gasped Hester, her heart in her throat.
‘I don’t know. He wanted to buy me an ice cream.’ Lowri grinned at Hester’s look of outrage as she handed one to her. ‘Don’t worry, I said no, thank you—very politely—and he went away. It’s all right,’ she added soothingly, ‘that kind of thing’s hammered into us in school.’
‘What kind of thing?’ demanded Hester.
‘Never to talk to strangers, and never, ever, let them sell you anything or buy anything for you.’
‘So you know the drill. Good,’ said Hester, fighting for calm. ‘What did the man say?’
‘He asked if you were my mother—wow, Sam’s in a hurry,’ Lowri added as he sprinted to join them.
‘What’s up?’ he demanded, and Hester explained while Lowri demolished her ice cream.
‘Before we go back to the car,’ said Sam, his eyes hard, ‘how about we take a walk through the park, Lowri? If you see the man, point him out to us.’
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t take much notice of him, Sam. But he had smart clothes. He was rather nice.’
‘What’s the matter?’ Hester asked, as Lowri sighed heavily.
‘I suppose you’ll stick to me like glue from now on.’
‘You’d better believe it!’
The child’s mouth drooped. ‘If you tell Daddy, you won’t have to—he won’t even let me come in the park any more.’
Or sack the nanny on the spot.
But Connah was surprisingly calm when Hester reported the incident the minute they got home. ‘Did you know the man?’
‘No.’
‘Would you know him again?’
‘I doubt it. I took one look, and ran to break it up. But he’d disappeared by the time I reached them. I do apologise. I’ll know better another time.’ Hester