course you have,’ he said with regret and, when she pointedly waited for him to go, he gave her a wry little salute and walked away.
Hester gazed after him with narrowed eyes. She wished she could have taken him up on his offer so Sam could vet him. Because she was pretty sure he was the man who’d asked for directions in Albany Square, and therefore possibly the man in the park as well. But she couldn’t risk letting him anywhere near Lowri. She hurried back to the café to find Sam and Lowri making inroads into their lunch.
‘A good thing you ordered a salad,’ said Sam. ‘We wondered where you were.’
‘Sorry, folks. The shop was busy. Is your pizza good, Miss Jones?’
Lowri nodded with enthusiasm. ‘It’s yummy! Sam said it was all right to start or it would get cold.’
‘Of course. I’m ready for mine too.’
When they got back to the house, Hester sent Lowri up to her room with some of the bags and told Sam about the incident, which was assuming alarming proportions in retrospect.
‘I thought something was up when you took so long,’ he said grimly. ‘You’d recognise him again, then?’
‘Yes.’ Hester frowned. ‘Odd thing—there’s something familiar about him.’
‘Bound to be if you saw him last night.’
‘No. Other than that. Yet I’m sure I’ve never met him before.’
‘Could he be the guy in the park?’
‘Possibly. But I wouldn’t swear to it.’ She grimaced. ‘Shall I tell Connah or will you?’
‘Your shout, Hester. You actually saw him, so you can give him a proper description.’
‘Or the entire thing could be a coincidence.’
Sam looked her in the eye. ‘I don’t believe in coincidences.’
‘Neither does Connah,’ she said glumly, and picked up the rest of the shopping. ‘You’ll be glad when we’re safely on our way. Are you going somewhere exciting?’
Sam laughed. ‘My mother used to say that her idea of a holiday was for my dad and me to go away and leave her in peace for a week, and now I see what she means. So when you three go I’ll stay put, Hester, to make sure nothing goes amiss with this place. I’ll have a nice little holiday with nothing to do but answer the door, keep my phone charged and take down any messages. A few DVDs, a good book or two and a list of numbers to phone for whatever cuisine takes my fancy—what more can a man ask?’
‘Company?’
‘The occasional pint down the pub will take care of that.’ He patted her hand. ‘You enjoy yourself in Italy with Lowri and the boss. I’ll be fine.’
Hester’s worries about feeling awkward with Connah were unnecessary. He arrived home earlier than expected, his manner matter-of-fact as he announced that he was so hot after the long drive he fancied eating supper outside on the patio.
‘It’s a beautiful evening. Can you do something cold, Hester? Or I could get a meal sent in—’
‘I’ve got the makings for a Caesar salad, if you’d like that.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
‘How was your mother?’
‘She’s not recuperating nearly as rapidly as I’d like,’ he said, frowning. ‘It’s going to take time and patience before she’s back to normal. Where’s Lowri?’
‘She was a bit tired and hot after our shopping trip, so she had a bath and said she fancied watching television in the study. As of five minutes ago, she was still doing that.’
‘I’ll go and see her, then take off for a shower.’ Connah smiled at her. ‘What an efficient creature you are, Hester. Nothing seems to throw you off balance.’
He was wrong there, she thought grimly. He’d done that very effectively just this morning. And the incident with the stranger in the shopping mall had made it twice in one day. But Connah could learn about that later, when Lowri was asleep.
The treat of supper in the garden was welcomed with great enthusiasm by Lowri.
‘It’s just like a picnic,’ she said happily, when her father sent her down to the kitchen, ‘only we’ve got a proper meal instead of sandwiches. I’ll help you carry things while Daddy’s in the shower, Hester.’
‘Thank you. If you’ll ring down for Sam, he can come to collect his meal before we take the salads out.’
When Sam arrived he put the supper Hester had ready for him in the refrigerator. ‘Before I eat I’ll take whatever you want out to the patio.’
With Sam and Lowri helping it was a simple matter for Hester to get a meal ready in minutes on the marble table under the vines. The only task left for Connah, when he appeared a few minutes after Sam went downstairs with his own meal, was to open the bottle of white wine keeping cool in an ice bucket in the shade.
Connah removed the cork, filled two glasses, poured lemonade for his daughter and sank down with a sigh of pleasure at the table. ‘This is just what I need. We’ll be able to eat outside all the time at Casa Girasole.’
‘Even breakfast?’ said Lowri, eyes shining.
‘Even breakfast,’ Connah agreed. ‘But I hope you bought plenty of sun cream today. There’ll be no venturing outside without it once we get there, young lady.’
‘Hester bought extra while Sam and I were waiting for our lunch,’ Lowri informed him.
‘Of course she did,’ said Connah, smiling at Hester, and helped himself to the salad. ‘So how many bathing suits did you buy, Lowri?’
‘Only three, Daddy. A plain blue one, and a really cool yellow bikini, and a sort of top with little matching shorts.’
‘You must show them to me later. How about you, Hester?’ added Connah. ‘Was sun cream your only purchase?’
‘No, indeed. I also bought a floppy white hat, two paperback novels and topped up my first aid box.’
‘So we are now prepared for all eventualities,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘Excellent salad, by the way. Just the thing for an evening like this.’
‘Thank you.’ She put some on her plate. ‘After supper I’d like to visit my mother, if that’s all right with you. I need to collect some things from my flat.’
‘Of course.’
‘Can I come?’ said Lowri eagerly, then sighed mutinously when her father shook his head.
‘Let Hester have a quiet hour with her mother.’
‘I’ll take you there when we come back,’ promised Hester. ‘Then you can tell my mother and Robert all about your Italian holiday. They went there for their honeymoon four years ago, so they’ll enjoy that.’
‘Only four years ago?’ said Lowri, diverted. ‘I thought they’d been married for ages.’ She thought about it. ‘Do older people have honeymoons when they get married, then?’
‘Certainly,’ said Connah. ‘Alice did when she married Mal Griffiths, remember.’
Lowri nodded. ‘They went to Paris on the Eurostar. Alice bought me a silver Eiffel Tower charm for my bracelet.’
Hester smiled at her. ‘Robert took my mother off to Italy for a month.’
‘If they were away that long you must have missed them an awful lot,’ said Lowri with sympathy.
‘Not really, because I was working. Though I had time off for their wedding, of course, which was a lovely, happy occasion. I was their bridesmaid.’
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