The Millionaire's Convenient Bride

‘Tomorrow I’ll make a pudding,’ she said, as she began clearing away their empty plates. ‘But tonight it’s a choice of fruit or cheese.’

‘I think Lowri’s full, for once in her life,’ said Connah, ‘and I’ll forgo the cheese in favour of coffee.’

‘Certainly. I’ll bring a tray up to you.’

‘Better still, I’ll wait while you make the coffee, then take it up myself,’ said Connah firmly.

Hester thanked him and switched on the coffee-maker, glad that it was a make she was familiar with, since she had an audience for the process.

‘When the coffee’s ready, Lowri, we’ll leave Hester in peace for a while,’ said Connah. ‘How about a game of chess?’

She nodded fervently. ‘Can you play chess, Hester?’

‘I can, but sadly I’m out of practice.’ She turned to smile at the child. ‘You can bring me up to speed on a rainy day some time.’

‘Incidentally, Hester,’ said Connah, ‘I like Lowri to be in bed by nine normally, but she can have an extension tonight. Put a glass of milk on the tray, then she’ll be ready for bed when you come to fetch her.’

‘Hester made me drink milk at teatime. Do I have to drink it again?’ complained Lowri.

He ruffled her hair. ‘Yes, you do.’

Hester heaved a sigh of relief when they’d gone, envying Sam his solitary dinner. It was a draining experience to spend time in Connah’s company without betraying by the flicker of an eyelash how much it affected her. She glanced at the clock, found she had almost an hour’s grace, and got to work. When the kitchen was tidy, Hester went up to her room to make repairs to her face, then sat down in the buttoned velvet armchair by the window to do absolutely nothing for a few minutes, well aware that at seventeen she would have been on cloud nine at the mere thought of living in the same house as the man of her dreams. Especially a house like this one. Neither of her previous jobs had provided her with such appealing private quarters.

Unlike Lowri’s, which had pink flowers trailing down the wallpaper and a hammock suspended over the bed to house the soft toys she’d brought with her, Hester’s room had cinnamon walls and carpet and white curtains and bedcover, all of it brand-new, including a writing desk and a combination television and DVD player. Everything was bound to be new, of course, if the house had only just been redecorated, or restored, or whatever. Doing up a listed house of this age had to be a huge undertaking. At the mere thought of the permits required, Hester yawned widely, wishing she could just crawl into the tempting brass bed. With a sigh, she got up, tucked her white shirt into her narrow black skirt, then went downstairs to knock on the study door.

Lowri opened it, smiling all over her face. ‘I’m beating Daddy,’ she said with triumph, pulling Hester over to the desk.

Connah looked up from the chessboard with a wry smile. ‘You’ve snatched me from the jaws of defeat, Hester.’

‘You haven’t lost yet,’ Lowri comforted him. ‘We can go on with the game when you get back and maybe you’ll win in the end.’

She obviously thought this so unlikely that Connah laughed. ‘Off to bed with you, champ. Give me a kiss.’

Lowri threw her arms round his neck and he pulled her on to his knee to kiss her.

‘Goodnight, Daddy.’

‘Goodnight, cariad, sleep well.’ He stood up and set her on her feet. ‘I’ll be off early in the morning, Hester, so if you need to speak to me, see Lowri settled then come back down.’

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN Hester went downstairs again Connah motioned her to one of the sofas facing each other across the fireplace.

‘Did Lowri settle down happily?’

‘Yes. She was tired enough to welcome going to bed.’

‘It’s been a long day for her,’ agreed Connah and sat opposite, eyeing her closely. ‘So, Hester, Lowri seems to have taken to you. Do you think you’ll enjoy spending time with her?’

‘I will, very much. She’s a delightful child—remarkably adult in some ways, yet still a little girl in others.’ Hester smiled. ‘Up to now I’ve worked with under-fives, so it’s quite a revelation to be with someone of Lowri’s age. There was one sticky moment, though,’ she added. ‘She asked me point-blank if I was a nanny.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘And how did you answer?’

‘To avoid the direct lie, I asked—very indignantly—if I looked like Mary Poppins.’ Hester gave him a straight look. ‘But if she brings it up again I prefer not to lie.’

‘She probably won’t. It’s just that Alice—her former nanny—was never required to cook meals.’ He paused. ‘Thank you again for dinner. I normally eat out or have it sent in. But I don’t expect you to cook for all of us on a regular basis.’

‘I have no problem with that. I like cooking. I’m no cordon bleu chef, but my mother’s a very good cook and taught me well. And Lowri likes helping in the kitchen so it’s a good way of keeping her occupied.’

‘And will do her in good stead when she has to fend for herself one day. Thank you, Hester. I’ll adjust your salary, of course.’ He eyed her expectantly. ‘So what did you want to talk about?’

‘First on the list, clothes. Before I take Lowri shopping, I need a clear idea of what you want—and don’t want—for her.’

Connah looked taken aback. ‘I thought you’d know more about that than me.’

Hester smiled. ‘For starters, she wants jeans, tops and trainers and—I warn you—a miniskirt like Chloe’s.’

He laughed. ‘Then buy her one. She’ll look cute in it.’ He gave her an impersonal, assessing look. ‘Judging by your taste in clothes, she’s in good hands.’

Hester felt a warm sensation inside at his comment on her appearance. ‘Thank you. The list is pretty extensive. When I unpacked her trunk I found that Lowri’s outgrown practically everything, including her uniform.’

Connah got up to go over to the desk. ‘I order that through the school. I’ll give you the number and you can get on to that right away. They add it to the bill for fees.’ He came back with a thick roll of notes. ‘For shopping here in town I’d rather you used cash, Hester.’

‘As you wish. I’ll keep a list of what I spend.’ She paused. ‘Talking of clothes, I dressed soberly today, for obvious reasons. But for walks and picnics and so on I’d be more comfortable in something casual, if you’re happy with that.’

‘Wear what you like,’ he said, surprised. ‘In fact, the less you dress like a nanny the better.’

‘Thank you.’ She looked at him in appeal. ‘Now I have a favour to ask. Could I have your permission to take Lowri home to see my mother one day? When I broached the subject, Lowri was very enthusiastic.’

For a moment Hester was sure that he was going to refuse point-blank. Then he smiled wearily. ‘I must seem like an ogre to you, keeping my child shut away from the world.’

‘I’m sure you have good reason.’

‘I do. But Lowri would enjoy a visit to your home. I remember your mother very well.’ His eyes softened. ‘Is she up to entertaining a lively ten-year-old?’

‘She’ll just love it. So will Robert, my stepfather. You can check with Sam about him, if you like. They met when Robert insisted on delivering me here this morning.’

‘I already have. Your family was cleared when John ran the security check on you.’ Connah got up to cross to a drinks tray. ‘Have a nightcap before you go up, Hester.’

‘I won’t, thank you.’ She got up, battening down her resentment. ‘I’ll look in on Lowri, then take myself to bed.’

‘In that case, I’ll say goodnight.’ He walked with her to the door. ‘I won’t see you in the morning, but if you need to speak to me at any time while I’m away, Sam will know where to find me.’

‘Thank you. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight, Hester.’

She forced herself to walk slowly upstairs instead of running up to burn off some of her annoyance. Connah Carey Jones might be paying her well for her services but he was getting good value for every penny. She was an experienced, highly qualified nanny, who could also cook and keep house. And, as the icing on the cake, her family had unknowingly passed John Austin’s security check with flying colours. It was the unknowing part that really hacked her off, no matter what her hormones felt about him.

Lowri was fast asleep. Hester drew the covers higher and went to her own room to ring her mother to report on her first day in the Carey Jones household. Moira was full of eager questions, which Hester answered in detail before mentioning the proposed visit with Lowri. This received such an enthusiastic response that Hester promised to bring the child round for tea as soon as possible.

‘We’ve got some shopping to do first, Ma. Lowri needs clothes, and I must have a session at the supermarket.’

‘Come on Wednesday afternoon, then. I’ll bake.’

‘I told Lowri you would!’

Hester woke next morning at six as usual, and got up to shower before Lowri surfaced. Leaving the sleeping child to the luxury of a lie-in, Hester went silently downstairs to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, and almost turned tail and went out again when she found Connah there before her, drinking coffee, dressed ready to leave and looking so much the embodiment of every dream she’d ever had that Hester was struck dumb for a moment.

‘Good morning, Hester,’ he said, surprised. ‘You’re an early riser.’

She pulled herself together, irritated by the effect he had on her. It was too much to cope with at this time of day. ‘Good morning. Babies and toddlers wake early, so it’s a habit I can’t break. Lowri is still asleep, so I left her in peace for a while.’

He gave her one of his piercingly direct looks. ‘Actually I’m pleased to have caught you before leaving. Last night I could tell that you were unhappy about having your family investigated, Hester, but where Lowri is concerned you must appreciate that I can’t take risks.’

‘And now you know that my stepfather is a recently retired headmaster and my mother the daughter of a clergyman, you’ll be happy to leave Lowri in my care,’ she said without inflection, and moved past him to fill the kettle.

‘From your point of view, I was sure of that the moment I saw you with John at the Chesterton,’ he said, surprising her.

She swung round in surprise. ‘You were there when he interviewed me?’

‘Beforehand, not during. I sat outside in the lounge behind a newspaper.’ He shrugged. ‘I was beginning to despair by the time you arrived. The other three might have been suitable carers for small babies, I suppose, but much too old to be a companion for Lowri.’

‘So my age was your main reason for employing me?’

‘It was part of it, yes.’ He gave her a sudden disarming smile. ‘But watching you talk to John as he saw you out, I knew Lowri would take to you. And, to be candid, I’m sure the others would have marched off in high dudgeon if asked to pose as my housekeeper.’

‘But you thought I’d take it in my stride?’

‘I think you take most things in your stride, Hester.’

She smiled a little. ‘After years of looking after other people’s children, I should have the knack by now.’

Connah smiled back as he put his empty cup in the sink. ‘Am I forgiven for the security check?’

When he smiled like that she could forgive him anything. ‘I expected one for myself as a matter of course. But no one’s ever checked up on my family before.’

‘Will you do me a great favour?’ he asked, surprising her.

‘If I can,’ she said cautiously.

‘I assume that your mother knows I’m the man who came knocking on her door in the snow all those years ago?’

‘Of course. I rushed home to tell her after the first interview—’ Hester halted. ‘By the way, if you saw me at the Chesterton, may I ask why you interviewed me twice?’

‘The first time was to make sure that my first impression was right, and you were exactly what I was looking for. But I had to wait for the security check before I could call you back to offer you the job.’

‘I see.’ She held the look steadily. ‘So what favour do you need?’

‘Have you told your family I had them investigated?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Good. In that case, could you keep it to yourself? Your stepfather would probably just be furious, but your mother would be hurt. I don’t want that any more than you do, Hester.’

‘Then I won’t tell her.’ She glanced at the clock. ‘Can I cook you some breakfast?’

‘Coals of fire?’ Connah smiled crookedly. ‘It’s a tempting thought, but no, thanks. I must be on my way. If you need to speak to me while I’m away, ring me.’

‘I hope I won’t.’

‘I know you do,’ he said, and left her to her tea.

‘Good morning,’ said Sam, coming into the kitchen a few minutes later. ‘Did you see the boss before he left?’

‘Yes, I did. Good morning, Sam.’ She finished her tea. ‘There’s more in the pot if you want. I’d better check on Lowri. She was out for the count when I got up.’

Hester smiled wryly as she went up to Lowri. The job had an unexpected benefit. Three flights of stairs would do wonders for her personal fitness.

Lowri was still out for the count. Hester eyed the sleeping face for a moment, then scribbled a note to ask Lowri to come down for breakfast when she woke. With the radio for company, Hester had ironed half the contents of the trunk by the time the yawning child finally trailed into the kitchen in her dressing gown.

‘Good morning,’ said Hester, smiling. ‘How about scrambled eggs?’

Lowri nodded sleepily. ‘Yes, please.’ She slid into a chair at the table, watching as Hester folded the ironing board. ‘Has Daddy gone?’

‘Yes, he left very early.’

‘Do you know when he’s coming back?’

‘He didn’t say.’ Hester poured orange juice into Lowri’s glass. ‘But cheer up. He said yes to a visit to my mother and Robert.’

Lowri’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. ‘When? Today?’

‘No, tomorrow for tea. Today we go shopping for clothes. Then we have some lunch and shop for food. How’s that for a programme?’

‘At last!’ said Lowri when Hester emerged from her own room later in a navy cotton shirt and white denim skirt. ‘You look nice. Can I buzz Sam now and say we’re ready to go?’

The morning was tiring but very entertaining. Let loose in a shopping mall packed with chain stores full of clothes that sent her into raptures, Lowri looked through every last bit of merchandise in each shop they went into, it seemed to Hester, before she made her final choices. But though Connah had handed over a generous sum of money, Hester firmly steered her charge past shops that sold expensive designer clothes.

‘You’ll be tired of them or have grown out of them, long before you get your money’s worth,’ she said practically. ‘And with those long legs everything will look good on you, anyway. With shoes it’s different, no economising there.’

‘Trainers?’ said Lowri hopefully.

‘Of course. And something less sporty too.’

‘Not school shoes!’

‘No. At least not yet. We leave those until the end of the holiday.’

They loaded their packages on to a patient Sam, then made for a café to wait while he stowed everything in the car.

Not sure of the protocol, Hester was relieved to hear that Sam had always lunched with Lowri and Alice during shopping trips near Bryn Derwen.

‘But Alice is married now, to Owen’s father,’ said Lowri as she downed her drink thirstily. ‘Owen’s mother died when he was little, and his grandma brought him up, just like me. But she’s got arthritis now, so Mr Griffiths married Alice.’

‘That’s nice for Owen,’ said Hester.

Lowri nodded sagely. ‘Alice used to take me to the farm a lot, so Owen’s known her for ages. He thinks she’s cool. It’s a very good arrangement, Grandma says.’

Not least for Mr Griffiths, thought Hester, and looked up with a smile as Sam came in to join them.

‘Good,’ said Lowri. ‘Let’s eat!’

When Hester finally got to bed that night she stretched out with a sigh of relief, confident that she’d made a reasonable start with Lowri. There’d been an awkward moment at suppertime when the child had wanted Sam to stay and eat his lasagna in the kitchen with them, but he’d refused, saying he liked to read the paper while he ate his dinner and, in any case, he couldn’t leave the monitors that long.

‘You leave them when you come out with us,’ Lowri had pointed out mutinously, but he told her that was different and he had to get going or his dinner would be cold.

It was different, Hester could have told Lowri, because when he was out with them, Sam had Lowri under his watchful eye all the time. Here in the house, his job was to keep unwanted visitors away for the same reason. But Hester also had an idea that Sam refused to cross a line he saw as clearly defined. Connah thought a great deal of Sam Cooper, it was obvious, but the relationship on both sides was still very much employer and valued employee. And, since Connah had elected to dine in the kitchen when he was at home, it would have been awkward if Lowri had expected Sam to join them.

We’d have made an ill-assorted quartet, thought Hester wryly. In her former job, the question of eating with her employers had never arisen. They were both successful actors with working hours that varied according to the film or television series they were involved in. It was Hester who’d made the children’s supper. The three-year-old Herrick twins, Sebastian and Viola, were engaging children Hester had been very fond of. But when their parents won lead roles in an American television series, nothing they could say would persuade Hester to accompany the family to Los Angeles.

Hester sighed as she stared through the window at the stars. After a job in a theatrical household, her next post would be very different. George Rutherford, her new employer, owned a very successful haulage firm. His wife Sarah was still helping him run it, seven months into her first pregnancy at the age of forty-one, and had every intention of going back to work after the birth, leaving Hester very literally holding the baby.

But, before all that, Hester reminded herself, she had six weeks in Connah Carey Jones’s home, which was not only a dream come true on one level, but a very pleasant way of earning some money before she moved on to pastures new. One of the downsides to her job was parting with her charges when the time came. She sighed in the darkness. She’d known Lowri for only a very short time, but she already knew that it would be no easier to part with her after six weeks than it had been with the other children after several years. And this time there would also be the painful wrench of parting with Lowri’s father.

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