LITMIR.BIZ

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disconnected fast before he found himself with a castle full of American financiers for Christmas, and then finally he rang the kids. Expecting joy.

      But, instead of joy, he was met with silence.

      ‘I almost hoped you wouldn’t ring,’ Ben said flatly.

      To say he was surprised would be an understatement. After the pleading the kid had made on behalf of his family...

      ‘Don’t you want to come any more?’

      ‘Yes, but now we can’t,’ the boy said. ‘There’s something wrong with Mum’s back. The doctor says something’s hitting a nerve and she has to go into hospital on Friday for an urgent operation. Gran says Mum can’t look after herself afterwards, so we all have to go to Gran’s apartment ’cos Gran won’t move, and it’s even smaller than this one. And I have to sleep with my sisters and there’s no one there we know and it’ll be the pits. I asked Mum could we go to the castle by ourselves and she said no, not if you’re even remotely like our dad, and we looked you up on the Internet and you do look like him and it’s hopeless.’

      There was a long silence. Angus stared down at the ancient flagstones in the hall and the ragged little dog wound himself round his ankles and looked up at him. Expectantly?

      I’m not my father. He didn’t say it out loud but he thought it really, really loudly.

      ‘Let me talk to your mum,’ he said at last and, moments later, he was talking to Delia. He could hear her wariness—and her weakness and her pain.

      ‘I have a cook and a housekeeper,’ he told her. ‘If the kids really want to come...’

      ‘I can’t let them,’ she said and took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry but I don’t know a thing about you. I only know you’re the Earl and that’s hardly a recommendation.’

      ‘But the kids...’

      ‘They’ll cope without this reunion Ben’s set his heart on. Kids are resilient.’

      Yes, Angus thought. This lot had needed to be. And then he thought he’d hired Holly and Maggie for nothing.

      ‘It’d be different if you were married,’ Delia was saying. ‘If... If I could meet your wife... I just want someone there I can trust. And I hate Stanley. You’re not married?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘There you are, then.’

      ‘I’m employing...’

      ‘I don’t care who you’re employing. No.’

      ‘But I am engaged. My fiancée will be here and she’s lovely. Your kids will like her and you can trust her even if you can’t trust me.’

      What had he just said? The words seemed to have come from nowhere. He didn’t think them through; they were just...there. But then he had this vision...

      Holly, going down to see this woman. Holly, pleading the kids’ cause.

      Delia was right, he thought grimly. He looked too much like his father to engender trust, but Holly could talk the leg off an iron pot. Anyone would trust Holly.

      If she agreed...

      But he’d already said it. What had he done?

      ‘What’s her name?’ Delia asked, sounding suspicious.

      ‘Holly McIntosh.’ What was he doing?

      ‘How do I know what she’s like?’

      ‘She’s great,’ he said warmly. ‘Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? I’ll need to ask if she’ll come down to London to meet you.’ He needed to at least concede that. ‘But if she’s happy to do it, I’ll pop her on the train to London the day after tomorrow. If you like her, as I’m sure you will, she could bring the kids back with her. Then you could concentrate on your health. If you’re better in time to travel, maybe you and your mother could still join us for Christmas Day.’

      There was a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line. Angus understood it. He was doing sharp intakes of breath all over the place himself.

      He’d just landed himself with a fiancée! What had he done?

      He’d lied.

      But Ben’s voice was still echoing. He hadn’t been able to deny him.

      But what hourly rate would Holly demand for this? He thought of facing her with this new job description, and suddenly he found himself grinning. He might even enjoy the bargaining.

      ‘I never wanted to come back to the castle,’ Delia said. ‘I only said I would when Ben begged.’

      ‘I can understand that,’ Angus said gently. ‘But, with Holly here, I think you’ll find it a very different place. Holly will make it different.’

      ‘You sound like you love her.’ Delia sounded astounded and Angus thought: join the club. You sound like you love her? Astounded was too small a word for it.

      ‘And Ben looked you up on the Internet,’ Delia was saying. ‘You’re not engaged. Or...it says you were, years ago, but your fiancée was killed in a ski accident.’

      Delia was sounding suspicious again, and Angus decided, lies or not, engaged or not, it was time to turn back into the aloof financier he was.

      ‘My private life is private,’ he said curtly. ‘Thankfully, not everything’s on the Internet. But, if you agree, I’ll have Holly with you the day after tomorrow. No pressure. If you don’t like her and trust her then we’ll leave it but I think you will.’

      ‘Really?’

      ‘I promise. As long as Holly agrees to come to London.’

      And as long as Holly agreed with all the rest.

      * * *

      Holly and Maggie had steak for tea. With chips. With apple pie afterwards. They also had a bottle of wine and then started on another. They’d stoked the fire up, courtesy of Angus’s loan, they sat back by the fire after dinner and they grinned at each other like Cheshire Cats. Two well fed, warm Cheshire Cats.

      ‘He’ll probably work us into the ground,’ Maggie said, trying to sound pessimistic and failing.

      ‘We’re both used to hard work and if he works us too hard we walk out and leave him to it,’ Holly retorted and then she thought of the man she’d just left and added, ‘but he won’t.’

      ‘He’s the Earl.’

      ‘He’s a nice man.’

      ‘I thought you said there was no such thing as a nice man.’

      ‘Well, a nice person,’ Holly conceded.

      ‘But you think he’s gorgeous. Every generation there’s scandal in that castle because some silly girl thinks the Earl is gorgeous.’

      ‘He’s just nice,’ Holly said stubbornly, but gorgeous did pop into her mind and waft around for a bit.

      ‘We’ll see,’ Maggie said darkly and poured another glass of wine for them both. Then she giggled. ‘I see you and me in the servants’ hall for Christmas and I don’t see us gnawing on the turkey carcass. I see us carving the best bits for us.’

      ‘Gran!’

      ‘We might even have fun,’ Maggie conceded. ‘If we can avoid the Earl.’ And then she paused.

      She needed to pause. The knock on the cottage’s thick wooden door reverberated around the living room, imperative, urgent. Maggie frowned. ‘It’s nine at night. Who... One of the neighbours?’

      She half rose but Holly was before her. ‘Let me.’

      ‘Take the poker, Holly, love,’ Maggie said but Holly, sated with apple pie, wine and heat, was in no mood for

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