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of her own parentless circumstances, relating to Jane Eyre, although her own time as an orphan in care had been a relatively happy one. But Rufus Diamond certainly wasn’t Mr Rochester. Any more than she was Jane Eyre...!

      Would she have behaved any differently if she had known who he was from the first? Probably, but only slightly, she conceded. After all, he had been the one, without knowing a thing about her, who’d been so insulting about her supposed relationship with his brother...

      Her thoughts were even more troubled now than they had been when she’d come down onto the beach an hour ago! She had been so excited about the chance of this job on the east coast of England, had come here full of enthusiasm, glad to be out of London, the place she had lived all her life. And being out here, surrounded by rural countryside, had suited her perfectly. She loved the wide open spaces, the friendliness of the locals—she had certainly never been on a first-name basis with a milkman before! In London she hadn’t even had a milkman; she had bought all her food supplies, including milk, from a convenience store around the corner from the flat she’d shared with three other girls.

      Moving here had offered her a completely different way of life from the one she had always known. Her early years had been spent in care, and the college course to qualify as a children’s nanny had seemed the obvious choice of career after years of helping look after younger children at the home where she had been placed. As had deciding to share a flat with three of the other girls from the children’s home when the time had come to move out.

      She had taken employment at a local kindergarten once she was qualified, but helping in the day-care of forty young children who went home to their own families at the end of each day hadn’t given her any more roots than she had found at the children’s home, and so she had signed on at an employment agency with the intention of working in a family environment. Jessica Diamond was her first individual charge. And Annie had quickly learnt to love her.

      Aged eight, Jessica was a lovely child, tall for her age, with long, curling dark hair and eyes as blue as cornflowers, and a lively intelligence that Annie found enchanting. And with only Jessica’s grandmother in residence most of the time, her uncle Anthony a regular visitor at weekends, it had been easy to become fond of the little girl who greeted her so eagerly at the end of each schoolday. Their weekends had been spent exploring the beach and horse-riding; even wet days had been fun as they’d played with the numerous toys Jessica had up in her bedroom.

      But now Jessica’s father had returned.

      And he didn’t seem at all happy about the fact that his daughter had a new nanny...

      The future suddenly looked even bleaker than it had an hour ago. Even more so because once Rufus Diamond got up to the house he was going to discover that Jessica had fallen from her horse over the weekend and was resting in bed with a badly sprained ankle. So much for being in the care of her newly hired nanny!

      Admittedly, there had been nothing Annie—a mere novice when it came to riding a horse—could have done to prevent Jessica’s accident. But she very much doubted that Rufus Diamond would see it quite that way, especially as he already seemed so displeased at Jessica having a replacement nanny in the first place!

      Annie felt the prick of tears in her eyes. She had loved Jessica on sight, their better acquaintance only deepening that emotion as she’d discovered just how hungry for affection Jessica was too. Perhaps she shouldn’t have let Jessica become that fond of her, but when the young child was effectively as parentless as Annie had been herself, it was impossible to push the young girl aside.

      As Jessica’s mother had died when Jessica was still a very young child, she really had little memory of her. Celia Diamond, Jessica’s paternal grandmother, was a tall, stately-looking woman, blonde and still beautiful despite her sixty-or-so years, but a woman who obviously found it difficult to show affection to a young child; a summons to her private sitting-room before bedtime was the most attention she paid her granddaughter.

      But Jessica’s father was back now, so perhaps things would change...

      And one of those changes could be the dismissal of the new nanny!

      Annie’s feet dragged with reluctance as she made her way back up to the house. Nevertheless she took the path carefully—the weather seemed to be worse than when she had set out and she grabbed onto the handrail several times as she almost lost her footing on the rocky path, relieved when she saw the ominous shape of the house rising up in front of her.

      Clifftop House was a magnificent building, almost gothic in proportions, and it had taken Annie a week to find her way around its many rooms. It had seemed incredible to her at the time of her arrival that one elderly lady and a small child should live in such a large house.

      Although she had to admit that within several hours of Anthony’s arrival at the weekend, with his fiancée, for a week’s visit, the house hadn’t seemed big enough for all of them!

      She had a feeling it was going to seem even less so with Rufus Diamonds’s impressive presence!

      ‘Really, Rufus, I didn’t see the point in contacting you,’ Celia Diamond was protesting impatiently as Annie moved quietly past the sitting-room doorway. ‘The doctor said it’s a simple sprain, nothing to get in a panic about, and Annie has been taking very good care of her—’

      ‘Who the hell is Annie?’ that oh, so familiar voice rasped harshly.

      ‘The new nanny you seem so angry about,’ Celia responded coldly. ‘You weren’t here, Rufus—but then, you never are,’ she added cuttingly. ‘What else was I supposed to do when Margaret walked out so unexpectedly?’

      Annie couldn’t move, had become frozen to the spot the moment she heard her name mentioned...!

      ‘I suppose it was too much to expect that you could look after Jessica yourself,’ Rufus drawled scathingly. ‘Although you still haven’t given me an acceptable explanation as to exactly why Margaret walked out. And if this Annie is taking such good care of Jess, why is it that she’s upstairs in bed at this moment with a leg injury?’

      Annie gasped at the injustice of this last remark; there was simply no way, without completely smothering the child, that she could monitor every move of her young charge. And Jessica had been riding for years; in fact, this man had bought her the horse she had fallen from!

      ‘Maybe I should just ask Annie that myself!’ Even as Rufus spoke, the door to the sitting-room was wrenched completely open, exposing an embarrassed Annie eavesdropping in the hallway. ‘Well?’ Rufus Diamond barked at her. ‘I presume you are Annie?’

      She looked at him with widely startled eyes—and it wasn’t all due to being caught out in this way. He knew damn well she was Annie; she had told him down at the jetty that she was his daughter’s nanny.

      ‘Really, Rufus,’ Celia Diamond admonished haughtily. ‘Sometimes I find it difficult to believe you could possibly be David’s son; he was always such a gentleman, so aware of his position as head of this family,’ she continued scathingly.

      Rufus gave her a contemptuous glance. ‘You mean you were always so aware of your position as wife of the head of this family!’ he returned disgustedly. ‘I’m sure my father only died at the relatively early age of sixty-five so that he could at last get away from you and your social-climbing!’

      ‘Really, Rufus!’ Celia’s gasp was one of dismay now as she clutched at the double string of pearls about her throat, her expression one of deep hurt. ‘Your long absence hasn’t made your tongue any kinder. And have you forgotten there are servants present?’ She flicked a chilling look in Annie’s direction.

      She meant her, Annie realised after several stunned moments. A servant! Well...she supposed she was, in a way; she did work for these people, and was paid a wage for doing so. But even so...!

      ‘I don’t think Annie took too kindly to that last remark, Celia,’ Rufus Diamond interjected.

      Annie turned her gaze in his direction, only to find those dark eyes regarding her with amusement. He had obviously

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