Will He Ask Her to be His Bride?: The Millionaire's Convenient Bride / The Millionaire's Proposal / Texas Ranger Takes a Bride

‘Very. He’s fair, like Julia, with bright blue eyes and angelic good looks. They made his psychotic performance all the more chilling.’

Connah’s face looked stern in the dim light. ‘Had you known him long?’

‘Off and on for the three years I worked for his sister. But in the period before the Herricks’ big break he was out of a job and came to “rest” for a while at their house. Leo and Julia were out in the evenings, performing in their respective shows, so Keir took to spending time with me most evenings after I put the twins to bed. We got on so well he asked if I fancied a holiday with him in the Herricks’ farmhouse in the Dordogne once Julia and Leo left for LA. But then, out of the blue, he got the offer of a lifetime, so no holiday.’

‘Will you see him again?’ said Connor, seized with a sudden desire to rearrange the actor’s angelic face.

‘I doubt it. If Keir makes a success of his part in the series—which he will because, pretty face or not, he’s a brilliant actor—he’s bound to get more offers over there. If things go well for him, I doubt that he’ll come back to this country any time soon.’ Hester smiled crookedly. ‘Believe me, it was no romance. Keir was out of work, short of funds and I was right there, captive company for him every evening. The bird in the hand.’

Connah gave her a searching look. ‘If you’d gone with the Herricks to LA you could have gone on seeing McBride. Why did you refuse?’

‘It was too far away from my family. Also, at that stage Keir was based in the UK and wanted us to see something of each other now and then. But in the end he went off to LA too.’ Hester shrugged. ‘At which point I answered a couple of advertisements for temporary summer jobs and one of them was yours.’

‘Which is my great good fortune—and Lowri’s.’ He frowned. ‘You do so much more than just look after her, I should be paying you a far larger salary than I do.’

‘Certainly not,’ she said promptly. ‘A free holiday in a place like this is recompense enough.’

‘I wouldn’t call it free exactly,’ he said dryly. ‘Looking after Lowri is no sinecure.’

‘But I enjoy it. If I didn’t, I’d be in the wrong job, Connah!’

‘At last,’ he said in triumph. ‘You finally brought yourself to say my name.’

She hadn’t brought herself to it at all. His name had tripped off her tongue all too easily. Probably because here in this starlit, scented garden the world they’d left behind could have been on another planet.

‘I wonder how Sam’s getting on,’ she said idly.

‘After I rang my mother to tell her we’d arrived I gave Sam a call while you were putting Lowri to bed. All’s well in the house and Sam was about to take a stroll down to his local for a pint. I thought he’d have seized the chance of a holiday abroad somewhere, but apparently he had his fill of globe-trotting when he was in the army. He prefers Albany Square in peace and quiet on his own.’

‘So he told me.’ To her embarrassment, Hester was suddenly overwhelmed by a huge yawn.

Connah smiled. ‘You’re tired. I’m sorry to lose your company, but I think it’s time you went to bed, Hester. You’ll have a full day tomorrow—as usual.’

Hester rose at once to assert herself in housekeeper role before she lost sight of why she was really here. ‘I’ll take these glasses into the kitchen on my way. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight, Connah,’ he corrected.

‘Goodnight, Connah,’ she repeated obediently.

‘Much better,’ he said, and gave her the smile which knocked her defences flat.

The following day was spent as planned—swimming, reading or just lazing in the sun. Connah joined Hester and Lowri for their morning swim, then retreated to his room afterwards to ring his mother again. She assured him she was feeling better and asked to speak to Lowri. He beckoned from his balcony and the child came running upstairs to chatter happily to her grandmother about the Casa Girasole and the wonderful time she was having with Daddy and Hester.

‘Lowri sounds very happy, Connah,’ said his mother, when Lowri had raced back down to the garden. ‘Miss Ward is obviously doing an excellent job with her.’

‘So much so that I’m not looking forward to the day she leaves us.’

‘Lowri will be in school soon after that. And next school holiday, God willing, I shall be fit enough to take charge of my granddaughter myself.’

‘Of course you will,’ he said firmly, and wished he could believe it. ‘With that in mind, take good care of yourself, Mother. I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.’

Connah returned to his small balcony to look down at the pool. Hester was lying back in a garden chair under an umbrella, listening as Lowri perched at her feet to read aloud from one of the books provided by the school for the summer holiday. He smiled wryly. He wouldn’t have thought of bringing the books with them, but Hester had produced one straight after the morning swim. And Lowri had begun reading without the slightest protest. Whatever Hester wanted, Lowri would do, Connah realised. It was a disturbing thought. He rubbed his chin, frowning. Lowri had been fond of Alice, who had been a fixture all her young life and taken for granted. But because Lowri had settled to life away at school so well there’d been no problem when Alice left to get married.

The situation with Hester was very different. Lowri had grown attached to her so quickly she would miss Hester desperately when the time came to part. And so, by God, would he! Thrusting the thought from his mind, Connah put the phone in his pocket and went downstairs to tell Flavia that she could take the following day off; they would bring food home with them from Greve for supper. Flavia thanked him, beaming, explaining that the unexpected holiday gave her the opportunity to visit her niece. Connah then went out to the pool to tell Lowri about the proposed outing.

‘Brilliant,’ said his daughter, delighted. ‘I can buy postcards to send to Grandma, and Moira and Robert, and Chloe and Sam. Gosh, my throat’s dry. I’ve been reading so long I’m thirsty.’

‘I’ll get you a drink,’ said Hester, getting up, but Lowri pushed her back in her chair.

‘I can get it myself, and practice my Italian on Flavia at the same time.’ She ran off, long legs flying, and Connah took her place beside Hester.

‘She’s growing up before my eyes. It’s frightening. But should she be on first name terms with your parents?’

‘It was their idea,’ Hester assured him.

‘Good. By the way, I told Flavia to take the day off tomorrow.’

‘No problem. I can cook.’

‘No cooking. We’ll buy food for a cold supper while we’re in Greve.’

Hester smiled her thanks. ‘Is that the kind of thing you did when your mother shared your holiday?’

Connah shook his head. ‘Mother’s holiday of choice is a fully-catered hotel in Devon or Tenby in Wales. She doesn’t like flying. And we rarely stayed more than ten days or so.’

Hester sat up, surprised. ‘But Lowri told me she’d been to France last year.’

‘That was a school trip. My mother thought she was far too young to go, but I find it hard to refuse Lowri anything. So far her demands have been easy to meet.’ His face darkened. ‘As she gets older, things will change.’

‘Don’t worry too much. I think Lowri knows exactly where to draw the line.’

He smiled crookedly. ‘I discovered that for myself last week when you were out. She played me like a fish at bedtime until I blew the whistle.’

Lowri came racing back to tell them Flavia said lunch would be ready in ten minutes.

‘How did you understand what she said?’ asked Connah, amused.

‘I’m picking up a word or two, so lunch will be at mezzogiorno, she said with a flourish. ‘That’s midday, and it’s in ten minutes. Eight now,’ she added, looking at her watch. ‘It’s spaghetti with yummy red sauce—Flavia let me taste it. And for supper tonight it’s pollo cacciatore. That’s some kind of chicken. It just has to be heated up when we need it, and it’s all in one pot and smells gorgeous.’

Her father chuckled. ‘One way to get fluent in a foreign language!’

Hester got up. ‘Right then, Lowri. Just time for a wash and tidy-up before lunch.’

‘You sound just like Alice sometimes,’ remarked Lowri as they walked up the garden.

Something to watch, thought Hester, biting her lip.

‘You’re not a bit like her in other ways, though,’ added Lowri. ‘Alice is pretty, but she’s not slim like you. She’s very smiley and cuddly, though.’