Her Boss and Protector

‘It’s his favourite toy,’ Rebeccah said knowledgeably. ‘He even takes it to bed with him.’ She turned to her brother and said with a sneer, ‘He isn’t our dad, anyway. Not our real dad…and he’s hardly ever at home.’

‘So? I don’t care.’ Connor was scowling, and Rebeccah glared at him in return. Jade wondered whether she ought to intervene.

‘I think I picked up your fire engine and put it in one of the bags,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you two go outside and play in the garden for a while?’ She sensed that they were unsettled after what had happened, and were fizzing inside like a volcano that was about to erupt. Maybe they needed to let off some steam. With them off her hands for a while, perhaps she could take the time to phone her half-brother and let him know what had happened.

The children didn’t need a second bidding. They wolfed down the milk and biscuits and then they were off like a shot through the French doors and out into the wilderness that passed for a garden. Jade watched them go. Absently, she noticed that the grass needed cutting and there were weeds that needed to be pulled, but for the time being other things had to take priority.

She went over to the phone and dialled her brother’s number, aware of a hollow feeling in her stomach as she waited for the call to be put through. She could see the children through the glass doors, and she frowned when Connor came back into the kitchen and began to rummage through the bags on the worktop. Belongings were scattered far and wide until he found what he was looking for.

He looked at her in triumph. ‘Got my fire engine,’ he said, and ran outside once more.

Sounds of squabbling came from the garden, but just then her brother’s boss answered the phone and she tried to ignore what was going on outside for a while. ‘I need to talk to Ben,’ she told him. ‘Is he able to come to the phone? Something’s happened that he needs to know about.’

‘He was diving earlier today, checking the pipelines,’ the boss said. ‘Right now he’s undergoing decompression—is there anything I can do for you?’

‘There’s been an accident,’ she told him, ‘and his wife and our mother are in hospital. I was hoping that he would be able to come home.’

‘I’m so sorry. Of course I’ll let him know. How are they? Is it bad?’

Jade was watching the children as she spoke, and she saw that Connor had started to climb onto the shed roof, with Rebeccah close on his heels. Her stomach knotted. It was a lean-to shed, positioned up against the fence that separated their property from the one next door. She guessed that they were trying to get a better look at the tree in the next garden. Its branches overhung the shed a little, and it was probably a big temptation to them. The children looked safe enough for the moment, but she would have to go and get them down from there.

She said, ‘I don’t know all the details yet. They’re still doing tests at the hospital.’ She pulled in a shaky breath. ‘They were out on a shopping trip, and as they were crossing the road a car jumped the lights and hit them. My brother’s wife has a suspected pelvic fracture and head injury, and our mother is being treated for a shoulder fracture and abdominal trauma. We don’t know the full extent of their injuries yet.’

‘I’m dreadfully sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll certainly get the message to Ben, and we’ll make sure that he’ll get back to you as soon as we can manage it. It might take some time—he’ll be in the decompression chamber for another day or so, and then we have to wait until conditions are right to fly him home. The weather isn’t always in our favour out here, but we’ll send him back to you as soon as is humanly possible.’

‘Thank you.’ She cut the call, and sat for a moment staring bleakly into space. She had desperately wanted to talk to Ben. He was her one point of contact, and now that had been denied her she felt devastated. It was as though she was totally alone in the world, and memories poured in, washing over her like a tidal wave…recollections of a bleak childhood spent waiting for a father who never came.

Shouts from the garden drew her back to the present. There was a cracking sound as a tree branch broke, but she could see that the children were safe. Hurrying out through the French doors, she went over to the shed to see what the fuss was about. ‘Come down from there,’ she said.

‘I seed the ghost,’ Connor shrieked. ‘He’s coming to get us.’

Rebeccah was pale. ‘I heard him,’ she said in a trembling voice. ‘He’s got a big deep voice, and he said he wants to talk to us.’

Jade frowned as she helped the children down. She had no idea what had upset them, but it was clear that they were both shaken. She looked around but there was no sign of anyone but the three of them. ‘There aren’t any ghosts,’ she said.

‘Is, too,’ Connor insisted. ‘We wasn’t being naughty. We was just trying to look at the tree.’

Jade turned her attention to Rebeccah, and Connor disappeared round the side of the shed. She thought that maybe he was trying to hide, but then she heard him scrabbling about. As she went to investigate what he was up to, a voice caught her unawares.

‘Could I speak to you for a moment?’

Jade turned to see where the sound was coming from, putting a hand up to her temple, brushing back her shoulder-length golden curls and shielding her eyes from the sun. The children were right. It was a deep, male voice, and she was pretty sure that it didn’t belong to any spectre.

The children weren’t hanging around to find out who it was, but took to their heels and fled into the house. Jade glanced after them. Connor was carrying something, but she couldn’t make out what it was, and at the moment she was more interested in finding out who the voice belonged to.

‘I’m over here, by the gate,’ the man said, and she turned to where the large wrought-iron side gate separated the back garden from the front of the house.

The sight of the man standing there gave her something of a jolt. He was tall, over six feet, with broad shoulders and lean hips, and he was dressed in a dark grey suit that screamed of expensive tailoring. He was also incredibly good-looking, with night-black hair and startlingly blue eyes.

Her heart had begun to thump discordantly but she wasn’t at all sure why he was having this effect on her. It was probably more to do with the shock of seeing him standing there than with anything else.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, dry-mouthed. ‘You’ve just given the children the fright of their lives. It’s a wonder they didn’t fall off the roof.’

‘That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,’ he said. ‘I really don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be letting them loose like that. They’re very young. Anything could have happened. They might have hurt themselves.’

‘I realise that. I was watching them.’

He raised a dark brow. ‘Were you? I don’t think you were making a very good job of it. They shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, but from what I could see they were out here on their own for several minutes before you decided to do anything about it.’

‘Yes, well—at least they didn’t come to any harm, and there’s no damage done in the end, so I think it probably best if we just forget about it for now. Thank you for your concern, but I’ll handle things from here on.’ She used a dismissive tone and hoped that would be the end of it, but he wasn’t about to be fobbed off.

‘I’d like to come round and talk to you,’ he said.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’ At that moment she was thankful that there was a sturdy padlock on the gate. ‘I’ve no idea who you are, and I’m certainly not inviting you around here after you’ve just scared the living daylights out of the children.’

He gave a faint grimace. ‘I didn’t mean to do that. They took fright as soon as they saw me.’

‘I’m not surprised. You’re not supposed to be there. The owner of the house is away, and for all I know you could be a burglar.’ She had to admit that she had never seen a burglar dressed in a suit before now, but anything was possible.

‘I am the owner,’ he said. ‘I’ve been away on a course, but I arrived back just a short time ago.’

‘Anyone could say that,’ Jade said. ‘The agent assured me that the owner would be away for another fortnight at least.’

‘There was a change of plan.’ He studied her. ‘Perhaps it would help if you take a look at my driving licence. Would that satisfy you as to my identity?’ There was a thread of sarcasm in his voice, and he probably expected her to refuse the offer, but Jade wasn’t giving in to intimidation of any sort.

‘It might,’ she said.

He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a thin wallet, handing it to her through the wrought-iron bars of the gate. She read the name on his licence—Callum Beresford—and winced. It was the name the agent had mentioned to her. She handed the wallet back to him.

‘I had to make sure,’ she said. ‘I hope you understand my concerns.’

‘I do.’ His mouth made an odd shape, his expression halfway between cynicism and a grimace. ‘Perhaps I should even be grateful for your vigilance.’ He frowned. ‘I’ll go around to the front of the house, shall I? I really think we should talk some more.’

Jade guessed that it would be less than neighbourly to refuse his request. After all, he had at least been concerned for the children’s welfare. She hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. ‘All right, give me a minute, and I’ll let you in.’

She started to walk back to the house. She wasn’t looking forward to prolonging the conversation with him, and she wasn’t at all sure what awaited her as far as the children were concerned. Given everything that had gone on today, they were totally wound up and she was dreading to discover what they might be getting up to next.

Going into the kitchen, she saw that they were bent over something on the floor. Connor was busily pouring milk into a saucer, spilling most of it in the process, and she frowned, wondering what was going on.

‘We found a kitten in the garden,’ he said, looking up at her. ‘He’s hungry. We’re going to give him some milk.’

Jade glanced around and caught sight of a pathetic-looking little black kitten that was staring at them with large eyes and trying unsuccessfully to blend in with the kitchen units. She gave herself a mental shake, and didn’t even think of making an issue of it. By now, she was just thankful that they were both over their fright and she was busy trying to work out how she was going to get along with her new neighbour. They hadn’t had the best of beginnings.

She opened the front door to Callum Beresford and stood back to let him into the hallway. He made an imposing figure on her doorstep and she was more than a touch wary of him. His blue eyes studied her assessingly and seemed to miss nothing.

‘We’re in the kitchen,’ she murmured, waving him through. ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess. We’ve not long arrived home.’

He walked ahead of her as she indicated, and stopped at the doorway into the room, looking in on the scene of devastation in there. Standing beside him, Jade’s heart sank. It was worse than she remembered. There were toys strewn all along the worktops where Connor had abandoned them, and the rest of the bags were where she had left them when they had first come in. Added to that, there were puddles of milk all over the floor, though the kitten was doing his very best to lick them up.