New Arrivals: Surprise Baby for Him: The Cattleman's Adopted Family / The Soldier's Homecoming / Marriage for Baby

‘Can I show you my garden?’ he asked in response to her eager compliments, and when she assured him she’d love that he grinned so widely his face disappeared into a mass of brown wrinkles.

For the next half-hour, Amy was highly entertained and educated, and she tried, once again, to put Seth Reardon and his potential threats to her happiness firmly out of her mind.

Seth didn’t return to the homestead until it was close to dusk. By then, the sky had turned smoky aqua and pink and the garden was filled with purple shadows. Amy was about to take Bella inside for her bath when she saw Seth coming across the lawn to the house.

There was something tired about his shoulders that she hadn’t noticed before, but his smile was bright when Bella ran to greet him with her usual bouncing enthusiasm.

He scooped her up in his arms and swung her so high that the little girl squealed, then begged for more.

Seth laughed. ‘That’s enough for now.’ He shot Amy a bright-eyed glance. ‘Come with me and I’ll show you magic fireflies.’

‘Fireflies?’ Amy and Bella chorused together.

He nodded towards the darkening forest. ‘Over here. Come on, I’ll show you.’

They went down a flight of stone steps to a lower terrace, crossed the lawn to a dark line of trees, and Amy saw a narrow track leading away into the shadowy depths of the forest. Seth, who was holding Bella with one arm, suddenly reached for Amy’s hand.

Heat raced over her skin like a fire out of control.

‘Stay with me,’ he said quietly and for a giddy, heart-stumbling moment, she fancied he was asking her to…stay here…

To live with him at Serenity.

And then, crazily, even though she’d only known him for two days, she felt an astonishing impulse to say yes.

‘We’ll take this track slowly,’ he said.

Oh, good grief.

Embarrassment flooded Amy as she realised her mistake. Seth wanted her to stay close to him on the darkened track. Of course he wasn’t talking about a romantic future.

Of course, of course.

Silently, she cursed her ridiculous reaction. For heaven’s sake. Her job was to protect Bella’s future happiness, and she had to remember that Seth might yet make unreasonable demands and become their enemy.

‘W-what about the s-n-a-k-e-s?’ she whispered, spelling out the word so she didn’t frighten Bella.

‘You’ll be OK with me. I know what to look for.’

‘Are you sure?’

She saw the flash of his teeth as he grinned at her. ‘Tree snakes aren’t really dangerous, unless you’re a bird or a little possum.’

Her heart was thundering like a Mack truck, but the problem wasn’t so much her fear of snakes as the intimate warmth of Seth’s hand enclosing hers. She registered every detail—the slightly rough texture of his palm, the individual pressure of each of his fingers.

Seth took them deeper into the forest, dodging hanging vines and buttressed tree roots. The frogs were silent now and the trees crowded close, but just when Amy wondered if they were mad to continue into the gathering gloom they reached a clearing—and Seth released her hand.

The sudden feeling of loss was alarming, but Amy was soon gasping with amazement as tiny pinpricks of light flitted and danced in the dusky glade. The fireflies flashed in front of them, behind them, and above them, and they looked exactly like tiny glowing fairies.

Seth was right—they were magic. Truly magic and utterly entrancing.

‘They’re so beautiful,’ Amy said softly. ‘Look Bella, see the fireflies. They’re like fairies.’

‘Fairies,’ Bella repeated in hushed awe.

‘Aren’t they pretty?’

The little girl nodded, and for once she was too entranced to speak. She simply wound her arms around Seth’s neck and hugged him more tightly, and he smiled and kissed her cheek.

‘Is that firefly all right? It doesn’t seem able to fly,’ Amy said, pointing to a blinking light that had stayed on the ground the whole time.

Seth laughed softly. ‘That’s a female. She stays down there quietly, waiting till a flashing male appeals to her, and then she flashes back, signalling her interest.’

‘Oh.’ Amy wished she hadn’t asked and she was sure she was still blushing when it was time to head back.

‘I didn’t bring a torch,’ Seth told her. ‘So you need to stay close.’

He took her hand again and she vowed to remain calm and sensible as they made their way back.

Conversation would be a helpful distraction, she decided, so she told Seth that she’d made friends with Hans, the gardener, and that she’d visited the kitchen to talk to Ming. Bella chattered about fairies, then promptly begged for another swim.

‘Not till tomorrow,’ Seth told her gently but firmly, as if he was already completely comfortable with his new role as her father.

Amy half expected Bella to ask again for a swim, pleading and putting on her whiny voice, but the little girl accepted Seth’s ruling without a murmur.

They reached the edge of the trees where they could see the lights from the house spilling across the terraced lawns, and just when Amy expected Seth to release her she felt his thumb stroke the back of her hand. Slowly. Deliberately.

Just once.

A trembling thrill raced from her breastbone to her toes.

She knew it hadn’t been an accident.

She couldn’t breathe, but then Seth released her hand and he set Bella down to run ahead of them over the smooth lawn.

Still trembling from his touch, Amy sent a quick glance in his direction, but his attention was focused entirely on Bella, and he was smiling as he watched her skipping and flapping her arms in the warm night air.

‘She’s trying to be a firefly,’ he said.

‘She’s having a great time here,’ Amy admitted softly.

‘She is, isn’t she?’ He was still smiling.

She wanted to remind him of his intention to let Bella return to Melbourne at the end of their stay, but she was silenced by the shining light in his eyes. For the first time since she’d met him, he looked genuinely happy.

After Seth showered and changed into fresh clothes, he went through to the kitchen, where he found Bella at the kitchen table, glowing pink and clean after her bath, smelling of baby talcum powder and wolfing down a bowl of Ming’s special chicken congee.

‘Hi, Sef,’ Bella called, waving her spoon at him. ‘My eating dinner.’