to what do I owe this pleasure?’ he asked the little girl.
Suddenly not sure of what to make of this tall, inflexible stranger, Daisy lost her courage, letting go of his hand. It still didn’t deter her from skipping along beside him, or from shrugging off her mother’s hand as it shot out to restrain her.
‘Get used to it, Sienna,’ Conan advised, quietly so that none of the others could hear. ‘You’ve had her to yourself long enough, and now you’re going to have to accept that she has other family she needs to get to know and spend time with. And if you can manage to curb your tongue with my mother while you’re here you’ll be doing us all a favour. As I’ve already explained, she’s very unwell.’
Peeved by his smug and condescending attitude, itching to remind him that it was she who had been on the receiving end of Avril Ryder’s disdain and disparaging remarks in the past, Sienna decided it wouldn’t help to promote good relations between them and considered it best to remain silent.
Ignoring him, she called to Shadow, who was already sniffing his way round one of the marble pillars at the top of the steps, and was relieved when the dog bounded down to her at once.
There was solace to be found in ruffling his fur, Sienna decided, speaking soothingly to the animal as she attached a lead to his red tartan collar.
A member of staff took the dog as soon as they entered the house, and Sienna had the disconcerting feeling that she was relinquishing all her power to Conan Ryder.
‘Don’t worry. He’ll be adequately catered for,’ he assured her evenly, wise to her silent objection.
‘But will he be cared for?’ Sienna argued in protest. ‘He was ill treated before he was rescued and needs special handling. He likes tea, and the odd bowl of tomato soup, and he always sleeps on my bed because he doesn’t like being left in the dark.’
‘Give me strength …’ Those dark fringed eyes rolled skyward. ‘He’s a dog,’ Conan reminded her, sounding exasperated.
So are you. She mouthed it at him with a scowl, across Daisy’s bouncing curls, not wanting anyone else to witness what she knew was a very childish retaliation. But Conan Ryder was as hard and impervious to human frailty as his brother had always led her to believe he was—as she had witnessed herself in his treatment of his younger sibling. So what chance did a mere animal have against so much indifference and superiority?
A young maid called Claudette showed her and Daisy to their rooms on the first floor. Each had its own luxurious bathroom, and both bedrooms reflected more of what Sienna had seen so far of the villa’s décor. Light, airy and spacious, with tasteful and predominantly white furniture, Daisy’s room was smaller, and had touches of pink in its floral bedspread and at the windows. Sienna couldn’t help thinking it had been chosen especially for her. The room was also just a step away from Sienna’s across the wide landing.
Conan was waiting for them in the marble-floored hall when they came back downstairs a short time later, and Daisy ran to him at once, just as she had outside.
For a moment, with that determined little hand clutching his, Conan felt the same surge of resistance as he had experienced before—like a barrier slamming down on his emotions. But the little girl was giggling up at him, as though defying him to try and frighten her off again, and, yielding a little, he allowed her merely a glimmer of a smile before casting an inscrutable glance towards Sienna.
Was that triumph in his eyes? she wondered. Because while he seemed not to overly welcome his niece’s attention, she felt that after what he had said outside he was putting up with it simply to needle her.
His scrutiny, though, was causing her pulses to leap-frog.
Now, tingling from the way his gaze ran over her freshly brushed hair and the golden slope of her shoulders beneath her sundress, Sienna stepped out of the beautiful house onto a sun terrace above a garden that tumbled down to the rocky shoreline and the restless sea.
Avril Ryder was propped up on a recliner in the canopied shade of the terrace, a flower-draped pergola behind her filling the air with some exotic scent. A creamy throw over her legs, she looked thinner, Sienna decided, her hair greyer than she remembered beneath a wide-brimmed floppy hat.
‘Oh, there you are!’ Her smile for Conan faded as her gaze shifted to Sienna, her eyes keenly assessing behind tinted lenses. Without a word to her former daughter-in-law, however, she turned her attention to Daisy, still clutching the man’s hand. ‘At last!’ The transformation in the woman’s face was like the sun coming out after a long hard winter. Her smile was warm and genuine, lending a glimmer of life to the otherwise waxen face. ‘Come here, child. Let me see you.’
Daisy ran to her without hesitation and let the painfully thin arms engulf her. Too thin, Sienna decided, silently shocked at Niall’s mother’s appearance. No wonder Conan was worried about her, she thought, aware now that he must be far more concerned than he was letting on.
Impassively, however, she murmured, ‘This is your grandmother, Daisy.’
Looking up at the pale and weary-looking face, Daisy giggled and asked, ‘Why are you wearing that funny hat?’
Sienna bit the inside of her lip, expecting the pale lips to tighten as she had seen them do so often in the past. But instead they were curving in a soft smile. ‘To keep the sun off my head. It doesn’t look all that pretty, does it? But it does its job.’
Sienna watched Daisy digest this for a moment. ‘Are you really going to be my grandmother?’ she enquired. ‘I’ve always wanted two. My friend Zoe has two. Are you going to take me to the beach like my Aunty Nanny?’
Sienna could have sworn there were tears in the shaded eyes that had suddenly turned her way.
‘It’s what she calls Mum,’ she explained simply with a little shrug. At forty-eight, Faith Swann considered herself far too young to be called a grandmother.
‘And you, Sienna …?’ A bony hand was stroking the soft tumble of Daisy’s curls, those tired eyes continually returning to the child’s face as though they couldn’t get enough of what they were seeing. A shaft of pain sliced viciously through Sienna as she wondered if her mother-in-law had noticed Daisy’s likeness to her lost son. ‘How have you been?’
Sienna’s response was tentative. ‘I’m fine.’ This was hardly the same woman who had made her constantly aware that she wasn’t good enough for Niall—who had ultimately blamed her for what had happened to her younger son.
‘I think we should leave them for a little while, don’t you?’ Sienna stiffened at the firm, masculine hand around her elbow, and caught Conan’s reprimand, low and lethally soft against her ear.
‘You can’t possibly object?’
She couldn’t tell him that her reluctance sprang from spending any more time than she had to alone with him.
‘No,’ she said tensely. ‘I don’t object.’
‘Good.’ The eyes that roamed speculatively across her face told her that the small inflexion in her voice hadn’t escaped him. He gestured for her to precede him through the pergola along the pale stonework of a shrub-bordered, sun-baked path.
‘I didn’t realise your mother was
