somehow disturbing. Stephanie frowned, tossing the statement around her head to see what it was that bothered her about it before shrugging the idea aside. Naturally a child this age would be upset at being separated from her parent. She caught hold of the little girl’s hand and held it firmly, making her voice as deliberately reassuring as she could. ‘That’s the trouble with daddies; they will go wandering off on their own and getting lost. I expect he’s feeling just as scared and miserable right now.’
‘Is he?’ Jessica glanced up at her, her face very solemn.
‘Of course. I mean, being on your own among all these people... Why, even the biggest daddy would be scared.’
Jessica smiled shyly. ‘I don’t think my daddy is scared of anything.’
Amen to that, Stephanie silently endorsed. That man would be the one to do the scaring, not vice versa! I However, she kept the thought to herself and smiled back at the child. ‘Even the biggest, toughest people get scared sometimes, chick.’
Jessica giggled. ‘I’m not a chick. Hens have chicks.’
Stephanie ruffled the silky red curls on top of her head and grinned. ‘Where I come from that just means ... well, honey or dear. OK?’
‘OK.’ The child glanced round, and her mouth started to droop again. ‘Daddy still isn’t here. He’s left me.’
‘Now why on earth should you imagine he’s done that?’
Jessica shook her head, staring down at the toes of her trainers as two tears slid down her cheeks. Stephanie stared at her helplessly. She’d never seen a child cry this way, silently, and it bothered her. She looked round at the crowds milling around them and came to a sudden decision, realising that she had to do something. ‘Look, Jessica, shall we walk down this path and see if we can find your daddy for you? If we can’t then we can go and find one of the people who work here, and maybe they will announce it over the speakers that you’ve been found and where your dad can come to collect you.’
‘But what if he doesn’t come?’ She clung to Stephanie’s hand, her small fingers gripping painfully hard. ‘You won’t leave me here, will you?’
There was something most definitely wrong here, but now wasn’t the time to speculate on it. She bent down and gave the girl a quick hug, then straightened and looked her in the eyes. ‘I won’t leave you on your own, love. I promise. Now come along. The sooner we find your father, the better.’ And the sooner I can give him a piece of my mind, she thought, but was wise enough not to say it aloud. The man had to be careless to a fault to let his daughter get lost like this.
They walked along the path, Stephanie doing her best to stave off the child’s tears by telling her amusing little stories about her trip, and even about the year she’d spent teaching after she’d left college, but finally she was forced to admit that they were achieving nothing. With these crowds they could have passed Jessica’s father a dozen times and not seen him. Taking a firmer grip on the girl’s hand, she turned along a side-path, following the sign for the information office.
‘And where do you think you are going with my daughter?’
There was such anger in those gravelly tones that they would have stopped her in her tracks even if she hadn’t recognised them instantly. Stephanie swung round, her heart turning over at the sight of the tall red-haired man who was standing just behind them, his face set into grim lines that boded ill for her.
‘Daddy! You came back for me. You didn’t leave me!’ The child’s shout seemed to get through to him, bypassing the naked fury on his handsome face. He bent and scooped her up, hugging her quickly before setting her back on her feet. ‘Go and sit down on that bench over there, Jess. And don’t move ... understand? That’s how you got lost last time, by not doing as you were told.’
The child kicked at a stray petal that had dropped on to the path but did as she was told, sitting down on the bench just out of earshot. Stephanie watched her, then looked back at the man, taking a quick step back as he moved almost menacingly towards her.
‘Just what kind of a game are you playing, lady? What were you doing with my daughter?’
His voice was rough with anger, his eyes dark with it, and Stephanie flinched. ‘I... I wasn’t doing anything! Well, I guess that isn’t quite true.’
He smiled dangerously, lessening the distance between them to less than a foot, far too close for her peace of mind. Suddenly she could almost feel the heat of his big, powerful body, smell the scent of his skin—a tangy, heady mixture of soap and man—and her heart gave a sudden shocking little leap, then started to beat a fraction faster.
‘I’m sure it isn’t ... true,’ he added when she looked at him with a total lack of comprehension. ‘So what were you up to?’
‘I...’ She licked her dry lips, then felt colour sear her cheeks when she saw the way his eyes traced the action before lifting to hers with a faint gleam in their dark depths. Anger surfaced inside her, hot and furious; he thought she’d done that deliberately, as some kind of blatant come-on! Why of all the egotistical, self——
‘Cat got your tongue, lady? Or don’t you feel like making any explanations to me right now?’ He shrugged lightly. ‘That’s fine by me. You can always talk to the police. I’m sure they will be only too interested in why you were attempting to abduct my child.’
Enough was enough! She stood up straighter, trying to stare him in the eyes, an impossible task in view of her five feet seven inches compared to his six feet plus. ‘You can stop right there before you go any further. I found your daughter crying because you’d lost her. I was trying to find the lost children collection point when you came across us.’
He barely glanced at the sign she was pointing to, his eyes boring coldly into hers. Brown eyes were meant to be warm and friendly, so how had he managed to perfect this trick of making them look colder than snow on a winter’s day? She shook herself out of the musing reverie, aware that she hadn’t heard a single word he’d said.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I asked where you found her. If it isn’t too difficult a question for you to answer.’
She flushed at the open sarcasm. ‘On the path back there, near a hot-dog stand.’ Her chin lifted, unconsciously regal, as she stared back at him. ‘I can’t imagine how any caring parent could lose a child that age.’
He bent slightly, staring into her face. ‘I didn’t lose her. I told her to stay right there until I got back.’
‘Oh! I see. But why leave her in the first place, especially here when it’s so busy? It seems like a totally irresponsible thing to do.’
‘Almost as irresponsible as your taking her away? For your information, Miss Do-gooder, I couldn’t take her where I was going.’ He smiled tightly. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, she’s a girl and I’m a man. There are one or two places where I just can’t take her...like the restroom, for instance.’
Oh, she’d noticed that he was a man all right; how could she have missed noticing that? Her traitorous eyes did a quick survey of the very masculine lines of his body before coming back to his face with an awareness in them which she couldn’t quite hide and which she knew immediately he understood.
He smiled slowly, confidently, obviously
