why he married me,’ said Moira, exchanging a sparkling look with her husband. ‘Now we’ll leave you men to set the world to rights while we do the tea. Will you help me carry the food out, Lowri?’
‘Yes, please!’ She went into the house with Moira, chattering about devilled eggs and the baking she was going to do with Hester.
‘That’s one very happy little girl,’ said Sam, watching, and Robert nodded, his eyes fond as they followed his wife.
‘Moira has the knack of making people happy. I’m a fortunate man.’
How fortunate was soon demonstrated by the quantity of cakes and savoury delicacies covering the table.
‘If you eat like this, how do you stay so fit, sir?’ asked Sam, awed.
‘A steep garden on several different levels takes care of that,’ Robert assured him wryly. ‘Besides, this is a special occasion, not everyday fare.’
The tea party was a great success. And since the adults took pains to include Lowri in the general conversation, her delight in the occasion was a pleasure to see.
‘And now,’ said Hester later, when they’d helped Moira clear away, ‘I’ll take you to see my own private lair, Lowri, but be careful on the steps.’
Lowri followed Hester up the open-tread iron staircase eagerly, her eyes round as they entered the flat. ‘This is so cool! Is it just this one big room?’
‘More or less. There’s a small bathroom through that door at the end.’
‘It’s perfect,’ sighed Lowri rapturously. ‘I’d love a place of my own like this one day. Could I bring Daddy to see it?’
‘Do you think he’d want to?’ said Hester doubtfully, not sure she wanted Connah’s overpoweringly male presence invading her private space.
‘I want him to see what I’d like.’
‘Time we went back to the others,’ said Hester firmly. ‘Careful on the stairs!’
It was late that evening before Lowri said her goodbyes and thanked her hosts very prettily for having her. ‘I’ve had such a lovely time.’
‘So have we. You must come again soon, darling,’ said Moira, and handed Lowri a large box. ‘I’ve put a few cakes in there for your tea tomorrow.’
‘Oh, thank you!’ Lowri reached up spontaneously and kissed Moira’s cheek, at which point Robert demanded a kiss too.
‘Right then, folks,’ said Hester. ‘I’ll give you a ring later in the week. Thank you for this.’
‘My thanks also,’ said Sam. ‘It was an unexpected treat, and much appreciated.’
When they were in the car on the way back into town, Lowri heaved a great sigh. ‘What a darling house. It must be so lovely to live there, Hester.’
‘It is, but actually I’m not there very much. In my kind of job I live in the house where I’m—employed. I don’t get home here nearly as often as I’d like.’
‘You must get very homesick.’
‘I miss my mother, certainly.’
To Hester’s dismay, tears suddenly slid down Lowri’s flushed cheeks. ‘If I had a mummy like yours I would too,’ she said, so forlornly that Hester put an arm round the child and held her close in wordless comfort all the way home.
It was so late by the time they arrived that Lowri was only too happy to go straight to bed. She fell asleep so quickly that Hester turned off the DVD player, left a night light on and went down to the kitchen. If Connah wanted to talk to his daughter tonight he was out of luck. But, as she sat down at the table with the daily paper and a mug of tea, it dawned on Hester that, unlike Lowri, a sandwich and one of her mother’s cakes had been her entire food intake for the day.
Hester toasted two slices of sourdough bread, spread them with butter and marmalade and sat down to enjoy her snack while she caught up on the day’s news. She was making a second pot of tea later when she heard footsteps on the stone stairs leading up from the basement and turned with a smile, expecting Sam. Her heart gave a deafening thump when Connah strolled into the kitchen instead, smudges of fatigue under eyes which lit with such involuntary pleasure at the sight of her that Hester sat, transfixed.
‘Hello,’ she said at last, breaking the spell.
‘Good evening, Hester,’ he said, clearing his throat, and dumped down his briefcase. ‘Sam thought you’d gone to bed.’
‘Not yet. Though Lowri’s asleep,’ she said, getting a grip. She gestured towards the teapot. ‘I’ve just made a fresh pot. Would you like some tea?’
He slung his jacket on the back of a chair and sat down at the table. ‘I had my sights set on a shot or two of whisky, but now you’ve mentioned it I think maybe I would like some tea. First, anyway.’
‘I didn’t realise you were coming back today,’ said Hester, shaken by her delight at his unexpected appearance.
Connah raked a weary hand through his hair. ‘When I spoke to you this morning it wasn’t on the agenda. But things went better than I expected, so I thought why the hell am I going back to a lonely flat tonight when I can be home with my daughter in a couple of hours?’ He smiled. ‘Of course Lowri’s asleep now, but at least I’ll be with her first thing in the morning.’
‘She’ll be thrilled. Have you had dinner? I could cook you something.’
‘I had a cholesterol-heavy lunch, so thanks for the kind thought but I won’t trouble you to cook tonight, Hester.’ He eyed her expectantly. ‘Maybe you could rustle up a biscuit or two?’
‘Of course.’ She opened the box containing her mother’s cakes. ‘Or perhaps you’d like one or two of these.’ She put a se lection on a plate and put it in front of him. ‘My mother sent them home with Lowri.’
Connah bit into an almond tart with enthusiasm. ‘Delicious,’ he said indistinctly. ‘So how did the tea party go?’
‘Huge success.’ Hester smiled. ‘But I’ll let Lowri tell you all about it tomorrow. I had a job to tear her away—it was late when we left.’
‘I hope your mother wasn’t too exhausted!’
‘She enjoyed it enormously, so did Robert. Sam, too, by the way,’ she added. ‘He was all for depositing us there and collecting us later, but my parents wouldn’t hear of it.’
‘Knowing your mother even as little as I do, I can well believe that.’ He shrugged. ‘I suppose I should have made things clearer for you from the start where Sam is concerned, Hester, but his role in the household is somewhat hard to define.’
‘It’s not a problem because Sam himself is totally clear about it. So he joined us for lunch on the shopping trip, and for tea today, but dines alone—in peace as he puts it—in his own quarters.’ Hester looked at him levelly. ‘I was quite prepared to do the same, until you instructed otherwise.’
He
