Jessica Hart: Kissing Santa

‘There’s a little girl too, isn’t there?’

‘Emily,’ he confirmed. ‘She’s seven and very spoilt. I have to admit that I’ll be glad to hand them over to someone who knows how to deal with children,’ he added in an unexpected admission. ‘If you’re half as good as the agency say you are, you should be able to sort them out.’

‘Oh, yes.’ Amanda’s attempt at breezy confidence sounded hollow even to her own ears. ‘Yes, of course I will.’

‘But you hate children!’ Sue had exclaimed when Amanda had first proposed her plan.

‘Not all of them,’ Amanda had defended herself. ‘I’m sure I won’t mind these children. There are only three of them, after all, and it’s not as if they’re babies who need their nappies changing all the time.’ The two girls had been sitting in a crowded wine bar near Amanda’s office. They had managed to find a table and were methodically working their way through the bowl of peanuts that had come with the bottle of wine.

‘They still need to be looked after properly,’ Sue pointed out.

‘I don’t see that it can be that difficult,’ said Amanda buoyantly. ‘You told me yourself that there’s a housekeeper to do the cooking, so all I’d have to do is keep an eye on them and stop them falling in the loch.’

‘I can’t believe you’re serious about this!’ Sue looked helplessly across the table at her friend. ‘You’ve never had the slightest interest in Scotland and even less in children, and now you say you want to spend several weeks as a nanny in the Highlands! And Christmas too! Surely you’d rather spend it with your family?’

‘It’s not that I don’t want to go home for Christmas,’ said Amanda, ‘but the job’s more important to me at the moment. Anyway,’ she added, ‘my sister and her three children are going to be there, so the house’ll be packed, and everyone will be so busy fussing over them that they won’t have time to notice whether I’m there or not.’

‘What about Hugh?’

‘Oh, that’s all off,’ said Amanda carelessly. ‘He just couldn’t understand why I’d rather have a decent job than a mortgage and a screaming baby. He’s going out with Lucy now—I’m sure she’ll want exactly that and then they’ll both be happy,’ she added, not without a touch of regret, because Hugh really had been very good-looking. ‘No, my future lies in a brilliant career, and if that means spending Christmas in Scotland that’s what I’ll do.’

‘But the whole idea is completely mad!’ protested Sue. Amanda refilled their glasses. ‘No, it isn’t,’ she said confidently. ‘It’s a brilliant idea. It solves your problem and it solves my problem and it even solves Blair MeAllister’s problem. What’s wrong with that?’

‘You don’t think it’s a bit deceitful?’ asked Sue, not without a trace of irony.

‘It’s not going to make any difference to Blair McAllister which girl he gets,’ said Amanda, waving the bottle dismissively. ‘He just wants someone to keep an eye on his sister’s kids, and I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to do that as well as anyone else. I know you think I’m a domestic disaster, but I’m not completely irresponsible. And it would make a difference to me, Sue,’ she went on pleadingly. ‘It might be just another job to you, but my entire future depends on getting into Dundinnie Castle!’

Unfortunately, Sue was used to Amanda’s sense of drama. ‘Your future has depended on so many new jobs that I’ve lost count!’

‘This job’s different,’ Amanda insisted through a mouthful of peanuts. ‘I’m sick of being stuck as a secretary and told that I can only move up the ladder if I stay there for ten years. I want to be successful now.’

‘There’s no point in wanting to be successful unless you know what it is you want to be successful at,’ said Sue, ever practical, but Amanda brushed that aside.

‘Norris knows what I mean. He says he likes people who are hungry for success. That’s why he’s given me this job. ‘If I can get into Dundinnie and convince Blair McAllister to sell, he says there are no limits to how far I can go, but first I’ve got to prove to him that I’ve got the killer instinct.’

‘The killer instinct? You?’ Sue regarded her friend with exasperated affection. ‘I don’t know why you keep up this pretence of wanting to be a ruthless businesswoman when we all know what a softie you are underneath! You’d better not let Norris Jeffries find out about all those lame ducks you sort out if you want him to think that you’ve got the killer instinct!’

Amanda scowled. She had put a lot of effort into her new executive image. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t got any lame ducks.’

‘No? What about Geny?’

‘She just needs a bit of organisation—’ Amanda began defensively, but Sue didn’t let her finish.

‘And what about that time I turned up on your doorstep in floods of tears when you were on your way to Venice? If you’d had real killer instinct you’d have tossed me a packet of tissues on your way out to the airport, instead of cancelling your whole trip to make sure that Nigel and I got back together.’

‘It’s because I want you to stay together that I think you should let me take your place,’ said Amanda cunningly, seizing her opportunity. ‘What’s Nigel going to think when you won’t give up a crummy temporary job so that you can go with him on this holiday he’s won? It’s the chance of a lifetime, and he can’t turn it down, but if he thinks you don’t care enough to want to spent Christmas with him in California, well...’ She shook her head sadly. ‘It’s not as if you’ll get many opportunities for a free trip to the States either,’ she persevered when Sue looked gloomily down into her glass. ‘And just think what he might get up to without you!’

It was obvious that Sue had already thought. ‘It’s not that I wouldn’t love to go...’

‘Well, then!’ Amanda spread her hands virtuously. ‘Here am I, offering to take your place so that you don’t let down the agency, and all you can do is think up objections!’

‘It’s the thought of you taking my place that worries me,’ said Sue frankly. ‘I’ve built up a good reputation with the agency, and if they hear that I’ve let you work for Blair McAllister under false pretences I’m finished. He’s a highprofile clienl I know you’ve never read any of his books but you must have seen his programmes.’

‘All that pitting-yourself-against-the-elements stuff doesn’t really appeal to me,’ said Amanda.

‘He doesn’t just do that,’ protested Sue. ‘Sometimes it’s true, he does take people out into challenging environments—you should have seen what they were doing in Guyana!—but usually it’s just his individual view of a country.’

‘Maybe, but it never sounds to me as if he goes anywhere with any good restaurants,’ said Amanda flippantly. ‘What’s he supposed to be like?’

‘I think he’s brilliant. If Nigel hadn’t won this holiday, I’d be really looking forward to meeting him.’

Sensing weakness, Amanda sat up straighter. ‘The agency won’t ever find out,’ she said, at her most soothing. ‘It’s not as if I’m going to do anything. All I want is to look round the castle and report back to Norris on its condition. He’s set his heart on it for his new health centre, but he only saw it from the outside when he drove past it a couple of months ago. He wants to know what it’s like inside so that he can make Blair McAllister a realistic offer.’

‘But I thought you said that Norris had already approached him about selling the castle and got a very rude reply telling him to forget the whole idea?’

‘Oh. they always say that at first,’ said Amanda with all the confidence of one who had been in property development for two whole weeks. ‘It’s just a way of forcing up the price. That’s why Norris needs a report on the inside. He’s given me four weeks to get up to the castle and find out what I can about Blair McAllister’s financial situation. It’s not the sort of place you can turn up to out of the blue, and I was just beginning to think that I’d have to admit that I couldn’t do it when you told me you’d been offered a temporary job there starting next week.’ Clutching her hands together, she leant pleadingly over the table. ‘It can’t just be a coincidence, Sue. It has to be meant.’