Jill Mansell - Sheer Mischief

Delighted to see him and mightily impressed with his car — which even had personalized plates — Maxine said at once, ‘Come in! Of course you couldn’t miss seeing the children.They’re playing in the summer-house at the moment; shall I go and call them or would you prefer to take them by surprise?’

‘Oh, surprise, I think.’ Guy’s father winked at her. He really was tons nicer than Guy, she decided. She’d never really gone for older men before, but he was almost enough to make her think again.

‘Can ‘I get you a drink?’ she said brightly, but Oliver Cassidy shook his head.

‘That’s kind of you, my dear, but I’d better not. I’m driving.’

‘It’s a beautiful car,’ said Maxine.

‘My great pride and joy.’ He nodded, acknowledging her admiration. ‘I thought Josh and Ella might enjoy a ride in it before I leave. If you have no objections, that is.’

‘Of course not!’ Maxine’s reply was almost vehement, her approval of Guy’s father was increasing in leaps and bounds. And now she would be able to sunbathe in peace after all.

‘Take them out for as long as you like,’ she told him happily. ‘I’m sure they’d love a trip in your car. What a shame, though, that you’ll miss seeing Guy.’

‘I cannot ... simply can not believe you could be so stupid!’

He was more furious than Maxine had ever imagined possible. ‘Fury’ wasn’t enough to describe his emotions. ‘Rage’ wasn’t good enough either. Guy simply looked as if he wanted to kill her.

This is it, she thought numbly. Now I really am out of a job and on to the streets.

Almost more galling, however, was the fact that Serena appeared to be on her side.

‘Look,’ said Maxine, struggling to defend herself and willing herself not to lose her temper.

‘I’ve already said I’m sorry, but how on earth was I supposed to know I was doing the wrong thing? He just turned up on the doorstep like any normal grandfather and said he’d cometo see Josh and Ella. From the way he acted, I assumed he was a regular visitor. And he seemed perfectly nice—’

‘Yes, darling,’ put in Serena, her tone soothing.

Her defence of Maxine’s actions was wholly astonishing as far as Maxine was concerned, and coming from any other quarter it would have afforded her some small comfort to know that she wasn’t as negligent as Guy was making out.

‘It isn’t Maxine’s fault that you and your father aren’t on speaking terms,’ Serena went on.

‘If you didn’t want him to see the children you should have told her.’

His eyes glittered. ‘He’s seen them once before. Only once, when he wasn’t given any alternative. So it was hardly likely that he’d turn up.’

Serena shrugged as if to say, Well, there you are then, but Guy hadn’t finished.

‘Besides, that’s hardly the point.’ Turning back to Maxine, he said icily, ‘He could have been anybody. Josh and Ella could have been kidnapped, held to ransom .. . murdered.’

‘He wasn’t a kidnapper,’ shouted Maxine. ‘He was your father.’

‘You mean he told you he was my father.’

Stung by his derisory tone, she snapped back. ‘He looked like you. Only better.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake!’

Maxine had had enough. It wasn’t as if Josh and Ella had been at all harmed, anyway. True to his word, Oliver Cassidy had taken them out in the Rolls, given them afternoon tea at one of the better beach-front hotels and delivered them back safely at five o’clock, as promised. He had even left them each clutching a crisp fifty-pound note because, as he’d explained to Maxine, it was hard to know what to buy children these days now that train sets and dolls were passé. It wasn’t until after he’d left that she’d made the alarming discovery that Josh and Ella didn’t actually know their grandfather. Although being on the receiving end of fifty-pound notes certainly went some way towards persuading them that they should.

‘Go on then,’ she said abruptly, rising to her feet and glaring back at Guy. ‘You’re dying to do it, so sack me. Find yourself a new nanny who’ll safety-pin the children to her ankles and shoot any strangers on sight. In the meantime, I’m sure Serena would just adore to stay on for a few more weeks and look after them herself.’

Too late she remembered that Serena had been sticking up for her, although it hardly mattered now. If she was out on her ear she’d never see either of them again anyway.

As far as Serena was concerned, however, the bitter jibe was too true to be offensive. ‘I’ve got work lined up,’ she said hurriedly. ‘My agent would kill me if I tried to cancel anything now.’

Guy crossed to the drinks tray and poured himself a stiff Scotch. Part of him still wanted to kill Maxine but he was making an effort to calm down. Since even Serena had defended Maxine’s actions, he realized now that the hatred he bore his father had led him to overreact.

Maxine undoubtedly had her faults, but the fact remained that Josh and Ella adored her. And although he still didn’t have the faintest idea why his father had turned up out of the blue, they had enjoyed themselves. Josh had only been six and Ella four when Véronique had taken them to meet him and even if they dimly recalled the events of that day they clearly hadn’t connected them with this afternoon’s surprise visitor. Both children had thoroughly enjoyed themselves and Josh, who was smitten with expensive cars — not to mention crisp new bank notes — was already asking when they might see him again.

As far as Guy was concerned, ‘when hell freezes over’ was the phrase that sprang most readily to mind, but it was a reply he’d kept to himself. And he supposed that, given the circumstances, Maxine couldn’t really have been expected to refuse entry to an apparently charming relative visiting his much-loved grandchildren.

Draining his Scotch, he turned back to find Maxine, the picture of belligerence, still glaring at him. With her blond hair ruffled, she looked like an indignant parakeet.

‘Oh cheer up,’ he said with a trace of exasperation. ‘I’m not going to sack you. Just take a bit more care in future, OK? They might not be the best behaved kids in the world but they’re all I’ve got, so I’d quite like to hang on to them if I could.’

Chapter 17

It was all happening amazingly quickly. Janey, who had envisaged a wait of at least a fortnight before hearing anything back from Mr Presentable, had been caught so off-guard by his phone call that before she could gather her wits she heard herself agreeing to meet him that evening. Profoundly grateful that Paula wasn’t in the shop at the time, she added hurriedly, ‘Why don’t you wear a carnation? Then I’ll be able to recognize you.’

‘Why don’t you just look out for a tall, dark-haired man in a navy blue blazer and grey flannels?’ he countered, sounding faintly amused. ‘I’m not really the carnation-wearing type.’

‘Oh.’ Crestfallen, and on behalf of florists everywhere, Janey said, ‘Why not?’

‘Every time I put one in my buttonhole,’ he replied, ‘I find myself getting married.’

His name was Alexander Norcross and he had two ex-wives, a dark blue Porsche and a small cottage on the outskirts of Trelissick. Janey also suspected that his refusal to wear a carnation was due to the fact that it would have meant buying one.

‘No, we decided against children,’ he explained, over lukewarm coffee in a quiet bar away from the seafront which Janey had suggested because nobody she knew ever went there. ‘They cost an absolute fortune. My wives tried to make me change my mind, of course, but I wasn’t having any of it. There’s no way I could have afforded to keep the Porsche on the road and bring up kids as well.’ Leaning across the table he added confidentially, ‘So I got out each time they started hankering, before they had a chance to pull the old "Oops, how did that happen?" routine.