A Perfect Night. Penny Jordan

is busy just wait until market day,’ her father warned her good-humouredly.

      ‘Olivia won’t be here until ten,’ he added. ‘During term time she does the morning school and nursery run. Caspar picks the children up in the afternoon.’

      Caspar, Olivia’s American husband, held a Chair at a nearby university where he lectured in corporate law and it had been while she was on a course that Olivia had met and fallen in love with him.

      ‘It can’t be easy for her, working full-time with two young children,’ Katie commented.

      ‘No, it isn’t,’ her father agreed, adding briskly, ‘We’ve cleared out a room for you to use and I’ve organised some preliminary file reading for you. We’ll start you off on some straightforward conveyancing…’

      ‘That’s fine,’ Katie responded absently.

      ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked, sensing her preoccupation.

      ‘Not really…not unless you count nearly being run down by some speed-crazed driver,’ Katie told him, briefly explaining what had happened.

      ‘Mmm…it has been mooted that the town be made a no traffic area, but…’

      ‘But…’ Katie raised her eyebrows. The town had been there before the Romans, its surrounding salt making it a highly prized asset. The Normans had built a castle which the Roundheads virtually destroyed during the Civil War, and the town’s streets dated in the main from the Middle Ages and were consequently narrow and tortuous and certainly not designed for the volume of modern-day traffic that used them.

      ‘Well in order to make that a viable proposition, a new ring road would have to be built, and you can just imagine the cost of it…’

      ‘Mmm…but if it keeps drivers like Mr Sexy Mouth off the road…’

      ‘Like who?’ her father questioned.

      Katie flushed a little. Now what on earth had prompted her to use that particular description of him out loud?

      ‘Er…Nothing,’ she denied hastily, quickly turning her attention to the files her father was showing her.

CHAPTER TWO

      ‘JENNY Crighton is giving an informal supper party in a few weeks’ time,’ Guy gave his cousin the date, ‘and she’s invited you to go along with us, Seb. You’ll enjoy it,’ he encouraged when he saw the way Seb was frowning.

      He had called round to see him expressly to deliver Jenny’s invitation as well as to see how his cousin had settled in at Aarlston-Becker.

      ‘Shall I?’ Seb challenged him.

      ‘Which reminds me,’ Guy added before Seb could continue, ‘Chrissie said to tell you that you’re more than welcome to come round and dine with us any time you wish.’

      ‘Thanks, I really do appreciate the offer, but right now I’m so involved at work…’ Seb stopped and shook his head. Despite his misgivings about returning to the town of his birth, Seb had to admit that the sheer scope of the work he was involved with at Aarlston was proving enormously challenging and satisfying. The company was right at the forefront of research into and the creation of a new generation of drugs.

      ‘I had planned to drive over to Manchester that weekend to see Charlotte, but it seems she’s organised to go away with a group of friends, which means…’

      ‘Which means that you’ll be free to accept Jenny’s invitation,’ Guy told him firmly. ‘You’ll enjoy it. Saul is bound to be there. Have you met him yet? He’s head of a section of the Aarlston legal department and…’

      ‘Yes…I was introduced to him the other day. Nice chap…’

      ‘Have you found a house that appeals to you yet?’ Guy asked him.

      ‘Not so far. Ideally I’d like somewhere large enough for Charlotte to have her own space when she comes to stay, which means somewhere with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but I don’t really want something quite as large as a three-or four-bedroom house, from a practical point of view if nothing else.’

      ‘Mmm…well there’s a large Edwardian house on the outskirts of town which was recently converted into a series of luxury apartments, although I think most of them have already been sold. From the sound of it one of them would suit you ideally.’

      ‘Mmm…who are the agents? It’s certainly worth looking into,’ Seb agreed.

      The small terraced house he was currently renting was only two streets away from the one he had lived in as a child and Seb was finding staying in it faintly claustrophobic. His mother had moved away to live with her widowed sister following the death of Seb’s father and Seb had no immediate family left in the town, but it seemed that everywhere he turned he was confronted with the Cooke name and the Cooke features, battalion upon battalion of assorted aunts, uncles and cousins.

      And as for the Jenny Crighton supper party, that was something he would have preferred to have got out of attending but he suspected that there was no way that Guy was going to allow him to do so.

      There was a certain something in Guy’s voice when he mentioned Jenny Crighton’s name that made Seb wonder if those rumours about Guy’s feelings for Jenny before Chrissie had come into his life had been just mere rumour. Whatever the case though there was no doubt about the fact that he loved Chrissie now.

      ‘Mmm…that looks interesting,’ Olivia commented as she walked past Katie’s desk and saw the estate agent’s details lying there.

      ‘Who is the prospective purchaser?’ she asked curiously as she studied photographs of the elegantly shaped Edwardian rooms and the sweeping views of the grounds that surrounded the newly converted apartments.

      ‘Me, hopefully,’ Katie told her, adding ruefully, ‘although the price they are asking is rather high.’

      ‘Can’t you bargain them down?’ Olivia suggested practically.

      Katie shook her head. ‘I doubt it, there are only two apartments left.’

      ‘Mmm…well I can see why they’ve sold so well, two double bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and dressing-room, a large sitting-room, dining-room and good-sized kitchen, and those views…’

      ‘Yes, and because this one is on the top floor it’s got its own balcony,’ Katie told her.

      ‘I went to view it with Dad last night and I must say that I was really impressed even if it’s still an awful lot of money, but with Mum and Dad so generously offering to help me out I can just about afford it.’

      ‘Well, you certainly won’t lose out by buying it,’ Olivia told her, ‘not with Aarlston-Becker expanding at the rate it is and the demand for housing expanding along with them.’

      ‘True…I see we’re getting an increasing number of farming clients applying for change of use in planning permission for some of their agricultural land.’

      ‘Yes, and there’s been a lot of controversy about it with a huge continuing debate in the local press. Those against any kind of new building on existing farmland are claiming that there are plenty of infill sites which should be used up first, while those who are in favour of granting planning permission insist the infill sites simply aren’t adequate to cope with the growing demand for housing, stating that the town’s prosperity is too closely linked with Aarlston to risk the threat of the company moving elsewhere because their employees can’t find homes.’

      ‘I should imagine that argument is something of a double-edged sword,’ Katie murmured thoughtfully.

      ‘Very much so,’ Olivia agreed. ‘The old die-hards are bitterly opposed to the Aarlston presence on the outskirts of the town claiming that it threatens its identity