The Baby Plan. Liz Fielding

was eight years old. The divorce was a long time ago, but I have the feeling that it’s finally caught up with her.’

      ‘Oh, I am sorry.’ And she was. She might be glad that Daniel was unattached. The soggy sponge might be making a miraculous recovery. But she couldn’t be happy that a little girl had been abandoned by her mother. ‘That’s a terrible thing to happen to any child. What’ll you do?’

      ‘With Sadie?’ He glanced across at her and quite unexpectedly grinned. Sadie might have taken her mother’s abandonment hard, but she didn’t get the feeling that Daniel Redford was too bothered. ‘I’ve put her to work cleaning cars at the garage. I’m hoping a week of that might help to change her mind.’

      ‘It would certainly send me scurrying back to my books. But shouldn’t you be at home with her now, helping her sort out her life, instead of chauffeuring me about the place?’

      ‘I should. In fact you were rescheduled for another driver, but what with the shunt and a baggage handlers’ strike delaying a couple of airport jobs, it all got a bit complicated. Don’t worry about it. I’ve no doubt she’s very grateful for the opportunity to avoid me for another hour or two.’

      Amanda was grateful too. So grateful that she sent a silent thank you to the striking airport baggage handlers, wherever they were.

      ‘Well, you’ve got all weekend to talk. Maybe it’ll seem clearer after a good night’s sleep.’

      ‘Maybe. And, since the urge to dropout was precipitated by a week’s suspension from school, there’s no rush.’

      ‘You certainly seem to have your hands full.’ Well, they were big, capable hands and she was rather hoping to fill them herself. The thought came from nowhere, and Amanda made a determined effort to drag her subconscious back onto the straight and narrow. ‘What’s she been suspended for?’

      ‘Oh, nothing too dreadful. She dyed her hair.’

      ‘That’s all?’

      ‘Not quite.’

      Amanda found it disgracefully hard not to laugh when he told her what Sadie had done. The fact that Daniel’s mouth was betraying his own amusement didn’t help, and her repressed giggle erupted without warning.

      ‘Horrible child,’ she said, when she had recovered her breath.

      He grinned. ‘Do you know, I have the feeling that is exactly what the formidable Miss Garland would have said if she were here?’

      ‘Is that what you think?’ She laughed at that, too. In fact she was laughing rather a lot, she noticed. The seminar might have been dull but in every other way the day was turning out very well indeed. ‘I can see I shall have to be very careful, or I’ll become just like her.’

      ‘Sure,’ he said. They were stopped at traffic lights and he turned on the full force of that killer smile. ‘When shrimps learn to whistle.’

      ‘Er, excuse me? Was that supposed to be compliment?’

      ‘Well, you know Miss Garland. What would you say?’

      Any number of things, Amanda thought, none of them what he expected. But why risk spoiling things? ‘I’d say, I’ve had a boring day and you’ve had a fretful one. Why don’t we stop somewhere and I’ll treat us both to a cup of coffee and a sticky bun as a treat?’

      Daniel didn’t answer, and for a moment she thought perhaps she’d gone too far. Then he signalled a left turn and pulled onto the forecourt of one of those bright, cheerful little restaurants that provide coffee and comfort food twenty-four hours a day for busy travellers. Only then did he turn to her. ‘Was this what you had in mind?’

      ‘What do you do for an encore?’

      ‘Sorry?’

      ‘After the mind-reading trick.’

      ‘If I could read minds I’d know what to do about Sadie,’ he said as he opened the door for her.

      If you could read minds, Amanda thought, I’d be in big trouble.

      She picked up a tray, but Daniel took it from her. ‘I dare say you’ve been running about with cups of tea for spoilt executives all day. Go and sit down. I’ll get the coffee.’

      ‘Garland Girls don’t make coffee,’ she said, surrendering the tray but following him along the counter. Then added, straight-faced, ‘Well, not unless it’s Jamaica Blue Mountain.’

      He stopped by the self-service capuccino. ‘You’re sure you want to risk this?’

      She put a mug beneath the spout and pressed the button. ‘This is fine. It just needs a good slosh of chocolate powder.’ She repeated the process. ‘And now we need a truly sticky bun,’ she said crisply. ‘What about those?’

      He looked at an array of Danish pastries. ‘Was your day that bad?’

      Her day had been something of a roller-coaster ride. At the moment she was on top, but she was well aware that the next half an hour could take it either way. Or maybe she was just kidding herself. ‘Actually, on second thoughts, nothing could be that bad. But you go ahead.’

      ‘The coffee will do just fine.’ He insisted on paying for it and carried the tray to a table.

      They sat opposite one another, and for a moment neither of them said anything. Amanda realised she had started something she didn’t know quite how to finish.

      Daniel stirred his coffee. ‘I was wondering,’ he said, after a moment. ‘About those tickets—’

      From somewhere near her feet, Amanda’s mobile phone began to ring. She ignored it. ‘Tickets?’ she prompted.

      The phone continued to trill urgently. ‘Hadn’t you better answer that?’

      Amanda sent a silent message to whatever gremlin was in charge of messing up the communication networks. He was out. And the phone kept on ringing. She retrieved it from her bag. ‘Yes?’

      ‘Amanda, where are you? you’ve got to come back to the office!’ Beth sounded like an over-excited puppy.

      She was horribly conscious of Daniel, watching her. ‘What’s happened?’

      ‘I been talking to Guy Dymoke!’

      Guy Dymoke? ‘Do you mean Guy Dymoke the actor?’

      ‘Actor?’ Beth’s voice rose several octaves. ‘I’ve never noticed whether he can act. The man is sex on legs—’

      ‘And?’ Amanda interrupted before the woman passed out from excitment.

      ‘And he’s shooting a new movie in London. He needs a secretary, sweetie, and he wants one of our girls.’

      Amanda glanced at Daniel, who was trying not to look too interested. ‘Can’t you handle it?’

      ‘Are you kidding? He wants to talk to the boss.’

      ‘When?’

      ‘Right now. He’s at Brown’s Hotel. How soon can you get there?’

      Amanda looked at Daniel. The honeyed cowlick of hair. The haze-blue eyes. The roller-coaster hit downhill. ‘Hold on.’ She pressed the secrecy button. ‘Daniel, I’m sorry, but I need to get to Brown’s Hotel as quickly as possible. How long will it take?’

      Like riding a bicycle, eh? Daniel had been running on instinct with Mandy Fleming, ignoring every rule in the book. What on earth had he been thinking of? If he ever found out that one of his drivers had done something like this the man would be out on his ear.

      And then Mandy’s phone had rung and he’d been off the hook.

      At least that was what he kept telling himself after he’d dropped her off in Albemarle Street to meet the one man in the world just about any woman would give her right arm to be sharing a hotel suite with.