The Baby Plan

‘The going rate for the job. After deductions for tax and national insurance you might earn almost as much as your allowance.’

‘Do I still get the allowance?’

‘What do you think?’

Amanda couldn’t wait for five o’clock. She had been looking forward to attending this seminar, but it had proved mind-numbingly dull. Or maybe it was just that her mind had other things to occupy it. A pair of capable hands. A quiff of sun-bleached hair with a will of its own. A dangerously attractive smile that still made her feel warm inside. Ridiculous.

Well, she was being ridiculous all round today. Common sense suggested it would have been wiser to call Capitol and cancel that five o’clock car. Her mother lived only a few miles away; she could have got a taxi there, stayed the night. Stayed the weekend, even. Except that she wasn’t quite ready to share her plans.

And now she’d left it too late.

She emerged from the hotel and glanced around, looking for Daniel, expecting to see him leaning against the bulk of his car. He wasn’t. Maybe he’d expected her to be late again, because the big dark blue Mercedes was on the far side of the car park and he was sitting inside it. Oh, well. She pinned a bright, careless smile in place and crossed the gravel. In the event, it was unnecessary, because the man who looked up from the driver’s seat was not Daniel Redford.

The plunging sense of disappointment certainly put that careless smile in its place. She definitely cared. Which was pretty stupid since she had only met the man once. Apparently that didn’t matter as much as she’d thought it did.

‘Yes, miss?’ The man had made no move to get out and open the car door for her, and for a moment she floundered before finding her voice.

‘You are from Capitol Cars, aren’t you? I didn’t realise I’d have a different driver.’

‘You haven’t got a different driver.’ She swung around at the sound of Daniel’s voice. ‘You have a different car, which is probably why you didn’t see me.’

How could she have missed him? He must have seen her confusion because he was smiling as he took her arm. ‘I’m parked over there.’ Her eyes widened as she took in the opulent lines of a classic wine-red Jaguar parked on the far side of the hotel entrance. She’d been so intent on looking for a Mercedes, for Daniel, that she hadn’t even noticed it. Amanda smiled apologetically at the driver of the Mercedes and walked with Daniel across to his car. ‘Well, this is different,’ she said.

‘Someone rear-ended the Mercedes this afternoon.’

Concern brought her to a halt and she looked up at him anxiously. ‘Were you hurt?’

‘Hurt?’ Then he shook his head. ‘Oh, no. I wasn’t driving it when it happened.’ They reached the car. ‘I hope you don’t mind this old jalopy.’

‘Mind?’ She glanced at him. ‘Why should I mind? She’s absolutely beautiful. A real classic.’ Whether the Jaguar merited quite that amount of breathy admiration was a moot point. But Amanda needed some excuse for her breathlessness.

‘Well, I’m glad you like her because there is a bit of a problem.’ Then he did that thing with the smile that made simple breathlessness seem like a piece of cake. ‘Because she’s rather mature, there are no seat belts in the rear, so you’ll have to sit up front with me.’

‘That’s not a problem. That’s a pleasure.’ She surrendered her laptop and document case to Daniel, and as he opened the door for her she stepped into the leather-scented interior. ‘My father had a car like this,’ she said, when he joined her. ‘It was dark green.’

‘The height of luxury in its time.’

‘It’s still luxury. A real treat after a dull day.’

‘I wish I’d had a dull day.’ There was a world of feeling in his voice as he started the car.

‘A baby and a rear-ending. Yes, I can see how that might complicate your life.’

‘They were the easy problems. After all, the baby isn’t mine and someone else’s insurance company will be paying for the damage to the car.’

‘There’s more?’

‘They say things happen in threes. My daughter chose today to drop out of school.’

His daughter. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. And she meant it. In more ways than one. The happy haze evaporated as quickly as it had formed at the sound of his voice. He had a daughter. Well, what was the big surprise in that? She’d asked about his wife and he’d been evasive. She should have remembered that before she’d made an utter fool of herself with her stupid That’s a pleasure …

Well, that would teach her to let her mind go awandering. He had a wife, and a wife almost inevitably meant children. But the inevitability of it didn’t stop her heart from sinking like a soggy sponge.

‘Was there any special reason?’ she asked. Well, she had to say something. ‘For the dropping out?’

‘She flunked her GCSEs last summer. I’m hoping she’s just a bit fed up because all her friends have moved on to the sixth form while she’s stuck with re-sits.’ Daniel pulled out of the parking bay and headed for the gates.

‘Hoping?’

‘I suspect it may be a symptom of something worse.’ There was what seemed like an endless pause as he reached the gates, waited for the traffic, then pulled out into the lane.

She couldn’t ask. Could she? ‘A symptom?’ Amanda prompted, once they were cruising.

Daniel Redford glanced at her briefly. Then, as if coming to a decision, he said, ‘Her mother abandoned her when she 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. Even if she was just taking shorthand notes.

CHAPTER THREE

‘AND the earliest available date that the clinic could manage was in November.’ Having dragged every last detail of her meeting with Guy Dymoke out of her, Beth was finally bringing Amanda up to date on last Friday’s calls.

‘November?’ Amanda wanted a child of her own and she knew this was the sensible, rational way to go about it. So why, suddenly, did it seem so cold-blooded, so heartless? How would they go about it? Would they give her a check-list of features she wanted in her donor—six foot three, shoulders just so big, eyes like heat haze on a summer day … ‘November is fine. There’s no mad rush.’

‘Oh? Have you been reading all those child-rearing books and gone off the idea?’

‘Of course not.’ Well, not exactly. But she had spent the weekend thinking about watching her baby grow and wondering where that dimple had come from, or why his hair fell in a cowlick over his forehead. About living with the fact that she’d never be able to say You’re just like your father …

‘Are you sure there were no other messages?’

‘No. Were you expecting one?’

‘Yes … No …’ She caught Beth’s eye. ‘Well, maybe.’

Daniel opened his desk drawer and the pale jade earring seemed to wink at him, encouraging him to pick up the phone and call the Garland Agency. Instead he reached for an envelope, wrote Mandy’s name on it. He’d drop it in their letterbox tonight. It was the sensible thing to do.

‘Okay. Tell me all about him.’

‘Who?’

‘The guy who hasn’t phoned.’

‘He’s no one you know.’ Beth just grinned and Amanda felt herself going rather warm. ‘I met him on Friday.’

‘And?’

There was no point in beating about the bush. ‘I think he might be quite perfect.’

‘A perfect man? Darling, there’s no such animal.’

‘It depends what you want the animal for.’ And this time she did blush.

It took a moment for the penny to drop, but when it did Beth grinned broadly. ‘Oh, I see. That’s why you weren’t bothered about the waiting list at the clinic. You’ve found your own personal sperm bank and you’re planning on making a withdrawal. What’s his name?’

Well, it wasn’t a State secret. ‘Daniel Redford.’

‘Nice name.’ Beth straightened from her chair and crossed to the coffee pot. ‘Want some?’ she offered, picking up the pot.

‘No, thanks. I’m on a pre-pregnancy diet.’

‘Oh? Since when?’

‘Since I met Daniel Redford.’

‘I do like a woman who knows her mind.’ Beth poured herself a cup of coffee, added cream and sugar, then, cradling the steaming cup between her fingers, she leaned back against the table and regarded her boss thoughtfully. ‘Lust at first sight, was it?’ She didn’t wait for a reply. ‘Well, it has to be. I suppose he was at the seminar? Well, you don’t waste time, Amanda, I’ll give you that. Once you see something you want, you go for it.’ She sipped her coffee.

‘And how does Daniel Redford feel about being the father of your child?’

‘I haven’t asked him.’ She pulled absently on one of the long amber earrings she was wearing. ‘Maybe I’m just kidding myself.’ She’d hoped he would have called and left a message on the office answering machine over the weekend. She’d checked it half a dozen times. Maybe he’d changed his mind about … well, whatever it was he’d been about to say about tickets when Beth’s call had interrupted them.

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