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He was the Bryce legacy come true all over again, but he was damned if he was going to give in to it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SOMETHING ODD WAS going on with Cal. Well, odder than normal, anyway.
Ever since they’d got back from the hospital after the scan he’d been going out of his way to avoid her. Heather couldn’t decide if it was because of the guy he’d bumped into in the hospital lobby, the conversation they’d had about telling Daisy and Ryan, or the strange expression she’d seen on his face when the technician had shown them the baby, wriggling around on the screen.
She knew how strange this must be for him. He’d gained two children almost from nowhere and now there was a third on the way. But he had to realise that she wouldn’t ask him for anything for her baby, right? If he wanted to be part of their little family then she would welcome him. But she was just as prepared to go it alone if she had to, as she had been the day she’d arrived at Lengroth.
No. That wasn’t quite true. She wasn’t the same person she’d been the day she’d first climbed those steps. That woman was gone for ever, and Heather couldn’t quite bring herself to miss her.
That woman had been almost without hope. She’d been weighed down by guilt and fear and desperation. And, while the guilt still lingered, she hoped she’d at least gone some way towards making amends by helping the children this summer. As for the fear... She’d been afraid because she hadn’t had faith in herself to fix her situation. Now she knew it didn’t need fixing—and she had complete confidence that whatever happened next she would be able to handle it.
Even if that meant being a single mother, ostracised by her father and everyone in her village, and hundreds of miles away from Cal, Daisy and Ryan.
Worst-case scenario, Heather. Don’t think about it.
‘Where’s your uncle?’ she asked as she sat down to dinner with the children a few days later.
Daisy shrugged. ‘I went to call him. He yelled at me to go away.’ She was obviously trying to sound nonchalant, but failing.
Heather had been surprised the first time she’d stopped by Cal’s office and heard Daisy’s voice behind the door. But now it was every bit as everyday an occurrence as Ryan stealing the last piece of toast at breakfast. Heather couldn’t entirely explain it—and she knew for a fact that Cal had no idea how it had happened—but Daisy had not just warmed to Cal, but had latched on to him completely.
They talked about everything, Cal had said, from the planets to the environment, from the history of the castle to West End musicals. And somewhere in all that, when she needed to, Daisy would slip in a comment about something that was bothering her and Cal would try to help her. Or, more often, report it to Heather, who would give him advice so he could tackle it the next day.
As far as Heather could tell, his whole relationship with Daisy had more of a big-brother vibe than a parental one, but if that was what Daisy needed then she was happy she had found it.
Or seemed to have until tonight.
‘I’m sure he was just very busy,’ Heather said soothingly, even as she exchanged a worried glance with Mrs Peterson.
The housekeeper widened her eyes and shrugged, to indicate that she didn’t know what was going on, either.
‘Whatever...’ Daisy mumbled towards her plate. ‘I don’t care.’
‘Shall I go call him again?’ Ryan jumped to his feet before he’d even finished his question.
‘You stay here and eat,’ Heather said quickly. ‘If Uncle Cal is busy he probably won’t want to come down for dinner. I’ll take him up a plate once we’ve eaten.’
The meal was a mostly silent one. Afterwards, with the kids settled in their bedrooms after baths and tooth-brushing, Heather took the dinner tray that Mrs Peterson had put together and carried it carefully towards Cal’s study, bracing herself for the response she was likely to get.
Balancing the tray on one hip, she knocked lightly.
‘I said I’m not coming down for dinner!’
Heather rolled her eyes and inched the door open. ‘That’s why dinner has come to you.’
Not waiting for an invitation, she crossed the study, placed the tray on the desk in front of him—handily covering whatever papers had him so work-obsessed this evening—then sat in the chair opposite him.
