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CHAPTER1
Sebastian
I’m at my London hotel office in Mayfair, ready for an early morning meeting.My eyes drift to the silver-framed photographs on my desk. Daisy, my five-year-old daughter, takes pride of place, and I feel my heart expand as I gaze at her mischievous grin. She’s the light of my life and keeps me going when life throws me curveballs.
When my ex-wife left, the collapse of our marriage stunned me. I just presumed we’d be together forever, and for some reason, I didn’t see the end coming. I didn’t know she’d been busy falling out of love with me whilst I was absorbed in the workings of the hotel division of Rochesters & Co.
I blamed myself for not being more attentive to her and not noticing what was going on at home. Daisy coming into our lives when we hadn’t planned on a child so early in our marriage was the best thing that ever happened to me. But Madeleine found motherhood stressful and restrictive.
She adores Daisy, but she’s not keen on the daily demands of parenthood. She prefers the glitz and glamour of society life, which I suppose was part of the initial attraction of marrying into the Rochesters. I think she imagined married life with me would be far more glamorous than it is when you pull back the curtain.
I work hard and take the family legacy seriously. Grandfather has seen to that. If I or any of my siblings step out of line and it comes to his attention, we soon receive a warning to correct the error of our ways.
I prefer to stay behind the scenes and out of the spotlight whenever possible, but I’m the first to admit I do let myself get consumed by the business. I’m no different from the rest of the family in that respect. We were raised to be competitive and to strive for excellence whilst developing the Rochester dynasty.
There’s no doubt we are privileged to be born into an ultra-high-net-worth family with a global business empire. We didn’t have to build it ourselves from the ground up like Grandfather, but the expectations that come with the privilege can be a heavy weight on our inexperienced shoulders.
Understanding why things happen and how they unfold is easier when you look back, but when you’re in the thick of it, you don’t always see what’s coming.
At least, I don’t…
The car weaves slowly through the congested London roads until we reach the brow of Richmond Hill. I raise my head and catch a glimpse of the view of the sparkling Thames, nestled in the patchwork web of meadows. The late afternoon sun dances across the hedgerows. Spring is merging into summer, and I let out a contented sigh and lean back and stretch. It’s good to be home in daylight.
In all my travels, I’ve not found anywhere to beat British summertime when the sky is a glorious azure blue and the countryside glows in shades of lush green. It’s so beautiful, it’s difficult to believe it’s real life and not an oil painting. The famous artist, Turner, painted the panoramic Richmond scene of the Thames, and it’s obvious why. It’s the only English landscape view to be protected by an Act of Parliament, and it never disappoints.
We take a sharp turn and within a few minutes; the car pulls up in front of the house, and I thank my driver and tell him I’ll see him in the morning. I left the office earlier than usual. The new nanny started work today and although I trust my assistant to have hired the best, I want to meet her as soon as possible, and check my daughter is happy with the new arrangement.
I can just as easily tie up loose ends from the office whilst sitting in the garden. Summer or not, I don’t take the sunshine for granted. British weather is notoriously unpredictable, and it might rain tomorrow, and the blue sky will be washed away and replaced by a dull grey, as though it never was.
‘Daddy,’ shouts Daisy, barrelling towards me as soon as the door clicks shut. I stride into the hall and sweep her up into my arms, holding her small wiry body high in the air before kissing her and gently lowering her back down to the marble floor. ‘Daddy, Nathalie, the new nanny is here,’ she exclaims. ‘We’ve been swimming, and it was amazing. She’s amazzzing.’
Amazing is her current favourite word. She fixes her big brown eyes on me. I know immediately I’m about to be suckered into something. ‘Please, please, will you come out to the pool and swim with me?’
Daisy’s wearing a damp robe and her hair is messy and tangled from swimming.
‘Don’t you want to dry off and warm up a bit?’ I ask. ‘And where is Nathalie, by the way? I want to meet her.’
A tall, stunning blonde wearing only a wet swimming costume appears near the bi-fold doors that lead into the garden, and my breath snags. I didn’t expect to find a sexy Bond girl emerging from my swimming pool when I got home. She is most definitely not the nanny I envisaged.
Isn’t it an unwritten law that nannies are elderly frumpy figures?
I’ve obviously made a stupid assumption. I didn’t give my assistant any age criteria for the candidate, which is only fair, but presumed she’d be much older and now I feel like a fool.
She couldn’t look more different from our previous nanny, and I’m awestruck. I just stare at her and gulp as I search for something to say.
The nanny shifts from one tanned bare foot to the other and clears her throat. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Rochester. I hope it’s okay we went for a swim, right away. Your assistant said you wouldn’t be back until this evening. It’s such a beautiful day and Daisy wanted to use the pool—’
Her words tail off and I can tell she’s embarrassed by my unexpected arrival and meeting me when she’s wearing just her costume.
Smiling and trying to put her at ease, I say, ‘I’m sorry to appear out of the blue like this on your first day. I should have called and let you know I was on my way.’
The new nanny smiles, and it lights up her face. Something strange is going on in my chest. There’s an unsettling flutter that I haven’t felt in a long, long time.
I stretch out my hand towards her. ‘As you can probably guess, I’m Sebastian Rochester, Daisy’s dad.’
We shake hands. ‘I’m Nathalie,’ she says, with a trace of an alluring French accent. Her cool fingers feel delicate in my warm hand.
‘Thank you so much for starting at such short notice. I’d hoped to interview you myself, but my schedule’s been a little crazy.’
