'It will matter, when you decide to change tactics and drop her. It's bad enough that you've neglected her until now, but when she finds that this sudden interest is only a way of using her, she'll stop trusting you. I don't want her to lose faith in the world so soon.'
'Would I do that to my own child?'
'You wouldn't even know you were doing it,' she said despairingly. 'But you mustn't do this. Go away, Garth. Leave us alone. We were happy without you-'
'Was Cindy?'
'All right, we weren't happy, but we survived.'
'And you don't think you could be happy with me around?'
'I don't think anyone could be happy with you around,' she said desperately. 'You don't bring happiness, or know how to create it. You only know things. Getting them, winning them, and buying them. Go back to that. You're good at it. But with people, you only destroy…'
Her voice choked off, and she turned sharply away.
'What is it?' Garth asked, coming after her.
'Nothing!'
'You're not crying, are you?'
'No, I'm not crying,' she insisted, quickly brushing her eyes. For a moment she'd been shaken by the thought of Garth here, ruining her hard-won peace. But she definitely wasn't crying.
'Here, let me look at you,' he said, turning her to face him. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed her eyes. 'There's no need to get upset about this.' His voice softened. 'I'm not really so bad, Faye.'
'Yes, you are,' she said huskily, almost hating him for that gentle note. She could cope with him angry, but gentleness recalled too many sweet memories that she had to block out to survive.
'Then teach me to be better. While I'm here you can show me how to get closer to the children, the way you've always said I should.'
'You're not going to stay here,' she insisted, desperately trying to hold her position against his clever tactics. 'The house is too small.'
'Then you know the answer. Move back to Elm Ridge, which is big enough for all of us.'
'Never. It's all over. You've got to accept that.'
'And suppose I don't choose to?' His voice was quiet, but the undertone of stubborn determination still throbbed through it.
'Doesn't anyone else get a say? What about how your family feels?'
'I think I'm doing the best thing for my family.'
She stood silent, wishing he would release her. His closeness, the feel of his hands on her arms, was recalling her reaction to his kiss only a few days ago. She'd thought herself safe until the devastating discovery that he could still play on her senses. Ten years ago, on their first date, he'd touched her carefully, as though fearing to break something precious. She could stand anything but that memory. If only he would let her go…
'Faye…' he said in an almost wondering tone.
'Garth, please…'
'Mummy, Mummy, I've done it.'
The shock made them break apart, staring at each other with startled eyes. Cindy erupted into the room.
'I've done it, Mummy. I've put my things into your room, and I've put everything tidy so that you won't have a mess to clear up. Honestly I have.' She grabbed Garth's hand. 'And I've taken one of your bags up to my room.'
'They're too heavy for you, pet.'
'It was just a little one. We could take the others up and I'll help you unpack. Let's do it now. Please.'
Faye met Garth's eyes, expecting to see in them a look of triumph. But instead there was something that might almost have been a plea. For a moment, father and daughter were almost comically alike, their faces both registering an urgent need to have their own way. Against her will, Faye's lips twitched.
'What's funny?' he asked quickly.
'Nothing that you'd understand,' she said with a smile.
'Mummy!' said Cindy insistently.
'All right. Help your father unpack.'
Cindy let out a yell of delight. 'Hooray, hooray, hooray! Daddy's home today! Hooray, hooray…' She repeated the couplet over and over, dancing a little jig of happiness, while Garth stared at her. It was the first time Faye could ever remember seeing him nonplussed.
Adrian appeared and came halfway down the stairs.
'Daddy's back, Daddy's back,' Cindy told him unnecessarily.
'Yes, I know-' Adrian looked awkward. 'Is it really true?'
'Just for a while,' Faye said quickly. 'None of us knows what's going to happen, but we'll try to make his visit nice.'
'Daddy,' Cindy called anxiously over the staircase.
'Coming,' Garth called, and went obediently up the stairs.
Faye had warned Garth that he was Cindy's idol but now, for the first time, he understood that this was the literal truth. Her joy at his arrival had confused him. He'd found himself instinctively clinging to the little girl as his only friend in hostile territory. Her adoration touched his heart and her relief that he'd returned for her birthday, as she thought, gave him a rare twinge of guilt.
It charmed him to discover that everything about her was emphatic. Neither her actions nor her feelings was moderate. Her enthusiasms filled the horizon, and whatever pleased her was the very best in the whole world. He knew how she felt, for he'd been the same as a child, and his adult single-mindedness had played a large part in his success.
Later that evening he sought her out where she was sitting on the steps of the French windows surveying the tiny garden, and sat down beside her. At that moment he had no other motive than to repay her love by being a good father.
'It's about time we planned your birthday present,' he suggested. 'Why don't you give me a list of what you want and I'll arrange everything?'
Cindy regarded her father in a way that Faye could have warned him meant she had a secret agenda. 'Anything?' she asked.
'Anything.'
'Anything at all?'
'Absolutely anything in the whole wide world,' Garth promised incautiously. 'Tell me what it is.'
'A dog.'
He felt almost ludicrously disappointed. A dog was too easy. It gave him no chance to show Faye that she was wrong about him.
'Of course. I'll get in touch with a good breeder tomorrow,' he said, 'and I'll bring you the best puppy there is.' Then he recalled Faye's accusation that he settled everything without reference to others and, with a feeling of conscious virtue, he amended, 'No, you'll want to choose it yourself. You get the puppy and-I mean, we'll go and pick one out together.' He was learning fast.
Cindy nodded vigorously, beaming. A growing understanding of his daughter made Garth add, 'I expect you already know where to go.'
'That's right. Spare Paws.'
'Pardon?'
'Spare Paws. It's a home for abandoned dogs. I pass it every day on my way to school.'
'Darling, what do you want an abandoned dog for? Do you think I can't afford to buy you one?'
Cindy frowned, not understanding his argument. 'Nobody wants them,' she explained. 'They keep hoping and hoping that someone will give them a home.'
Just as she didn't understand his language, so he didn't understand hers. 'I can get you a pedigree puppy,' he protested, 'with a good bloodline-'
'But Daddy, people always give homes to pedigree puppies. I want a dog that nobody else wants.'
Garth ran a hand through his hair. 'But you won't know anything about this animal,' he argued. 'It might be full
