'Do you know what that dog's doing to my upholstery? I've just had it cleaned from bringing him home yesterday.'
'I think it's going to need cleaning again,' she observed with apparent sympathy. 'The trouble is that he's so big. But, as I recall, you wanted a big dog.'
'You're enjoying this, aren't you?'
'Who, me?' she asked innocently. In fact, there was a certain satisfaction in the sight of Garth hoist with his own petard.
He started the car, but immediately flinched away, rubbing his ear. 'Cindy, if you don't stop that animal licking me I'll leave you both behind.'
'Barker,' Cindy reproved him, 'you're a very naughty boy.'
Barker barked. Garth winced. Faye dissolved in laughter.
At the match site there was more of an audience than Garth had expected for a schoolboys' game.
'It's the inter-schools trophy,' Cindy explained to him. 'This is the quarter finals, and this year we've got a real chance of winning. Adrian's terribly good. Ken says so.'
'Ken?'
'He's Mummy's friend,' Cindy said innocently, 'and he coaches the football team.'
'He probably won't be here today,' Faye said quickly.
'He's not really the coach, he just fills in sometimes for the fun of it because the real coach has been poorly. But he's well now, so I doubt if Ken-oh, dear.'
Garth followed her eyes to where Adrian's team had appeared, accompanied by a large, bearded man.
'That, I take it, is Kendall Haines?'
'Yes, but I truly thought he wouldn't be here. He was rushing to finish a book before the deadline.'
Garth hardly heard her. He was watching his son claim Kendall's attention with a question that seemed urgent. Kendall answered at length, with gestures towards the field, while Adrian nodded and seemed happier for what he'd heard. He was completely absorbed, and only when the teams ran onto the pitch did he look at the sidelines for his family.
Faye and Cindy led the cheering from the start, yelling loudest whenever their team did well. When Adrian scored in the first half-hour they crowed with delight. So did Barker. Garth tried to catch his son's eye and finally managed it, giving him a thumb's-up sign that Adrian acknowledged with a grin. But it was Kendall's cry of 'Well done, Adrian,' that really delighted him.
Garth thought of where he ought to be right now, the meetings he'd had to cancel, the lame excuses he'd made. And for what? To be forced to watch a demonstration of his son's allegiance to another man.
Then he felt Cindy's tight grip on his hand and looked down at her with a smile. She was his protector, he thought, astonished. Faye was reserved, except when she was laughing at him, and Adrian still maintained a slight distance. It was Cindy who secured his place in the fami-
ly.
He felt a rare pang of guilt. He was working skilfully to stay in his daughter's good books, because he needed her. And that meant Faye was right, he realized. He was giving Cindy a raw deal. And not for the first time. Her eyes, shining up at him, were uncritical and full of trust and for an instant he had to look away. How could any man meet that honest gaze without a touch of shame?
'Is anything wrong, Daddy?' she asked.
'No. I was just thinking how pretty you are.'
She beamed and clasped her second hand over his with a sigh of contentment. After a moment he bent down and kissed the top of her head.
In the end, Adrian's goal was the only one and his victorious team carried him from the field. His family walked over to where he was being pummelled joyfully.
'Well done, son,' Garth told him.
Adrian turned shining eyes on him. 'Did you really see my goal?' he asked.
'Every moment of it.'
'I thought you weren't going to be here,' Faye said quietly to Kendall. 'You said you had a book to finish.'
'I got it done last night.' He glanced at Garth. 'Is that-?'
'Yes, that's Garth.'
Kendall made a wry face. 'I wish he wasn't quite so good-looking.'
'Don't say things like that,' she urged. 'He means nothing to me now.'
Garth turned his head at that moment and she wondered how much he'd heard. She made the introductions, and to her relief her husband reacted civilly. So did Kendall but she could see the two men sizing each other up, and the knowledge was there between them.
Garth congratulated Kendall politely on his team's success, but this proved unfortunate as it gave Adrian the chance to say, 'Ken's the best coach we've ever had. He knows everything about soccer.'
'Nonsense, you did it all yourself,' Kendall said, aiming a playful punch at him. 'Golden feet, that's what you've got.'
'Am I really going to be good enough to play professionally?' Adrian asked, his face shining.
The sight hurt Garth and prompted his demon to say, 'It's a bit soon to be asking that, isn't it? After all, this isn't the only thing in life.'
He regretted the words instantly, because a light went out of Adrian's face. But he brightened again when Kendall said, 'Keep up the hard work, and you can do anything you want.'
Barker, evidently feeling that he'd taken a back seat long enough, gave his noisiest woof.
'Barker thinks so too,' Cindy confirmed.
'Is he yours?' Kendall asked.
'Daddy gave him to me for my birthday.'
'He's a fine fellow.' Kendall ran his hands knowl- edgeably over Barker's frame and tried to look into his mouth, but Barker wriggled free in order to sniff one of Kendall's pockets. 'All right,' Kendall said hastily. 'Don't tear me to pieces. I know what you're after. Here!' He produced something which he tossed to the dog, who swallowed it in one gulp.
'What was that?' Faye asked.
'Aniseed. Dogs love it, and I always keep some aniseed sweets in my pocket for my own dogs.'
'Just for the dogs?' Adrian asked cheekily.
'Meaning that I swipe some for myself?' Kendall asked, all innocence. 'Me?'
'Of course not,' Cindy assured him with a carefully bland face. 'We know you wouldn't ever eat aniseed when there was a starving dog who just loved it.'
Kendall grinned and tossed the 'starving dog' another sweet. 'Shame on you, you terrible brats!'
Both children giggled, evidently finding this form of address acceptable. Garth's hands balled into fists inside his pockets.
'Is Barker all right?' Cindy asked.
'He's fine, but don't let him eat too many sweets,' Kendall said, straight-faced. 'He mustn't put on weight.'
'The voice of the expert,' Garth said in a tone that was apparently friendly, but had a slight edge.
'I don't call myself an expert,' Kendall said. 'Not next to my friend, James Wakeham. He's made a special study of St Bernards and he's one of the finest veterinary surgeons in the world. We were at vet school together; used to pinch each other's girlfriends. He was always in trouble. In fact, he owes me a favour for keeping quiet about- Well, never mind. He could have been thrown out for it.' He was talking for the sake of talking, saying anything to lighten the atmosphere. Garth responded with a mechanical smile.
While Cindy asked more questions about Barker's care, Garth found something else to look at.
'This is Ken's subject,' Faye urged him in an under- voice. 'If he needed advice about business, he'd have to come to you.'
'But he never would need advice about business, would he?' Garth growled. 'I know his kind. He floats loftily above money as though the rest of us were beneath contempt. For pity's sake, I gave her the damned dog!'
'Then why don't you tell her how to look after him?'
'What time have I got to study dogs?'
'You're the man who believes in keeping track of your investments,' she reminded him. 'And this sudden rush of
