‘What gives you the right?’ Erin demanded, her eyes flashing fire. If she couldn’t hug these children as she wanted, at least she could fight their battles for them. ‘Laura didn’t want her hair cut. Would it have hurt so much to leave it long?’
‘Michael has enough to do in the mornings without combing the b...the child’s hair.’
‘Were you going to say brat?’ Erin asked slowly.
‘No.’ It was Mike again, his voice heavy. He placed a hand on Caroline’s silk-clad shoulder, stilling her with the gesture. ‘Of course she wasn’t.’ He sighed. ‘How do you know all this?’ he asked Erin, and the pain was still in his voice.
‘The twins told me,’ Erin said gently. ‘They told me when I asked. I think—I think they’re desperate to have an adult on—on their side.’
It was a direct hit and it went home hard. Mike winced.
‘Caroline meant this for the best,’ he said slowly, his eyes flicking into the truck to the twins. ‘Laura’s hair has been tangled and I don’t cope with it very well. I can’t make it look like her mother did.’
‘Does that matter so much?’
‘I guess...’ Mike stared helplessly down at her, a man right out of his depth.
Erin gave a rueful smile. This situation needed cheering up—fast. It was altogether too grim for words.
Okay. So think fast, Erin, she told herself.
And her smile deepened as she figured what to do.
She did a half-pirouette so that she had her back to the big farmer and she was facing the twins. She gave them both a reassuring wink. ‘My hair took ten seconds to brush this morning,’ she confessed, still with her back and her wayward pony tail to Mike. ‘It’s tied back with a bit of hay band. Is it so bad?’
She smiled at the twins again, pirouetted back to face Mike McTavish and tilted her chin, defying him with her eyes.
The farmer’s grim expression faded. Mike McTavish’s lips twitched. His eyes took in Erin’s disreputable hair, her dancing eyes, and then slowly took in the rest of her.
It was as if he was seeing Erin for the first time—and his eyes told her he very much liked what he saw.
‘I guess...I guess it doesn’t look too bad,’ he said slowly, and his eyes reflected her laughter.
‘Laura could do her hair this way all by herself,’ Erin said firmly. She pirouetted again to face the children and twinkled. ‘Couldn’t you, Laura? Matt could tie it for you. I bet you could even persuade Aunt Caroline to buy you some ribbon instead of hay band. If you grow your hair long again, Laura, would you mind if it’s as messy as mine?’
Both children gazed at Erin, considering. Erin’s hair was certainly not beautifully groomed. It was a mass of chestnut curls, escaping from her hay band in errant wisps all over her face.
‘I like it,’ Matthew said finally, removing his thumb and casting a scared, defiant look at Caroline.
‘It’s got straw in it.’ Laura managed a smile. ‘And...and I think there’s a bit of dry horse dung stuck at the back. But it still looks pretty.’
‘There.’ Erin’s eyes danced with laughter. She faced Mike again. ‘Even with horse dung, your problem’s solved.’
‘But Michael doesn’t want the children looking like tramps,’ Caroline snapped, fury getting the better of her.
Erin’s laughter faded—and slowly she turned to face Caroline’s hostility head-on. ‘Is that what I look like?’
‘Since you. ask, yes. You look like you haven’t washed for weeks.’
‘Caroline...’ Mike’s grip on Caroline’s shoulder tightened, and his face closed as if he’d like to haul back the words his fiancée had spoken.
They were impossible to haul back.
There was a moment’s dreadful silence. Mike and the twins all looked as though they expected Erin to explode—and then Erin’s lips twitched again as her sense of the ridiculous sprang to her rescue.
‘I’ve met a few tramps who’d take personal affront at the comparison with messy me.’ She smiled, allaying Mike’s dismay with her chuckle. Her eyes danced up at his. ‘I doubt if horse dung’s everyone’s ideal hair decor. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve spent most of this morning mucking out stables.’
She faced Caroline again and managed to maintain her smile in spite of the woman’s transparent disdain. ‘I’d love to wear silk scarves and pearls to work,’ she smiled. ‘But I just bet my horse would try to eat them. You must have a more appreciative audience than I have.’
Caroline’s jaw dropped about a foot.
The woman sure didn’t have a sense of humour. The look Caroline was directing at Erin said plainly that she thought Erin was mocking her. She thought the lowlife was thumbing its nose at its social betters!
Well, maybe she shouldn’t have commented on Caroline’s appearance, Erin thought ruefully. It just sort of slipped out before she could stop it.
So behave yourself, Erin, she told herself firmly. Be careful.
Then she hesitated. Erin blocked out Caroline’s transparent fury as she considered how to make her point to Mike. This was important.
She tilted her chin yet again and met his look with defiance, a half-smile returning to her lips. It was a smile of entreaty.
‘If I’d stopped to shower and change clothes, I would have been late for my grandpa and made him worried—as I’m worrying him now,’ she said softly. ‘I didn’t do that. But the kids are important. These two are worth worrying Grandpa for. It’s all...it’s all a matter of priority. How important is it to you that Laura is immaculate?’
‘It’s not,’ Mike said softly.
And then, before Erin knew what he was about, she was lifted by the waist by Mike’s strong hands and moved bodily aside. Mike leaned into the cab and gathered the two frightened children into his arms. His broad shoulders accommodated them both with ease as he lifted them clear.
‘You heard what Erin said, kids,’ he told them gently. ‘Erin’s grandpa is worried because she’s late, so we’ll let her go.’ He turned to Erin again, the children held tight in his arms. ‘Thank you again for bringing them home, but we’ll take care of them now,’ he said softly. ‘Believe me.’
Erin met his look. She took a deep breath. ‘I promised—I promised I wouldn’t leave here unless I knew no one would be angry with the children.’
‘No one’s angry,’ Mike said gently, holding them close. ‘Are we, Caroline?’
Caroline sure was. She’d clearly enjoy horsewhipping the American lowlife at the very least, but the look on Mike McTavish’s face checked her. With a discernible effort the woman forced herself to speak.
‘Of course not. I mean—not at the children.’ She cast Erin a look of glittering dislike.
‘Laura will be permitted to grow her hair?’ Erin demanded. If ever she was going to achieve something for the twins, now was the time.
‘Of course she can,’ Mike said heavily. He cast an unsure glance at Caroline. ‘Caroline...I mean, we thought we were acting for the best, but maybe...maybe we should have talked it over first.’
There was no mistaking the reproof behind the words, and Caroline didn’t like it one bit.
‘That’s just fine.’ Erin smiled before Caroline could answer. She walked round to the driver’s door of her truck and hesitated. ‘I also promised the twins