‘You can’t leave her here with me.’
Well, no. Obviously she couldn’t do that. But was he simply uttering the panic-stricken response of a child-phobic male? Or did he know what he was talking about?
She had to admit that he didn’t sound panic-stricken. On the contrary, he sounded like a man who knew his own mind and spoke it without fear or favour. Whether he knew or cared about child-protection regulations, they weren’t an issue for him; he was simply telling her the way it was.
‘You are the only close family member immediately available,’ she pointed out. It made no difference, of course; she couldn’t leave Maisie in his care without Selina Talbot’s explicit authority. Unlike a completely irresponsible mother, the agency couldn’t just dump the child and run.
This was a ‘hold until relieved’ situation but, with luck—and she was surely due a little luck—he might not realise that and there was a heartening pause while he appeared to weigh up the alternatives.
Then, with something that might have been a shrug, he said, ‘Indian or China?’
She just about managed to keep the ‘gotcha’ smile from her face as she said, ‘Indian, please. This is definitely a moment for bracing and cheerful, rather than fragrant and refined, don’t you think?’
She didn’t hang around to find out if he agreed. Instead, having first taken the precaution of turning round so that she could look where she was going, she headed up the stairs in search of her charge.
Maisie, hands on hips, tights in a wrinkled heap around her ankles, scowled at her from the bathroom doorway. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been waiting hours!’
‘Actually it was minutes, but if you’d waited for me instead of disappearing—’
‘I told you I had to go!’
‘I know you did,’ she said, more gently. ‘But don’t disappear on me again, OK?’ Then, when there was no response, ‘Maisie?’
‘OK,’ she muttered.
‘I mean it.’
‘OK! I heard you, all right?’
‘All right.’
And hopefully, having established that simple ground rule, she tugged Maisie’s tights into place, then, while the child was washing her hands, took advantage of Talbot’s grudging invitation to help herself to his towels, dabbing at the bits of herself that had been exposed to the elements. With luck her clothes would dry out in the warmth of the kitchen and she wouldn’t catch pneumonia but, the way her day was going, she wasn’t counting on it.
‘OK, Maisie, let’s go and see if we can sort this mess out.’
‘What mess?’
‘Well, your grandmother isn’t here…’
‘I know.’
‘You do?’
‘I heard,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter. I can stay here until my mother comes home. I’ve got a room of my own, you know, in one of the towers. It was decorated especially for me. The walls are mauve and the curtains are lace and it looks out over the paddock where the pony and the donkeys live.’ Then, ‘The pony’s mine.’
‘Really? I had a little pony when I was your age.’
‘Did you?’
‘Mmm. My Little Pony was the one called Applejack. She was the orange one, with apples painted on her bottom.’
Maisie regarded her with pity. ‘My pony is real. His name is Fudge. Would you like to meet him?’
‘I don’t think there’s going to be time, Maisie. The thing is you need more than a room—’
‘I’ve got more—’
‘More than a room and a pony. You need someone to take care of you.’
‘There’s Harry…’ Harry? His name was Harry? ‘…and Susan—’
‘Susan?’ The giant had a wife? Well…great. If Harry Talbot was married, or even if this woman was his partner, things might just work out. Always assuming Vickie could reach Selina Talbot before she left the country. ‘Who’s Susan?’
‘She comes in every morning to clean up and stuff.’
‘Oh. Great!’ No! Not great. And, ditching the smile—she had absolutely nothing to smile about—said, ‘Look, Maisie, obviously there’s been some kind of mix-up over the arrangements, but it’s nothing for you to worry about. Mrs Campbell, at the agency, is going to talk to your mother and sort something out.’
Maisie sighed. ‘She won’t be able to do that. My mother will be on a plane by now and you have to turn off your mobile phone when you’re in a plane.’
‘So you do.’
Bedknobs and broomsticks…
‘It’s a total pain, my mother says, but they mess with the electricity and if that gets messed up you can’t watch the movie.’
‘I can see the problem.’ Actually, Jacqui was fairly sure that if the ‘electricity’ got messed up you wouldn’t be watching anything ever again, but in view of her own imminent flight decided not to dwell on it. She had enough on her plate without worrying about some idiot deciding to phone home just for the fun of saying ‘I’m on the plane…’. ‘Do you know where your mother is going?’
‘Of course. She’s doing a fashion shoot on the Great Wall of China. That’s right on the other side of the world, you know.’
‘I had heard.’
‘It takes forever to get there, she said.’
Not exactly forever, but it was certain that Ms Talbot wouldn’t be taking personal calls before tomorrow.
Maisie looked up at her, eyes huge and very solemn, and said reassuringly, ‘It’s OK. You can stay and look after me.’
No! No…
‘Why don’t we wait and see what Mrs Campbell says?’ she suggested, brushing off the ridiculous notion that this child was in on the conspiracy.
That was bordering on paranoia.
Besides, it was not that much more than two hours since her mother had dropped her off at the agency. While normal mortals would need all of that time to get to the airport and check in, she was pretty sure that for people like Selina Talbot time was infinitely more flexible and it was possible that her plane hadn’t yet taken off.
‘Don’t you want to look after me?’ Maisie demanded, reclaiming her attention.
‘It isn’t a question of what I want,’ she said. In another time, another life—
Maisie regarded her steadily, her dark eyes wide and innocent, and said, ‘Is it because I’m not my mother’s own little girl? Because I’m a different colour from her?’
CHAPTER THREE
JACQUI felt as if all the wind had been knocked out of her.
The fact that Maisie was black had been the last thing on her mind, but it was possible that her high-profile adoption by the luminous Selina Talbot had exposed her to all kinds of unpleasant remarks from the jealous, or the just plain thoughtless.
And she’d been so wrapped up in her own problems that she’d allowed herself