CHAPTER ONE

      ‘I WON’T,’ yelled Alexandra from the staircase.

      Rachel cast a harried look at the kitchen clock. The taxi was due any minute and she had not even checked her briefcase. At the table her stepson, Hugh, was munching his way through an enormous plate of toast and blackcurrant jam, ignoring his sister. No help there, then. Rachel sighed and went out into the hall. She looked up the stairs at her grim-faced stepdaughter.

      ‘Look, I’ve said no and...’

      Alexandra’s expression darkened even further. ‘You’ve got no right to say no. You’re not even my mother.’

      This was a complaint that was appearing in their arguments more and more. Rachel would have found it easier to deal with, she was sure, if she had not had a stepmother herself. As it was, half of her sympathised totally with Alexandra. The other, responsible half knew that an adventurous fifteen-year-old needed rules of conduct more than she needed sympathy. As a result their arguments tended to be protracted.

      Heaven help me, today of all days, thought Rachel. She resisted the temptation to look at her watch but it was tough.

      ‘I know I’m not your mother, Alexandra. It makes no difference. Any adult would tell you the same.’

      ‘Theo’s an adult and he thinks I should go.’

      ‘Any responsible female adult,’ Rachel corrected herself grimly. She hesitated, then, choosing her words with care, said, ‘Of course Theo wants you to go. You’re a very pretty girl.’

      She did not add, as she might well have done, And you’re going to inherit half your father’s business in less than three years. She did not need to. It was there between them already. Her stepdaughter had not forgotten a word of the disastrous altercation after her last evening out with Theo Judd. Rachel could see it in Alexandra’s hot eyes.

      Her next words confirmed it. ‘You think Theo’s after my money.’

      Rachel pushed her hair back wearily. It was too long. It needed cutting. She had kept it short for nine years but during these last hectic weeks she had not had time to get it cut.

      ‘I don’t know what he’s after, Alexandra, and that’s the truth.’

      ‘He’s too old for me. Go on, say it.’

      ‘Do I have to?’

      Alexandra almost stamped her foot. ‘You just don’t know what it’s like.’

      And that was a problem too. Rachel knew exactly what it was like to be in love when you were too young and the man you loved was too worldly and sophisticated to recognise how vulnerable you were. In fact, she had worked hard at forgetting for nine years. What was more, she would have said she had succeeded, until Alexandra had decided to make a present of her generous heart to a twenty-four-year-old bartender with a line in flash cars and flashier repartee. Trying to induce a little wariness in her stepdaughter had brought back some memories which could still make Rachel wince.

      Sidestepping Alexandra’s comment, she said, ‘I do know that I would not be much of a guardian if I let you stay out till all hours, God knows where, with a man who is nine years older than you are.’

      Alexandra could sidestep difficult issues too.

      ‘Dad was twenty years older than you,’ she snarled.

      It was true. In spite of her anger and worry, just for a moment Rachel was startled into amusement. ‘You’ve got me there,’ she admitted. She leaned her arm on the carved wooden banisters and looked up at her stepdaughter straightly. ‘Look, Lexy, I know you won’t believe me now, but that really was different. Your father and I had both been around a bit. Fifteen and twenty-four is another kettle of fish entirely.’

      ‘You mean I’m a child.’

      ‘No, maybe not a child exactly. But there is a whole world of experiences you have not had yet.’

      ‘And Theo has?’

      By the truck-load, if Rachel was any judge. Wisely she did not say that either.

      Instead she said, ‘Well, he must be well aware of the difference between you and girlfriends of his own age. Even if you aren’t.’

      Alexandra tossed her head. ‘Theo thinks I’m very mature.’

      Hell, thought Rachel.