The stairs

In the end, Irene did fall asleep on the settee in the den although this time it was Murad Fullbuster not Diane Paxton who slid a pillow under her head and covered her with a warm rug.

She’d been enjoying the movie, and his company, but two thirds of the way through the emotional excesses of the evening got to her and she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

She was not to know that her temporary employer stood looking down at her for a long time after he’d covered her up, then found himself doing some serious thinking. Nothing could have prepared her for the consequences of it…

To complicate matters, Nicky woke up with a fever the next morning.

‘I think it’s chicken pox,’ Irene said to Murad in the breakfast room. She was already showered and ready for the golf day—she’d done all that before Nicky had woken—wearing three-quarter khaki trousers and an Argyle sweater, Diane’s choice, not hers.

Murad was also already dressed for golf in navy trousers and a pale blue polo T-shirt. He’d just come