Davina thought for a moment. 'Why do they dislike each other?'

'Ah.' He drank some brandy. 'That's quite a long story,' he said drily, and looked at her as if he was in two minds.

Davina raised an eyebrow. 'It would be better if I knew-were I to take the job, Mr Warwick, and may I remind you that you showed no spirit of polite reticence at all concerning me, so I don't see why I should be at all polite to you.'

He chewed his lip then laughed softly. 'OK. After my mother died, my father remarried a woman young enough to be his daughter who bore him a daughter posthumously, thereby providing me with a half-sister young enough to be-my daughter. All of which induced a spirit, talking of those things, of fierce resentment and dislike in my grandmother-my father was her only child. She perceived that Loretta, my stepmother, married my father for his money, then spent a considerable amount of it, turned his life upside down and wore him into an early grave. Added to this, my grandmother is an indomitable, energetic and fiercely opinionated lady, anyway… Well, need I say any more?' 'No,' Davina mused, and frowned. 'Why does the child need mothering?'

'Because her mother is not much of a mother,' S. Warwick said, and there was something in his voice that was as cold as naked steel.

Davina narrowed her eyes but said only, 'A month…is not a long time for anyone else to do much mothering.'

'What I had more in mind was someone who is good with kids, someone who wouldn't mind babysitting without making the kid feel she's being-palmed off.'

'Well, that is being pretty frank, Mr Warwick,' Davina murmured.

'You asked for it, Mrs Hastings,' he replied. 'So I did.' Davina stood up again and looked around consideringly.

'If you're wondering how you would cope with this house and a child, I have a cleaning lady, a local, who comes several times a week-she's due tomorrow-and does the laundry as well,' S.