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CHAPTER ONE

THE sitting room was streith pieces of dissected fir tree, and the reel of scarlet tartan ribbon the cat had unrolled round of the carpet Heather noticed these details as she walked into the roo flas in the fireplace threw cheerful shadows to lighten the dreariness of the darkening winter’s afternoon She couldn’t help noticing theht up, to observe and then store what she had seen for use later on—but today she noticed them absently, without her normal enthusiasm

She had just finished speaking to her mother, and what she had heard had not reassured her It was hard to believe that it was less than two days since her father had been rushed into hospital

Neither she nor herGordon Burns was a lean, tanned y for life that nothing seemed to quench

Even nohen his shock of once dark hair had turned iron-grey, Heather still had difficulty in accepting the fact that he was growing older She frowned and nibbled tensely at her bottom lip They had always been such a closely knit family

Many of her contemporaries found it odd that she should not only be quite content working for her parents, but that she should also voluntarily choose to live at home At twenty-three, she supposed she was rather unusual, but she had never felt any desire to share their so-called independence

The phone rang sharply and she hurried to answer it, her heart racing It could be heronly when there was anything to report So far, her father’s condition was stable, although there was talk of the necessity of an operation to bypass soer of further heart attacks

Only last night the specialist had cautioned them about the seriousness of her father’s condition Such an operation would have to be carried out privately, Heather knew, and again she gnawed distractedly on her bottoirl, she took after her father more than her petite blond-hairedand his dark red hair, but in temperament she was like neither of her parents A throwback to the MacDonald clan, with its reputation for fierce pride and intense emotions, so her father often teased her, and it was true As a child and a teenager, the intensity of her oildering emotions had often left her disturbed and defensive Now, as an adult, she had learned, if not to control them, then at least to understand them

She picked up the receiver, her mouth dry with apprehension, but it was only Mrs Anstey, the e population and the uncrowned head of the local Women’s Institute

‘Heather, my dear, I’m sorry to bother you at a ti with the decorations?’

Many years ago, Heather’s father had worked in London’s top store as a departer, and it hile he was there that he had conceived the idea of starting up his own business toand design service norh to afford an in-house -dressing team

In retrospect, even Gordon Burns had been surprised by the success of his s up in business, his wife had joined the company, and then, once she left art school, Heather had been co-opted on to the team

Nor iet and then asked to create the impossible

Over the years her father had been approached several times with offers to buy him out, but he had insisted that he liked his business the way it was, small and modestly successful

If her father had one fault, it was that he was too soft-hearted; too generous, Heather acknowledged wryly; and the Christenerosity

When Maureen Anstey had approached hi the church hall for the party, he had iour and enthusiasm, and Heather knew fro his invoice, the su on the actual cost of time and materials

They had always had a comfortable life-style, but she knew that her parents had no savings, nothing to finance soery it now see to need

She had been the one to find him, slumped over his desk in his study, and the shock of that discovery was still with her, adding a new vulnerability to her shadowed eyes and full mouth

Having assured Maureen Anstey that the decorations would be co-roo-room was her favourite rooht when they first moved down to Durminster All the downstairs rooms had open fires, and this rooeneral air of being very much a family room, had an immediate ambience of warmth

The cather that it was tea tiot too dark

The old collie thu had been a thirteenth birthday present to her A shiver suddenly touched her skin, as , to the surface of herHer parents’ faces, happy and expectant, the excited yaps of the small puppy; it should have been the most perfect of me still, after all these years

As she had reached out to take hold of the puppy, herwith Kyle, Heather’