The Diamond Dad

'I think I'm doing the best thing for my family.'

She stood silent, wishing he would release her. His closeness, the feel of his hands on her arms, was recalling her reaction to his kiss only a few days ago. She'd thought herself safe until the devastating discovery that he could still play on her senses. Ten years ago, on their first date, he'd touched her carefully, as though fearing to break something precious. She could stand anything but that memory. If only he would let her go…

'Faye…' he said in an almost wondering tone.

'Garth, please…'

'Mummy, Mummy, I've done it.'

The shock made them break apart, staring at each other with startled eyes. Cindy erupted into the room.

'I've done it, Mummy. I've put my things into your room, and I've put everything tidy so that you won't have a mess to clear up. Honestly I have.' She grabbed Garth's hand. 'And I've taken one of your bags up to my room.'

'They're too heavy for you, pet.'

'It was just a little one. We could take the others up and I'll help you unpack. Let's do it now. Please.'

Faye met Garth's eyes, expecting to see in them a look of triumph. But instead there was something that might almost have been a plea. For a moment, father and daughter were almost comically alike, their faces both registering an urgent need to have their own way. Against her will, Faye's lips twitched.

'What's funny?' he asked quickly.

'Nothing that you'd understand,' she said with a smile.

'Mummy!' said Cindy insistently.

'All right. Help your father unpack.'

Cindy let out a yell of delight. 'Hooray, hooray, hooray! Daddy's home today! Hooray, hooray…' She repeated the couplet over and over, dancing a little jig of happiness, while Garth stared at her. It was the first time Faye could ever remember seeing him nonplussed.

Adrian appeared and came halfway down the stairs.

'Daddy's back, Daddy's back,' Cindy told him unnecessarily.

'Yes, I know-' Adrian looked awkward. 'Is it really true?'

'Just for a while,' Faye said quickly. 'None of us knows what's going to happen, but we'll try to make his visit nice.'

'Daddy,' Cindy called anxiously over the staircase.

'Coming,' Garth called, and went obediently up the stairs.

Faye had warned Garth that he was Cindy's idol but now, for the first time, he understood that this was the literal truth. Her joy at his arrival had confused him. He'd found himself instinctively clinging to the little girl as his only friend in hostile territory. Her adoration touched his heart and her relief that he'd returned for her birthday, as she thought, gave him a rare twinge of guilt.

It charmed him to discover that everything about her was emphatic. Neither her actions nor her feelings was moderate. Her enthusiasms filled the horizon, and whatever pleased her was the very best in the whole world. He knew how she felt, for he'd been the same as a child, and his adult single-mindedness had played a large part in his success.

Later that evening he sought her out where she was sitting on the steps of the French windows surveying the tiny garden, and sat down beside her. At that moment he had no other motive than to repay her love by being a good father.

'It's about time we planned your birthday present,' he suggested. 'Why don't you give me a list of what you want and I'll arrange everything?'

Cindy regarded her father in a way that Faye could have warned him meant she had a secret agenda. 'Anything?' she asked.

'Anything.'

'Anything at all?'

'Absolutely anything in the whole wide world,' Garth promised incautiously. 'Tell me what it is.'

'A dog.'

He felt almost ludicrously disappointed. A dog was too easy. It gave him no chance to show Faye that she was wrong about him.

'Of course. I'll get in touch with a good breeder tomorrow,' he said, 'and I'll bring you the best puppy there is.' Then he recalled Faye's accusation that he settled everything without reference to others and, with a feeling of conscious virtue, he amended, 'No, you'll want to choose it yourself. You get the puppy and-I mean, we'll go and pick one out together.' He was learning fast.

Cindy nodded vigorously, beaming. A growing understanding of his daughter made Garth add, 'I expect you already know where to go.'

'That's right. Spare Paws.'

'Pardon?'

'Spare Paws. It's a home for abandoned dogs. I pass it every day on my way to school.'

'Darling, what do you want an abandoned dog for? Do you think I can't afford to buy you one?'

Cindy frowned, not understanding his argument. 'Nobody wants them,' she explained. 'They keep hoping and hoping that someone will give them a home.'

Just as she didn't understand his language, so he didn't understand hers. 'I can get you a pedigree puppy,' he protested, 'with a good bloodline-'

'But Daddy, people always give homes to pedigree puppies. I want a dog that nobody else wants.'

Garth ran a hand through his hair. 'But you won't know anything about this animal,' he argued. 'It might be full of diseases or fleas-'

'No, Spare Paws always gets its dogs clean and healthy before it lets them go,' Cindy contradicted him gently but firmly.

'Do they also make sure the dogs are friendly? Suppose this creature is vicious? No, darling, it's too chancy. You can choose a puppy from a breeder-'

'I don't want to,' Cindy said, sticking her bottom lip out. 'I want a dog that nobody else wants, one who's old and ugly, and blind in one eye, with a leg missing, and-and lots and lots and lots of fleas. And if I can't have that I don't want one at all.' She got up and ran away before Garth could reply.

A choke of laughter from behind made him look up to find Faye regarding him. 'If you'll pardon the pun, you made a real dog's breakfast of that,' she told him.

'Thank you,' he said, chagrined.

'Cindy doesn't care about bloodlines. She wants a dog who needs her love.'

'Isn't that true of any dog?'

'Yes, but it's more true if they're abandoned. And that matters to her.'

'The whole idea is impractical. I'm sorry. She can have a dog, but not like this.'

'We'll see.'

'I'm not going to change my mind.'

Faye took a deep breath. 'Well, it doesn't matter whether you do or not, because you don't make the decisions in this house,' she said calmly.

He scowled but she met his eyes.

'You're trying to make me sound unreasonable when I'm just being sensible,' he argued. 'That's very unfair tactics.'

'Well, if we're going to talk about unfair tactics, what about you barging in here?' she said indignantly.

To her surprise his manner held a touch of sheepish- ness.

'I used any method that would work,' he admitted.

'Anything that would get your own way,' she said lightly.

He grinned, and for a moment there was a touch of the old, boyish charm. 'It's what I'm good at.'

'Not as good as your daughter. I can't think who she gets it from, but she could give you lessons. Go and do your arguing with Cindy. My money's on her.'

CHAPTER THREE

Cindy was far too generous to exult over her victory but when they set off to Spare Paws, on the day before her birthday, there was a skip in her step.

They were met by Kelly, a pleasant woman in her late thirties, who greeted Cindy as an old friend.

'Cindy often helps us raise funds,' she explained. 'We're a charity, and we only exist through people's kindness.'

'Then perhaps this will help,' Garth said, scribbling a cheque.

Kelly's eyes widened at the sum. 'That's very generous, Mr Clayton.'

Cindy squeezed her father's hand gratefully. 'Can we buy some dog biscuits?' she begged, indicating a table where small bags of biscuits were on sale for a nominal price.

'It's hard to stop people feeding the dogs,' Kelly explained, 'so we provide these. Then we know what they're getting.'

Garth stocked up on biscuits. A very young kennel maid called Jane came to fetch Kelly to the phone, and take over her job of conducting the visitors.