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It was then that they heard it, faintly, in the distance. ‘Daddy!'

‘Melanie!’ Richard called again.

‘Daddy!’

Richard grabbed Rachel's hand. ‘This way.' He raised his voice. ‘Keep calling. Melanie. We’re coming! We'll find you.'

Melanie’s voice sounded nearer and nearer through the mist until at last they saw her, sitting huddled at the foot of a small scree.

‘I fell. I’ve hurt my foot,' she whimpered as Richard scrambled down to her.

He picked her up bodily and carried her back to where Rachel was waiting. She put out her hand and Rachel took it.

‘I’m not going to school any more, Rachel. I’m not going to leave you, not ever again.' Her face was tear-stained and grubby, but she smiled at Rachel and wouldn’t relinquish her hand even on the awkward mountain slopes as Richard carried her down.

Once home Rachel bathed her and bandaged up her ankle. Then, as she sat in Rachel’s sitting room in her fluffy pink dressing gown, drinking warm milk and eating a boiled egg, Richard gently questioned her.

‘Didn’t you like it at school today, little one?’ he asked kindly.

‘Oh, yes. We did lots of nice things and there were lots of children to play with. I liked it.'

‘Then why did you run away?'

‘Because of Rachel.'

‘Because of me? Why?’ Rachel asked, puzzled.

‘Because I didn't want you to go away. And if I go to school you’ll go away, I know you will. I heard Miss McLeod say so this morning.'

Rachel looked at Richard and he nodded. ‘Moira came into Ardenbeg with us this morning and we were talking about school. Moira remarked ....'

‘I see.’ Rachel cut him short. She could just hear Moira saying, ‘Now Melanie is at school you’ll be able to get rid of her governess,' without Richard twisting the knife in the wound by actually repeating the words.

‘So I came home,' Melanie beamed at them both. ‘I’d have been home much sooner if I hadn’t fallen and hurt my foot.’ She looked at her bandaged ankle. ‘Is it broken, Rachel?’

‘No, you’ve just sprained it, that’s all.' Rachel picked Melanie up off her chair and sat down herself with the little girl on her knee. ‘But you mustn’t run away like that, darling. Think what might have happened if we hadn’t found you. You could have been there all night. Promise you won’t run away from school again.'

‘Oh, I won’t run away again, because I’m not going. I’m going to stay at home with you.’ Melanie smiled happily.

Rachel frowned. She didn’t quite know what to say. She looked at Richard for guidance, but his expression gave no help.

Suddenly he got up and lifted his little daughter off Rachel’s knee. ‘I’m going to take you to bed, little one,' he said. ‘You’ve had rather a nasty experience and you need a good night’s rest.'

Melanie put out her hand. ‘Rachel?’ she asked. ‘You’re coming too?’

‘No,' Richard said firmly, ‘Rachel isn’t coming too. I’m going to put you to bed. You rely far too much on Rachel, child.’

He was right, Rachel admitted to herself as she cleared Melanie’s tea things away; Melanie had begun to rely too much on her. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to pack up and leave, before Alistair and Rose returned, so that Melanie would settle down at school and forget her. While she was here Melanie would never be any different. She went into her bedroom and dragged out a suitcase.

‘Rachel! Rachel! Where are you?’ Richards voice called from the sitting room.

She brushed her hand across her face to try and compose herself and went to the door of the bedroom.

‘Ah, there you are.’ He came over to her and took her by the shoulders. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘will you tell me once and for all what there is between you and Ben Carson’. He looked positively fierce as he waited for her answer.

‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’ She was too dazed by his tone to be other than completely truthful.

‘And there’s nobody else?’

‘Like whom?' She was bewildered.

‘David McLeod .... Oh, I don’t know .....'

Rachel shook her head wearily. ‘No, there’s nobody at all. Why do you ask?’

He let his hands slide down her arms till he could take her hands in his. ‘Rachel, I know you said only this morning that you could never marry a man you didn’t love, but do you think that perhaps, in certain circumstances, you just might?’ His voice had lost its firmness, was almost humble. ‘Do you think, for Melanie’s sake, you could marry me, Rachel? She loves you so much and needs you so badly—almost, God help me, as much as I do.’ He dropped her hands and turned away.

She caught her breath. ‘Oh, Richard, do you really mean that?’

‘Of course I mean it,’ he said impatiently. ‘Do you think I haven’t gone through hell watching you with Ben Carson? I’ve even tried to think of ways to get him sacked. And when I saw you coming out of Rose’s bedroom with him .....'

‘Oh, Richard, I love you!’

He turned back to her, a look of absolute incredulity on his face. ‘Say that again.’

‘I love you, Richard.’

In an instant he gathered her into his arms and there was no holding back this time as his mouth came down on hers. A long time later Rachel smiled up at him. ‘Just to set your mind at rest, Ben had only that minute come upstairs to see what was wrong when I slipped on the polished floor in Rose’s bedroom.’

He groaned. ‘My insane jealousy made far more of it than that. I went through hell!’

‘Just as I did when I saw you kissing Moira the night she and David came to dinner.’

‘That was an act of bravado, so that you shouldn’t know how much I cared.’

‘Oh, Richard, how stupid we’ve both been!’

‘Not any more, though.’ He began kissing her again.

‘Shall we go and tell Melanie?’ Rachel said when, much later, he paused for breath. ‘I think she’ll approve.’

‘I know she will.’ Richard kept her within the circle of his arm as they went across the corridor to Melanie’s bedroom.

‘Rachel’s going to stay here for always, little one,’ he whispered to his little daughter. ‘She’s going to marry me and be your mother.’

‘Oh,’ Melanie’s voice was thick with sleep. ‘That’s good. That means I’ll still be able to go to school. I didn’t really want not to go. School was nice. But I couldn’t lose Rachel. Now I can have both.’ Her voice slurred. School and a new mummmmmy ..... ’ She drifted into sleep with a smile of utter contentment on her face.

There was much excitement over Rose and Alistair’s homecoming. Richard and Rachel had secretly planned their wedding for the week after their return and Melanie was to be bridesmaid. As they broke the news over dinner on their first evening together Alistair turned to his wife and covered her hand with his own.

‘We saw it coming, my love, didn’t we? Right from the beginning.’

Rose nodded happily. ‘Right from the beginning.'

Richard raised his eyes in mock exasperation. ‘What did I tell you, Rachel? My father knows me almost better than I know myself. Well, Father, what else do you predict?’

‘I never actually make predictions,’ Alistair smiled. He raised his glass. ‘But I hope that you will find as much happiness together as Rose and I have.’

‘Amen to that,’ said Rose.

And as Rachel looked at her aunt and saw the serene happiness in her face she realised that she could wish for nothing better.