Free The Firebrand Who Unlocked His Heart by Anne Fraser Page A

everything you need to know.’
    Colleen felt her hackles rise. Why did this man make it so difficult for her to feel sympathy for him? He hadbeen put in a difficult situation that was none of his making. But had he really tried to get to know his son?
    * * *
    It was another half an hour before he spoke again. ‘Harry’s best friend at boarding school is a boy called Nathan. You might find it helpful to talk to him about Harry. Haversham should be able to find out how to get hold of him.’
    At least Daniel knew one thing about his son.
    ‘Sounds like a good idea. Perhaps you could get Haversham on to it this morning?’
    The look Daniel sent her was an indecipherable mixture of exasperation and something else she couldn’t quite read. He was so different to Ciaran. With Ciaran everything was an open book and what you saw was what you got. But she knew she had got as much out of Daniel as she was going to—for the time being.
    * * *
    The home Harry had shared with his mother was a surprise. Given the imposing grandeur of Carrington Hall, she supposed she’d expected something similar, or, at the very least, just as grand. However, the cottage was similar to the ones they’d passed when they’d come off the motorway—a neat, compact house with a thatched roof and thick, whitewashed walls covered with roses and jasmine. Although it wasn’t what Colleen had expected, the house drew her immediately.
    ‘Does your ex-wife’s husband live here now?’ Colleen asked as they stepped out of the car.
    ‘David? As far as I’m aware he’s still in Buenos Aires. Mrs Hardcastle—Dora—should be here, though. The other help left after the accident, but Dora insisted on staying. She was housekeeper to my mother when I was a child and worked for Eleanor and I when we were married.She went with Eleanor and Harry to Buenos Aires and came back with them. This is the only home she knows.’
    He tried the door, but it was locked.
    ‘She’s probably gone down to the village,’ he said, fishing a set of keys out of his pocket. He smiled wryly. ‘I can’t remember when I last used these.’
    Inside the house was a revelation. Unlike Carrington Hall, it was furnished in bright, welcoming colours and sunlight streamed through the windows. The door led through a small entrance hall and into a sitting room-cum-dining room. The sitting room was furnished with deep, squashy sofas in pale linen and piles of brightly covered cushions. The coffee tables were a mismatch of oak and pine and the scrubbed and dark-varnished wooden floors were covered with deep red rugs. An inglenook fireplace took up most of one side of the sitting-room wall. Just off to the right was a small but adequate kitchen and a door that Colleen guessed led up to the upstairs bedrooms.
    ‘It’s beautiful,’ Colleen said. ‘My idea of a dream cottage.’
    Daniel was looking around, his expression bleak.
    ‘My mother loved this house. When I was a child she used to bring me here for the summer. It was the only place that felt like home.’ The last words were said so softly and with such regret that Colleen wasn’t sure she had heard right. Was she seeing another chink in Daniel’s armour? Maybe he wasn’t so detached as he liked people to believe?
    ‘Eleanor asked if she and Harry could live here when they came back to the UK, so I gave it to her.’ Daniel continued. ‘I knew Harry would be happy here.’
    Colleen touched him on the arm, wanting him toknow that she understood how painful it was for him to come to the place where he had once known happiness. He looked down at her hand and his muscles tensed. She removed her hand and stepped back, feeling as if she’d been stung.
    ‘Shall we have a look at Harry’s room?’ she suggested. ‘See what we should take back with us?’
    Harry’s bedroom was the first room on the right at the top of the narrow stairs. It was small, with only just enough room for a bed, a side table and a built-in cupboard. On