‘We’re a family business here. I do like to know the people who work for our family. Dinner would let us get to know each other better.’

‘Well, I was just about to join Daniel for lunch in the staff canteen, you’re welcome to join us. I hear the cheese and pickle sandwiches are to die for.’

She narrowed her eyes at his deliberate obtuseness. Just then Daniel came back. He looked at Clara in confusion – obviously it wasn’t the norm for her to be seen talking to the carpenters.

‘Oh hello, Ms Stratton,’ Daniel said. ‘Are you lost?’

Henry clenched his lips together to stop the laugh from bursting from his mouth.

Clara forced her eyes from Henry to look at Daniel.

‘What do you mean, lost?’

‘We don’t normally see you down here, I thought you might have taken a wrong turn,’ Daniel said, innocently. ‘Henry, here are your papers, are you coming to lunch?’

‘Yes, of course. Clara, are you joining us?’

Daniel gave a blatant laugh which he turned into a coughing fit.

She glared at Daniel before returning her attention back to Henry. ‘Perhaps another time.’

She turned and strode away, back the way she had come, her bum swaying frantically at the speed she was departing.

‘Bloody hell, Henry, the last person you want to get involved with is Clara Stratton,’ Daniel said, when she had gone. ‘I’d try to stay out of her way from now on if I was you.’

Henry sighed. The perfect job was coming with a red-headed downside.

Penny stepped back to look at her finished sleigh. She had to drop it off at a party tonight before she went on to the competition. She loved the bulging sack with a tumble of presents coming out the back. The intricate bows and shapes of the presents had taken quite a long time to get right, but she was proud of the finished result.

She glanced over at Daisy who had been working silently and diligently for the last hour, taking her time with her piece. Penny had showed her a few skills to work on that were particularly useful for this sculpture and, as she had picked it all up very quickly, Penny had pretty much left her to it.

She moved round to look at the snowflake now that it was largely finished and felt her mouth drop in awe. Daisy had already asked Penny to cut the block vertically in half so the snowflake was a lot thinner, even though Penny had warned Daisy that this could make carving a lot harder because the thin bits could be broken off. But Daisy had done a wonderful job. All the tiny delicate fingers of the snowflake had been carved to perfection, each branch rounded so the snowflake looked like it was made from thin tubes.

‘Daisy, this is incredible.’

Daisy looked at her in shock. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, you have a real talent for this stuff. I can’t believe this is your first time.’

‘I did do that wood carving course in the summer, so that taught me a lot of things.’

‘Yes, but even so you’re an absolute natural at this stuff. The thing with carving and sculpture is you either have the eye or you don’t, it’s not something that can really be taught. You’ve definitely have the skills to actually do this professionally.’

‘Nah, I mean it’s OK, but it’s not like yours.’

‘It’s better than mine, and I’ve been doing it for ten years. Why don’t you enter it into the competition tonight?’

‘Oh god, I couldn’t. All those professionals and my crappy snowflake.’

‘What have you got to lose?’

‘My dignity, when I come last.’

‘I never enter to win, I enter just to be a part of the experience. Come on. I promise you it’s good enough to be entered.’

Daisy stared at the snowflake and then back at Penny, a grin slowly forming on her face.

‘OK.’

‘Brilliant. Come on, let’s get warmed up and changed. Josh will be here soon and I need to wrap up the sculptures ready for moving them.’

Daisy helped Penny put the carvings back in the freezer and walked out the cool room, bumping straight into Henry as he came through her back door.

‘Oh hey, Dad, you looking for me?’ Daisy asked.

Henry flashed Penny a quick glance that told her he’d actually been looking for her. ‘Yes, I wondered if you were in here.’

Daisy wrapped an arm round his waist and he planted a kiss on her forehead. Penny loved how tactile they were with each other.

‘How was work?’ Daisy asked.

‘Interesting,’ Henry said, giving Penny another glance. ‘The people are great, I think I’m going to enjoy working there. And I love the furniture they make, it’s so stylish, I can’t wait to be a part of that. I met Clara too.’

Penny tried to keep her expression neutral. She’d seen Clara around town a few times and she knew how beautiful she was. She wondered what Henry’s impression was of her.

‘The boss lady?’ Daisy asked.

‘Yes, she came downstairs to talk to me specifically.’

‘Oh, that’s nice, maybe I was wrong about her,’ Penny said, turning away. She wasn’t wrong, Clara had come downstairs to speak to Henry because he was hot and that was the only reason.

‘She asked me out for dinner.’

Penny opened up a can of beans and poured the contents into a saucepan, throwing the empty can into the bin a bit harder than was necessary.

What must it be like for Henry to have all these smart, beautiful, rich, successful women throwing themselves at him? He could have any woman he wanted, yet he had kissed her. Had he kissed her simply because she had been upset and he felt sorry for her? That would be an awful reason to kiss her. Now his boss was asking him out. Surely it would be professional suicide to turn her down. And as she was so beautiful it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

‘Eww, Dad, don’t go out with your boss, that’s such a cliché.’

‘I have no intention of going out with her. It would be beyond awkward if things turned sour. Besides, she isn’t my type.’

Penny glanced over at him, and although he was talking to Daisy she felt like he was saying all this for her benefit.

‘You mean she didn’t have sleek blonde hair, big tits and a tiny waist,’ Daisy laughed. She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and went to take a bite out of it before Henry snatched it from her and put it back in the bowl again. Daisy pouted.

Penny looked down at her tiny breasts and definitely not tiny waist. This conversation was getting better and better.

‘I don’t just go for blondes, I don’t have a type. I’m attracted to personalities, not looks,’ Henry said.

‘Yeah right. That’s why all your girlfriends have been verging on the supermodel end of the spectrum.’

‘You’re not painting me in a good light here,’ Henry growled at Daisy and she laughed, completely unperturbed with the idle threat in his voice.

‘You create your own reputation, that’s nothing to do with me.’

‘Come on, trouble, we’ll leave Penny to some peace and quiet.’

‘She asked me to come with her to a competition tonight, it’ll be great experience for me to see the other carvers and their work. Can I go?’

Penny waited for Daisy to tell Henry that she was submitting her own piece to the competition but she didn’t.

Henry looked over at Penny. ‘Is that OK?’

‘Yes of course.’

Henry shrugged. ‘All right then. Well, let’s go and have dinner and Penny can knock for you when she’s ready to go.’

He ushered her out through the connecting door and gave Penny a little smile as he closed the door behind them.

If that conversation about Clara had been designed to make her feel better it’d had the complete opposite effect.

Chapter Ten

Henry finished washing up the dinner things when a movement caught his eye outside the window. There was a huge man outside and, as Henry watched, he let himself into Penny’s house through the back door.