She had turned away, when she heard Henry speak.

‘Do you have any idea how rude it is to come over and interrupt me when I’m talking to someone?’

Penny turned back in shock.

Beth looked around and saw Penny as if for the first time and giggled. ‘Oh, it’s only Penny. You don’t mind, do you, Penny?’

Penny shook her head; there was no point in kicking up a fuss over it.

‘Well I do,’ Henry said, storming past Beth so he was at Penny’s side again. He put his hand on the small of her back encouraging her up the hill. ‘I’m sorry, was she a friend of yours?’

‘No, she was in my class at school but we’re definitely not friends.’

‘I can’t abide rude people. Look, I better go, I have to pick Daisy up.’

‘I love Daisy,’ Bea said, cuddling into Henry’s chest. ‘Do you love Daisy, Uncle Henry?’

‘Very much.’

‘And do you love me?’

‘Of course.’

Bea seemed satisfied by this answer. He had a lovely way with his niece. He would have made a great dad to his child and it broke Penny’s heart that he had never been given that chance. But at the age of sixteen, when he was still a child himself, he probably would have struggled. There weren’t many children who had the maturity to raise a child at that age, so maybe his kid being put up for adoption had been for the best.

‘We’ll pop by later so you can meet Daisy, if that’s OK. She’s dying to see you.’

Penny nodded and Henry rushed off up the hill, with Bea waving madly over his shoulder.

Penny watched him go, sparks zinging through her body. Even without any sign language, the signals that he was giving off were those of somebody who was physically attracted to her. No one ever looked at her like that. She was damaged goods to most of the men in the town. Chris had seen to that, telling all his friends how messed up she was after the miscarriage, how she’d sit and cry for hours on end. A lot of the men her age had been too scared to go anywhere near her after that. Even after all this time, there was a wariness from the men in the town as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Henry was different, like he just saw her and none of the other baggage mattered. It infuriated her that she liked him so much, that he had kept her awake all night, her thoughts filled with him. He was married, he loved Daisy. There was no way this could end happily for her.

Penny pulled up behind Henry’s car a while later and could see him standing on the edge of the hill with his arm wrapped round a woman with bright blonde hair. They were looking out on the view and the woman was pointing out certain things down in the town. She was tiny, maybe a bit smaller than Penny, and stick-thin; even her arms and legs were tiny like a child’s. She was wearing flowery jeans and a black t-shirt and was clinging on to Henry like she adored him.

Penny got out of her car and Henry looked over his shoulder at her. He must have said something to his wife because the blonde suddenly turned around, a huge grin splitting her face as she looked at Penny. Penny approached, unable to take her eyes off Henry’s wife. She couldn’t be any older than eighteen. She had large blue eyes and rosy cheeks and was undeniably beautiful, but she looked like she was fresh out of college. Penny noticed that the t-shirt she was wearing had a kitten on it. She was a child, and Henry suddenly sank down quite considerably in her estimation.

‘Daisy, this is our landlady Penny, Penny this is Daisy.’

‘Hi,’ Penny said, quietly, suddenly feeling old and haggard in the face of his young, beautiful wife.

‘Hi, I’m so pleased to meet you, I saw Bernard through your window, can I meet him, Bernard is the coolest name for a dog ever,’ Daisy chattered with the over-exuberance of a puppy.

‘Sure,’ Penny said, gesturing for Daisy to follow her in. Daisy looked up at Henry with complete adoration as if asking his permission, which he actually gave with a nod of his head.

‘I’m just going to check on lunch, you girls go ahead,’ Henry said, disappearing through his own front door.

Daisy followed her in and Bernard fell off the sofa and ambled over to greet the new visitor, wagging his tail and sending the magazines and newspapers on the coffee table flying.

Daisy immediately sank to her knees to stroke him. ‘Aren’t you the cutest thing ever?’

Bernard rolled over onto his back so Daisy could stroke his belly and Daisy giggled. ‘I love dogs, but my dad would never let me get one.’

Penny watched her getting over-excited about Bernard. Not only was she physically like a child but she had the maturity of one too. She was very sweet and endearing but she wasn’t at all what she’d imagined when she thought of Henry’s wife.

‘So, Daisy, are you at university or…’ She trailed off before she said college; she didn’t want to offend her. Maybe she just looked a lot younger than she was.

Daisy giggled again. ‘Everyone always thinks I’m a lot older than I am. I’m sixteen, just. It was my birthday last week. I’m at school, taking my GCSEs this year, but I’ll be going to college in September.’

Penny’s gut twisted with a sick rage. She was barely sixteen, Henry had taken her away from her family and shacked up in some sick lovers’ nest in her home. There was no way she was going to condone that.

‘Would you mind staying here with Bernard for a moment? I just need a quick word with Henry.’

‘Sure.’ Daisy barely looked up as she stroked Bernard all over.

Penny let herself in through the connecting door, not even caring that she was entering his home without his permission. Henry poked his head through the kitchen door and was surprised to see her and not Daisy.

His eyebrows furrowed with concern at her face as he walked into the lounge. ‘You OK?’

Penny closed the door behind her. ‘She’s a child,’ she spat.

‘Very astute.’

‘And you’re married to her, how is that even legal? Surely someone has to be eighteen to get married. Look at the size of her and look at the size of you. You make me sick.’ She slammed her finger into his hard chest.

Henry couldn’t have looked more shocked if she’d come into his house stark naked dancing the conga. ‘Wait, wait a minute. I’m not married to her.’

‘That doesn’t make it any better.’ Penny realised she was shouting. ‘I thought you were a decent, kind man and now I find you’re nothing more than a disgusting pervert.’

His eyebrows shot up and then immediately slashed down in a furious scowl. ‘Firstly, just because you are my landlady doesn’t mean you have the right to walk into my home any time you feel like it.’ Henry opened the door behind her. ‘Secondly, Daisy isn’t my wife, or my girlfriend, she’s my daughter. Now get out of my house before you see me get really mad.’

Chapter Four

Penny drove up through the steep, winding lanes as the houses got scarcer on the way up towards her home.

How had she been so stupid? Why hadn’t she asked for more information on the people that were moving into her home? Had she been so desperate for some company that she would have accepted anyone? The agency had never said that it was a father and daughter, they’d just said Henry and Daisy Travis and she had wrongly assumed they were a couple. Maybe they deliberately hadn’t told her because she might have had reservations about a teenager moving in next door, or maybe they just hadn’t thought to pass that kind of information on.

She hadn’t seen Henry all afternoon as she finished her ice carving and not even later when her assistant Josh had come round to help her load it into the van. Daisy had gone out earlier, clearly to explore the town, but although Henry had been in, there had been no sound at all from next door, the silence somehow foreboding.