Rhys turned in the doorway.“Catriona, I won’t be back until dinner tonight.Can you manage here?”
“I can,” Cat said cheerfully, because she would be fine.
It might not be fun, but she’d come to work not play.
They were out the door quickly leaving Cat and Olivia together in the hall.
Olivia looked at Cat warily.“You’re American,” she said after a long silence.
“I am,” Cat agreed.“You’re English.”
Olivia cracked a small smile.“You’re funny.”
“Sometimes.”
Olivia giggled, then quickly glanced toward the stairs in case her sister was listening, and low and behold, Jillian was there, sitting on the staircase listening.
Cat pretended she didn’t see her.“Do you think the biscuits are cool enough that we could spread the jam now?”she asked Olivia.“They look delicious.”
Olivia darted another glance toward her sister.“Should we ask Jillian to join us?She made them too.”
“Oh, I don’t think she’s interested,” Cat said airily.
“You don’t?Why not?”
“Well, if she was interested in being with us, she would have come down and said something nice to smooth things over and then we all would have felt much better.”Cat beamed at the girl and then headed into the kitchen.“What jam are you using for the middle?Strawberry?”
“Raspberry,” Olivia said, trailing after Cat.“Mrs.Johnson made it last summer when she made all her jams and preserves.”
Everything was already laid out on the counter to complete this final step of spreading a bit of jam on the bottom biscuit before topping it with the biscuit that had a cut out, or window.
Cat went to the sink, washed her hands and then found a clean dishtowel in a drawer to dry her hands on.“Were you here over the summer when she was making her jams?”
Olivia shook her head as she dutifully washed her hands.“No.This is my first time being here.Jilly was here as a baby, but she doesn’t remember.”
“So, you don’t come here for Christmas every year?”
Olivia’s head lifted and her startled gaze met Cat’s.“Oh, no, we always have Christmas in London.At Mummy’s house.Which used to be our house until they di—”
“That’s enough, Olivia,” Jillian said sharply, silencing her sister.“Miss… Catriona… doesn’t need to know our family history.She won’t be here long.”
Olivia looked from Cat to her sister and back.“I thought Daddy said she’d be here through the holidays.”
“Until Mum comes home,” Jillian said flatly.“That’s it.”
Cat smiled brightly.“That’s right.Until January fifth or so, when you return to school.”
Jillian lifted a disdainful brow.“Or Mum takes us.”
Cat shrugged.“All I know is that the cookies—”
“Biscuits,” Jillian corrected.
Cat ignored her, focusing on Olivia.“Won’t wait until the new year.So, shall we spread the jam so your father can have a jammie dodger when he returns?”
That silenced conversation for a bit, and they were all industriously at work when Rhys returned five minutes later, bursting through the front door with all of Cat’s luggage.Cat hadn’t expected him for hours and she wondered what she’d done, or what might have happened to bring him back already.
Quickly, she rinsed the sticky jam off her hands before going to the hall.“Everything okay?”she asked.
