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she had either the will or the stamina to make a nurse.
    No wonder her sailor patient had not wanted to lose sight of her, Davina thought as James’s laughing, ‘Better take that preoccupied look off your face, Dav. It’s a dead giveaway,’ brought her back to where she was. ‘You’ve been singularly unobservant where Catrin is concerned,’ he went on in a low voice. ‘She’s growing up to be the star of the family where looks are concerned. Why do you think Miranda’s such a pig to her? She saw long ago that she’d have to look to her laurels one fine day.’
    Davina turned her head and looked down to meet James’s gaze. ‘Now who’s being a pig? Not that it will harm Miranda to stop imagining she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. She’s been queening it over us ever since we were children —which reminds me, what time is Paul due here?'
    ‘What made you ask that? Let me guess. Association of ideas? You’re right, of course, Paul’s the only one of our generation who can take Miranda down a peg or two. Let’s hope he’s on form if Miranda arrives tomorrow in one of her more off-putting moods.’
    Davina sighed. ‘We’ve been warned that all is to be sweetness and light during the birthday celebrations.’
    ‘Aunt Helen’s suggestion, I would guess,’ James replied. At Davina’s nod he went on, ‘In that case we must all be on our best behaviour and I’ll tell Paul to hold his fire however obnoxious Miranda is. After all,’ he added with a butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth expression, ‘she’ll keep. Like us she’ll be staying over for a few days after Grandmother’s birthday.’
    As Davina burst out laughing Catrin asked, ‘What are you two plotting? They’re the enfants terribles of the family,’ she explained to Rex as he raised questioning brows. ‘I bet you they’re up to something.’
    James threw out his arms in a gesture of surrender. ‘Acquit us this time, Catrin. We were merely discussing the fair Miranda. In a purely cousinly way, of course,’ he added.
    ‘Shouldn’t imagine there’d be anything pure about it, but you’re forgiven. Who’s for another dip before we dress for dinner? You know how Gran hates us to be even a minute late.’
    She got up and took a header into the pool, followed almost immediately by James. Davina sat up on the lounger, arms clasped around her knees, and had decided she’d be better employed washing and setting her hair than swimming when she suddenly became aware that Rex had got up to come and stand beside her.
    She had to tip her head right back to see his face and as he reached a hand down the muscles rippled across immense shoulders. Fascinated by the sheer power in this simple movement, she blinked when he said abruptly, ‘Come along. Upstairs for a rest before you titivate. Judging by your efforts in the pool earlier, I would guess you’re a bit out of shape— in a sporting sense, of course.’
    He pulled Davina off the lounger and on to her feet as he spoke, draping a towel round her shoulders as if he took her obedience for granted. She still had a long way to look up, as her head barely topped his shoulder, and a glance into his expressionless face did little to help her decide if he’d been making a two-edged remark or not. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘Too many late nights and snack meals,’ she admitted. ‘It will do me good to live in the country again. No temptation to sit up late there.’
    ‘Not if you’ve to be up and dressed to get a meal on the table for a hungry man by seven a.m.,’ Rex agreed, then at Davina’s look of astonishment he asked, ‘You did volunteer to come and be my housekeeper, didn’t you? It’s no good lying in bed when you’ve a flock of sheep to attend to, and I can’t be in two places at once. Not that I ever did believe in keeping a dog and doing my own barking,’ he added as he turned away to dive into the green-tinted water.
    Davina’s mouth all but