The Nanny Affair. Robyn Donald

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      Shortly afterwards a dismayed Emma realised that the safety pin she’d used to secure her slip strap had come undone and, apart from savagely jabbing her shoulder, had relinquished its hold on her slip.

      Affronted by the prospect of revealing a scoop of satin beneath her hem, she waited until her hostess was free and explained her predicament

      ‘Oh, dear, how annoying! There’s a powder room along the hall,’ Mrs Talbot said. ‘I’ll show you where it is.’

      Although small, the powder room was luxuriously fitted and decorated with a throwaway charm that was informal and friendly. Family photographs hung along one wall in a kind of mural. Emma saw Kane in various stages—a child laughing at a large dog, an adolescent who’d managed to avoid the gangly stage, a young man sitting completely at ease on a horse.

      Hastily she forced herself to look at the other photographs. One image—repeated several times—hit her like a kick in the stomach. Dark, brilliant eyes looked out at the world from a tense face; dark hair was dragged back in the child, drawn sleekly away from the lovely, adult face that bore a faint resemblance to Kane’s.

      ‘My stepdaughter—Kane’s half-sister,’ Mrs Talbot said, following Emma’s gaze. ‘Diane’s mother died when she was very young, so when I married her father I suppose I should have expected fireworks. However, I was very young myself, and I had no idea how a child could react to a stepmother. I expected it to be roses all the way, and fortunately Diane is as sweet-tempered as she is beautiful, so she accepted me happily. When Kane was born a year later she fell in love with him—not a sign of jealousy!’