She tried to hurry, but the mountain of bags and packages that she'd balanced precariously on one arm slowly listed to one side. Jane, similarly laden, lurched forward to catch .them but they cascaded all around her. Sian hesitated, caught between the mess on the porch step and the distant shrill of the phone, until Jane cried, 'Go on—go on—I'll pick all this up. It might be somebody important!' She hurried down the hall as fast as her protesting muscles would allow, swung around the corner and lunged for the receiver. After all her scrambling, it would probably be for Jane, she thought in amusement, as she snatched up the handset and said breathlessly into it, 'Hello?' There was a click and a crackle, then a man's voice, wonderfully familiar, came down the line, 'Sian?' 'Daddy!' she exclaimed in surprise and pleasure, as she dropped into a nearby stuffed chair. 'Sure, and what other man would be calling for you, darling?' Devin said teasingly. 'Might there be some little secret that you've been keeping from your old Dad?' 'Quite a few, now that I come to think of it,' she retorted with a grin, while a delighted glow spread all over her.
