Looking after Amelia was just as inconvenient as he had feared. It wasn’t that the child was troublesome in herself – quite the opposite, in fact. Most of the time she was as good as gold. It was just that he was all too aware he was supposed to be looking after her. There was only so much television she could be allowed to watch, and there weren’t many games a seven-year-old could play alone either inside or outside. In retrospect it might have been a good idea to take up Rachel Collington’s offer of an introduction to local children. At the time, however, he had been too set on proving he didn’t need her advice. She was a rather bossy young woman despite her fairy-like appearance. And she made mistakes too, look what had happened to Ben when she was in charge of him. Although he had to admit the dog wasn’t badly hurt, and the woman did have a lovely way with both animals and children. He sighed. Amelia shot him a worried glance. That decided him. The child shouldn’t be that anxious, he wasn’t really an ogre.
