The Nanny (37 page)
Authors: Tess Stimson
A shadow moves in the back of the shop.
I gasp, and drop the box of orchids.
Cooper carelessly pushes aside the heaps of flowers blocking his way, and picks up the orchids, lifting the cellophane lid. ‘There are over twenty-five thousand species of orchid,’
he says conversationally, ‘more than any other flower. In the wild, they grow in the rainforests of the tropics, strange and brilliant, their intense scent almost too much to bear. The
Victorians believed they stood for ecstasy.’
Davina, Jenna: they must have been in on this
.
‘Red heather,’ Cooper says, handing me a spray, ‘promised passion. Lavender’ – he adds it to the heap in my arms – ‘signified devotion. Orange blossom,
eternal love. Red roses, of course, need no explanation.’
My arms are full.
‘Cooper—’
‘You made the right choice. The only choice. I promised you the next time I rescued anyone, it would be you.’
‘Cooper,’ I whisper.
‘Yellow tulips,’ he says, drawing me towards him, down into a dizzying kiss, crushing the flowers in my arms between us, drowning us both in their heady, glorious, intoxicating
scent.
Hopeless devotion.
‘Yellow tulips,’ I say.
As always, my deepest thanks to my wonderful friend and agent, Carole Blake, and to my talented (and patient!) editor, Imogen Taylor. I am the luckiest of writers to have both
of you. Every conversation is a pleasure.
All those at Blake Friedmann and Pan Macmillan – Oli Munson, Trisha Jackson, my smart, eagle-eyed copy editor Vicki Harris – you are amazing. How you manage to do what you do, in the
time that you do it, never fails to astonish me.
In researching the background to this novel, I found one book,
The Meaning of Flowers: Myth, Language & Lore
by Gretchen Scoble and Ann Field, particularly helpful. I recommend it
to any readers looking to pursue this avenue of interest.
For the girls: Michèle, Georgie, Danusia and Sarah: what would I do without you? The next book is specially for you . . . I love you all.
Kisses, too, to my father Michael and WSM Barbi, to my out-laws, Sharon and Harry, to Charles and Rachel, to Brent and especially to my WIL Jelena: thank you all for providing me with never a
dull moment. I’m truly blessed in having a family like mine.
Henry, Matthew and Lily: you’re the reason I get up in the morning. Quite literally, thank you very much. I adore you.
To my wonderful, amazing mother, Jane, whose love, wit and wisdom I miss still.
Above all, to my husband, Erik. For tea in the morning, for 3 a.m. editing sessions, and for quite simply being the sexiest, funniest, most wonderful man alive.
T
ESS
S
TIMSON
is the author of nine novels and two non-fiction books, and writes regularly for the
Daily Mail
as well as
for several women’s magazines. Born and brought up in Sussex, she graduated from Oxford before spending a number of years as a news producer with ITN. She now lives in Vermont with her
American husband, their daughter and her two sons.
This novel was previously published as
The Cradle Snatcher
B
Y
T
ESS
S
TIMSON
Fiction
The Lying Game
The Wife Who Ran Away
What’s Yours is Mine
The Nanny
The Infidelity Chain
The Adultery Club
Hard News
Soft Focus
Pole Position
Non-Fiction
Beat the Bitch:
How to Stop the Other Woman Stealing Your Man
Yours Till the End:
The Biography of a Beirut Hostage
First published 2009 as
The Cradle Snatcher
by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2013 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-4948-1
Copyright © Tess Stimson 2009
The right of Tess Stimson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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