‘When?’ The twins were nothing if not direct and Matt had to smile. He’d been like this at seven himself.

‘When the moon’s right. You can’t prawn with a full moon.’

‘So meanwhile it’s out of bounds.’ Erin fixed the two children with a look. ‘Promise me you’ll leave it be.’

‘Why?’ They glared back at her, and Matt’s grin broadened. Yep, these two were trouble, but you had to admire their spirit. And Erin was their match.

‘Because it’s dangerous to be in without adult supervision. The tide could take you out to sea.’

‘But we wouldn’t-’

‘You might. And while you’re living with me you obey my rules,’ she finished, and she glared at them right back. They tried meeting her look head on, but finally they conceded. How had he known that they would?

‘Okay, we promise,’ William whispered reluctantly.

One down, one to go. Erin’s gaze shifted. ‘Henry?’

‘I promise, too.’ And Matt knew that the promise would be kept. Trouble, he thought. Yep, they were trouble but they weren’t bad kids at heart. It was just a matter of guessing what the risks were before they took them. And Erin was some guesser.

She was some lady!

Finally he swam back to her as the twins whooped and dived away, the boat forgotten-or at least put on the back-burner. As he reached her, she’d just surfaced from a dive herself. They were nose to nose, a yard apart, and suddenly the whole set-up was intensely…

What?

He didn’t know what. He had no experience to describe the way she made him feel. She looked amazing, he thought, completely free of make-up, her blonde curls hanging in wet tendrils over her face and to her shoulders, and her eyes bright with sunshine and with happiness.

And this was a lady who’d lost everything only the night before?

Maybe her belongings had been in another place, he thought. He asked her, and her face momentarily clouded, the pleasure of swimming dissipating.

‘Nope. The Home has been my home for years. I guess everything I had in the world was burned.’ But then her face was deliberately cleared, blocking pain. ‘But they were just things. I told you before, they can be replaced. We have the kids and we have Tigger. Who can ask for anything more than that?’

She wouldn’t mourn if her white carpet was stained!

The thought crept in subtly at the edges and held. His house was full of beautiful things. How would he feel if they were destroyed?

Probably gut-wrenchingly dreadful, he decided, thinking of the paintings his mother had so carefully collected over her lifetime. To not care about things was an entirely new concept-as was the way he was looking at Erin now.

‘Hey.’ She was laughing, her lovely blue eyes twinkling at him over the water. ‘You’re looking at me like I just landed from Mars. I’m not that bad.’

She surely wasn’t. Different, yes. A world apart from the world he lived in.

That, too. But not bad.

The boys had dived through the water to shore, and were up on the bank. Instinctively Erin turned toward them. She’d learned early never to take her eyes from them. Not for a moment.

True to form, they’d headed straight to the only threat as far as the eyes could see. There were two long pieces of wood on the shore, driftwood brought in by the tide. The sticks were worn by the sea to smooth, white poles.

‘Hey, these’d make great swords,’ Henry yelled, and lifted one up. William was almost as fast, and Erin dived away from Matt and was at the river’s edge almost before the poles had touched.

‘No,’ she said sternly, but they tuned out as if they hadn’t heard her. The poles clashed in salute and clashed again.

And then the fight was on in earnest. Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham-without the finesse.

And without the Hollywood blunted swords. These sticks were big enough to hurt!

‘I said no!’ Erin was out of the water now, stalking toward them. She couldn’t get close-the sticks were flailing wildly enough for her to be injured if she got in the way. ‘William. Henry. You put those sticks down this minute or you will walk home. The long way or through the Joe Blake paddock. Take your pick.’

There was one more clash, but they’d heard her. The sticks slowed and their eyes grew thoughtful.

‘You know I mean it,’ Erin said, as if she didn’t particularly care what they decided. ‘You choose.’

They turned and stared at her, and Matt, who’d swum to the shore, watched the battle of wills with some surprise. This was a side of the twins he hadn’t seen. They were being crossed, and they didn’t like it.

He could have intervened, but he didn’t. This was Erin’s territory after all, he thought. She was the child expert, and she was facing them down with a sternness that told him she had every intention of following through with her threat.

‘We want to fight,’ Henry said, his voice mulishly stubborn.

‘And one of you will win and one of you will be hurt. Those sticks are heavy enough to hurt badly,’ Erin said. ‘You heard me, Henry. Put them down.’

Henry turned to William. Their eyes locked and Matt knew they were asking a question of themselves.

And finally Erin won.

But not happily. As if of one accord, the boys glowered, then turned and threw the sticks as hard as they could across the beach toward the paddock beyond.

It was just unfortunate that Sadie chose that moment to appear from behind the tractor.

The old dog hadn’t been with them during their tour-there’d simply been no room for her in the tractor cab-but she must have watched the tractor’s progress from the house. When it stopped she’d plodded on down to the river to find them. Just at the wrong time.

William’s stick caught her right across the foreleg. She gave one stunned yelp and collapsed. She tried to rise, yelped again and lay still.

No!

Matt launched himself up the beach like he’d been shot. His dog! His Sadie…

With one incredulous look at the twins, Erin followed him, her heart sinking to her toes. Dear heaven, just when everything was going beautifully…

It was always like this with the twins, she thought, her heart sick with dread. It was why no foster family would have them. Disaster followed them like sunshine followed rain.

‘Is she hurt?’ Erin couldn’t see. Matt was crouched over his dog, his whole body tense, and all Erin could see was one black and white tail. It lay ominously still. She took those last few steps around him, and then sagged in relief as she saw the collie lift her head and look pathetically up at her owner.

It had been her foreleg, then. For one awful moment Erin thought maybe she’d been mistaken in what she’d seen, and the stick had caught her head.

Her leg was bad enough, though. It was bleeding sluggishly at the point of impact, and Matt’s face was grim as death.

They’d be out of here tonight, Erin thought bleakly, as she looked down at the lovely old dog. And they deserved it. Oh, no!

‘Matt, I’m so sorry.’

‘So am I, but it’s not you who should be apologising.’ Matt’s voice matched the grimness of his face. One hand was cradling the old dog’s head, the other was carefully examining the injured leg. ‘Maybe it’s not so bad. I can’t feel a break, and she’s holding it up.’

She was, too. When Matt released the leg-just half an inch from the ground so it couldn’t be further hurt if it fell-Sadie kept it up, as much as to say, ‘Look at this, it hurts.’

‘She really is a bit of a hypochondriac,’ Matt told Erin in an undervoice, so the twins couldn’t hear. ‘But it was a fair whack. She’ll have to be checked.’

‘I’ll pay the vet’s bill.’ Heaven knew her wages weren’t sufficient to cover all she’d have to buy in the next few weeks but this…

It was her fault, she thought bleakly. She should have seen the sticks. She should have moved faster.

She’d let herself be distracted by Matt…

‘Erin, don’t! I told you before, it’s not you who should be apologising.’ Matt cradled his dog and looked up at her. She looked so distressed that he couldn’t bear it. Damn, she’d been through enough because of these kids.

She was so lovely. Standing there in her crazy crimplene that had turned totally translucent with the water, she looked…

Actually she looked naked.

Maybe he’d better concentrate on his dog-and on the twins, he told himself firmly. As Erin was so distressed, then it was time for him to take a hand in the twin-control stakes.

What these kids needed to learn was consequences.

But what?

The twins were standing side by side, ashen-faced and flinching. He looked up at them, and he knew instinctively that these kids had been beaten in the past. Beaten beyond reason. They weren’t in an orphanage for nothing. Nobody loved this pair, and they knew it.

So now their faces were stoic, expecting pain. They were expecting the world to come crashing down around their ears, as it had so obviously done in the past.

What had Erin said of them?

They expect to be rejected.

They expected it now. They were waiting for a good thrashing and to be sent away, and a glance at Erin’s face said she thought the same. Oh, not the thrashing-because she was here-but she was surely expecting him to toss them out.

‘Come here,’ he told them and then, when they didn’t move, he lowered his voice a notch. ‘Henry. William. I said come here. Now!’

With an uncertain look at each other they came. Slowly, their shoulders touching, they came, waiting for what was to come, but waiting together.

Erin’s whole body tensed.

She was like a mother hen, Matt thought. If he laid a finger on these boys, no matter how justified he was, he’d have her to contend with, and he just knew that taking her on would be some task.