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the door open for her. She shrugged. Maybe he didn’t want anyone to notice that he had given her a lift, not that anyone significant would be in the building this early. Some of the other partners came in early but the receptionist and secretaries rarely arrived much before nine o’clock. There were clearly two sides to Alex Weston and home and work did not mix. That was fine by her. She opened her office door and settled down in front of a new heap of mail. Poppy had carefully slit open the envelopes and left them ready for her return. How thoughtful, she smiled to herself. As the staff arrived, several of them waved or called greetings through the door. Everyone seemed pleased to see her and she felt the warm glow of being wanted.
    By the end of the morning, Sarah had completely forgotten that she had ever been away. She had a small digital recorder and made great use of it, instead of making her usual written notes for the secretaries to type her letters. She made lots of calls and set up appointments for clients for the following day. She would need to read up some files during the evening so she was completely up to date with everything. There was one particularly difficult case where she was acting for the father, following a messy divorce. The ex-wife was claiming that his child was unwilling to see him and he was very distressed. On the wife’s instructions, she needed to arrange supervised access through social services and somehow, to persuade his ex to allow it and comply with the divorce agreement. She hated such cases where feelings were running so high, knowing logic and common sense got lost in the welter of emotions that had killed what had once been love. It had made Sarah herself very cautious about her own life. She often wished she could have been as certain as her sister. When Beth and Mike had decided to marry, it had always been exactly what they both wanted and neither of them had any doubts. Neither of them had ever had any other person in their lives and they both seemed just as happy now after all the years. Maybe she had simply not met the right person and when she did, there would be no worries. Meantime, she had to try to sort out the complexities of Mr Knowles and his family.
    It was almost five o’clock when Sarah realised that she hadn’t had her meeting with Alex. Too late now, she decided and tidied her desk, ready to call a taxi and go home. Her phone rang.
    ‘Miss Pennyweather? Sarah. Mr Weston wonders if it would be convenient to see him now?’ It was Julia, his secretary, an elderly lady who had been with the company for many years. She had previously worked exclusively for Ken, the now retiring head of the practice. She wondered what Julia thought of her new boss, the new head of practice in all but name.
    ‘Fine,’ she murmured, mentally cancelling her relatively early finish. ‘I’ll come along right away.’ She picked up her briefcase and pushed various documents into it for reading at home. She felt weary but there was only one more day before the weekend. She had a little thrill as she thought of going out on Saturday to look at puppies with Alex. Maybe they could stop at some nice country pub on the way back. Thoughts of log fires and cheery warm bar food seemed most appealing. She wondered if she dare mention it to him.
    ‘Mr Weston is waiting for you,’ Julia said as she arrived in the outer office. ‘Go straight in. Would you like anything to drink? Tea, coffee, water?’
    ‘No thanks. I’m going straight home when I finish here. I’ll use your phone afterwards of you don’t mind. I need to call a taxi as I can’t drive yet.’
    ‘I’d offer to do it for you but I don’t know how long you’ll be and I’m about to leave for the day.’
    ‘Thanks. No problems.’ She tapped on the door and walked in without waiting for a reply.
    ‘Good evening. Hope you had a good day? Thanks for coming in. Hope it hasn’t made you late for anything?’
    ‘No. I was