Page 16 of The Beekeeper's Cottage
‘You don’t need to explain,’ said Amos. ‘It’s understood.’
Grace held his look and swallowed. ‘I’ve obviously been telling Flora what’s been happening, and I’m upset and cross and… well, I’ll deal with all that later, but for now what’s worrying me the most is what happens next. What I do in practical terms. There’s so much to think about, and what’s worse is that I don’t want to think about it at all.’
‘The house?’ said Amos.
‘Yes, the house,’ she replied. ‘And if there’s a possibility that I am going to lose it, I want to know how long I’ve got. You spoke to the agent, Amos, did he say anything?’
Amos thought back to their conversation, wishing he had tried to probe a little harder. ‘Not a great deal, I’m afraid. I didn’t want to say too much myself, thinking it would make him suspicious, so all he really said was that he’d been asked to deal directly with your husband. He didn’t give any indication of whether the house would be going on the market, just that he was there to provide a market valuation.’
Grace narrowed her eyes. ‘I see. Well Paul would certainly instruct them if he was going to sell. Evan Porter has handled all Paul’s other transactions; the ones he doesn’t think I know about…’
‘One thing he did mention though… I commented on the house being such a lovely place that folks would be queuing up to buy it… and he agreed, but a little cautiously, I thought. Apart from the size of the property, which would put it beyond the financial reach of a lot of folk, he said the extent of the gardens isn’t to everyone’s liking and it could take longer to sell as a result.’
‘Well, that’s hopeful at least,’ said Flora. ‘It could take ages.’ She looked across at Grace. ‘Still, better not to have to sell it at all… The pig, after all you’ve done for him, Grace, you’d think he’d have the common decency to leave you the house.’
‘Paul wouldn’t know the meaning of the word decency,’ replied Grace. ‘He has chased all my friends away over the years and made it difficult for me to have any kind of life outside of the house, and now he wants to take away the one thing that brings me any pleasure.’
Flora paused for a second. ‘What will you do if he does decide to sell? Will you do what you threatened?’
Grace sighed, looking more resigned now than anything. ‘Yes, I will…’ She broke off, taking a deep breath. ‘In fact, it’s already done. If I wanted to stop it, I should have called my solicitor by five o’clock this afternoon, but I didn’t, so…’
‘Grace, you could have used the telephone if you needed to, you only had to ask!’ Flora looked horrified.
‘No, no. I had no intention of calling. Paul went ahead and sent the agent despite my threat, so now it’s in the hands of my solicitor. Dominic, Paul’s Head of Programming, will probably already have received an email by now, detailing some of his “activities” – what Dominic may or may not decide to do with that information is his business. And Paul will reap the consequences of his actions. I want nothing more to do with it.’ She turned to look at Amos. ‘You didn’t know I was such a cow, did you?’
He stared at her, his pulse racing as a rush of fierce protectiveness swept over him.
‘I don’t think that at all! Grace, you…’ He stopped himself. What he wanted to say would have been quite inappropriate, and his thought surprised him, sneaking up on him unannounced until that very second. ‘None of this is black and white,’ he said instead. ‘But I don’t think you should chastise yourself for what you’ve done; you’ve still been treated appallingly. Let’s hope that Paul sees some sense and decides not to put the house on the market after all. At least that will be of some comfort to you.’
Grace’s hands were clasped in her lap, one thumb rubbing across her knuckles. ‘Except that that will be the point at which my fight really begins.’
Flora leaned forward. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘Because, as I said to Amos earlier, Paul does not like to lose, especially to someone he considers beneath him. Even if I get to keep the house, he’ll still find a way to make life difficult for me. I’m not foolish enough to think that he would openly offer me a generous settlement in a divorce – and actually I’d rather not have his money at all. He’ll fight me financially every inch of the way. You said it yourself, Amos, it’s a very fine house, and it costs a fortune to run. I have a small income from my job at the shop and some modest savings which I started scraping together once I’d begun to read the writing on the wall, but it won’t last long. Even if I do get to keep the house, I really have no idea how I’m going to continue living there.’
Flora’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh, Grace. I had no idea…’
Grace gave a weak smile. ‘So you see, I’m rather going to have my work cut out for me…’
‘But there must be something you can do. You’ve done nothing wrong, and it’s just not right that Paul should win like this.’
‘But I have no skills, Flora. My age is against me, and a lifetime of cooking, entertaining and keeping house so that Paul could impress all his showbizzy friends has left me qualified for absolutely nothing.’
Amos looked across at Flora. His thoughts had been whirling at ninety miles an hour for the last couple of minutes and he wondered whether Flora’s had been heading in the same direction. They were sitting in the middle of a farm that had undergone a total transformation in a matter of months, and Flora herself had been its instigator. If anyone was capable of making something out of nothing, it was her. He would wait just a moment more to see if she would say anything. Her lips were currently pursed, and her brow furrowed in frustration; she was definitely thinking about something. She caught him looking at her and raised her eyebrows.
‘Penny for them, Amos?’
He dipped his head. ‘No, you go first. What was it you were going to say?’
‘Me? I wasn’t going to say anything. I was just thinking.’
‘And?’
Flora raised her eyebrows even further. ‘Well, if you must know, I was about to tick you off, Grace.’
Grace had just taken another sip of her drink and she coughed slightly.
‘Because what you just said sounded like the kind of thing that would have come out of Hannah’s mouth when I first got here,’ she continued, frowning. ‘That whole “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” thing, and you are so much more than that, Grace.’ She pulled a face. ‘I’ve been in your house don’t forget, on many occasions, and it’s an absolute oasis of peace and serenity. It’s beautifully decorated because you have an incredible eye for what works and what doesn’t, and I’ve also eaten enough of your food to know that you’re an amazing cook. You have plenty of skills, Grace, but you’re in danger of lumping them under the “domestic trivia” heading and thinking them worthless.’
