Page 41 of The Beekeeper's Cottage
Amos held up a hand. ‘I’m playing devil’s advocate here for a minute, but just hear me out. Aside from being supremely insensitive, and some would argue tantamount to blackmail, there is also one way of looking at this situation so that it works in your favour.’
‘Yes, I know, I get to keep the house.’
‘No, I don’t mean that. When is this house party supposed to take place?’
‘Sometime next month, I don’t know exactly. Why?’
‘Because, as you yourself said, what you used to do all those years ago is very similar in nature to what you’re proposing to do in the future. We’d already agreed that there are areas of the house that you’d like to spruce up ready to receive guests, so let’s do that anyway. It won’t hurt the cause, and you could treat the whole house party thing as a dry run for when your business is up and running. You haven’t done anything like this for a while, so it could throw up some other problems which you might not otherwise have thought of.’
‘Yes, and I’d be giving Paul exactly what he wants. I’ve done that for too many years, Amos. And that’s aside from the fact that after I caught Paul kissing one of the guests at the last weekend we hosted, I swore I would never, ever, do it again.’
‘And that was when Dominic made a pass at you?’
‘Yep, right after Paul made a laughing stock of me in front of everyone because I refused to find his actions funny. They all jeered at me, Amos… I’ve never been more humiliated in my life.’
Anger quickened Amos’s heartbeat as he clenched his jaw. Who could even do that to someone as lovely as Grace? But anger wasn’t the way forward, and he thought quickly.
‘Does Paul know what you’re planning to do with the house?’
‘No… And I don’t want him to; he’d hate the idea.’
‘Then that’s even more reason to do it! Take all the anger, humiliation and hurt that Paul has made you feel and channel it into a determination to succeed, Grace – that’s the only way you’ll win. You think you’re giving him what he wants, but only if you view it in that way. Worse, by doing so you risk losing the very thing you want yourself. This is just one more step along the path thatyouhave chosen, you and nobody else, and that’s the only way to look at it. And if you do, you’ll see that it’s actually incredibly good timing.’
Grace sat up, staring at him. ‘How did you do that?’ she asked.
‘Do what?’
‘Suddenly turn what I’d thought of as the worst kind of insult into the best idea there’s ever been?’
Amos merely smiled. ‘What do you think?’ he said. ‘Could you make it work? Forget who these people are and why they’re coming, and treat them as guests, just as you would any other?’
Grace was studying his face, listening to him but drawing in what he was saying deeper and deeper, thinking of the possibilities, what it would all mean. And as he watched her, taking it all in, he could see the moment when she decided that she could. Her face broke into a smile and she reached forward. Her hand slipped into his, taking his breath with it.
‘Will you help me?’ she asked.
‘Of course,’ Amos replied. ‘I already am.’
‘I know, but I meant…’ She trailed off. ‘Amos, I can’t do this by myself.’
‘Then I’ll be here,’ was all he said in reply.
15
Grace wasn’t sure who was the more surprised, Dominic or her. She suspected that having practically thrown him out of her house he’d thought he would never hear from her again, save for the obligatory Christmas card, if he was lucky. And yet here she was, agreeing to his proposal and asking that he send her more details as soon as he could so that she could prepare for her guests in the best possible way. Likes, dislikes, she wanted to know it all.
It wasn’t a long phone call and Grace kept it as business-like as possible. She could hear the intrigue in Dominic’s voice – he was dying to ask her why she had changed her mind but that was a conversation she had no wish to hold with him.
She put down the phone and smiled at Hannah. ‘There now, that’s done,’ she said. ‘There’s no going back.’
‘I think you’re incredibly brave.’
‘Or incredibly stupid,’ replied Grace. ‘I know it makes sense, but it’s not having the guests here that bothers me, it’s having to pretend that I’m still part of a couple, that this is the home I share with Paul. He’s hardly been here over the last few months anyway, and since I asked him for a divorce he hasn’t set foot in the place, but I’m ashamed at how much I like it that way.’
Hannah smiled sympathetically. ‘Grace, don’t you dare feel bad about that, not given what you’ve had to put up with. Goodness, even in the last week or so there’s been a change in you that’s as obvious as the nose on my face.’
‘Has there?’ Grace’s hand wandered to her hair. ‘What kind of change?’
‘A good one,’ said Hannah. ‘The kind that a certain dark handsome stranger has wrought.’
