‘I don’t doubt it, but you’re right. The window looks better that way. In fact the whole house looks better than it has in a long while. Very well cared for. Mrs Turner did a good job, but…’
‘It’s easier when you live in. There are always things that you just never get around to when you’re under pressure of time.’
‘Yes, I imagine so.’
‘It’s a lovely house.’
Ellie looked for a moment as if she was going to say something else.
‘But?’ he prompted. ‘A bit large for one person? Is that what you were going to say?’
‘I…’ She shook her head. ‘I was going to say that I enjoy looking after it. But, yes, it does need a family to fill it. Not that it’s any of my business.’
‘No, it isn’t.’
‘Was there something?’ she asked. ‘I don’t imagine you climbed all the way up here simply to admire the view.’
‘No…’ He dragged his fingers through hair that badly needed cutting. This was not going as he’d intended. ‘I just wanted you to know, to tell you, that I don’t expect you to move out at a moment’s notice simply because my plans have changed.’
‘That’s just as well, because a moment’s notice would leave me sitting on the street surrounded by my stuff.’
‘You haven’t got anywhere? Anyone you could move in with?’
Her look spoke volumes. ‘Not “at a moment’s notice”, but as quickly as possible-is that it?’
That had been his intention…
‘What about your parents?’ he asked.
‘Would you move in with yours?’ she demanded.
‘I don’t have that option.’
‘I’m sorry, but neither do I. I’m well beyond the age where I’m prepared to run home to Mother.’ Then, ‘I imagine Sue would let me sleep on her sofa, if you insist on me leaving straight away.’
‘No.’ No matter how much seeing her here, so perfectly in tune with the setting-an out-of-date romantic in a ridiculous folly-stirred up buried memories, no matter how badly he wanted her out of his house, he just couldn’t bring himself to say the words. ‘No need for that,’ he said. ‘How long, realistically, do you think it will take you to find somewhere to live?’
‘Realistically? Have you any idea how hard is to find decent rented accommodation in a university city packed with students?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer, but indicated the paper lying on the desk. ‘I’ll start looking tomorrow. You have my assurance that I won’t drag it out.’
‘Thank you,’ he said, somehow wishing that, rather than being so reasonable, she’d leapt in to demand-as she had every right to-he keep to the last letter of whatever contract she’d made with Adele. That way he might not feel quite so bad. ‘If you need any help with a deposit-’
‘No! Thank you, Dr Faulkner. I haven’t squandered the rent I’ve saved in the last three months.’
About to remind her that she was supposed to call him Ben, he let it go. The space was too intimate, the girl too unexpectedly appealing.
‘No. Well, I’ll leave you to get on, then.’
‘Doc…’
He paused in the doorway, looked back.
She pushed back a strand of dark hair that had fallen over her face. ‘I meant what I said about helping yourself to whatever you find in the kitchen. I promise there are no strings attached.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘BEN!’ Kitty, Adele’s secretary, greeted him with real warmth. ‘How lovely to see you.’ Then, ‘Well, probably not for you. Was it very bad? Did you have any trouble getting out?’
‘Yes, and yes, but I’m here and in one piece.’ He hadn’t encountered serious physical violence until he’d got home and Ellie March had fallen on him.
‘Glad to be home, no doubt. Is everything all right?’
‘The house is fine. Unfortunately, I appear to have a tenant.’
‘Ellie? Oh, Lord, I hadn’t thought about that. Is it going to be a problem?’
‘I don’t know,’he said. She’d said she’d look for somewhere else, but she’d have to pay a market rent, and in her shoes he wouldn’t be in any great hurry. ‘What’s the deal?’
‘She works for Adele, you know. Ellie is a real find, and she was so good when Adele had ’flu last January. Called in three times a day, did all her shopping and laundry. Made sure she was eating.’
‘I imagine she was paid for her trouble?’
‘Have you any idea how much that amount of time and care would cost?’ Kitty shook her head, clearly expecting no response. ‘She’s paid to clean the apartment for four hours a week. When Adele was sick she did that because it was her job. The rest she did in her own time, because she’s a thoroughly good person.’
‘No one is that good,’he said. ‘Whose idea was it for her to move into Wickham Lodge?’
‘You’re suggesting she had it all worked out? Was kind to Adele out of some ulterior motive?’
‘She took over from Mrs Turner, knew the house was going to be empty for twelve months…’
Kitty straightened her shoulders. A bad sign.
‘You can’t leave a house like that empty, Ben. There’s always something that needs seeing to, and when you took off without a moment’s warning-well, your sister was the one who had to chase around finding people to fix things. Broken gutters. A loose slate-’
‘Why on earth didn’t she send me an e-mail if it was too much for her? Why didn’t you? I could have organised a management agency-’
‘Oh, please! She’d give me hell if she knew I was telling you this. You’re more son to her than brother. You know that.’
He dragged his fingers through his hair. ‘You’re making me feel a complete heel, Kitty.’
‘I don’t mean to. I just wanted you to understand why, when Ellie’s creep of a landlord started calling at all hours, making it clear that he would overlook the rent in return for a more personal arrangement-’
He managed to catch the expletive, shook his head at her look of query.
‘Well, as I said, Ellie needed somewhere quickly, and Adele was at her wits’ end because she was committed to this six-month field-trip in Samoa.’
‘Ellie mentioned something about it.’ Although she appeared to have missed Samoa from her list of possible destinations.
‘Anyway, the coincidence was serendipitous, and it was all at Adele’s suggestion rather than any underhand wheedling by Ellie.’ She suddenly looked anxious. ‘It isn’t going to be problem, is it? Adele didn’t expect you back until next year. To be honest, she was hoping that Ellie would use the time to get this writing bug out of her system and by then she’d be ready to go back to teaching.’
‘Making life easy for her is a strange way to go about it.’ ‘Not really. The sooner she discovers that she’s wasting her time, the sooner she’ll give up.’
Perversely, his sister’s lack of confidence in Ellie’s talent irritated him, too. ‘How do you know she’s wasting her time?’
‘If she isn’t, Adele will have helped her on her way. A win-win situation.’
‘Maybe so, but my sister doesn’t have to share her house with a total stranger.’
‘It’s a big house, Ben.’
‘I know, but Ellie somehow manages to fill every corner of it,’ he said.
There was a mound of post waiting on the doormat when Ellie got home next day, so Ben Faulkner must have left for the university hard on her heels. It was just as well, since there was a large padded envelope from
