The great hall had been the heart of the medieval house, but its stone walls had been panelled in the seventeenth century, and a grand wooden-staircase now swept down from a gallery on the first floor. At one end, a vast fireplace dominated an entire wall, and there was a dais at the other.
‘Perfect for the high table,’ said Cassie, pointing at it with her mug. Netbook under one arm, coffee clutched in her other hand, she turned slowly, imagining the space filled with people. ‘They’ll love this,’ she enthused. ‘I can see it being really popular for winter weddings.
‘I always dreamed about having a Christmas wedding here,’ she confided to Jake, who was also looking around, but with a lot less enthusiasm. ‘There was going to be a fire burning, an enormous Christmas tree with lights, candles everywhere…Outside it would be cold and dark, but in here it would be warm and cosy.’
Funny how she could remember that fantasy so vividly after all this time. In her dream, Cassie was up there on the dais, looking beautiful and elegant-naturally-with Rupert, who gazed tenderly down at her. Her family were gathered round, bursting with pride in her, and Sir Ian was there, too, beaming with delight.
Cassie sighed.
‘Anyway, I think it could look wonderful, don’t you?’
Jake’s mouth turned down as he studied the hall. ‘Not really. It looks pretty dingy and gloomy to me.’
‘That’s because it’s been empty for a while, and it needs a good clean. You’ve got to use your imagination,’ said Cassie. Perching on an immense wooden trestle-table, she laid the Netbook down and sipped at her own coffee. It was cool in the hall, and she was glad of the warmth.
‘It wouldn’t be so different from the Allantide Ball,’ she said. ‘Remember how Sir Ian used to decorate it with candles and apples and it looked really inviting?’
Then she wished that she hadn’t mentioned the Allantide Ball. In spite of herself, her eyes flickered to where Jake had been standing that night. She had been over by the stairs when she had spotted him. She could retrace her route across the floor, aware of the dark-blue eyes watching her approach, and a sharp little frisson shivered down her spine just as it had ten years ago.
And over there was the door leading out to the terrace…Cassie remembered the mixture of panic and excitement as Jake had taken her hand and led her out into the dark. She could still feel his hard hands on her, still feel her heart jerking frantically, and her blood still pounded at the devastating sureness of his lips.
Swallowing, she risked a glance at Jake and found her gaze snared on his. He was watching her with a faint, mocking smile, and although nothing was said she knew-she just
She sipped her coffee, trying desperately to think of something to say to break the awkward silence, and show Jake that she hadn’t forgotten that she was here to do a job.
‘What would you think about holding an Allantide Ball this year?’ she said, starting slowly but gathering pace as she realised that the idea, born of desperation, might not be such a bad one after all. ‘As a kind of memorial to Sir Ian? It would be good publicity.’
‘No one would come,’ said Jake. ‘I’m not exactly popular in Portrevick. I went into the pub the last time I came down and there was dead silence when I walked in. I felt about as welcome as a cup of cold sick.’
Cassie had gathered something of that from Tina. Apparently there was much speculation in the village about Sir Ian’s will, and the general feeling was that Jake had somehow pulled a fast one for his own nefarious purposes, in keeping with the Trevelyan tradition.
‘That’s because they don’t know the truth,’ she said. ‘Inviting everyone to the ball for Sir Ian and explaining what you’re planning for the Hall would make them see that you’re not just out to make a quick buck. You need the locals on your side if the wedding venue is to be a success,’ she went on persuasively. ‘I think this would be a great way to kick things off.’
CHAPTER FOUR
‘I’M DAMNED if I’m going to waste my time sucking up to Portrevick,’ said Jake, a mulish look about his mouth…
‘You won’t have to. I’ll do it for you,’ said Cassie soothingly. ‘You won’t need to do anything but turn up on 31st October, put on a tux and be civil for two or three hours. You can manage that, can’t you?’
‘I suppose so,’ he said grudgingly.
‘It’ll be worth it when you can walk away and know the Hall is established as part of the community and has local support,’ she encouraged him. ‘If you want to fulfil Sir Ian’s wishes, then this is the best way you can go about it.’
Jake looked at her; she was sitting on the old table and swinging her legs. She was a vibrant figure in the gloomy hall with her bright cardigan, bright face and bright, unruly hair. She didn’t look sensible, but he had a feeling that what she had said just might be.
‘It’s not long to Allantide,’ he pointed out. ‘You’ll never get contractors in that quickly.’
‘We will if you’re prepared to pay for it,’ said Cassie, gaining confidence with every word. ‘We’ve got six weeks. If we aimed to have the great hall redecorated by then, it would give us a real incentive to get things moving.’
Narrowing her eyes, she pictured the hall decorated and full of people. ‘It’s not as if any major structural work is required. It just needs cleaning up a bit.’
She flicked open her Netbook and began typing notes to herself. This was good. There had been a nasty little wobble there when she’d remembered the time they had kissed, but she was feeling under control again now. Cool, calm, competent; wasn’t that how she was supposed to be?
OK, maybe she wasn’t
‘The more I think about it, the more I like the idea,’ she said. ‘We can use the ball to start spreading the word that the Hall can be hired for special occasions. We’ll invite the local paper here to take some pictures…oh! And we can have some photos done for a website too, so people can see how fabulous the great hall can look. We can hardly put a picture up of it looking the way it does now, can we?’
‘Website?’ said Jake, a little taken aback at how quickly her plans seemed to be developing.
‘You’ve got to have a website,’ Cassie said as if stating the obvious. ‘In fact, we should think about that right away. We can’t afford to leave it until all the work’s been done, or we’ll miss out on another year.’
Fired with enthusiasm, she snapped the Netbook closed and jumped off the table. ‘Come on, let’s look at the other rooms.’
She dragged Jake round the entire house, looking into every room and getting more and more excited as she went.
‘You know, I really think this could be fantastic,’ she said when they ended up on the terraces outside. She gestured expansively. ‘You’ve got everything: a wonderfully old and romantic place for ceremonies, enough space for big parties, plenty of bedrooms…
‘We don’t need to do them all at once,’ she reassured Jake, who had been mentally calculating how much all these grand plans were going to cost. ‘At first, we just need somewhere the bride can get ready, but eventually we could offer rooms for the whole wedding-party.’
‘Maybe,’ said Jake, unwilling to commit himself too far at this stage. He wanted the Hall to become self- sufficient so he didn’t need to think about it any more, but it was becoming evident as Cassie outlined her ideas that it was going to prove a lot more expensive than he had first anticipated.
‘And the best thing is, there’s no major structural work required yet,’ she went on. ‘We just need to think about the initial refurbishment for now.’
She pointed over towards the fine nineteenth-century stable block with older barns beyond. ‘Eventually you could have more than one wedding at a time. The barns would be great for an informal wedding.’
Her face was alight with enthusiasm, and Jake found himself thinking that perhaps giving Cassie the contract might not be such a big mistake after all.
Last night, he had bitterly regretted that he had ever taken the advice to contact her. Cassie had talked all the
