“I’m fairly certain he has a job for us. The question is, do we want to go back to work for him?”
Janet sighed. “I am rather enjoying our life of leisure here, but it can be just a tiny bit dull.”
Edward chuckled. “There are other options besides staying here or working for Mr. Jones. We could simply travel the world. I own several properties, and you’ve never been to any of them. We could fly to New York City tomorrow and stay in my flat there for a week or two or three.”
“I forgot that you own houses and flats elsewhere. It’s odd that I haven’t been to any of them.”
“I should have said that we own other properties,” he replied, putting emphasis on the word ‘we.’ “They’re as much yours as they are mine now that we’re married. I didn’t think you’d agree to travel with me before the wedding, but now that we are married, we should visit each of our homes. Perhaps you would prefer to live somewhere other than Doveby Dale.”
Janet looked around at the gardens and at the large house. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else, even though this has only been home for a few years. When Joan and I were teaching and living together in our little cottage, I never imagined that we’d one day call such a beautiful house home.”
“But you should have a chance to see what other options are out there. We should visit all of my properties and then discuss which ones we want to keep and which ones we should sell.”
“Sell?”
“I bought properties all around the world so that I would have somewhere reasonably nearby to go when I needed a break. If I was working in the US, for instance, I’d stay in my flat in New York City once in a while, either during or after an assignment. Now that I’m retired, I probably don’t need a flat in New York City, but if you find that you like the flat and the city, we can keep it and holiday there regularly.”
“Are you terribly wealthy, then?” Janet blurted out, slowly twirling the large diamond and sapphire engagement ring he’d given her.
“I’m quite comfortable,” he replied. “We should sit down and discuss finances, as well. For one thing, I should be contributing something towards household expenses while we’re here.”
“I believe Michael is covering some of the expenses that come with having such a large house. One of these days, we may have to go back to welcoming guests if we’re going to keep paying all of the bills.”
“There’s no need for that,” Edward told her. “If Joan wants to start having guests again because she enjoys having them here, then that’s up to her, but I can contribute enough to the household coffers to keep the bills paid without having to open the doors to paying guests again, if Joan is happy with that.”
“We haven’t really discussed it,” Janet admitted. She and Joan hadn’t had many opportunities to talk to one another for some time. Michael had proposed on Valentine’s Day, nearly a year earlier. Janet felt as if she and Joan had talked of nothing but wedding plans from then until Joan’s wedding. After the wedding, Michael had moved into Doveby House. Janet had still been adjusting to his constant presence when Edward had proposed and everything had changed once again.
“Maybe it’s time for a long conversation between us and Joan and Michael,” Edward suggested.
Janet nodded. “Michael may be too busy with what’s happening across the road to talk, though,” she said.
Michael Donaldson had worked as a chemist. At one time, he’d owned the small chemist’s shop in the village, but he’d sold it to a large chain when he’d decided to retire. He’d been widowed for years before Janet and Joan had moved to Doveby Dale. He and his first wife had never had children, and Janet had been told that he’d sold his business for a large sum that had left him very comfortable in his retirement.
Janet also knew that he had insurance that was helping to pay towards the work that was being done to make his house habitable again, but she doubted that the insurance would pay enough to get the house back to Joan’s exacting standards. No doubt both Joan and Michael would be grateful if Edward started contributing towards the household expenses on top of what Janet already gave her sister from her retirement income.
“Of course, we may not have much time for that conversation, not if Mr. Jones has an assignment for us,” Edward added.
“What could he want us to do?”
“It could be anything from delivering a package to someone to breaking into a fortress, finding a hostage, and getting the hostage out safely. In over forty years of working for the agency, I never did the exact same job twice. Even jobs that sounded the same always ended up being very different.”
“Oh?”
He laughed. “I brought people here, to Doveby House, on multiple occasions. Delivering someone to a safe house seems a fairly straightforward job, doesn’t it?”
Janet nodded. She’d already known that Edward had formerly used Doveby House as a safe house. That was what had brought him to Doveby Dale a short while after she and Joan had purchased the property. At the time, he’d insisted that he’d made a booking with Margaret Appleton, the previous owner. After some discussion, Janet and Joan had agreed to let Edward stay, not knowing that he’d been sent to search the house in case Margaret had left behind anything that would connect Doveby House to Edward’s agency. It had been at the end of the stay that Edward had told Janet about his job and also told
