by Jenny Kane
‘A fool?’ John raked his hands through his blond hair. ‘Yes, that just about sums it up.’ He sighed heavily, looking rather defeated. ‘My plan today was so straightforward. I’d come up here, ask you a favour, which you’d agree to, and then I’d leave. I never meant to be away from Bath for so long, nor for things to get so out of hand.’
‘Out of hand? That’s an understatement.’
‘I want to explain why I’m still here. But as I walked up the stairs just now the answer came to me – it’s so obvious!’
‘Hold on, did you say you were going to leave as soon as you’ve spoken to me?’
‘Yes! I’d have gone back to work ages ago if you’d listen to me. I only wanted to ask a favour.’
‘A favour?’ Thea sank onto the edge of her bed, ‘John, you asked me out five times in the first twenty-four hours of your stay here.’
‘That was before I realised how much your taste in men has deteriorated.’ John waved a hand, as if his previous badgering was ancient history. ‘Anyway, like I said, I just thought of the answer – a way to get you out of the mess you find yourself in. A way to convince the locals that you aren’t the total failure they’re bound to take you for once word of the sale gets out.’
‘Total failure?’ The words left Thea’s lips at barely a whisper.
‘You came here to save their manor and open it to the public, but you can’t do that. Despite how badly you’ve treated me, I don’t want them to consider you a disappointment.’
Blind to Thea’s shocked expression, John ploughed on. ‘I will buy the manor from the Trust. I have plenty of savings and had a decent inheritance from my grandparents.’
Speechless, Thea watched John as he spoke. He didn’t appear to be talking to her. It was as if he was reciting something: an act in a play, with him as the hero.
Thea cleared her throat. ‘You can’t buy me, John.’
‘Not you, the manor. For you. To say thank you for the favour I need you to do. Then you could let that blonde bimbo you hang around with run it for you, and return to Bath and civilization generally. You never know, we could go back to having the occasional dinner together, like when we first met.’
An image of her best friend flashed through her head as John kept talking. ‘This way, the village gets its precious manor restored for free, I can make a steady income from the events and opening it to the public, and you can be the heroine you want to be in the eyes of these village idiots. On top of that I… Well, let’s just say everyone is happy.’
‘Happy?’ With the words ‘bimbo’ and ‘idiots’ ringing in her ears, Thea pointed to her desk chair. Something inside her snapped as she shouted, ‘Sit down, John!’
Thea could feel a nervous shake in her shoulders, but ignored it as she gave her temper free reign. ‘I’ve had enough! Tell me, what favour is so important that you’re willing to blow your life savings on a house you don’t want? And, I warn you, if you say it’s to make me fall in love with you, I swear I’ll lock you in here until you come to your senses.’
As John sat down, Thea added, ‘And no more lies! I want the real reason you’ve been pursuing me to such a ridiculous degree. I feel like I’m stuck in a Shakespearian farce!’
‘Farce?’ John blustered, rising back up from the chair as he did so.
‘John, all you’ve ever cared about is your career. You’ve just got a promotion, so why aren’t you in Bath doing it?’
‘I told you, I took some holiday so I could come here and…’
Thea was already shaking her head. ‘I know for a fact you never take more than two weeks off at a time, because you’re paranoid someone might steal your position in your absence. So, please John, tell me the truth.’
‘And me.’ Mabel appeared on the threshold of her room, a stack of papers in her hand and a very peculiar expression on her face. ‘And while you’re at it, you can tell us who this wife of yours is.’
‘Wife?’ Thea had never been so pleased to see Mabel in her life. ‘John’s married?’
‘He is. Or at least, he told someone, his boss I assume, as he kept calling them sir, that he was.’
John looked furious, ‘You’ve been listening to my calls, you nosy old—’
‘Shut up Mr Sommers.’ Mabel closed the bedroom door behind her and leant against it. Crossing her arms firmly over her apron, she took in Thea’s stunned face, ‘This young man is going to tell us precisely what he’s up to. That’s if he thinks a village idiot like me can understand his sophisticated reasoning.’
John’s face flushed pink as he reached his hands beseechingly towards Thea, ‘I’m not married, I promise, I’d never cheat on you.’
Mabel’s hawk stare switched from John to Thea. ‘Cheat on you?’
‘I’ll explain later.’
‘I really don’t think…’ John made to get up, but Thea pre-empted him.
‘Well, I do.’ Positioning herself next to Mabel, copying her determined crossed armed stance, Thea said, ‘You were about to tell me what you wanted to say at my “surprise” meal. Something about a favour?’
‘Meal?’ Mabel’s wrinkled face creased further as she regarded John with increasing distaste.
‘I’ll tell you that later too.’ Thea patted her friend’s shoulder. ‘After we’ve discovered when John found time to squeeze a fake marriage into his busy schedule.’
‘It was a misunderstanding.’ Glancing at the door, John accepted he was trapped with a groan. ‘There seemed no harm in it at first. But, suddenly, the companies were merging and I was sent back to Bath and …’
‘Hold on.’ Thea interrupted, ‘You told me you got your new job through an old school friend.’
‘I sort of did.’
‘Sort of?’
‘My best mate from school has worked for Safe Hands Digital in Newcastle for years. He recommended me as the one to liaise between the two company’s COs as I’d worked for them both. And as the new HQ was to be in Bath…’
‘And this misunderstanding?’ Mabel demanded.
Licking his lips, John mumbled, ‘My boss in Newcastle thought I was married – an assumption I never got round to correcting. But he told the managing director in Bath that I’d got married, and as he’s keen on promoting Sure Digital as a family-centred company…’ He swallowed. ‘I needed a wife and…’
‘Hang on.’ Thea raised her hand. ‘Are you telling us you played along, inventing yourself a wife, to impress the management?’
‘It’s worse than that.’ Mabel’s eyes narrowed as she focused on John, ‘He’s told them that wife is you, Thea. Haven’t you John?’
‘You’ve done what?’ Thea went white as she stared at her former boyfriend. ‘That was the favour? To pretend to be your wife every now and then?’
‘Just once! Just at the merger celebration party.’ John gestured his arms wildly around the room. ‘And in return, I’d buy you all this!’
Brandishing her papers as if they were a weapon, Mabel kept her eyes fixed on John as she addressed Thea. ‘Why don’t you sit down, my dear? Have a look at these while I escort Mr Sommers from the house?’
Dropping the pile of local house rental details she’d been clutching into a shaking Thea’s lap, Mabel placed a strong bony hand on John’s shoulder. ‘You’re coming with me.’
Thirty-Four
June 1st
‘What the hell is going on?’ Tina held her pigtails as she sped into Thea’s room. ‘Mabel told me you needed me.’
Leaning against the little desk by the window, Thea stared out across the Exmoor countryside. ‘How did Mabel know I was living here?’
‘She decided you’d left the restoration of the attics too much to the last minute, and went poking round. Never mind that now. I’ve just seen her frogmarching John out of the door. What’s happening?’
Thea turned to face her friend. ‘Well, for a start I shall be buying Mabel a huge bunch of flowers.’
Tina sat on the edge of the half-made bed and patted the space next to her.
‘I think you should sit down, you’re shaking.’
‘I am. But not with nerves or fear or any of my other hang-ups. This is fury.’
‘What did he do?’
‘John offered to buy the manor so that Upwich could still have its heritage site once it was out of the Trust’s hands.’
‘Blimey.’
‘On condition that I occasionally accompany him to corporate functions.’
‘Mabel interrupted him trying to buy you off?’
‘Oh, it’s far more interesting than that.’ An unexpected smile prickled at the corner of Thea’s lips. ‘Actually, Mabel came to tell me John was married – as well as to give me some house details.’
Tina’s eyebrows shot upwards so fast, she looked like a cartoon character. ‘Married!’
‘Except he isn’t.’
‘You’ve lost me.’
Tapping the bed next to her so Tina would sit down, Thea explained how John’s new and old companies were merging, and how he’d backed himself into a corner by claiming to have a wife he’d never had, to secure his new position within the enlarged Sure Digital empire; and how he’d chosen Thea to be that wife.
‘I suppose I was an obvious choice. As an archaeologist, my long absences due to travel, and regular inability to attend any “bring the wife” events, were believable.’ Thea gave a huge yawn. ‘I think I need a cup of coffee.’
‘I’m surprised you don’t need something stronger!’ Tina led the way along the attic corridor and towards the back stairs. ‘Why would John’s career depend on him having a wife in this day and age?’
‘I doubt it would. I think he was afraid of being caught out in a lie.’
‘He could have said you’d split up.’
‘John rarely stops to consider the obvious when he’s desperate not to lose face.’
Following Thea into the kitchen, Tina asked, ‘So, when he first arrived at Mill Grange, did he want this favour granting, or did he think he could actually get you back and marry you fast?’
‘Initially, he may have thought that we could have some sort of whirlwind marriage. It explains why he was so persistent after he’d found me in Bath.’
‘But it doesn’t excuse the Facebook stalking or the hassle he caused.’
‘True.’ Stirring coffee granules into two mugs, Thea inhaled the aroma, its familiarity a comfort.
‘It’s weird then, as soon as Shaun went to Cornwall, John more or less disappeared.’
‘I suspect that he’d given up on me as a partner by then. He’d seen Shaun and me together. Hence the meal. That’s when he wanted to ask his favour – although he hadn’t come up with the idea to buy the manor at that point, so who knows what I’d have been offered in return!’
Tina poured milk into her coffee and blew across the surface. ‘So he’s been hanging around just so he could talk to you?’
‘He’s probably been working while he wasn’t on site. His job is new after all, and he can do it remotely.’ Thea shrugged, ‘I’m only guessing, but that might be why you saw him sat around the village in places that have mobile connection.’
‘Makes as much sense as anything else John has done, I suppose.’ Tina opened the biscuit tin and pushed it towards Thea.
‘Just as Mabel took hold of his arm ready to march him off the premises, John blurted something out about a merger party in two weeks’ time. I suspect he’s meant to be there with a wife on his arm.’
‘Hence his desperation lately? The pub meal, the stalking air he was giving off, and all that?’
‘Precisely.’ Thea pulled a cookie from the tin. ‘It’s so pathetic. I feel a bit sorry for him.’
She sighed as she crunched into her biscuit. ‘But what if me being with John was the only way the villagers could have their manor restored and kept for the public? If the Trust does sell it as a private house, I’ll always know that if I’d accepted John’s offer, Upwich could have kept its manor in the public domain and…’
‘No.’
The force of Tina’s response took Thea by surprise. ‘No?’
‘Do you honestly think that the people of Upwich, especially the volunteers here, would want the manor knowing that was the price? That you’d sacrificed yourself for them? Now that is pathetic. This isn’t a bloody Roman tragedy, Thea. This is your life. Can you imagine how miserable you’d feel to have to trot off to play John’s wife whenever he snapped his fingers when you are in love with Shaun?’
Thea opened her mouth to speak, but Tina was in full flow.
‘How could you even think of agreeing to John’s weird gesture when Shaun is so potty about you? Have you any idea how lucky you are to have someone so on your wavelength and…’
As the penny dropped, Thea put her hand out to her friend. ‘You’ve fallen for Sam, haven’t you?’
‘I can’t have. He isn’t part of the plan. He doesn’t even come close to fitting my plan.’
‘Then you need a new plan. You deserve more than a man who would have treated you like a trophy – the equivalent of the latest Jag or a new iPhone.’
‘I’m sure not all wealthy and successful men are like that.’
‘Probably not, but you haven’t met any of them. On the other hand, you have met a scruffy gardener with claustrophobia.’
‘So much for the big house and swimming pool. We’d have to live in a tent.’
‘Some people don’t even get a tent.’
‘True.’ Tina moved to the window to see if she could spot Sam. ‘Do you think Mabel’s thrown John off the grounds?’
‘Probably with a belly full of advice he may or may not have the common sense to take.’ Thea gave a half smile, which disappeared as she looked at her watch. ‘The Trust’s meeting about the future of the house is happening now. Did you know?’
‘Shaun told me before he went to help Sam with something.’ Tina looked grave. ‘But I didn’t know before then.’
‘You ought to have been told, surely?’
‘Yes. I would normally be sitting in that sort of meeting myself.’ Digging her hands into her pockets, Tina glanced back outside. ‘Perhaps they think I’m too close to this project to be objective.’
‘I don’t suppose we can argue with that.’ Thea joined her friend at the window. ‘What are the boys doing? I can’t see them.’
‘I’ve no idea. Something beyond the gardens I suppose.’
Hurt that Shaun hadn’t come straight back to make sure she was alright after finding out that the Trust was deciding the manor’s fate, and hers, and then telling herself off because she was either a strong independent woman or she wasn’t, Thea got to her feet. ‘I’d better get to the office. If the Trust is meeting now, then we can expect a call soon.’
Following Thea down the corridor, Tina said, ‘I can’t believe they didn’t tell me this was happening today. Despite their promise that my job was safe with them, I’m beginning to have my doubts about the truth of that too.’
‘They wouldn’t be so stupid as to get rid of you.’
‘Why not? They’re stupid enough to be considering getting rid of this place and you, when together you’re a money-making combination.’
Thea trailed a finger over the polished oak table. ‘Do you think Mabel’s alright?’ Suddenly Thea was alarmed. ‘I should have gone with her. What if John’s hurt her?’ Thea leapt up. ‘I’m not thinking straight.’
‘If Mabel had needed your help, she’d have made it very clear.’
‘True.’ Thea sat straight back down again. ‘She had house rental details with her. When did she find out about me staying here?’
‘Today. She said she had to nip into the village after we’d spoken about it. I was quite cross with her actually. As you can imagine, her first assumption was that you were here as Shaun’s bit of stuff. So I told her that the village couldn’t expect miracles from you if you weren’t on hand to produce them. Or something like that.’
‘Thank you.’ Thea hugged her friend as they reached the scul
lery-come-office. ‘She must have gone straight to the estate agent’s near Sybil’s and picked up the details.’
‘Mabel has a kind heart underneath all that bossiness.’
‘She’s so convinced the manor won’t go into private hands. If they do sell, it is going to hurt her as much as us. More probably.’ Thea jumped as the phone rang. ‘Do you think that’s them?’
They stared at the phone as if it was an unexploded bomb.
‘Only one way to find out.’ Tina put out her hand towards the receiver. ‘Do you want me to do it?’
‘No. This is my responsibility. Thank you though.’ Thea reached for the phone. ‘Can you spread the word that they’ll be a staff meeting tomorrow morning at ten?’
*
The journey to Taunton seemed to take only half the time as it had on her last visit to the trustee’s office.
Thea hadn’t bothered to change, nor had she gone to find Shaun. She had no idea where Mabel was. Despite Tina’s promise that she’d track her down and call the minute she’d made sure the old lady was okay, Thea felt guilty she hadn’t gone after Mabel herself.
Malcolm had been very firm on the phone. Thea was to leave whatever she was doing and report to the Trust office within the hour. With the state of traffic in and around Taunton, and the lack of parking in the area, this was pushing it, even with the fact that she’d dived into her car before the phone’s handset had had the chance to cool from the heat of her palm.
On her third circle around the nearest roads to the office, Thea started to mutter under her breath, ‘Minerva, I could so do with a bit of that famous wisdom right now. And, while you’re at it, a parking space wouldn’t go amiss.’
*
Tina found Mabel in the laundry room with Diane calmly folding huge Victorian linen bed sheets.
‘I’ve been searching everywhere for you Mabel, are you alright?’
‘I am.’ Mabel passed the crisply laundered sheet to Diane. ‘Is Thea okay?’
‘She’s been summoned to Taunton. The Trust appears to have made a decision.’
Diane placed the sheet on the pile of similarly pristine linen and automatically turned to Mabel. ‘You said they wouldn’t sell.’