Page 53 of One Cornish Summer With You
‘Please, stop worrying about me,’ Ruan insisted. ‘I know you both care. Don’t forget I’m incredibly lucky to have theplace at all. It’s sheer luck that Great-uncle Walter left it to me. I’ll be doing some of the work myself. My mates are coming round tomorrow morning to help clear the grounds.’
‘And please be careful on that kite,’ his mum piped up, apparently deciding to change the subject. ‘You were nearly killed the last time.’
‘I wasn’t nearly killed, Mum,’ Ruan said in frustration, though he was being economical with the truth for the second time in as many days.
‘I’d rather you spent your time clearing that jungle we can see,’ his dad muttered.
Ruan stayed calm, despite his frustration. ‘I will, and before you go, I still wish you’d let me sell Seaspray on when I’ve finished and give you part of the proceeds.’
‘No!’ they both declared in unison. ‘We wouldn’t hear of it. It’s yours alone to live in or sell.’
Ruan stood up, marvelling again at the handsome house behind the ivy and shrubs that had dropped into his hands like a gift from the gods. Except it had come from a man who was definitely not divine – probably the opposite.
‘I still don’t know why he chose me …’ he murmured.
‘Maybe he felt guilty for being such a bastard while he was alive,’ his father said.
‘Or maybe he was trying to do something good at the last?’ his mother offered.
His dad scoffed. ‘More like he hated everyone else in the family and Ruan was the only one he hadn’t managed to have a row with. Now you know why your grandma was so keen to get away from her own family.’
‘I don’t blame her,’ Ruan said. ‘And she clearly managed to avoid being dragged into their poisonous ways.’
His mum popped her head into the shot. ‘You know, I wondered if Walter was impressed that you’d gone into the law and he thought you’d look after his estate properly.’
‘By properly, you mean turn into an old miser like him?’ His father snorted. ‘No way. Walter Cavendish didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body. He told me where to get off when I asked him to help me out after I lost the engineering business.’
Ruan gave a sharp intake of breath. ‘I didn’t know that. I didn’t know you’d approached him for help.’
‘God, I wish I hadn’t but I must have been desperate and my mum and dad weren’t well and in no position to help. They’d have been worried to death if they’d known I’d asked Walter.’
‘I’m presuming it didn’t end well?’ Ruan said.
‘Walter told me I’d made my own bed by trusting a friend and I had to lie in it.’
‘Then perhaps he did feel guilty and was trying to make amends by helping me,’ Ruan said, hating the idea of his father going cap in hand to a nasty piece of work like Walter.
‘I doubt that very much,’ his father said. ‘We’ll never know and I should stop even thinking about it. The house is yours. Enjoy it. We can’t wait to see it.’
Ruan hoped his own theory was true. He didn’t like the version that his mother had put forward: that Walter had thought a lawyer would be careful with his inheritance and hang on to it as he had himself.
‘So, I’m going to get the place sorted,’ he said, eager to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. ‘It’ll be a while before I can invite you to stay in it but why don’t you come down and book in a B & B and I can show you the work in progress?’
Both his parents brightened up visibly at this offer and the call ended with everyone pencilling in some possible dates and Ruan promising to find some good B & B recommendations.
Once the call was over, his thoughts turned in an even pleasanter direction, one that made it difficult for him to concentrate on garden clearing. After the festival this evening, he hoped that he and Tammy could spend the night together. Looking at the state of the caravan, there was no way he was going to ask her back to his, even if he did make the decision to reveal it was parked in the grounds of Seaspray, so it would have to be at her place.
He would tell her after the festival when she didn’t have so much on her mind.
Tonight – or tomorrow – were not the times to be showing off his good fortune and he didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise their fragile but burgeoning relationship.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
‘It’s beautiful, Tammy. You are so clever!’ Lola threw her arms around Tammy for a congratulatory hug.
Tammy glowed inwardly, quietly proud that design number two, the leaping dolphin, had been completed without any drama, let alone a galloping dash on a horse.
‘Thanks. I am quite pleased it worked,’ she said, relieved that everything had gone well.
