‘That’s what we need to discuss. Mae’s will grants you a right to reside in Easton Hall for as long as you want, until it stops being your principal place of residence...’
A bright spike of relief skewered her. She shut her eyes against the tears that once again threatened. She could stay here. She didn’t have to leave. Louisa hadn’t known how tightly she’d held herself. How little she’d breathed since she first saw Matty on the doorstep. Her shoulders dropped as she let out a slow exhale. It was as though she began to wilt as some of the tension bled from her.
‘...or until you marry.’
Louisa snorted. Marry? Mae had always lived in hope for her and there were things that intrigued Louisa about a marriage. The physical side of a relationship, especially after she’d found those old leather-bound books in a remote part of the library here. An erotic collection of inked prints she’d once pored over. There’d been one of a woman clearly wearing a wedding dress in one of them...
A heat began to ignite in her chest, thread through her veins as Matteo brought the teacup to his perfect lips once more. Took a swig, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.
‘What’s so funny about the idea of you marrying?’ he asked.
Getting married meant finding a man when she barely went to the village any longer. Where would she even meet anyone? And falling in love? A shudder ran through her.
She’d had first-hand experience of what was done in the name of love. The pain it wrought. Why would she ever look for that?
‘I’ll leave marriage to other people. Like you, since you sound so keen on it.’
Now Matteo snorted, then checked himself. ‘I travel too much to be tied down. Whereas you’re young. It might not sound like an attractive prospect now, but it will be.’
As if he were so ancient. ‘You’re only six years older than me.’
‘Ileft home in my teens and built my business from nothing to be one of the premier luxury hotel groups in the world, whereas you’re...’
‘What?’
He cocked his head, gaze drifting over her. Likely taking in the dress she wore, in fine white cotton with pretty pintucking and lace. One of her favourites from the number that she’d first found as a teenager in a trunk in the attic, which she’d been told were from one of the previous Bainbridge wives from the early nineteen hundreds. Her clothes were a particular hit when she took tours of the home talking about the history of the place. People thought she dressed up for the role. They didn’t realise this was what she liked to wear. And she’d never really cared that it made her stand out, before today...
‘You’re a young woman who’s devoted her life to caring for an elderly one.’
He said that as if it were a bad thing.
‘Do you understand love, Matteo?’
He reared back, sitting straighter in the chair. Eyes a little wider. Looking uncomfortable.
‘We’re talking about property. What’s love got to do with this?’
Most of what had happened to her had been kept hidden. The public had never found out about the charges against her mother, just the way the exalted Bainbridge family had wanted, because heaven forbid their perfect name be tarnished. Then her mother died of a heart attack before the press had got wind of what she’d subjected Louisa to. There was no point rehashing the truth when the lie that the last of her parents to pass away was beloved was so much more palatable.
‘Mae took me in when I was an orphan.’ Had given Louisa a home when all she’d had to look forward to was foster care, because no other Bainbridge had had any interest in her and her problems. Her father had been an only child with no relatives left to care for her. ‘Everyone else in this family was only ever interested in the family name, or what Mae might have been able to gift them. Mae gave me far more than material things. She gave me a home, a safe place to land. And I loved her for it. Why wouldn’t I care for Mae?’
The woman had sacrificed years of her later life, looking after Louisa, more a mother than her own ever had been. Had made sure she’d received the professional help she’d needed to overcome the death of her father and her mother’s abuse. Louisa would have doneanythingto repay her.
‘I’m sure there are many things you’d like to do now that your caring duties are over. I have a proposition for you.’
She’d had a lifetime as a child being told what was good for her, especially by men like the various doctors who’d ‘treated’ her, believing her beautiful, fragile-appearing mother when she’d said there was something terribly wrong with her only child.
For years, no one had believed Louisa. She’d become tired of her voice not being heard. It remained a struggle to speak up some days, because she was still unsure anyone listened.
‘Of course you do.’ Her voice came out too soft, too quiet. Louisa was simply pleased she could get the words out at all.
‘I want Easton Hall outright, and I’m prepared to pay well for you to relinquish your right to reside here.’
She stilled. Her heart almost missed a beat. If she agreed to that...
‘Where would I live, then?’
‘Anywhere else you want.’
