A tight band wound round her chest. Crushing the air from her. She could hardly breathe again. This home was the only place in the world she’d ever felt secure. All she had. Mae had promised she’d always be safe, and Louisa had believed her when there was no one else in the worldtobelieve. There was nowhere else to go. Shecouldn’tleave here.
‘You haven’t been listening. This is myhome.’
‘It’s an old house, which is in dire need of restoration. Mae neglected it. Given that, I have an offer for you.’
He smiled, andthistime it met his eyes. That smile was glorious. Some might call it a winning smile. Matteo reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. Pulled out a folded white piece of paper, placed it on the tabletop and slid it over to her. She opened it. It was an official-looking document that talked about giving up her rights under Mae’s will for a sum of money. She stilled.
All those zeros at the end couldn’t be right. She’d never seen so much in her life. The offer was designed to be an amount no one could refuse...if money was what you were interested in.
‘Why do you want Easton Hall so badly? It looks like you’re offering me an extraordinary deal. Surely that’s bad business?’
Matteo’s eyes narrowed. ‘What does it matter to you if you’re going to take it?’
And there was the part where she knew he could never understand, what this place meant to her.
‘It matters to me. You’re probably a man who has homes all over the world. Why this one?’
He shrugged. Sat back in his chair. Head cocked. Eyes cool and assessing as if weighing her up again.
‘The home will be well utilised. My company, Arcadia, will turn it into a boutique retreat.’
So, not a home. She looked about the old kitchen that had fed generations of families. Thought of Mrs Fancutt, who’d been here most of her working life, managing the house, doing the cooking. Of all the people who worked to keep the house going. Generations of families had been employed here. If it became a ‘boutique retreat’...
‘Will the staff be “well utilised”?’
‘Given that they’re all older, they’ll be comfortably retired, which I’m sure they’ll enjoy.’
‘Have you asked them?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Have you asked whether they’d enjoy it? Do you know the answer to that question?’
All the times they’d sat here in the kitchen at this old table in the evenings, Mae included, and played cribbage or other card games. Betting with toothpicks as if they were made of gold. He’d never understand this wasn’t just a job to them. At the funeral, there’d been punishing grief. These people had been promised jobs, and homes for life too. On the day Mae had passed, each of them had said they wouldn’t leave here, leave Louisa. It was more than her home; it was theirs as well.
She shook her head. ‘No, this isn’t happening.’
‘What do you mean,“This isn’t happening”?’
Louisa folded up the piece of paper, which held no temptation for her at all. Slid it back across the tabletop to him.
‘Thank you for your kind offer, but I’m not leaving.’
The change in him was profound. His eyes narrowed, the colour of them turning. How warm brown could suddenly look ice cold she wasn’t sure, but he achieved it. She’d kidded herself even thinking he was the boy she’d met so long ago. The memories of that time entertaining Mae in her last months—they were a mere fantasy. This man before her had no sentiment. He was all calculation.
‘I’ll add another hundred thousand.’
The way he said it. Who could toss money around like that with no care?
She shook her head. ‘If Mae knew what you were planning, she’d turn over in her grave.’
Matteo stood, planted his hands flat on the tabletop.
‘She knewexactlywho I was. Ask yourself, why didn’t she leave the home to you? A woman who spent what should be the best years of her life caring for an elderly lady. Surely you’d have expected repayment for that? It must come as a terrible shock that you weren’t made executor too. That the house was left to me. But Mae assessed my experience and my resources, and she clearly made a judgement about yours. She knew that looking after this place was beyond you, which is why I’m here. I’m doing you a favour.’
Each word shot like another poisoned arrow deep into her heart. Tainting memories of a woman Louisa had thought she’d known. Yet he didn’t understand. Matteo would take this place and tear the soul out of it. Tear apart everything she loved. She couldn’t let him.
She smoothed her trembling hands over her dress. Stood. She’d made a terrible mistake allowing him to come in here. Underestimating him. She wouldn’t again.
