Page 19 of Bones of Revenge and Reckoning

I do as he says and smile as I look at them. “God, it’s beautiful,” I say.

“It really is.” He sighs again and beckons the barman over. “Another brandy and whatever it is the lady is drinking.”

The barman nods.

I look at the man, and sympathy tugs at my stomach. I try to tell myself that I am hard these days. Nothing but a brittle shell, but underneath it all, I’m not. There’s a soft, squidgy inside if you can break through my surface, and I have to protect it at all costs because that underbelly is what gets you hurt.

“Do you want to come back to my hotel room?” he asks me. “I’m not normally this direct but you’re a beautiful woman, and I’m a sad man, and maybe it would be a moment of joy. For us both.”

“Do you have the paperwork on you?” I ask him.

He frowns. “For the farm?”

“Yes.”

He nods.

“Come. Lets go grab that table over there. I want you to show me.”

* * *

“You bought a fucking farm?” Nico’s voice is disbelieving. “In Yorkshire?”

“No. I didn’t buy it. I financed it. I took a share in the land for our family.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Because you used family money, and you didn’t run it by either me or our father.”

“I didn’t use family money; I used my own.”

“You have money left?” He sounds mock shocked.

I smirk. He doesn’t know everything about me, and I prefer it that way. “Yes, I have some left from my divorce. I’m not a total idiot, you know. My marriage had to be good for something, right?” I actually have a lot left and made some excellent investments.

“Christ, you’re a frigid fucking bitch.”

“And you’re a dumb fuck. Now, go look again at that land and what it will be worth when they come knocking for planning permission for wind turbines. Then get back to me about how good an investment it was.”

“Wind turbines?” Nico frowns.

“Yep. Prime spot for them. None on there yet.”

“So … you’re not going soft.” He laughs. “I thought for a moment you’d found a heart and bought it to save the farm for the family.”

“I did.” I shrug. “Maybe I do have a tiny sliver of a heart, but I’ve also bought some prime real estate for when the green economy gets even more traction, which it will.”

“How do you know it will?” He rolls his eyes.

“Because unlike you, Nico, I do my research, and I follow the news and political leanings of the nation. In a few years, there won’t be a spot of that part of Yorkshire they aren’t vying to put wind farms on. I’ve agreed with the son, the one who I did the deal with, that we allow a quarter of the land to be used for that purpose; the rest is to be protected as farmland. That will make him and us a huge profit, and let the farm go for many more generations. Win-win.”

He sighs, but when he speaks again, there’s a grudging respect in his voice. “How did you find out about this?”

“I met him in a bar.”

“Seriously?”

---