Page 5 of Wild About You

My staff call me Jamie? Nice touch, combining politeness with a reminder of status. I fear this thought crossed my eyes (my face is almost comically expressive, according to Sean, one of my least endearing features). It happened quickly: I saw his expression change at the sight of mine then I swung to sit down and knocked my travel coffee cup over. It wasn’t a small spill. Unfortunately I’d left it in the open position and coffee went all over the estate map I’d been studying, as well as the leather-covered antique desk that I’d only been allocated the day before.

‘Shit!’ I cried. Then, ‘Sorry! Bloody hell!’ I tried desperately to mop up the coffee with anything – scrap paper, tissues from my bag.

‘Don’t worry.’ Jamie threw a pristine handkerchief into the mix. ‘It’s just my great-grandfather’s Chippendale desk.’

‘What?! You’re kidding!’ I threw a look at him and saw a very slight smile, which showed me he was winding me up, then muttered ‘Bugger’ under my breath as I noticed a neglected pool of coffee seeping into red leather. How was there so much coffee in that cup?

‘Nice range of expletives,’ he murmured. ‘Perhaps you’d like to try another one?’

I gave him an unwise glare.

‘Hang on…’ He headed off to the cupboard-like niche where we made drinks and returned with a wad of kitchen towel, whilst I tried to shepherd the coffee lake with twopieces of paper. Together we cleaned it up, then enacted a ridiculous little dance, me trying to take the sodden lump of coffee-drenched towel from him, him refusing. Eventually we disposed of it, a joint effort that involved me reaching for it and him lobbing it into Tally’s desk bin, where it landed with a dull thwack.

‘Great, now I’ll be in trouble with her,’ I said, regrettably out loud. I’m sure I was better at keeping my lip buttoned when I was in London. Heartbreak had removed all of my filters.

‘What? From Tally?’ He looked perplexed. ‘She’s a sweetheart.’

‘Is she now?’ I shot back, without thinking. Irritation flashed across his face and his expression hardened, all amusement leaving his eyes. Great – first I’d annoyed him, now I’d embarrassed him.

‘I need a report for an area of the estate,’ he said curtly, then said a name that sounded like pure gobbledegook to me.

‘Right,’ I was trying to write it down phonetically. ‘Could you possibly pop that in an email to me?’

‘No, I could not.’

‘Okay.’ I bit my lip. ‘Perhaps you could spell the name for me?’

‘Callum will tell you where it is. As soon as possible.’ He was gliding away; the man had such long legs he could cross the office in two strides.

‘But…’ I said. Nope, he was gone.

Of course, Tally gave me her best snooty look when she stood over her bin on arrival and said ‘What happened?’ as though I was a servant who’d disappointed her. I explained the coffee catastrophe to her impassive face.

‘Many of the artefacts here at Stonemore have beenin situfor generations, Anna,’ she said. ‘You really must learn to be more careful.’

‘Yes, sorry,’ I said. I’ve never felt entirely comfortable in my rather stocky, wide-hipped frame. Occasionally someone has told me I have an hourglass-type thing going on, but I don’t really think of myself like that. I do, however, notice it when I accidentally knock my stapler off my desk with my arse or trip over my little hoof-like feet. ‘I’ve always been a bit clumsy.’

Tally shook her head pityingly.

‘Where’s Callum?’ I said hopefully.

‘Gone to check on groundworks,’ said Tally vaguely. I looked longingly at Fi’s empty seat – she was meeting a supplier about Stonemore merchandising for the small castle shop. I’d learned quickly that Fi was the key to almost every question at Stonemore. She was technically the earl’s PA but in reality she played a part in almost every aspect of the house’s organisation. And she wasn’t here.

‘Tally, can I ask you something?’

She sighed, raised her eyebrows.

‘Do you know where this place is?’ I tried to pronounce my phonetically spelt weird word.

She tilted her head at my lunacy. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

It would have to wait for Callum. I sat down and logged into my Forestcam. I had recently sponsored a planting of rowan trees in a reforesting project and liked to check in on the site. The charity had cameras all over the woodland to provide a live feed for sponsors. Every time I looked at them, whether they were still or moving in the wind, whether they were in golden light or grey, it reminded me that life would go on –wasgoing on, at that very moment. Beauty was emerging, somewhere.

Callum recognised the place in a heartbeat. ‘Of course, Belheddonbrae?’ he said. ‘You were only a syllable off.’

I glanced in Tally’s direction and saw she was suppressing a little smirk. ‘Thanks for that,’ I called to her, and raised my topped-up coffee cup in a weary ‘cheers’.

She straightened her face and continued tap-tapping on her keyboard. ‘Just a little joke, Anna,’ she said. ‘Banter. You really must adjust to our country ways.’

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