Page 59 of The House at Hope Corner
He was staring straight ahead, lost in the past. ‘I could never be with Caroline,’ he said. ‘She is shallow, grasping and incredibly selfish. The only thing she loves is herself.’ He gave a hollow laugh. ‘She pretends to love her horses, but even those are cared for by someone else…’
Flora thought back to the day at the stable and the ‘lowly’ stable lad to whom she hadn’t even been introduced as if he were a nothing, a nobody. She sat back down, nodding. Caroline was almost certainly arrogant, but then so were a lot of people. She was about to say something else when Ned interrupted her.
‘The only thing she loves about her horses is the access to the right kind of social life; riding around and gossiping with a load of tacky, fake wannabes whose only aim in life is to bag a rich husband who can keep them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed…’
Flora let out a breath. ‘Blimey, Ned, that’s a bit harsh. I haven’t exactly taken to her myself, but she’s not that bad, surely?’ She looked at the disgust on his face. ‘You really don’t like her, do you?’
‘No, I don’t.’ Ned’s voice was suddenly clear. ‘I tolerate her because our families are friends, and to alienate her would only make things worse, but even though I know what she’s like, I’m so bloody stupid I’ve walked straight into her web.’
Flora’s eyes widened. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Nowyou’re making her out to be some sort of bunny-boiler crazy person. Youshouldhave told me about your engagement, but I guess I can live with that. Just don’t take it too far, Ned.’
He was silent for far too long. ‘You’re not getting it,’ he said quietly. ‘I grew up with Caroline, we had a relationship which I broke off, but even then… you’ve seen how it is, Flora, she’salwayshere. She won’t let me go. Everywhere I turn there she is, and it’s been going on for so long that no one really notices any more. When Caroline first offered to lend us the money, I thought it was just a generous gesture, I never thought there would be quite so many strings attached. But that’s precisely how she wanted it. Knowing how anxious I was about Dad and losing the farm, she wanted a hold over me that would pretty much guarantee I would do anything she said. But that was all before you arrived, Flora, before I fell in love with you. So now you’re here, and she can see her plans falling to pieces, it’s like she’s pulling out all the stops. She’s determined to have the farm, Flora, and me with it. She’s made my life a misery over the last few weeks, making suggestive comments, that kind of thing, but I’m scared to say anything because until we pay the loan off we’re on really dangerous ground. If they demand the money back straight away, we could lose the farm, Flora. And I don’t know what to do. I’m terrified of what Caroline is capable of, and what that might mean for us.’
She thought about his words. How Caroline had made herself out to be Flora’s friend, and yet she had done things that no true friend would ever do. And Ned was right, she was always at the farm, always popping up by his side, asking him questions, just like she was on the day when Fraser had his heart attack and Ned had looked so agitated. Clearly there had been things going on behind Flora’s back, but she’d been so preoccupied with her own anxieties about fitting in that she couldn’t even see what was happening. And Ned, doing his best to protect her, hadn’t said anything either…
And what shecouldsee was how Caroline thought she had the perfect plan. To generously bail Ned and the farm out of trouble. To make herself indispensable to them, Little Miss Sweetness and Light, and then bag herself a man and a chunk of prime land into the bargain. Flora had to hand it to her, it was a pretty much flawless plan until she turned up. But Flora was not about to let Caroline get away with anything; she’d be damned if she would.
Ned looked up at her as her mouth tightened. ‘I told you you’d hate me,’ he said.
She looked at his weary face. He was an idiot at times, that much was true. But a well-meaning one, and a sudden surge of anger flooded through her.
‘Do you know what makes mereallymad in all of this?’
Ned opened his mouth to answer but Flora carried on, all the anger she felt towards Caroline suddenly rushing to the surface.
‘That Caroline has even used Fraser’s heart attack to try and further her own aims and that really is low, even for her. I’m getting heartily sick of her telling us we’re going to fail every minute of the day, although now of course I understand why it’s been “poor Fraser this”, and “poor Fraser that”, or “Do you think you’ll have to sell the farm?”’ She mimicked Caroline’s cut-glass accent, which was just as fake as the woman herself. ‘Sounding all innocent, when she’s nothing of the sort. Innocent, my arse… Well, I’m sorry, but it’s obvious that she’d like nothing more than for your dad to become the frail old man she’s all too eager to tell us that hehasbecome. And Fraser has done nothing to deserve this. He’s a hard-working, loving man. Bluff and a bit scary at times, but a good man all the same, and one who is now hurting very badly and terrified of what his life has become.’
Her voice rose steadily as she spoke, her thoughts gathering pace as they began to tumble from her mouth. ‘That’s why we need to sell the land, Ned. We need to do something that gives Fraser back his life, but not the old one that was all about debt and failure, but something new, something with promise. In fact, what angers me most about Caroline’s involvement in all of this is not what she’s threatened you with, or the fact that she hates me – we’re young and fit and can stand up for ourselves – but Fraser can’t. There are more important things in life than holding onto a lost dream of how this bloody farm used to be, and Fraser’s health is one of them. And if it isn’t, then somewhere along the line someone’s got their priorities very wrong indeed.’ Flora sat back, eyes flashing.
There was silence for a moment as Ned held her look. ‘I see,’ he said finally. ‘And that someone would be me, would it?’
Flora looked up, startled. Shit. That wasn’t what she meant at all, but somehow, in her rush to get her point across, and with the anger she felt towards Caroline spilling over, it hadn’t come out quite the way she had meant it to.
‘No, God, Ned, I’m sorry. I didn’t meanyou… I just meant in general, I—’
Two blooms of colour had appeared on his cheeks. ‘Well, that’s easy for you to say when it’s not your livelihood at stake. When you don’t have to worry about earning money to put food on the table. Have you any idea what it costs to run this place?’
She stared at him. ‘Who says I don’t? Jesus, Ned, credit me with some intelligence. Have I not just proven how much a part of this family I am? Or maybe not… Thanks a million, Ned. I think you’ve just made it very clear how you view me. And I am not your mother…’ she hissed. ‘That old-fashioned nonsense about it being the man’s responsibility to earn a living is bullshit as far as I’m concerned. I’m just as capable of earning money, but I’d rather do it here, working alongside you, than somewhere else.’
He glared at her. ‘That wasn’t actually what I meant…’
‘Then what?’
‘Imeantthat when you’ve got a nice little stash of money safely tucked away you can afford to think things like money don’t matter.’ And then he stopped, a startled expression crossing his face as if someone else had just said the words.
‘Of course money matters, don’t be so bloody ridiculous…’ She glared back at him. ‘Anyway, who says I’ve got a pot of money?’
He didn’t answer and a suspiciously guilty look crept over his face.
‘Ned? Who says I’ve got a pot of money?’ Her demand was met with a stony expression. ‘Oh… of course,Caroline. I might have guessed. She just happened to drop that thought into conversation, did she? Another little seed she planted inside your head.’
He ignored her statement, but she could see the guilt written across his face. ‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? You sold your business, Flora. Or had you forgotten that?’ He sucked in air through his teeth. ‘Jeez, it was bloody killing me, the thought of having to ask you whether you might be prepared to use that money to pay off the loan. Thinking that I’d failed you too, even though I hoped you’d see it as part of an investment in our future life together. Well, now you’ve made it perfectly clear whereyoustand by denying the very fact that it exists—’
‘I don’thaveany money,’ she broke in, holding his look defiantly. ‘If Ihad, I would have given it to you without you even having to ask. I would haveofferedit. Do you really think that little of me?’ She practically spat the last words.
The little voice in her head was screaming at her to shut up, but she took no notice, so wound up that she was incapable of stopping. She could see the chance of saving themselves slipping further and further away from her, but somehow she seemed powerless to alter the course she was on. And then Ned opened his mouth and she felt the precipice under their feet.
‘So where did it go then? I might have been a bit naive in the past, but I’m not stupid. You had a business, Flora, with a flat attached to it, that youowned. And I know your business wasn’t exactly flourishing but even by the time you’d paid back any mortgage or debt, there must have been something. So what happened to it?’
