Page 40 of The Price of Love
‘Why?’ I was suddenly prurient. ‘What have you done?’
Flint shuffled his feet. ‘Speaking for myself.’ The room hushed. Even the birds singing outside sounded as though they were listening in. ‘I can’t think of anything exactlyspecific, but there’s a few people with a bit of a grudge. Some of my co-workers out in China might have taken offence at the way I terminated my contract and left them with higher caseloads.’
‘Wow, crime of the century,’ Ash said dryly. ‘I can think of at least half a dozen people who’d be happy to see my bollocks on a plate. ’Sides, Flint, these were delivered in person. Surely no one’sthatdestroyed about you leaving that they’d follow you over?’
‘I thought,’ Bree spoke quietly, ‘that it might be from Paddy. The one I got this morning. That he might be meaning the baby. Maybe he’s decided to go for custody once it’s born.’
‘So we’ve all been picking up these letters and thinking they were meant for us?’ I started to giggle. ‘How egocentric can you get?’
‘Balance of probability though, Will.’ Ash stood up. ‘You’ve lived here while we’ve all been elsewhere. They’re gonna be aimed at you. Oh, and can youpleasering Cal. Guy’s been on my case all evening, something about agoat?’
‘Why would anybody want to send you anonymous letters, Will?’ Bree asked. ‘You don’t have any enemies, do you?’
‘Could it be anything to do with this Luke guy?’ Flint looked slightly ashamed of himself for asking.
‘What do you mean? Luke wouldn’t do anything like this.’
‘I didn’t mean that he’d write the letters, but might he have some pissed off ex in the background? Or some business rival?’
‘They’d go for Luke then, surely, not me.’
‘Since they aren’t exactly threatening, I vote that we bin them as they arrive and say nothing.’ Bree shifted her weight onto her other hip. ‘It will only gratify the sender if they think that their target is getting upset.’
I left them to their discussion and took the house phone upstairs. ‘Hey, Cal.’
‘Ah. It is you, my fair, goat-moving maiden. How’re you doing?’
The wine-scent of his breath, the firm touch of his lips on mine . . . ‘Just a sec.’ Not even time to make the bathroom. My stomach lurched and dived without warning, as though I stood on the deck of a temperamental ship, bucking and kicking its way through a force ten. I glanced around in dismay and finallyin extremisseized on my red dress, emptying the best part of an evening’s entertainment into its skirts.
‘You okay?’
Horrified, I realised that I’d been holding the telephone to my ear during the performance and that Cal had been treated to a virtuoso rendition of Retching, in E Minor.
‘Better now. It was something I ate.’
‘If you say so. Anyway, to business. Do you fancy a bit more livestock-wrangling? Winnie’s run away.’
‘Runaway? She’s a frigginggoat. What did she do, pack her hay net and thumb a lift to Doncaster?’
‘Goats don’t have thumbs.’ Cal’s surrealism was infectious.
‘Precisely my point.’
‘She’s up on the hill, but it’s a steep walk and I can’t do it with my stick. I mean, let’s face it, she only has to walk briskly in the other direction. So I threatened her with you.’
‘What happened?’
‘She peed on me. Well, not so muchonme, moreatme. From a distance. It was surprisingly effective, actually, like the Castle Howard fountain. So, would you? Tomorrow evening? I could pick you up.’
‘Tomorrow I’m out with Luke.’
‘Bring him. I’d like to meet him. If you’re serious about buying the place, that is. Once you’re married he’s going to have to know, isn’t he? So maybe you could kind of introduce the idea? Show him how lovely it is out there and, trust me, this is a good time of year to do it. You donotwant to be giving him the guided tour in February, always supposing you can get down there. Lane freezes solid for months at a time and we’ve usually two foot of snow lying until March.’
‘You silver-tongued salesman, you,’ I said.
‘What, the idea of being snowed in with nothing but the sound of the wind in the hills, stoking up the Aga to keep the place warm, bottles of whisky in bed waiting for the snow plough to get through, that puts you off, does it? Then you’re not the woman I think you are.’
‘It sounds . . .’ I gave a little shiver, but more at the tone of his voice than the thought of snowdrifts to my waist. It might have been my imagination. In fact, it almost certainlywasmy imagination, but it sounded to me as though Cal was flirting,ever so slightly. I wondered if Ash had been right, if Cal reallywasso lonely that he fell for every woman who was nice to him. ‘It sounds wonderful, actually.’
