Page 38 of The Powerful Boss She Craves

Ella shook her head, glancing at the tablet screen. ‘Do you know it?’

‘I know of it. A friend of mine...well, someone I went to school with...owns it.’

‘Really?’

Micah sat down again and leaned back, looking relaxed. ‘He’s the last in a very long line of Dobsons to live in the house. They are a very old, very well-known Johannesburg family. There was a dust-up a couple of months ago because he did some insensitive renovations to the place, if I remember correctly. I know a property consortium showed some interest in acquiring it.’

‘Were you part of that consortium?’ Ella asked. Le Roux International had interests in the property sector so it was a fair question.

‘No, we don’t buy properties with partners, El. Or, if we do, it’s multi-billion-dollar projects, like malls or hotel chains.’

Right, a Victorian mansion in Johannesburg was small fish for him. The mind boggled.

‘Why are you asking about Dobson’s house?’ Micah asked.

Ella took a deep breath and tossed the suggestion out there, hoping Micah was open-minded enough to consider the idea. ‘Thadie said that she’d love to have a garden wedding, that she wanted to be married at home. She can’t, but I’m thinking that many another Victorian mansion would work just as well?’ She gestured to the tablet she’d placed on the table. ‘The photos online show that it has potential to host a large wedding, it has an award-winning garden and, because of those renovations, it now has a huge space on the ground floor. The guests wouldn’t have to change any of their accommodation arrangements, and it’s actually closer to the church than this house is.’

Micah looked thoughtful. ‘I’m not sure, sweetheart. It sounds like a hell of a stretch.’

She felt deep down in her gut that Cathcart House was the answer to all of their prayers. It was time to use Micah’s contacts and his status as one of the city’s best-known businesspeople.

‘Would you be able to get hold of him, ask him if he’d be interested in hiring out the mansion? Maybe see if we could take a peek to see if it’s suitable?’

Micah rubbed the back of his neck, his expression pensive. Then he picked up his phone, made a few calls and within ten minutes secured them a late-afternoon viewing of Cathcart House for the following Sunday.

There were huge benefits to being a powerful billionaire, Ella decided as Jabu walked into the entertainment area carrying a silver tray loaded with food.

A week later, Ella instantly fell in love with Cathcart House. She loved its gardens, bigger even than those at Hadleigh House and, although she’d never admit this to Micah, prettier too. The house looked as if it belonged in the Cape, a frothy behemoth of Cape Dutch gables, tall brick chimneys and a wide, wraparound veranda. Inside she was grateful to see that Samuel Dobson had left the entrance hall alone, which had a grand Burmese teak staircase running up the middle of the vast space before wrapping round to a gallery.

The downstairs area was a massive, cavernous and echoing interior space. Dobson had replaced the centuries-old wooden doors and windows with handcrafted, wooden bi-fold doors that opened to the veranda which overlooked the two-acre garden.

Upstairs, the magnificent bedrooms—still furnished—had been left untouched, with every room boasting a fireplace and some sporting Victorian tiles and fine, beautifully carved wooden mantelpieces. All the floors upstairs were Oregon pine, badly in need of waxing and treating. The door handles and light switches were brass and, she was sure, made for the house.

It would be, with some money thrown at it, a perfect wedding venue, Ella thought, wandering through the downstairs area on her own. Micah and Samuel were in conversation, no doubt reminiscing about their school days, Samuel having been a year or two ahead of Micah at an elite boarding school somewhere in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands.

Ella was glad to have Samuel’s eyes off her for a while; she’d felt as if he was undressing her every time he looked at her, and when she asked him a question he’d replied to her breasts. He made her skin crawl.

Overreacting, Yeung?Maybe. She had a habit of doing that... But she just didn’t like Samuel. At all.

Ella turned her attention back to the building. The gardens were spectacular and, were she planning Thadie’s wedding, she wouldn’t change much. She’d give the veranda a quick lick of paint and wrap the columns with fairy lights. There would be a string quartet in the hall to welcome the guests, and she’d cover the ripped-out ceiling with swathes of white cloth, behind which would be more fairy lights. She paced the area out and established that there would be enough room for all the tables plus a band and a big dance floor. Dobson had done the house no favours by ripping out the walls of the ground floor, but it was big enough to stage a huge wedding. The catering staff would have to work out of tents hidden at the back of the property, and they’d have to hire luxurious mobile bathrooms.

It was going to require a lot of additional cash. Good thing that Micah and Jago, who were paying for Thadie’s wedding, had lots of that particular commodity.

Ella walked over to where Micah and Samuel stood. Micah pulled her to his side and dropped a kiss on her temple. Ella loved his easy affection and she responded by winding her arm around his waist.

Samuel noticed their connection as his eyes went to where Micah’s hand rested on her hip. Ella waited for him to wind down—he was saying something about some cricket tour—but, when it looked as if he had no intention of shutting up, Ella interrupted him.

‘It has possibilities,’ she told Micah. ‘I’d need to come back, measure up properly and gather some more information before I can present it as a decent option to our interested party.’

‘Who needs a venue? And for what?’ Samuel asked, his eyes glinting with waspish curiosity.

Ella jumped in before Micah could answer. ‘We’re keeping the identity of my client a secret, Mr Dobson.’

If Dobson knew the wedding was for Thadie, he’d either use the information to cop an invitation or leak it to the press.

‘Would you consider hiring out the house and the grounds for a weekend?’ Ella asked him.

‘For the right price. Obviously, it’ll be an enormous upheaval, so I’d have to be adequately compensated.’

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