Page 119 of The Secret House of Honey and Hope

“Myles de la Cour.” Morris welcomes him with a huge grin. “So glad you could join us. We were on our way to see you.”

“Why?” His tone is plain as he props the bike against the outside wall and comes inside.

“We’ve submitted an advert in the Cock. Can you please make sure it goes out asap?”

“Lots of jobs going.” Sweeny adds. “Labourers and transport for next week. Please make sure it’s on the front page.”

Myles ignores them, coming to stand with me and Pierre. “Everything okay?”

“They were trying to intimidate Elodie,” she says.

“Is that true?” He glances at both men.

“Of course, it’s true.” I can’t help snapping. Does he really think we’re idiot girls who get hysterical over the least thing?

“We’re just being good neighbours.” Morris says with exaggerated innocence.

“Neighbours?” The question bursts out as ice runs down my spine. Have they already bought Hal’s property? Surely not.

“You know we bought Mrs Xavier’s House, the old farmhouse next door.” Sweeny points to the other side. Not towards Hal’s property but the other side. One of the other derelict farmhouses on Catcher Lane. “Work starts in a couple of days, and we didn’t want you to be inconvenienced with all the dust and demolition.” He sounds so smug, he might as well be doing a victory dance.

My mouth is open, I try to close it. Mrs Xavier? A memory comes back to me, of laughter and a woman at the public meeting asking about the danger of Vladimir Putin and oligarchs buying up houses on the island.

“You can’t have,” Pierre says, clearly shocked. “Liam was buying that.”

“But he didn’t, did he? He disappeared off to the mainland for a month, before completing the sale. You snooze you lose.”

“Liam didn’t snooze. He was in hospital for an operation.”

“We made Mrs Xavier an offer she couldn’t refuse, so the place is ours. We signed the papers a couple of weeks ago. Like I said, we’re neighbours, at least for the next ten days. We just wanted to warn you about the disruption next door”.

“Aright,” Myles says in a formal tone. “You’ve warned her, now you can leave her alone to get on with running her business.”

“We’re just leaving,” Morris says. “And maybe she can tell her boyfriend.” He stretches the word ‘boyfriend’ like a piece of sticky gum. “That the offer we made him will run out at the end of the week. After that the price drops to 50% so if he wants to get out while the going is good, he’d better get a shift on.”

“You’ll be glad to get rid of that thief at last, won’t you?” Sweeny says to Myles as he leaves the shop.

“What bastards.” Pierre hisses when they’re gone.

“What do they mean about buying next door?” I look from her to Myles because neither looks surprised.

Both glance at the far wall, but it’s Myles who answers first. “We were in the middle of negotiating the sale for Liam Hazelwood when he had to go to London for a small procedure in hospital.”

“He had cancer.” Pierre’s voice is shaking. “He’s better now but he was in hospital for a couple of weeks.”

“In the meantime, those two” – Myles nods towards the door where Morris and Sweeny had just left – “offered her a higher price and nabbed the property.”

“They gazumped Liam?” Pierre turns on him. “He’s been on the waiting list for ages.”

My spirits slump. If they are going to be down the road, it’ll make it so much harder to get rid of them.

“You’re not really going to advertise for them, are you?” Pierre asks him.

“It’s not my paper. They’ll have to talk to the editor.”

“But…they won’t advertise yet… I mean.”

“It’s okay. Let them advertise. It won’t change anything.”

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