The Reluctant Tycoon

No point in beating about the bush. ‘No,’ she said bluntly. ‘I’ve never needed them,’ she stated defiantly. Until recently.

He nodded. ‘So what’s the procedure?’

‘Procedure?’ she echoed. Astonished that references had been dismissed so lightly, she opened her mouth to query it, then hastily closed it again. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Sorrel.

‘Yes,’ he agreed with a slight edge of impatience. ‘You make sketches? Dig holes? What?’

‘Oh, sketches. You can then approve, or disapprove, let me have your own suggestions. Some people know exactly what they want. Others don’t.’

‘Then you may do some sketches for my approval.’

‘Thank you. When would you like me to begin?’

‘As soon as possible.’

Staring out over the front garden, she wondered why she didn’t feel delighted. She should have done. Instead, she felt—wary. ‘I’ll need to know your likes and dislikes, whether you want trees, water features…’

‘I don’t know what I want. Be—inspirational, Miss James. You need to walk the course?’ he asked, and then cursed.

Startled, she looked ahead and saw a young man leap out of a car by the broken gate. He had a camera slung round his neck.

‘Who is he?’

‘Very good, Miss James,’ he mocked.

‘What?’ she asked in confusion.

‘Your bewilderment looks almost genuine.’

‘It is genuine! Why on earth would I—?’

‘He’s a reporter,’ he interrupted. Come to check up that his protegé had gained access? he wondered. Possibly. Probably. Irritated with himself, and irritated with her, he added harshly, ‘Just ignore him, and if he speaks to you don’t answer.’

‘But what does he want? Hey!’ she exclaimed in shock as a flash went off, nearly blinding her. ‘He just took my photograph!’

‘Gilding the lily,’ he muttered to himself. Ignoring the shouts for his attention, he directed her round the side of the house and out of sight.

‘Gilding what lily?’ she demanded in confusion.

‘It’s not important.’

Maybe not, but something was. ‘Will he follow us?’

‘No,’ he denied grimly. ‘Not if he values his equipment.’

‘But what does he want?’

‘To give me grief,’ he said dismissively. ‘You can use the utility room to store your tools or whatever,’ he added as he halted to survey the tangled wreck of his walled rear garden. ‘The gate at the end leads to a paddock—leased out to a local family for their horses. There’s a lower field for vegetables, and this way…’ He led the way across the broken terrace towards another wrought-iron gate that hung drunkenly by one hinge. ‘There are half-demolished greenhouses, an old brick storeroom and a rubbish tip that is currently in the process of being cleared. But all that need concern you at the moment is the front.’

‘And if you like what I do?’ she prompted.

‘Then you may do the back. I read something about parterres but, seeing as I wouldn’t know a parterre if I fell over one, the point is moot.’

She doubted it. She suspected he knew very well what a parterre was, and anything else she might mention. He looked like a man who knew a great deal about a great many subjects.

‘Come,’ he ordered, still tersely, as he led the way back to the rear door. ‘You’ll need a room for sketching in.’

‘I can do that outside or from the truck…’ she began worriedly.

‘Well, if you change your mind, you can use the old refectory,’ he murmured as he led the way back inside. ‘From when it was an abbey, of course.’

He threw open the first door on his left.

Stepping inside the long, empty room that echoed rather unnervingly, she stared round her. It was tiled in the same flags as the hall, but, unlike the hall, the room had yet to be restored. The arched leaded windows were uncurtained, the massive fireplace dusty. It looked as though it hadn’t been used in a long time.

‘I’ll get a chair and table put in here for you to work at.’

‘Thank you.’

‘There’s good light in here, and I imagine light is important for your sketching.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed as she walked over to the windows and stared out at the tangled rear garden.

He joined her. ‘Once the cloisters, I believe, or cloistery—I’m never sure if it’s singular or plural. There were other buildings originally—a chapel, sleeping areas, a dairy, a room where they made wine, stored their vegetables. There are still cellars…’

‘Yes,’ she agreed automatically as a sudden sparkle of light caught her eye. Sunshine reflecting off a piece of broken glass maybe, which reminded her of the reporter. ‘Why would he take my picture?’ she asked worriedly.

‘The reporter? Who knows? Keeping up appearances?’

Bewildered, she began, ‘What appear—?’

‘It bothers you?’

‘No-o,’ she denied slowly, ‘but he might think…’

‘We have a romantic interest?’ he asked derisively.

‘There’s no need to say it like that,’ she scolded. ‘Some people find me attractive.’

‘I dare say they do,’ he agreed flatly.

She gave a small grin. He didn’t sound as though he was one of them. ‘Like your women with full figures, do you?’ she asked tongue in cheek.

He looked at her, his eyes flat, unreadable. ‘I like them silent.’

She gave a small snort of laughter and returned her attention to the garden.

‘If the photograph is published,’ he continued, ‘is there someone close to you who might be—offended?’