Chapter Fourteen
‘I should have known not to get in here with you. This lift has always been a bit dodgy,’ Lara said, trying not to dwell on Flynn’s muscles as he leaned forward, examining the control panel.
Flynn turned to her. ‘Yeah. Carlos told me, and the engineer’s scheduled for next Tuesday. Not that it’s any help to us now.’ He tried a winning smile, which she assumed was meant to cheer her up.
‘No, it isn’t.’
He waved his radio. ‘Shall I call someone or do you want to? Who normally rescues people from lifts around here?’
‘Well, I’m one of the designated rescuers myself. I know how to use the emergency crank system in the basement.’
‘Great!’ Flynn gave an exaggerated sigh of relief then said, with mock surprise, ‘Oh, wait. You’re stuck in a lift.’
‘Well spotted. Henry and Fiona also know how to use it, but we won’t want to bother them. Gerald also knew, of course.’
‘Ah.’ He blew out a breath. ‘So that would be my job now?’
‘Yes, but luckily Carlos is also familiar with the crank system.’
Flynn closed his eyes and opened them again. ‘He’s going to love this. The boss being stuck in the lift.’ He held up his radio. ‘God, this is embarrassing.’
‘Better that it’s us and not Henry or Fiona,’ Lara said, although she wouldn’t have minded Fiona taking her place at that moment. She was trying not to dwell on the worst-case scenario of Fiona taking the historian into the treasury.
‘I need to let Fiona know that her guests won’t be seeing St Anselm’s finger any time soon.’
Luckily, Fiona was more worried and embarrassed about her staff being stuck in an antiquated lift. She said she was giving her celebrity guest a tour of the ground-floor rooms and hoped they’d be out of there ‘in a jiffy’.
Flynn, however, had less upbeat news to deliver from Carlos. ‘He says it’s going to take at least half an hour to crank us down to the ground floor.’
‘I could have told you that. Good job I’m not claustrophobic,’ Lara said, staring at the walls and the ancient two-button mechanism and the modern safety warnings: do not use this lift in a fire.
She suppressed a shudder. Even though she knew they’d be rescued sooner or later, it still gave her the creeps to be suspended halfway to the top of the tower, even with Flynn for company.
She sank down with her back to the wall of the lift.
‘This bloody lift is now my top priority,’ Flynn grumbled, peering at the control panel again. ‘This whole system should be on display in a museum.’
‘I doubt there’s any money in the budget.’
‘OK, then we need a new mechanism or a better failsafe than a hand crank system. We’ll fix it ourselves in-house.’
‘That’s Ravendale, I’m afraid. Nothing moves too speedily and making do is the name of the game.’
‘I’m going to change things.’ He sighed, then the corners of his mouth curved upwards. ‘Still, I suppose there are worse places to be stuck.’
In close proximity, and with no excuse to look away, Lara was forced to meet his gaze full on. If she was honest, it was no hardship, although that glint in his eye was sending her hormones haywire.
He slid down on the opposite wall, his feet reaching alongside hers to her calves. Luckily the lights had stayed on although the bulb was dim.
‘I suppose I ought to expect situations like this in somewhere so ancient,’ he said.
‘The lift’s from the 1950s. We’re lucky it isn’t listed.’
‘Hmm.’ Flynn put his radio on the floor, returning his attention to Lara. ‘Ever thought what it would be like to actually own a place like this yourself?’
Lara snorted. ‘No way. It’s bad enough managing it. Owning it would be way too much responsibility. Look at Henry and Fiona. Their kids don’t really want to take it on.’
‘I wondered about them and where they are,’ Flynn said.
‘They have two daughters in their forties. I’ve only ever met one of them once, when she and the family came up for Fiona’s birthday.
Hattie’s a sculptor and Tara is a paediatrician in London.
They seemed nice enough but neither made any mention of giving up their career to run this place.
But if they don’t, Henry and Fiona might have to give the place to a trust or sell to a leisure corporation and they don’t want to do that. ’
‘I’d no idea …’ Flynn said.
‘Don’t worry, I don’t think it will happen any time soon. Or I didn’t until Henry was taken ill. Now we’ll have to hope one of the daughters comes through and wants to run things the same.’
‘And is that likely?’
‘From what Fiona has hinted, Tara, the doctor, isn’t interested at all. Hattie, who’s the sculptor, has agreed to move her family here “if it becomes necessary”.’
‘If? I’d say when is more realistic,’ Flynn murmured.
Lara nodded. The uncertainty of the situation around who might take over the castle had been the one drawback to accepting the job at Ravendale.
However, every other consideration had outweighed that downside and, if she were honest, she had been desperate to get away from Rob.
‘I wouldn’t want to own a place like this.
I know it seems like a dream come true for many people, and the owners are incredibly fortunate, but it also ties you down.
It’s not just the fact that you’re tied to it for your whole life, but you have the responsibility to your family and future generations, and all the people who feel they have a stake in an historic property.
How can your kids pursue their own lives? ’
‘I agree. It’s not something I’d want to deal with,’ Flynn said.
‘There’s no doubting that it’s a very privileged position to be in, but I still wouldn’t swap.
However, I didn’t own my own place until about five years ago, when my gran passed away and left me the deposit I used to buy the Newquay flat.
It’s a shame she never got to see the place. ’
‘It’s rented out, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but not formally. I let a couple of friends move in. They do pay some rent, but well below the market rate. I don’t mind. There’s a housing crisis in Cornwall and they could never afford the place at the going rate, and they have a baby on the way …’
‘That was generous of you,’ Lara said. Allowing his friends to move in must also mean he was committed to staying here too. Her heart warmed a little more to him.
‘I was more than happy to help them out. You have to look after your friends, don’t you?’
‘You do and, to be fair, Henry and Fiona are lovely and do try to be kind and accessible and as normal as possible. Or as normal as they know how to be.’
Flynn returned her wry smile.
‘But not everyone is like them. I think you could easily forget what life is like for most people. I’d hate to start thinking I was above anyone.’
His gaze became more serious. ‘You sound like you’re speaking from experience.’
‘To a degree, I am.’ She wasn’t completely sure why she’d started this thread of the conversation. He looked wistful. She wondered how he felt being on his own at – thirty-nine?
Up close, she noticed the tiny scar on his chin, his thick eyelashes, and the tiny threads of grey in his otherwise black hair. He had a kind heart, he was loyal, and he made her laugh, even if he could be annoying. Even when he was annoying, he did it with charm and wit.
They were interrupted by a call on Flynn’s radio, which he stood up to take. ‘Hi Carlos. Yeah. OK, thanks. How long? Wow … well, if that’s what it takes. We’re not going anywhere.’
Lara pushed herself to her feet, stretching to loosen her shoulders while listening to the radio exchange. Flynn stood up too.
The lift juddered and began to inch its way downwards.
‘Oh!’ Lara cried, ‘I hope—’ but then her optimism was dashed when the lift came to an abrupt halt.
With an apologetic grimace, Flynn said, ‘I’m afraid you’re going to be stuck with me a while longer.’
‘How awful,’ Lara murmured, then made a decision. She felt that if she didn’t clear the air now, she never would.
‘Flynn. There’s something I want to say about why I’ve ended up at Ravendale.’
His forehead furrowed in surprise. ‘You don’t have to share anything about your personal life that you don’t want to.’
‘I know, but when you told me about your ex and the way she wasn’t what you thought – that she’d been keeping secrets … Well, I didn’t say anything at the time because it touched a nerve with me. We probably have more in common than you think.’
‘We do?’ Intrigue lit his eyes.
‘I was seeing someone while I was at my previous job. He was the lord of the manor, to be honest. Literally.’ She sighed. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’
Flynn winced and said, ‘Ouch.’
‘Yes. Ouch.’ She paused, recalling the pain, and the effects that had lingered far longer than she’d ever expected.
Hopes crushed. Dreams shattered. A loss that she hadn’t thought she deserved to mourn.
She could never forget her mother’s well-meaning words when she broke the news that she was leaving the manor and why.
‘That’s love,’ her mother had said, kindly.
Yet Lara doubted it had been love – and definitely not on Rob’s side – and if sacrificing her independence and having her heart shattered was the price of that kind of ‘love’, she wasn’t sure she could ever risk it again.
‘You don’t have to tell me this if it’s making you feel bad,’ Flynn said, his words like a soothing balm on a raw wound.
‘It isn’t making me feel bad to tell you.
The way I was treated at the time made me feel bad.
Remembering it used to make me feel worse, but you were honest and open with me about Abi and I held back in the café.
I want you to know what happened.’ Some of what happened …
Lara felt she should return his trust by sharing some of her own story, but she was still determined to keep back one part that still felt too raw to reveal.
She wasn’t sure Flynn would or even could understand.