Epilogue
THREE MONTHS LATER
‘Well, I didn’t think we’d get here, but here we are!
’ Bella smiled as Noah looked around at the faces who’d joined him on this, his first official day of trading in the newly launched micro-branch of Noah Hathaway Country Estates.
The champagne had been poured, and everyone had a glass.
Beside him, in his half of the building that, on the other side of the freshly built partition wall still hosted Purrfect Paws, was Mollie, who’d left the shop in the capable hands of one of the many volunteers while she popped next door for a glass of bubbly.
Also joining them was Mollie’s old friend, Lorelai Ashcombe, who, due to a recent broken hip and a flare-up of her old foe, arthritis, had decided that it might be time to look for a smaller home, and Paddy and Jen from the pub, as well as Noah’s brother, Joel, who, to everyone’s surprise, not least Bella’s, had been very enthusiastic about the idea of a second branch of the estate agency.
After the way he’d treated Bella when he’d confronted her at Jack’s cottage, Bella had been wary of him, but over a long evening of good food and even better wine at Noah’s rented cottage in Everscombe, the three of them had come to an understanding.
Bella had come to the grudging conclusion that Joel, much like Monty, only lashed out when he felt threatened.
She wasn’t sure they’d ever be close, but he had at least apologised sincerely for the way he’d spoken to her, and she had accepted.
This time around, Joel was only here for the night, having booked a swift flight back out of Bristol airport in the morning, but Bella was pleased that the two brothers had finally buried the hatchet.
Marc had sent good wishes from Toulouse but couldn’t get away.
Bella was also pleased to see Nick Saint and Thea Ashcombe had joined them.
They were possibly in the market for a place together, finally, but Lorelai had already warned Noah, with a twinkle in her eye, that her granddaughter, Thea, was as stubborn as her old gran, so not to over-egg the sales pitch.
The last members of this impromptu gathering were Marieke and Gerard, who were living together in bliss, even though Gerard had to take a regular dose of antihistamines whenever Bella came over.
‘These past few months have been a learning curve, in more ways than one,’ Noah continued.
Bella’s smile grew wider as his eyes briefly met hers.
‘If you’d told me six months ago that I’d be taking a risk this big and setting up a second branch of the estate agency, I’d probably have gone screaming from these beautiful Somerset Hills straight back to Fulham!
’ The small crowd in the even smaller shop laughed.
‘But if there’s one thing I’ve learned lately, it’s that life can come at you when you least expect it.
I thought I was just going to sell Grandpa’s cottage and get the hell out of here, but spending time in the village, and realising how important my ties to the place were, helped me see that wasn’t what I wanted at all.
’ Seemingly forgetting about the people around him for a long moment, Bella’s heart sped up as Noah’s eyes locked with hers.
‘I have every hope that Noah Hathaway Country Estates will be the first in a long line of satellite branches for my company, but even bigger than that hope is the desire to make Lower Brambleton my home as much as it was Grandpa’s.
This little village cast its spell on me when I was a kid and its magic is even stronger now.
Coming home here, and it really does feel like home, was the best decision I could’ve ever made.
So, I’d like to raise a glass to Lower Brambleton and all of you.
With my little part of this village, I hope I can do you, and my grandfather, proud. ’
The assembled group tapped their glasses in appreciation and echoed Noah’s toast. Bella looked up at him. ‘Not bad,’ she said softly. ‘You almost sound like you mean it!’
‘Hey,’ Noah admonished her gently. ‘I might be a salesman but this time I’m telling the truth. And I promise you, Bella West, that once Isabella Indigo comes back from her UK tour, I will be here waiting for her.’
Bella moved closer to him as he slid his arm around her. ‘A few small venues in a few small towns is hardly a UK tour.’
‘Just as well,’ Mollie interjected. ‘You’re booked well into next year to look after some of our regulars in their own homes. Don’t go getting any ideas about disappearing on us until you’ve given those cats their fair share of love and attention!’
Over the past couple of months, Bella had proven herself to be a reliable and popular cat sitter, and even though she’d moved her things temporarily back into Marieke’s house after Jack’s cottage had become Noah’s first listing for the new business, she’d barely been back there.
Being a pet sitter suited her nomadic nature, and the royalties from her TikTok and Spotify success had allowed her to buy a small car, which was useful when she’d had a request from further afield than just the local villages.
Between the jobs and staying over at Noah’s new place, which was in the equally pretty, but far larger village of Everscombe, four miles away from Lower Brambleton, she hadn’t needed Marieke’s spare room very much.
‘Don’t worry, Moll,’ Bella replied, ‘something tells me that, even if Isabella Indigo’s career goes stratospheric, Bella West is definitely in Lower Brambleton to stay!’
And that, she thought as Noah topped up her glass with some more champagne, was something she could definitely drink to.