Chapter Twenty-Five
E leanor sat at the kitchen table, her fingers curled around the glass of whiskey that Danni had given her, swirling the liquor around absentmindedly.
She wasn’t entirely sure she liked whiskey, but it was what one did when faced with shocking news.
One swirled a drink and pretended to be alright, to be in control.
Across from her, Danni was leaning against the kitchen counter, her arms crossed, watching with a look of worry and wariness on her face. “So, are we just going to sit here while you process this, or should I fetch you some smelling salts?”
Eleanor exhaled through her nose. “It’s just… unfathomable.”
“Oh, it’s pretty fathomable,” Danni said, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and biting into it. “Your great-uncle’s a greedy sod who lost all his money and now wants to take what isn’t his.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes. “A very succinct summary of an extremely complicated family dynamic,” she admitted.
She couldn’t remember the first time she’d set eyes on Stephan Marren.
But she did remember that he’d always made her uncomfortable.
He’d always been a little too loud, a little too happy, just not quite… right.
“Well, I do my best,” Danni said with a wink, and Eleanor found herself almost smiling. Almost.
She set her glass down with a sigh. “Stephan Marren. Maybe I should have known, should have guessed.”
“Why?” asked Danni, pulling out a kitchen chair and sitting down to eat her apple.
“Because… he never seemed quite right. I only remember him coming to the house a handful of times, but every time it was like he was valuing it with every glance, like he was totting up the amount he could get for it. He always seemed interested in family history. A ruse, I suppose, to find out more about the house. He’s only related by marriage, of course. ”
Danni tilted her head. “What exactly is his deal?”
Eleanor leaned back in her chair. “My great-aunt, my grandmother’s younger sister, was…
beautiful is the first word that comes to mind.
But also…” She breathed out. “I don’t quite know how to put it delicately.
I know that there were some problems at her birth, though no one ever told me what exactly.
And she was perfectly nice and gentle and a lovely woman. But not… bright.”
“I see,” said Danni.
“In those days, a lot of families would have put their daughter into an institution. It’s just what was done.
But my family didn’t. From everything my grandmother said, everyone just pretended that nothing was wrong.
” She sighed again and rubbed at her face.
“And for the most part, I think Imogen lived a good life, a happy life, she was always surrounded by friends, she was always smiling.”
Danni smiled at Eleanor. “Better than being institutionalized.”
“Indeed,” said Eleanor. “And then Marren came along. Imogen had her own money, though my grandmother and her husband got the house and the estates. He was thirty years younger than her, and everyone knew he was a gold-digger. Everyone except Imogen. My grandparents did what they could, but she wouldn’t listen, and in the end I think it was easier just to let things go as they would.
We all knew that my grandparents would look after Imogen when the worst happened. ”
“And it did, I assume?” asked Danni, biting down to the core of her apple.
Eleanor nodded. “Marren married her and spent her money on bad investments and disastrous horse-racing bets, and then blamed my family for not bailing him out. Imogen died not long after, I’m not sure if she ever knew that he was a sham.
I hope not.” She bit her lip. “It appears he’s still holding a grudge. ”
Danni let out a low whistle. “And now he’s got his sights set on your house and my farm.” She frowned. “Wait, does that make sense? The house and the farm?”
Eleanor nodded. “If he’s working with developers, he’s likely planning to sell the entire area for commercial property. He’ll have already bought or made offers on other properties in the area, I’m sure.”
Danni sucked on her teeth. “A lot of it around here is council land,” she said. “I know from when I was buying this place.”
“Right, so he’ll probably have brought that for a song and all he needs now is the random privately-owned properties to join up with the other segments he’s purchased in order to make one large plot of land.”
Danni let out an unimpressed grunt. “He sounds like a right bastard.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself,” said Eleanor, taking a sip of whiskey.
They sat in silence for a moment, the light low and orange still coming through the kitchen window. Eleanor was lost in thought, her mind running through all the ways that this could go wrong, all the signals that perhaps she should have recognized.
But Danni, apparently, was thinking of solutions. “If we can’t stop him outright,” she said. “We can at least make things harder for him.”
Eleanor turned to her, raising an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”
Danni shifted her weight, looking more serious than Eleanor had ever seen her.
“We’re married,” she said. “If we put both properties in both of our names, then it would make things more complicated. He’d need both of our signatures in order to sell.
It might make him reconsider, or just complicate things so much that he walks away. ”
For a second, Eleanor could say nothing. When she finally did, her voice was about an octave too high. “Are you insane?”
Danni blinked. “I mean, probably, sometimes, maybe, I’m trying to run a farm single-handed, after all. But that seems unrelated to the subject at hand.”
“That house has been in my family for generations. It’s my home.”
“And this farm is my home,” said Danni. “Which is why I’m trying to keep both of them safe.”
Eleanor’s stomach twisted and felt sour. She knew that Danni was only trying to help. But the idea of tying her entire legacy to someone else, even someone as dependable as Danni, made her insides churn.
“You don’t want my name on the house,” Danni said, voice low.
“It’s not that,” Eleanor began. “It’s…”
Danni held up both hands in surrender. “It’s alright, it’s fine. It was just an idea. No need to get defensive, Princess. I was only thinking aloud.”
Eleanor winced. “I know, I just…” She broke off, pressing her fingers to her temples. “This whole situation is spiraling. I’m not used to relying on other people.”
“I was good enough to save your house once,” Danni pointed out. “I mean, you did marry me to get it. I just thought…” She stopped, took a breath, and nodded. “It’s fine, I forget sometimes that you’re Little Miss Independent.”
Eleanor shot her a look, but Danni’s expression was warm, understanding, a little hurt perhaps, but not angry. At least not as far as Eleanor could tell. “Is this our first fight?” she asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
“God no,” said Danni with a grin. “I’m pretty sure we had that when you ran your sports car into my tractor.”
“You mean when you drove your tractor into my MG,” Eleanor said. She sipped her drink again. “I, um, I know that you were just trying to be helpful before.”
Danni nudged her foot under the table. “That’s what I do. I’m a very helpful person. Full of help, I am, absolutely brimming with it.”
Eleanor finally let out a soft laugh, shaking her head. “You’re infuriating.”
“And yet, here you are, still talking to me.”
Eleanor glanced at her, feeling something shift in her chest. Danni was still sitting there, apple core abandoned on the table, tilting her head to one side and smiling and listening, and Eleanor realized, for what felt like the first time in a very long time, that perhaps she wasn’t alone in all of this.
For the first time in her life, someone was standing beside her. Even if currently that person happened to be sitting opposite her.
Her heart pounded in her chest. “I, um…”
Danni cocked an eyebrow. “You… what?”
Eleanor swallowed. “I appreciate it. This. You.”
“I know that,” Danni said, grinning.
Something in the air changed. The tension that had begun to simmer when Danni had made her suggestion coalesced into something else, a different kind of tension, one Eleanor was becoming more familiar with.
Perhaps she should step back before she did something reckless, something that might change the situation.
But Eleanor didn’t think she could. Didn’t want to.
She stood up, walking around the table, going to stand next to Danni, to pick up her hand. She stroked Danni’s wrist with her thumb. “I don’t want to fight.”
She saw Danni’s breath hitch. “Then don’t.”
Which was all the encouragement that Eleanor needed. She bent down, hair falling over her space, closing the distance between them, pressing her lips to Danni’s in a kiss that was far too soft, far too tender, for the chaotic feelings that were running through her head.
Danni’s hands found her waist, she scooted her chair back, pulling Eleanor in and down until Eleanor was sitting astride her. Eleanor melted against her, tilting her head to deepen the kiss.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that this could be another mistake, that she was getting in so deep and so fast.
But just at the moment, she really didn’t care a jot.
All that mattered was the way Danni held her, the way she kissed her back without hesitation, the way she made Eleanor feel something that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Safe.
The rest of the world could wait.
For now, this was enough.