Chapter Twenty-Eight
E leanor walked through the grand front doors of the manor without even noticing that they hadn’t been locked.
Her heels clicked against the polished floor, the sound echoing through the empty, cavernous entryway.
She could smell dust and paint and all the reminders that the house wasn’t yet finished.
But she strode through the house to the west wing, holding herself together, not spilling a single tear.
She’d done it.
She’d walked away from Danni.
It had seemed best not to complicate things, best to separate, be clear that this was a business relationship. That was the best way of Danni keeping what was hers, of not putting Danni’s livelihood at risk.
Any hint that a divorce wasn’t on the up-and-up and Danni’s assets could come back into play, and that wasn’t why she’d done this at all.
So she’d walked away from Danni and the farm, from the warmth of waking up beside someone who made her laugh. So she’d done the right thing.
Why, then, did it feel so utterly wrong?
She exhaled slowly, straightening her shoulders.
It was better this way, she kept telling herself.
She had to protect Danni. And if that meant cutting her out of her life completely, then so be it.
No room for doubt, no room for second-guessing.
She’d been brought up to do the right thing, and damn it, she was going to do the right thing.
What she might actually want was completely irrelevant.
“Did I not tell you to get a night watchman around here? Or at least lock the damn door?”
Eleanor spun around to see Elizabeth standing in the doorway, her suit wrinkled and her eyes tired. “What do you need?” she asked.
“I came to check on you,” Elizabeth said, eyeing Eleanor with thinly veiled concern. “You’re not answering your phone.”
Eleanor waved a dismissive hand. “It must have died somewhere in my luggage. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Elizabeth came into the room, closing the door behind her, and raising a skeptical brow. “Really? Because I’ve just spent the last fifteen minutes on the phone with Danni’s solicitor. She’s received the separation papers.”
With a sniff, Eleanor turned away, busying herself by smoothing a nonexistent wrinkle from her sleeve. “Good. That’s what I wanted.”
“Nor, are you absolutely sure about this?” Elizabeth sighed. “Because from where I’m standing, you look like someone who just made the biggest mistake of her life.”
“What I look like,” Eleanor said coolly, “is someone with an estate to run. I need to focus on the house, the renovations, the finances. That’s all that matters now.”
Elizabeth frowned. “So that’s it? You’re just going to pretend she never existed?”
Eleanor lifted her chin. “I’m moving on.
It’s the sensible thing to do.” It was the only thing to do.
Anything else would break her. Besides, if Danni thought there was a hint that there were any feelings, she’d never take no for an answer, she’d ruin everything and put her farm at risk.
Eleanor knew her well enough to know that.
After a moment, Elizabeth sighed again, shaking her head. “ If you say so. But if you need me, I’m here. Just… don’t bury yourself in the work and pretend it doesn’t hurt.”
Eleanor didn’t reply. She wasn’t going to lie to her best friend. Instead, she walked toward the window and stared out at the sprawling estate, the fields stretching beyond the horizon.
Moving on.
Yes, that’s what she had to do.
???
Danni hefted a full feed sack off the trailer and dropped it onto the growing pile near the barn.
Her shoulders ached with the effort, but the physical hurt was better than whatever chaos was going on inside her.
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows over the fields, but she barely noticed.
She’d spent twenty-four hours now trying to avoid thinking. But it wasn’t quite working.
Eleanor had left.
Not just left, but actually left. Left her. Like none of it had meant anything. Like Danni herself hadn’t meant anything.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tommy’s voice cut through her thoughts. He stood a few feet away, arms crossed, his expression hovering somewhere between concern and exasperation. “If you leave them sacks there, they’ll just get gotten by the rats. Better off in the trailer for now.”
Danni said nothing, just kept hefting sacks, kept working.
“You’ve been weird all day,” Tommy said.
She clenched her jaw. “I’m fine.”
“About as fine as a cow stuck in a ditch.” He took a step closer. “Go on, tell me what’s wrong. Did something happen? Is it Eleanor?”
Danni snapped. “Nothing. Nothing happened, alright? Just drop it.”
Tommy blinked in surprise, then slowly raised his hands. “Alright, alright. No need to bite my head off.”
She ran a hand over her face. “Tom, sorry, I didn’t mean— ”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re all twisted up, I get it.” He studied her for a beat before shaking his head. “I’ll be in the barn if you decide you actually want to talk like a normal human.”
He turned and walked off, leaving Danni alone with the weight of her thoughts. She kicked at a patch of dirt, frustration bubbling up inside her.
She needed something. What, she didn’t know. But work wasn’t distracting her. The farm wasn’t enough.
For the first time, it felt like she didn’t have everything she needed. And it was an uncomfortable thought.
HECTOR STRODE INTO the farmhouse after dinnertime, wearing his usual no-nonsense expression. He put the kettle on before he did anything else, then turned, leaned against the counter, and looked at Danni.
“Tommy says you’re acting weird. What’s going on?”
Danni exhaled. “Nothing.”
He snorted. “Try again.”
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. He was going to find out sooner or later, she supposed. She still had to take a deep breath before she could speak the words out loud. “Fine. Eleanor left. She’s gone back to the big house.”
He didn’t look surprised. “And?”
Danni gave him a flat look. “And what? That’s it. She left. Sent separation papers and the whole kit and caboodle. It’s over.”
Hector turned around and made tea for them both. “That was the deal though, wasn’t it?” he said, his back to her. When he turned around again, he placed a cup in front of her. “Are you alright with it?”
She let out a bitter laugh. “No, I’m not alright with it. But what choice do I have? You’re right, that was the deal. And she made it perfectly clear that that’s all this ever was, a deal. It was never real, it was always about the money.”
He sat down, wrapping his hands around his mug. “But that’s not true, is it?”
She clenched her jaw. “Doesn’t matter now, does it? ”
A long silence stretched between them before Hector finally sipped his tea and sniffed. “So, what are you going to do?”
She stared at the table, coming to the conclusion that she knew she had to come to, not wanting everyone else to be right, but what if they were?
Everyone had been right about Eleanor, after all, hadn’t they?
“I don’t know,” she said eventually. “Maybe you’re all right.
Maybe I should take the offer and sell the farm while it’s still on the table. ”
Hector’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re serious?”
Danni shrugged. “What’s keeping me here? The land? The sheep? The backbreaking work? My own damn stubbornness?”
“You love this farm,” Hector said carefully. “You worked your arse off to get it and keep it, so you keep telling me.”
“And look where that got me,” she shot back. “I’m broke, I’m exhausted, and now I’m alone as well.”
For a second, the kitchen clock ticked into the silent room.
Then Hector reached across and awkwardly patted her hand.
“You’re not alone, Dan. I’m here. We’re all here.
And you know that there’s nothing we’d all like better than to have you back at home with us.
You can help run the big farm, just like you always did.
You know as well as I do that big farming is how things are going.
Running a wee place like this is practically impossible to make a living out of. ”
Danni let out a breath, shaking her head. “No, Hec. No. If I sell up, then I’m leaving. I don’t know where, but I’m going. I need a fresh start. Something new, something else, something that doesn’t leave me feeling like I’ve failed.”
For the first time, realization dawned on Hector’s face. “You’re not talking about moving back home?”
“No,” she said quietly. “No, I’m not coming home, Hec.”
He watched her for a long, long moment, then sighed and stood up. He crossed the kitchen and, without a word, pulled Danni up from her chair and into a tight hug, holding her close so that she smelled the scent of his jacket, their father’s jacket, the smell of home and farm and dad.
Danni stiffened at first, then, after a moment, she let herself lean into it.
She was tired of fighting, tired of pretending. And tired of missing someone who clearly didn’t miss her back.
And after Hector left, with promises to check on her the next day, the rest of the night stretched on long and heavy. Danni sat by the kitchen window, staring out into the darkened fields, seeing the barn, the stables, and not crying.
She’d spent so long imagining a future here.
A future where she’d run her own farm and prove to everyone that she could do it.
Then a future where she and Eleanor laughed over their morning coffee and argued over paint colors for the kitchen.
A future where that damn marriage certificate they’d got actually meant something.
But that future wasn’t real, because Eleanor had left.
And Danni had no idea how to let her go.