Chapter Thirty Two
D anni had spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours making choices that, if she thought too hard about them, would probably make her throw up.
But for once in her life, she’d decided to trust her gut rather than her pride.
The problem was, trusting her gut felt an awful lot like free-falling with no parachute.
Which all led her to standing here, in Elizabeth Allen’s office, trying to look like she had everything under control. And trying to look like wearing actual trousers rather than jeans and shoes rather than boots didn’t make her want to roll on the floor kicking her feet like a toddler.
Elizabeth steepled her fingers and looked at Danni over the rim of her glasses with a tired, knowing look. “I assume you’re here about the divorce?” she asked dryly. “And if that’s the case, I’m afraid that I’m obligated to tell you that my client has—”
“No,” said Danni.
“No,” echoed Elizabeth. She gave Danni a skeptical look. “I’m representing your wife, you do understand that—”
“It’s not about the divorce,” Danni interrupted again.
“I signed the paperwork, I’m not planning on contesting the divorce.
From everything I’ve heard that means that you won’t even need to represent Eleanor for that.
We wait out the year, file online, and we’re good to go.
” Saying the words felt weird, discussing it felt weird, but divorce was the least of her problems just at the moment.
She’d jump over that fence when and if she came to it.
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “It’s not about the divorce?”
Danni shook her head.
“Okay, well then, I’m not entirely sure why you’re here?”
“I need a solicitor,” Danni said. “Look, it’s just for a meeting I’ve set up. It’s nothing shady, nothing illegal, I just need someone to keep me from accidentally signing away my soul or whatever.”
“A meeting about what?” Elizabeth said.
Danni sucked on her teeth. “Um, nothing to do with Eleanor. No conflict of interest. I swear. If it is, you can just walk out. It’s just that it’s in half an hour and, well, I didn’t think things through quite as far as I probably should have and, well, and Hector just reminded me that I should probably have a solicitor present, and… ”
“Hector,” Elizabeth said. “That’s that tall, handsome one. Your brother, correct?”
Danni nodded.
Elizabeth grinned. “Hector. Mmm. And you can’t tell me what this meeting is about?”
“It’s in like…” Danni checked her watch. “Twenty-two minutes. You’ll find out soon enough. I’ll fill you in on the way. You’re the only solicitor I know.”
“You have your own solicitor.”
“I have a voice on the end of a phone. Never met the man,” Danni said urgently. “Please?”
A long pause stretched between them. Elizabeth let out a resigned sigh. “I don’t suppose Hector will be there?”
“He might meet us after for a drink?” said Danni, not at all sure this was true, but more than willing to pimp her brother out if it meant Elizabeth would come with her. Hector was a big boy, he could look after himself.
“Fine. Against my better judgment, I’ll come.”
Danni let out a breath, her shoulders relaxing slightly. “Great. Let’s go.”
ALMOST AN HOUR later, they walked out of an office building, Elizabeth staring at Danni like she’d grown a second head, and Danni feeling… dizzy and sick and light and right, all at the same time.
“You said that had nothing to do with Eleanor,” Elizabeth said accusingly.
“Technically, it didn’t,” said Danni.
“It had absolutely everything to do with Eleanor, didn’t it?”
Danni tilted her head to one side. “Perhaps.”
Elizabeth sighed and shook her head. “Well,” she said finally. “That was unexpected, I suppose. I don’t think anyone saw that outcome coming.”
“Yeah, well, don’t go thinking I’ve gone soft or anything,” Danni said with a sniff.
Elizabeth actually smirked. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She took Danni’s arm and they started walking down the street. “So, what happens now?”
“Dunno,” Danni said. She caught Elizabeth looking at her in surprise. “What? I told you I hadn’t thought this through as far as I should. I just… It just… There’s right and there’s wrong, you know?”
“I know,” said Elizabeth. They walked in silence for a few steps before she spoke again. “You did a good thing in there, Danni.”
Danni shrugged. “Don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation to maintain, after all.”
“That you do.” Elizabeth took a breath. “Um, Eleanor also has a reputation to maintain.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Danni asked, stopping and turning so that they were face to face. “And you can’t tell her a thing. I’ve got confidentiality here, Hypocratic Oath and all that stuff.”
“That’s doctors,” Elizabeth said gently. “But you do have confidentiality. As does Eleanor.” She raised one eyebrow like she was trying to get a message across .
“Yeah, right, and?”
Elizabeth cleared her throat, looking like she was debating with herself. “And… Eleanor has client confidentiality. Just like you do. I can’t say anything about your affairs to her , and I can’t say anything about her affairs to you .”
“Right, okay,” Danni said, getting that there was a point but not truly understanding what it was.
“Jesus,” Elizabeth said. “When they taught us ethics at law school, there was nothing as complicated as this.” She took a breath and tried again. “What I’m trying to get at is that I strongly suggest that you… discuss things with Eleanor.”
Danni’s heart clenched in her chest, but she forced herself to stay cool, to look like she was in control. “I will,” she said, a little too quickly. “Just… not yet.”
“Christ.” Elizabeth rubbed her temples. “Alright, but I wouldn’t leave things too long if I were you. In fact, I’d advise you to open negotiations as soon as possible.”
Danni rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright,” she said. “I’ll try and piece my heart back together and move on to business negotiations, happy?”
Elizabeth shook her head and sighed. “If this doesn’t work out, it won’t be through lack of trying,” she mumbled to herself.
DANNI NEEDED A drink. Or five.
She left Elizabeth to go back to her office and went straight to the pub, knowing that the others would be there awaiting the outcome of her meeting. She walked in, strode up to the bar, threw some bills on the counter, and ordered beers for the entire pack.
It didn’t take long for Indi, Tommy, and Hector to close in on her, like wolves scenting blood, to pick up their pints.
“Alright,” Indi demanded, hopping onto a barstool. “Spill. What the hell happened in this mysterious meeting of yours?”
“You're wearing shoes,” Tommy pointed out. “I didn’t know you had any. Barely knew you had feet, actually.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I’ve got feet,” said Danni.
“She almost didn’t though,” Hector said. “She ran after dad on a combine when she was about four. Could’ve lost her feet that day.”
“Aye, combines are dangerous beasts alright,” Tommy said, lifting his beer. “Not to be messed with.”
Indi was staring at them both incredulously. “Do you two not even have the slightest shred of curiosity?” she asked.
“Not enough to mess with a combine harvester,” Tommy said.
“Me neither,” said Hector with a shiver.
“For Christ’s sake,” Indi said. “Danni. The meeting. What happened?”
Danni took a long sip of her beer, stalling. “It’s complicated.”
“Everything’s complicated with you,” Tommy said. “It was easier when you weren’t married. Back then we only had to worry about sheep. Now there’s sheep and a woman.”
“Another dangerous combination,” put in Hector.
Indi put down her beer. “I swear to God, one more word from either of you two about combine harvesters, sheep, or anything that’s not to do with whatever this meeting is that Danni’s just had, and I will personally take you by the ear and escort you out of my pub. Understood?”
“It’s not your pub,” Tommy said. But he shut up as Hector elbowed him.
Danni sighed. “Alright, fine. You want the truth? The reason that I had you three chatting up the locals was to get an idea of the big plan, the grand scheme of things.”
“What?” asked Tommy.
“It’s simple. I got a local map, and every time one of you told me that so-and-so had sold their back field, or their farm, or their gardening patch, or whatever, I marked it on the map. It let me see what Marren already owned.”
“Alright,” said Hector. “I see where you’re going with that.”
“Then I just got lucky,” Danni went on. “My farm was bang slap in the middle of it all. In fact, there was a big swathe of land that he’d brought and then a hole in the middle of it, cutting the lot into two.”
Hector put his beer down. “What did you do, Danni?”
Danni took a sip of her beer before answering. “I sold it.”
Silence. Heavy, stunned silence.
“You what?” Indi shrieked, startling the entire bar. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Possibly,” Danni said.
Tommy, looking like he’d just been slapped, shook his head. “You wouldn’t sell the farm to save yourself from going broke, but you’d sell it now? What the hell changed?”
“Let me guess,” Hector said. He had a large, comforting hand on Danni’s shoulder. “You made a deal.”
Danni nodded. “I sold the farm, meaning the developer had one large plot of land. But only on the condition that Eleanor’s estate was left out of things.”
Indi’s jaw dropped, Tommy looked genuinely dumbfounded, Hector just studied her with something like admiration.
“It wasn’t all me,” Danni said. “Elizabeth helped. She pointed out that the house couldn’t be touched because it’s protected, and half the woodland in the estate is protected too.
There’d be so much red tape getting the estate developed that it could hardly be worth it.
In the end, they backed down, said they didn’t need the rest of the land. ”
“You save Eleanor’s house,” Indi said.
“Well damn, that’s kind of romantic,” said Tommy.
Indi shook her head in disbelief. “And now what? You’re just… what? Walking away?”
Danni hesitated. The truth was, she really hadn’t thought any further away than this. No further than giving Eleanor what she wanted, needed. “I don’t know,” she admitted, staring down into her beer. “I have absolutely no idea.”