Chapter Thirty-Four
T he pub was in full swing, the air thick with laughter, the clinking of glasses, and the warm, comforting smells of beer and fried chips. Danni sat at the bar, absently tracing the rim of her pint glass with her thumb, as Hector and Tommy played a game of darts in the corner.
Her mind was firmly not on the pub. It was miles away, lost in a labyrinth of thoughts about Eleanor, about everything she’d done, everything she’d sacrificed, and how she still wasn’t sure that it was enough.
It had been the right thing, she was certain about that. What she wasn’t certain about was just where to go from here. It was almost an anticlimax, selling the farm. Less important, less life-changing than she’d thought.
The details were simple. Hector was going to take on her animals and most of the equipment. The rest would be sold at auction. Easy. Easier than whatever it was that Danni was supposed to do with herself, anyway.
Indi, sensing Danni’s brooding, leaned over the bar and grinned at her. “Still no plan, huh, Romeo?”
“Nope,” Danni said, staring into her beer. “Not a real one, anyway.”
“I’ll tell you what you need,” Indi said, putting her hands on her hips. “You need one of those grand gestures.”
“You mean roses?” Danni asked, finally looking up.
“Jesus Christ,” Indi said. “No. A Grand Gesture, with capital letters. Like… I dunno, like hiring a circus. Oh, or putting on a big firework show that spells out Eleanor’s name at the end.
Or hiring a marching band. No, wait, what about a huge bloody rock concert, right there on the lawn?
Think about it, Eleanor stepping out onto that pristine grass of hers, only to find herself being serenaded by The Rolling Stones or Sabrina Carpenter. Iconic.”
Danni stared at her in wonder. “You’re an eejit.”
“Just trying to help,” Indi said.
“And Eleanor would hate all those things.” She shook her head, imagining the horrified look on Eleanor’s face.
“She’s… well, she’s Eleanor. Lady Eleanor.
She’s got that stiff-upper-lip, remember?
She doesn’t like big displays of emotion.
She’d hate a grand gesture. She keeps everything private, behind closed doors.
” She sighed. “Private even from me, I think.”
Indi groaned, throwing her hands up dramatically. “Romance is dead! What are you going to do then? Write her a heartfelt letter, seal it with a kiss, and slip it under her door like you’re in a Jane Austen novel?”
“Well, we did start out with a marriage of convenience,” Danni said. “That’s pretty Jane Austen.” She took a drink of her beer. “Actually, I was going to finish this drink, a bit of Dutch courage, and then I was going to walk over to the house and, um, well, throw myself at her mercy, I suppose.”
“That’s your plan?” Indi asked. She shook her head. “What are you going to say?”
Danni shrugged. “Dunno.”
Indi pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. “No wonder you’re single.”
But before Danni could say anything in response to this, the pub door swung open, bringing in a gust of fresh air. Danni looked up to see Elizabeth striding in, her heels clicking against the tiles of the floor .
She was dressed immaculately, her hair perfectly smooth, her suit well-pressed, just a hint of color on her lips. But there was an air of impatience about her as she scanned the room.
“She with you?” Indi asked.
“Um, maybe?” hazarded Danni.
Then Elizabeth’s eyes landed on Danni, and she wasted no time making her way over.
Danni frowned as Elizabeth removed her suit jacket, laying it carefully on the barstool next to her. “What are you doing here?”
Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow. “Somebody promised me a drink with their brother, remember? I’m here to collect.”
“Oh dear,” Indi said. “Just wait until Hec hears that you’ve pimped him out for your own devious purposes.”
“I haven’t pimped him out,” Danni said.
“Not technically,” Elizabeth said. “Though there is still hope.”
Indi narrowed her eyes. “You look suspiciously like someone with an ulterior motive.”
“I’m a solicitor, I always have an ulterior motive,” Elizabeth said. “And you look like someone who might be in a position to provide me with a drink.”
“S’pose,” Indi said with a sigh. “What do you want?”
“What stouts do you have on tap?”
Indi’s eyes widened. “Stout?”
“My mother always said it was good for the digestion,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll take a Murphy’s, if you have it.”
“Coming right up,” Indi said, looking impressed.
“You’ve wormed your way into Indi’s heart, at least,” Danni said. “But I didn’t really expect you to come slumming around here.”
Elizabeth ignored that. “I have to ask, have you spoken to Eleanor yet?”
Danni exhaled heavily. “No, not yet. I was just about to go up there.”
Elizabeth groaned. “Oh God.”
“What?”
“I’ve been in court all afternoon, I wasn’t able to get hold of her.
She had a meeting today with… Well, I can’t say.
I just…” She growled in frustration. “Really, the two of you have put me in the most difficult of positions. Right in the middle. So much for your mysterious meeting having nothing to do with Eleanor. Lord, I shouldn’t have let myself get involved with all of this. ”
“What’s going on?” Danni asked, confused.
Before Elizabeth could answer, her phone started to ring. She glanced down at it. “Thank heavens.” She turned to Danni. “Don’t you move a muscle, young lady,” she said, before striding away, phone at her ear.
***
Eleanor paced the stable, the dim light casting long shadows along the wooden beams. Sam the horse stood patiently, his large dark eyes watching her as she walked from one side of the building to the other, phone pressed to her ear.
The stable had been the one place she could think of to go. The one calm place. And Sam was still here, that had to mean something. Danni wouldn’t just disappear off and leave Sam.
But there was no one else here, and the empty house had left a gnawing sense of panic in her gut. She was starting to spiral, and she didn’t know what to do. She’d always been able to fix her mistakes before, but what if this time she couldn’t? What if this time there was no second chance?
She’d have to accept that, she supposed. Accept that there was no happy ending, no…
The phone clicked and the call connected.
“I came to the farm. Danni isn’t here. I don’t know what to do.”
“Nor?”
“I don’t know what to do,” Eleanor said again, still pacing. It was a cry for help to the one person she felt comfortable enough to call. “She’s gone, Elizabeth. Gone.”
There was noise over the phone line, something like the clinking of glasses, the sound of laughter. “Eleanor, take a deep breath,” Elizabeth said.
Eleanor stopped still, closing her eyes, breathing. In and out, in and out.
“Alright, first, tell me, did you sell the house?”
“That’s what you’re interested in?” Eleanor said, her eyes flashing open. “I’m having a breakdown and you’re still being my solicitor?”
“No, wait, Nor, please, this is very, very important. Did you sell the house?”
“No,” Eleanor said, frustration mounting. “The offer was withdrawn.”
There was the sound of a long, drawn-out sigh of relief from the other end of the phone. “Thank God. Alright, I’m going to need you to come and meet me. Are you in a fit state to drive, or do I need to send a taxi?”
Eleanor took a breath. “No, no, I don’t think so, Elizabeth. I need to go home. I need to lick my wounds in peace.”
Elizabeth, clearly exasperated, lowered her voice. “No. We’re getting all of this sorted once and for all. I’m sick and tired of being in the middle of things.”
“What are you talking about?” Eleanor stopped and put a hand on Sam’s flank.
Elizabeth growled. Actually growled. “I… I can’t say a damn thing right now and it’s driving me absolutely mad, so I suggest that you don’t push things. Just get over here and… and I’ll tell you exactly what happened with the investor and Marren and the offer to buy the estate being withdrawn.”
Eleanor hesitated. “You know what happened?”
“I do. And I’ll tell you. Or, if I don’t, somebody else will. Either way, you’ll know. Alright?”
Eleanor exhaled slowly. She wanted answers. But more than that, she wanted to understand why everything felt like it was slipping through her fingers. “Fine,” she said eventually. “Where?”
There was a faint hesitation on the line. “The Fox and Hounds. ”
Eleanor scowled. “Absolutely not—”
But the call had already disconnected.
Eleanor glared at her phone, resisting the urge to throw it across the stable. The pub, of all places. The very idea of going in there, of walking into a room full of curious eyes and whispers, made her stomach churn. What the hell was Elizabeth up to?
She turned back to Sam, running a hand down his nose. “What do you think? Pub or home?”
Sam, thoroughly unbothered by her existential crisis, nudged at her ear with his muzzle.
Eleanor sighed. “Of course you’d say that.”
She took one last look around the stable, a pang of melancholy hitting her. She’d spent a long time trying to convince herself that all of this meant nothing. Now she could see that it meant everything.
Standing here now, surrounded by the scent of hay and horses, she realized exactly why she’d been willing to sell the house. She didn’t just want Danni, she wanted the life they could have had together.
But how was she supposed to get that if she couldn’t find Danni? What was she supposed to do? She’d give anything for a second chance, a moment to explain things, to apologize, just to see her.
With a sigh, she squared her shoulders and turned toward her car.
She’d give Elizabeth five minutes at the pub. But then she was going home and burying herself in her bed and perhaps never coming back out again.