Chapter 24
I was the sibling who ended up getting the most sleep and when I finally woke, rather late the following morning, with a thick head and an ache in my body that I couldn’t account for, unless it could be associated with matters of the heart, there was no sign of Zack.
The bedding I’d given him was neatly folded and the sofa bed was back to being just a sofa with its cushions neatly arranged.
My immediate thought, because he’d said he had a hankering to do it, was that he’d headed to the river for a swim, but I hoped he hadn’t because if Constance happened to spot him, she’d get quite a shock – as would James for that matter – because I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to tell either of them that Zack had turned up.
However, when I rushed out to try and find him, it became immediately obvious he hadn’t gone to the river because I could hear him talking in the house!
‘Here she is, at last,’ smiled Constance, when I joined the pair of them in the sunroom. ‘Do close your mouth, dear.’
My mouth was open because I was so surprised to find them with their heads together and looking like they’d known one another for ever. Clearly, Zack still had the knack of falling into a friendship with anyone, anywhere.
‘You’d run out of bread,’ he said sheepishly. ‘So, I thought I’d try my luck here.’
‘And now I’ve run out of bread,’ Constance grinned. ‘Isn’t your brother wonderful, Tilly? Did you know he was planning to visit? You never mentioned it if you did.’
‘Yes, he is,’ I said succinctly. ‘And no, I didn’t. You do know the pair of you will be so bloated from all that toast, you won’t be able to move soon.’ I smiled wryly.
‘Then I’ll be able to just float down the river and won’t have to make any effort to swim at all,’ Zack laughed.
For someone who had just traversed the globe, he was remarkably bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but then I supposed he was used to it.
‘Will you be joining me, Constance?’ he asked cheekily.
‘No, not today,’ she said primly, and Zack grinned.
‘Is there any tea left in that pot?’ I asked, stifling a yawn.
Zack lifted the lid. ‘Not a drop. I’ll make another, shall I?’
‘Yes, please,’ Constance answered. ‘And there might be an éclair or two in the fridge if you fancy one.’
‘You’re my kind of gal,’ Zack winked, and I rushed to follow him.
The last thing I wanted was James coming across a strange man in his aunt’s kitchen and the pair of them getting off on the wrong foot. James however, and his lovable hound, were nowhere to be seen.
‘Do you think Constance meant it about the éclairs?’ Zack asked, while he waited for the kettle to boil.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But we’ll have them later. There are all these summer berries still to use up, so I’ll make us a fruit salad instead.’
‘I’m not sure she’ll go for that.’ Zack grinned as I lined the punnets up on the table and I realised he’d already got the measure of her.
‘I’ll splash a little cream on hers as a sop, then,’ I smiled. ‘Can you go and ask her if James has had his breakfast yet, please?’
‘James has gone!’ Constance called to me when Zack asked the question.
‘Gone!’ I shouted as I rushed back to the sunroom, still holding the knife I was using to cut up the strawberries. ‘You mean for a walk or…’
‘He set off for London after I’d gone to bed last night,’ Constance explained. ‘He left me a note and said he’d sent you a text.’
In my rush to find Zack I hadn’t looked at my phone since I’d got up, and I then remembered that I hadn’t messaged James before I went to bed, either.
‘What did the note say?’ I asked. ‘Did he say why he’d had to go?’
I wanted to go back to the apartment and read his message, but as Zack already had an inkling that I might be harbouring more than friendly feelings for Constance’s nephew, I didn’t want to add to his suspicions. Things were already complicated enough.
‘Something about his boss calling an emergency meeting with a celebrity client who has got themselves in some sort of bother,’ she explained brusquely.
‘Apparently, James is going to have to represent them, which is a far cry from the sort of work he should be doing. Did the pair of you have time to talk yesterday, Tilly?’
Zack had come back out to listen and gave me a look which I ignored.
‘Yes,’ I said, my mind racing. I needed to talk to James as soon as possible and clarify what our next steps were with regards to my telling Constance that I no longer wanted to buy the woods. ‘Yes, we did… talk.’
‘So, now you know why I’m so keen to sell you the woods,’ she said and looked directly at me.
‘The cash in the bank will mean he can look for another job which allows him to do the pro bono work he has a passion for. I’ve hated that he’s currently having to shore things up here largely doing work he doesn’t care for. ’
I was shocked that she’d mentioned his diverted salary and bit back the comment that his efforts had been in vain because he’d discovered she hadn’t spent the money he’d been sending her.
Zack, I noticed, had discreetly retreated when he realised this was probably a conversation he shouldn’t be privy to.
‘Actually,’ I ventured, ‘I can see the situation from both points of view now. You want to give James the opportunity to follow the career he really wants, and he wants to keep Willowell Woods in the family because of the connection to his mum.’
Constance didn’t look impressed that I sounded so reasonable and understanding.
‘He’ll still have his memories of the place,’ she said, rather mutinously. ‘And it’s not as if selling the woods to you is going to put them out of his reach, is it? He’ll still be able to visit and not have to worry about the cost of the upkeep.’
‘But he doesn’t want to see them changed,’ I tried to explain. ‘He doesn’t want to lose the strongest connection to Grace’s memory that he has.’
‘You aren’t going to change them though, are you?’
‘But it’s bound to feel different.’
‘Are you siding with him over this, Tilly?’ Constance frowned.
We had reached the point where I could say that yes, I was, and that I was withdrawing my offer, but I couldn’t go that far without having talked to James first. On the trip back to London he might have come up with a plan of his own to convince his aunt to change her mind about selling, and if that was the case, he wasn’t going to appreciate me causing a rumpus and a falling out by forging ahead with mine.
‘Not siding exactly,’ I hedged. ‘But Zack and I lost the house that was full of memories of our mum because Dad, thinking he was doing the right thing and providing us all with a fresh start, went ahead and sold it, and we never got over it. Not really. And I’d hate to now be a part of the same thing happening to James. ’
It was a rather gabbled explanation, but I think it got my point across.
‘In that case,’ Constance conceded, ‘I can understand why you’d take his side.’
‘I haven’t taken his side—’
‘You might think me harsh, but my sister is in the past and James’s happiness now and in the future is my priority.’
‘I know,’ I sighed. ‘I know it is.’
‘So, we’ll carry on as planned,’ she pounced. ‘Yes? He’ll come round eventually.’
I could have screamed with frustration; I wanted to make them both happy but couldn’t fathom how.
‘Why don’t we wait until James has seen this new case through?’ I suggested cannily. ‘With any luck, it will be so dire that it will be enough to make him change his mind and then we can go ahead with his blessing? I’d be far happier to do that.’
I knew I was playing for time and the look on Constance’s face suggested she’d guessed what I was attempting, too. She opened her mouth to say something but right at that moment Zack rushed in and stood between us with a plate piled high with the éclairs he’d found in the fridge.
‘There were loads,’ he said, as he thrust them towards Constance. ‘And look at the size of them. It’ll take us ages to get through these.’
‘I know I stepped in,’ Zack apologised, when we later packed his bags into my car and got ready to head out. ‘But I didn’t think the pair of you were going to find common ground and it wouldn’t have helped anyone if you’d fallen out.’
He was right of course and when I’d eventually had the opportunity to read James’s message, which practically pleaded with me to give him a bit more time now he’d had to leave again, I was pleased Zack had.
I’d sent a message back explaining what had occurred with Constance and that he was now in my debt.
Unfortunately, I was still feeling too devastated about losing the woods to imagine all the ways I could get James to settle the bill.
‘It’s fine,’ I said and gave Zack a hug before climbing into my car. ‘More than fine because even though I’m not now going to buy the woods, I would hate to leave here under a cloud and with tainted memories. That would be the worst.’
Zack shook his head. ‘You are going to buy the woods,’ he said firmly, as he pulled on his seatbelt. ‘And before you object, don’t ask me how, but I just know it’s all going to work out. There’s no doubt in my mind that it will happen.’
I gave him a look. ‘Is it like the time you had a feeling that you’d pass your mocks without revising?’ I asked innocently. ‘Or like the time you were completely convinced that Dad wouldn’t find out about—’
‘No,’ he cut in, with a smile. ‘It’s nothing like either of those times.’
‘Oh well, in that case,’ I said and turned the engine over, ‘perhaps on this occasion, you might miraculously turn out to be right.’
I didn’t really think he would but I couldn’t resist teasing him. My head and heart were still all over the place where James was concerned, but having my brother back in the country was stopping the feeling of overwhelm I might have succumbed to without him.
‘This room turning up is a bit of luck, isn’t it?’ he said, effectively changing the subject. ‘Did you know the landlord offered bed and breakfast?’