Chapter Thirty-Two – Oliver
OLIVER
A Series of Unfortunate Misunderstandings
M y tires squealed against the wet ground as I pulled up, and I jumped out without even cutting the engine.
My stomach had been in knots for the past thirty minutes, ever since I found out she’d come into the main house before she’d left. I’d gotten here as quickly as I could after that, so here I was.
In the dying hour of daylight, rushing into the village hall at the end of the plot holders’ meeting.
And she wasn’t here. There was no sign of her red hair anywhere.
Rose would never leave before everyone else was gone. She was the first person in and the last person out. Always.
Something was wrong.
If what Bruce had been told was right, then she’d come right around the time Piers sent the final document through. Had she heard me and Luke? If so, what had she misunderstood?
“Oh, didn’t expect to see you here,” George said. “You got some big balls, eh, lad?”
“George.” I grabbed his shoulders. “Where’s Rose? What did she say here?”
“Whoa,” he replied, patting my arms. “Breathe, son.”
“I can’t. Where is she? What happened? I need to see her.”
“She told us you’ve signed the contract,” Susan said, stepping up next to him. “But your mother said…”
“Mum wasn’t lying.” I took a couple of steps back and sank my hand into my hair, running my fingers through it. “I don’t know what she heard, but it’s not what she thinks. She’s not answering my texts or my calls.”
“You’re not going to get anywhere all in a tizz like that, dear.” Susan patted my arm gently.
“Or if someone steals your car,” Luke said dryly, appearing with my keys dangling from his finger. “Is she here?”
I shook my head, looking around desperately as if she’d appear out of nowhere.
“Shit,” he said. “Do you think she misunderstood?”
“Misunderstood what?” George asked, looking between us. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing you need to worry about, dear,” Susan said, patting his arm.
Dear? To George ?
I didn’t have the brainpower to delve any further into that right now.
All I cared about was Rose.
“Do you know where she went?” I asked them. “Please, I’m begging you.”
“She’s gone.” Isa strode across the hall and stopped right in front of us. “She wants to be alone.”
“Isa. Please.” I turned to her. “Did she go in Ramona? Tell me which direction she went. I’ll find her.”
She folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. “She wants to be alone, Your Grace . I don’t even know where she’s going. And even if I did, you’re the last person on Earth I’d tell right now.”
Her method of addressing me sent a chill through me. Not only that—the cold look in her eyes was almost deadly, and I knew. Rose had misunderstood, and Isadora was telling me in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t let me anywhere near her.
“Isadora—”
“You should leave before anyone else realises you’re here. You might not realise it, but nobody here wants to see you right now. You’d be best off going back to London as soon as you can.”
“Hang on.” Susan held up a hand. “If Eleanor was telling me the truth that time, then you haven’t signed the contract?”
“That’s what I want to tell Rose!” I threw my hands up in the air and balled my hands into fists, pressing them against my forehead so I could take a deep breath. “I haven’t sold the land. I cancelled that, what? Two weeks ago?”
Luke nodded. “Ten days-ish. We’ve been working around the clock on a stewardship contract ever since, but it’s taken time because of some complicated clauses this lovesick bastard insisted upon.”
“The final agreement came through this morning, and I just found out Rose may have heard us talking about it in my office,” I explained quickly. “If she’s told you we’ve sold the land, she’s absolutely misunderstood.”
“We never explicitly said what contract it was because it was just between us,” Luke continued. “If she only caught the tail end of the conversation, I can see how she thought it was the sale contract.” He glanced at me. “Especially if she heard me say you didn’t want her to know.”
“And Rose won’t jump to a conclusion if she can hop, skip, and jump to it,” Isadora added. “Damn it. I can’t believe I just helped her with her getaway.”
“Is she in Ramona?” I asked.
“Um, no.” She scratched the back of her neck and held up Rose’s keys. “She’s in my very normal, very boring, black Ford Focus, actually.”
In other words, I had no fucking chance of finding her.
“What’s going on?” Shaun asked, walking over. “Ooft, you’re brave,” he said to me.
I didn’t feel it right now. “Do you know where Rose is?”
“Limpet here was with her last I saw.”
Isa elbowed him. “She’s… um, well, she’s in my car.”
“Oh,” Shaun said, understanding washing over his face. “Yeah, you’re never gonna find her.”
I sagged back onto one of the few chairs still out and buried my head in my hands. “Fuck. What am I supposed to do now?”
“What’s wrong with him?” he said to Isadora.
“Ah, well, it’s like this,” she replied before launching into the whole story.
Shaun looked at me with eyes full of pity. “She’s in one of two places, but short of waiting outside the hotels all night…” He shrugged. “She’ll already have turned her phone off. When Rose wants to be alone, she means it.”
“What hotels?”
“No,” Luke said, shaking his head. “We are not waiting outside hotels all night in the off chance we’ll see her leave in the morning.”
“Yeah, I’m not doing that either,” Isadora said. “She’ll be fine. She just needs to cool off and get her thoughts in order. You won’t be able to hold a conversation with her right now. She’ll text me when she gets wherever she’s going to let me know she’s safe, so don’t worry.”
Luke rubbed his hand down his face. “And this is the woman you want to marry? One who runs away when she’s upset? Great. Real mature of her.”
“Hey,” Isa said, stepping towards him before I could say a thing.
“You, watch your bloody mouth. She’s given everything to this place and pushed herself to exhaustion over the past several weeks trying to stop what this moron started.
” She cocked a thumb in my direction. “So what if she’s upset?
Is she not allowed to be? She might be stubborn and hard-headed, but she’s only human.
Everyone needs time to themselves, and if that’s what she needs right now to work through her emotions, who are you to say anything about that?
Have you ever needed to be alone, or are you just a heartless prick? ”
Shaun wrapped his arm around her shoulders, clamping his hand over her mouth. “What she’s trying to say is that this is how Rose deals with a broken heart.”
Broken heart.
Ha.
One I’d caused.
All because I’d wanted to surprise her.
She peeled his hand off her mouth, elbowing him again, and turned to me. “And you! Wanting to marry her? Ha. I refuse.”
I stared at her.
I’d already worked out that much.
“You can’t refuse for her, dear,” Susan said, tugging on her arm.
“I can and I will,” Isadora declared. “He’s not coming anywhere near my sweet Rose anymore.”
“Sweet Rose.” Luke snorted.
“I swear I’ll—”
This time, Shaun restrained her properly, making it so she couldn’t escape his hold. “Are you trying to spend the night in her cell?” he asked flatly. “If her phone is off, she won’t bail you out, you know.”
Isa mumbled something under her breath.
I turned to Luke. “Go wait in the car, all right? You aren’t helping.”
He waited for a moment, then shoved the envelope at me and left the hall. Only when he was gone did Shaun let Isadora go, and she made a show of shaking her arms out.
“If he says one more word about my Rose, I’ll make him wish he’d never been born,” she warned me with an icy gaze.
“I think he already feels that way,” I replied. “So, Rose? She needs to know the truth. How do I find her?”
George plucked the envelope out of my hands and opened the unsealed flap, pulling out the contracts inside. He scanned them over while we all watched a series of expressions cross his weathered face. “Bloody hell. That’s a long’un. No wonder your mate there thinks you’re a lovesick puppy.”
“You just proposed in the middle of a meeting with a four-year-old’s plastic ring, so nobody wants to hear that from you,” Isa said, taking it from him.
I had no idea what I’d missed here tonight. Did I even want to know?
She scanned the page he’d been reading. “One hundred and fifty years? Holy shit.”
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair again.
“Yes. Stewardship of the land, plus a neighbouring two acres for expansion, is granted to the Hanbury Allotment Committee for the next one hundred and fifty years. Rent rates are frozen for the next five years and will then go up once every two years in line with inflation. Water charges will be separate, unlike before, and copies of the bills will be provided to every plot holder. The rate you pay will be averaged and based on a full or half plot.”
“One hundred and fifty years,” Isa whispered, tugging on George’s sleeve. “Holy shit.”
“You just said that,” George pointed out.
“I know, but holy shit, George!”
“There’s only one break clause,” I continued. “Only the committee can activate it and only after a majority vote of seventy percent or more from the plot holders, not just the committee members. This won’t happen again. I’ve ensured the safety of the land for as long as I possibly can.”
All four of them looked at me.
“What?” I asked, returning their gazes one by one.
“You’re actually in love with her, aren’t you?” Isa asked softly, followed by Susan’s nod of agreement. “Like, for real in love with her.”
I swallowed. “Please. Tell me where she is so I can show her this.”
She sighed, giving the contract to Shaun and motioning for him to tuck it back in the envelope, something that made him roll his eyes.
But he did it anyway.
Yeah. I wasn’t the only fool in love here.