Chapter 20
For practically the first time since I’d arrived at Fernside, I barely slept.
The combination of knowing that James was sleeping, or not, just a few walls away, and yet I hadn’t been further from him since I’d known him was hard to bear, as was the fact that my business had felt within my grasp for less than an hour before it had been potentially snatched away.
Rick might have insisted that I shouldn’t worry about what James had said and that Constance was the one in charge, but during the long watches of the night, his encouraging words were of no comfort because if she did still forge ahead then the consequences were going to be dire, and conversely, if James convinced her not to sell, I was going to be back to square one on the path of my adventure with limited chance of crossing the finishing line.
Sites such as Willowell Woods were so rare, the chances of coming across another one was even rarer and it would be positioned nowhere near my beloved Willowell.
‘Seriously, James,’ I frowned as, at just after ten the following morning, my phone pinged with a message. ‘Aunt Constance has been given the all clear,’ I read aloud. ‘You can pick her up whenever you’re ready.’
It would have taken him all of two minutes to come and tell me that in person.
Was this how things were going to be between us now?
The situation might have been excruciatingly awkward, but I’d far rather talk to him in person than resort to succinct messages that were ripe for misinterpretation and likely to cause upset or an argument.
‘Now on my way,’ I typed back, refraining from saying more, and set straight off.
As I strode past the back of the house I sensed rather than saw that he was in the sunroom, but I didn’t stop. He’d made it clear that he didn’t want to talk, and I wasn’t going to try and force the situation.
‘Constance,’ I smiled when I had finally tracked her down. ‘Here you are. How are you feeling?’
She was sitting in a chair next to an already stripped bed and she looked rather pale. I made a point of making my tone brighter than I felt. She didn’t need to know that I wasn’t feeling like my usual sunny self or was concerned that she looked wan.
‘Stiff as a board,’ she muttered. ‘And bruised all over. All over my side anyway, and on my… well, you get the idea. This has done nothing for my trick hip.’
I thought it was a miracle she hadn’t broken anything, especially the alleged trick hip.
‘Oh Constance,’ I commiserated. ‘Have you got any arnica? That’s supposed to be good for bruises, isn’t it? And a long soak in a deep bath might not be a bad idea.’
‘I don’t know if I’d be able to get in a bath,’ she huffed.
She was clearly fed up, but with good reason.
‘I don’t mind helping you,’ I told her. ‘If you don’t think it would be an imposition.’
‘We’ll see,’ she said, which I took to mean, thanks for the offer, but not on your life.
‘And who’s this?’ asked a nurse, who then arrived with some paperwork.
‘My friend, Tilly,’ Constance said.
‘No nephew today?’ the nurse said, looking around. ‘My friend who works in A and E said I was in for a treat this morning.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ I said pithily. ‘But it’s just me on chaperone duty today.’
The nurse did have the grace to blush, and I wondered if James was aware of the pretty privilege he wore.
Probably not, given that he had felt no qualms about wearing that straw hat on our Cambridge date and making himself look comical.
Not that I wanted to be thinking about that or indeed any of what had occurred since we’d met.
I’d always been a firm believer in fate and the expression if something is meant for you, it will find you, but now I wasn’t so sure.
What was the point in James and I finding our way to each other?
All fate seemed to have in store for us was heartbreak and I’d had enough of that in my life and especially since losing Dad.
‘Come on then,’ I said to Constance as I determinedly shut that train of thought down. ‘Let’s find a wheelchair and get you in my car.’
Constance looked poised to object to the wheelchair suggestion, but didn’t, which was a huge relief as it was a long way from the ward to the car and she never would have made it under her own steam.
‘I was hoping it wouldn’t be James,’ she muttered. ‘I can’t imagine his car has dried out yet.’
‘He did mention last night that the sunroof had developed a bit of a leak.’
‘He turned up in a mood because of it,’ she told me. ‘And by the way, I hadn’t known he was coming. He was the last person I expected to see standing at the sunroom door.’
‘Here we are, look,’ I said, changing the subject because it didn’t feel like either the time or place to get into it. ‘The nurse has found you a chair far quicker than I could have done.’
It took a bit of manoeuvring to get Constance installed and comfortable but, thanks to a passing and obliging porter, I was saved the long walk back through the car park with the wheelchair and we were on our way to Fernside sooner than I had expected.
‘So, tell me,’ Constance asked, ‘how did your talk with Carter go yesterday? I didn’t get a chance to ask you before. Have the pair of you had any more bright ideas?’
I could hardly believe that just twenty-four hours ago, or close to it, I had been on that cloud number nine and with my future so happily unfolding in front of me.
‘Oh,’ I said vaguely. ‘It was fine, and no, not really.’
Constance shifted a little and turned her head to look at me. ‘Fine?’ She frowned.
‘Yes,’ I said again, keeping my eyes fixed on the road. ‘Fine.’
‘What exactly was it that you talked about that was so fine?’
‘We didn’t really get the chance to talk. The pub was rather busy because of the rain.’
I hoped that would get me off the hook, but it didn’t.
‘You must have talked to someone else while you were there then,’ she continued annoyingly. ‘Why else would you have said you’d come back with good news? You did say that yesterday, didn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ I confirmed. ‘Yes, I did say that, didn’t I?’
I could hardly say I hadn’t and have her doubting her memory, could I?
‘Well, if Carter wasn’t responsible, who was?’
‘A woman called Helen.’
‘Not Helen Harper?’ Had I for a moment thought Constance would know a Helen in the Willowell area, I would have picked a different name. ‘The planning officer you mean? Did you talk to her about your business idea?’
‘Yes,’ I sighed. ‘Yes, I did.’
‘And what did she say?’ I risked a glance at her and found she was still looking at me. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’ll just ring Carter later and ask him what went on. I’m going to need something to keep me occupied this afternoon.’
‘Oh, Constance,’ I groaned. ‘You’re incorrigible.’
She’d cleverly vetoed my chance to fob her off by remembering that Carter would have been privy to the conversation, too.
‘And you’re wasting time. I’m very uncomfortable here, Tilly,’ she added, piling on the guilt, ‘and I need a distraction, so distract me.’
‘It’s hardly worth mentioning now,’ I began. ‘But if you insist. I did talk to Helen about my idea and… she loved it. She thought there was an extremely high chance of the business being approved.’
‘Well, that’s wonderful news!’ Constance applauded. She sounded genuinely delighted, definitely distracted and not at all uncomfortable. ‘Why on earth would you think that was hardly worth mentioning?’
‘Because of what James told me when I arrived back,’ I said bluntly. ‘You know the pair of us didn’t exactly hit it off.’
‘I assumed that was because you’d been so shocked to find him there and tackled him about who he was,’ she said reasonably. ‘It must have been a surprise to come across a man playing the piano in my sitting room.’
‘Constance,’ I understated, ‘you have no idea.’
‘So, what did he tell you then?’ she frowned.
Given that they’d had such a wait at the hospital, James could have filled her in, but it obviously hadn’t come up in conversation.
‘Well,’ I said. ‘We very quickly got to the detail that I was the person buying the woods and he told me that the deal was off because they’re no longer up for sale.’
‘Tilly, what are you saying?’ She sounded horrified.
‘That, according to your nephew,’ I repeated in slightly different words, ‘Willowell Woods are staying in the Clarke family and I’m not buying them.’
‘Good grief.’
‘I take it you hadn’t discussed that before he sat down at the piano and you went for a walk in the garden, then?’
‘No,’ she snapped. ‘We had not.’
‘So, what had you been talking about?’ I practically demanded.
‘Nothing of consequence.’
I knew I didn’t have any right to ask, but I was curious to know more about their relationship.
Much more. James hadn’t gone into details, but he had inferred that the situation between him and Constance wasn’t as clear cut as she’d made out when she’d told me she had one relative left in the world.
And given that he’d then let slip he’d been sending her money to support her was proof that he wasn’t a bad guy.
Even though, given that he was hoping to stop me buying the woods, part of me wanted him to be…
‘Well,’ I sighed, ‘the conversation we had when I got back from the pub was of the greatest consequence.’
‘Yes,’ she said, through gritted teeth. ‘Wasn’t it just?’
We drove the rest of the way in silence, but I could feel that she was seething and therefore decided to adopt the old-fashioned knock and run tactic as the gates at the top of the drive came into view.
‘I won’t hang about,’ I said, as I pulled on the handbrake and took the car out of gear. ‘There’s some stuff I need to pick up from the store and look, here’s James now. He’ll help you into the house.’