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Not rummaging through boxes.
It just didn’t fit.
He’d let her in, but then he had turned to face her—to question her.
He needed to know who she was and what she was doing here.
But when he’d turned her eyes had been closed.
He’d watched her for a second as she’d taken deep breaths. In through her nose. Out through her mouth. And it was in that moment—while that knowledgeable gaze had been hidden—that he’d sensed vulnerability. A vulnerability that had been completely disguised by her polish and her smile.
And so, instead of interrogating her, he’d asked her if she was okay.
And instead of calling the agency back, asking for someone more suitable, he’d led her into the kitchen and handed her a confidentiality agreement to sign.
That moment of vulnerability had long gone now, and the woman in his mother’s kitchen revealed nothing of whatever he’d seen.
But he had seen it. And he of all people knew that people were rarely what they first appeared. He’d spent most his life hiding all but what people absolutely needed to know.
So for now he wasn’t going to question April Spencer.
But he did acknowledge her incongruity, and he didn’t like that this project to clear his mother’s house already felt more complicated than he wanted it to.
April laid his pen on top of the signed paperwork. ‘All done, Mr Bennell,’ she said with a smile.
‘Call me Hugh,’ he said firmly.
‘April,’ she said, with eyes that sparkled.
He was again struck by her beauty, but forced himself to disregard it. The attractiveness of his employees was none of his concern.
He nodded briskly, and didn’t return her smile. ‘You’ll be working alone,’ he said, getting straight to the point, ‘and I’ve provided guidelines for how I want items sorted. It should be self-explanatory: paperwork containing personal details is to be saved, all other papers to be shredded and recycled. Junk is to be disposed of. Anything of value should be separated for donation. I’ve provided the details of local charities you can contact to organise collection.’
April nodded, her gaze on the printed notes he’d left for her.
‘Is there anything other than papers you want kept?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said.
Maybe louder than he’d intended, as her head jerked upwards.
‘Okay,’ she said carefully. ‘And how do I contact you if I have any questions?’
‘You don’t,’ he said. ‘I’m not to be disturbed.’
Her glossy lips formed a straight line. ‘So who can I contact?’
He shrugged dismissively. ‘You won’t need to contact anybody. It’s all made very clear in my instructions. Just send me an email at the end of each day with details of your progress.’
‘So you know what’s in the boxes? Caroline implied that you didn’t, which is why you need me to sort through them.’
Hugh shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
April met his gaze. ‘So you trust me to go through a whole room of boxes and make all the decisions myself?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s all junk. You aren’t going to stumble across a hidden fortune, I promise you.’
She looked unconvinced.
‘And besides—it’s not a room. It’s the whole house.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Pardon me?’
He ran a hand through his hair. He just wanted this conversation to be over and to be out of this place. This stuffed full, oppressive house which this woman only complicated further.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Three floors. Leave any furniture where it is. Don’t lift anything too heavy. I’ve left you a key and the security code. I expect you to work an eight-hour day.’ He stopped, mentally running through any further extraneous details he should mention. ‘If there’s an emergency—only an emergency—you can call me. My number is listed in the documentation.’
‘That’s it?’ she said.
‘That’s it,’ he said.
‘Great,’ she said. ‘Where do I start?’
‘I’ll show you,’ he said.
Minutes later they stood before a wall built with pale brown cardboard.
‘Wow,’ April said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’
Hugh had.
‘Did you buy the place like this?’ she asked.
‘Something like that,’ he said, needing to leave. Not wanting to explain.
She’d work it out soon enough.
‘I’ll get this sorted for you,’ April said, catching his gaze.
He already had one foot in the foyer.
She spoke with assurance—reassurance?—and with questions in her eyes.
But Hugh didn’t want to be reassured, and he certainly didn’t want her questions. He hated the way this woman, this stranger—his employee—thought he needed to be somehow comforted.
He’d barely said a word since they’d entered this room—what had he revealed?
‘That’s what you’re here for,’ he said firmly.
Nothing more.
Now he could finally escape from the boxes, and his breath came steadily again only as he closed the front door behind him.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_a661d8bd-17eb-5dcc-82ba-1a2fe39d44ce)
TWO DAYS LATER April sat cross-legged amongst a lot of boxes and a lot of dust.
She was dressed in jeans, sneakers and a floppy T-shirt—her jumper having been quickly removed thanks to the excellent heating and the many boxes she’d already shifted today—and yet another box lay ready for her attention. Her hair was piled up on top of her head, and the local radio station filled the room via her phone and a set of small speakers she’d purchased before she’d realised she had absolutely no money.
But she was glad for her previous financial frivolity. This massive house was creaky and echoey, and she’d hated how empty it had felt on her first day, when she’d been sorting through boxes wearing a pencil skirt, heels and a blouse with a bow—in total silence.
Bizarre how such an overflowing house could feel so empty, but it did.
Music helped. A little.
Now, on day three of her new job, already many boxes lay flattened in the foyer. The shredder had disposed of old takeaway menus and shoe catalogues and local newspapers. And she’d labelled a handful of empty boxes for donations. Several were already full with books and random bits and pieces: a man’s silk tie, a mass-produced ceramic vase, eleven tea towels from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo—and so much more. It was nearly impossible to categorise the items, although she’d tried.
But much of the boxes’ content was, as Hugh had told her, junk. The packaging for electronic items, without the items themselves. Gossip magazines from ten years ago, with British reality TV stars she didn’t recognise on the covers. Sugar and salt packets. Pens that didn’t work. Dried-out mascara and nail polish bottles.
It was all so random.
Initially she’d approached each box with enthusiasm. What was she going to learn about the person who’d packed all these boxes from this box?
But each box gave little away.
There was no theme, there were no logical groupings or collections, and so far there was absolutely nothing personal. Not even one scribble on a takeaway menu.
Hugh hadn’t given anything away, either.
It was hard in this house, with all its mysterious boxes, not to think about the rather interesting and mysterious man who owned them all.
Were they his boxes?
April didn’t think so. That morning in the kitchen, those clear but sparse directions and neat instructions had not indicated a man who collected such clutter. There was something terribly structured about the man: he exuded organisation and an almost regimented calm.
But that had changed when he’d shown her this room. The instant he’d opened the door he’d become tense. His body, his words. His gaze.
It had been obvious he’d wanted to leave, and he had as soon as humanly possible.
So, no, the boxes weren’t his.
But they didn’t belong to a stranger, either—because the boxes meant something to Hugh Bennell.
Her guess was that they belonged to a woman. The magazines, toiletries... But who?
His wife? Ex-wife? Mother? Sister? Friend?
So—with enthusiasm—April had decided to solve the mystery of the boxes.
But with box after box the mystery steadfastly remained and her enthusiasm rapidly waned.
On the radio, a newsreader read the ten o’clock news in a lovely, clipped British accent.
Only ten a.m.?
Her self-determined noon lunchbreak felt a lifetime away.
April sighed and straightened her shoulders, then carefully sliced open the brown packing tape of her next box.
On top lay empty wooden photo frames, one with a crack through the glass. And beneath that lay two phone books—the thick, heavy type that had used to be delivered before everyone had started searching for numbers online.
The unbroken wooden frames would go to the ‘donate’ box, and the phone books into the recycling. But as she walked out into the foyer, to add the books to the already mountainous recycling pile, a piece of card slipped out from between the pages.
April knelt to pick it up. It was an old and yellowed homemade bookmark, decorated with a child’s red thumbprints in the shape of lopsided hearts.
Happy Mothering Sunday!
Love Hugh
The letters were in neat, thick black marker—the work of a school or kindergarten teacher.
And just like that she’d solved the mystery.
She started a new category: Hugh.
She wasn’t making a decision on that bookmark, no matter what he said.
She’d let him know in her summarising email that evening.
* * *
The email pinged into Hugh’s inbox shortly before five p.m. As it had the previous two days at approximately the same time, with the same subject line and the day’s date. Exactly as he’d specified—which he appreciated.
She did insist on prefacing her emails with a bit of chatter, but she’d stuck to his guidelines for updating him on her progress.
Which was slower than he’d hoped. Although he didn’t think that was April’s fault—more his own desire for the house to be magically emptied as rapidly as possible.
That option still existed, of course. He’d researched a business that would come and collect all his mother’s boxes and take them away. It would probably only take a day.
But he just couldn’t bring himself to do that.
He hated those boxes—hated that stuff. Hated that his mother had been so consumed by it.
Despite it being junk, despite the way the boxes weighed so heavily upon him—both literally and figuratively—it just felt...
As if it would be disrespectful.
Hi Hugh,
