скачать книгу бесплатно
She really liked waking up in hers. Liked taking comfort from being unpacked and seeing her things carelessly dotted around.
‘Mine, I think. Is that okay?’
‘Hey, I’m happy anywhere you are.’
Kate smiled. Of course if they moved in together he could be with her all the time.
‘You think we’ll still have the energy for “after hours” when we’re working even longer hours?’ Daniel asked.
‘We’d better. I refuse to let Mum and Big Kev outshine us in the romance department.’ Her mum had been seeing Big Kev who ran the corner shop for months now. Although for some reason she refused to give out the confirmation memo, so everyone still had to pretend he wasn’t romancing her after hours amongst the bakery goods. Oh, that reminded her … Kate still needed to ask her mum if she’d be interested in doing the baking for Cocktails & Chai when business slowed down at the B&B which she ran.
‘Rain-check, then?’ Daniel asked.
‘Til tonight.’
‘Tonight. Your place. And to tide us over—’
‘Kate, you up here? Oops. Sorry,’ Juliet apologised as she reached the top of the stairs and spied them mid-clinch.
‘Don’t be silly. It’s fine,’ Kate assured.
Daniel cleared his throat and smiled. ‘Kate and I were just testing out the system.’
‘Right,’ Juliet gave a knowing nod. ‘Oscar and I need to do some of that.’ A blush formed across her cheeks. ‘Not your systems, obviously. What I meant was—’
Kate grinned. ‘What you meant was that you’re both feeling the strain of working long hours and hardly ever seeing each other, as well.’
When Oscar had discovered, this summer, Juliet’s plans to work so closely with Kate, he’d gone into full protective mode, making it impossible for Juliet to hide her feelings for him. The sparks between them had got the whole of Whispers Wood noticing and even though Juliet had moved out of her beloved bijou Wren Cottage and into the barn that Oscar had converted within weeks of them finally getting together, Kate was willing to bet that between Juliet setting up her salon and Oscar finishing up all the building renovations around here, they probably hardly got to see each other outside of work, either.
‘Anyway,’ Juliet said, ‘I wanted to tell you I talked over that other thing with Oscar and he agrees that Jake would be the perfect choice.’
‘Jake?’ Daniel queried.
‘Jake Knightley,’ Kate explained. ‘I thought I’d ask him to take a look at the courtyard. Come up with some plans for re-landscaping the space come spring.’
Daniel frowned. ‘Will he have time now he’s taken over the running of Knightley Hall?’
‘I think he’s looking for all the work he can get,’ Juliet said. ‘Knightley Hall is kind of expensive to run.’
‘Okay, I’ll try and set up a meeting. Let me write it down, or I’ll forget. As you’re here and Daniel’s here, shall we start the meeting now?’
‘Works for me,’ Juliet said. ‘Have notebook, will meet. So, are we employing Harry Stiles or what?’
‘Nope.’
‘Melody’s going to be so disappointed.’
‘Trust me, she really isn’t,’ Kate said.
‘Hey, why don’t we show Juliet what we put up in reception, before we start the meeting?’
Kate jumped off the table excitedly. ‘Oh. Yes. Perfect. Juliet, come with us,’ and grabbing her hand before she could sit down, she steered her down the two flights of stairs until all three of them were standing at the reception desk in the main foyer of The Clock House.
‘What do you think?’ she asked, pointing to the newly placed vintage photo frames that she and Daniel had put up behind the reception desk the night before. ‘I thought it would be nice to have them up,’ Kate explained, looking at the three postcards Juliet had sent her at the beginning of the year, explaining that The Clock House was going up for sale. ‘You know – a permanent reminder.’
Juliet nodded. ‘So when we’re super-successful and absolutely rolling in it we can look at these and think: Jennifer Lopez, ‘Jenny From The Block’.
‘What? No, so we can—’
‘Oh, I get it,’ Juliet interrupted fist-bumping her heart and then pointing her hand up to the sky and launching into Take That’s ‘Never Forget’.
‘Oh my God. Stop that. I just meant I wanted a lovely reminder of how this space came to be. Of where we started. Of all the hopes you had. All the hopes I had. Of how you tapped into that and started this whole thing.’
A soft smile formed on Juliet’s lips as she stopped teasing. ‘I didn’t really start this whole thing you know.’
Kate nodded. ‘I know. Bea did.’
‘Yes, Bea did. But it’s perfect and I love it. And having them framed for everyone to see, it’s like we’re paying the sentiment forward.’
Kate turned to stare at the postcards, a huge smile forming on her lips. ‘Hey, what would you say if I told you I’d just thought of the perfect way to pay the postcards forward and find someone to run Cocktails & Chai?’
Chapter 5 (#ulink_f686c34a-222c-5060-98d6-6529a3279d20)
Geeks Bearing GIFs (#ulink_f686c34a-222c-5060-98d6-6529a3279d20)
Jake
Jake Knightley rounded the corner, took in the sight before him, rolled his eyes, and sticking his fingers into his mouth, produced an ear-splitting whistle.
Bingley the bichon stopped his investigation (chomping) of the lowest border of herbs Jake had been in the process of protecting from winter frosts, and cocked his head at his owner’s brother.
‘Damn right, you’d better be afraid,’ Jake told the dog, trying and failing to sound stern. ‘In about one hour from now it isn’t going to be rainbows you’re sh—’ he broke off as he saw his toddler nephew come tottering around the border. ‘Pooping,’ he said instead, with a stare of exasperation at the dog.
Eighteen month old Elton squealed, ‘Bad doggy, Bingey’ and catching sight of his favourite uncle grinned like he needed to let some of the sunshine inside of him free. Jake actually suspected each of his three brothers was Elton’s favourite uncle but he’d be lying if he didn’t get a kick out of seeing the adoration in the kid’s face. Smiling back indulgently, he bent and scooped his nephew into his arms. ‘Where’s Mummy, then?’
Elton flung an arm out, narrowly missing Jake’s chin, and pointed behind him.
‘Let’s go, Bingley,’ Jake commanded, and made sure the dog was at his heels.
With his nephew in his arms and the pup at his feet, he wandered through the kitchen garden of the Tudor mansion that had been in his family for generations and which he’d finally been allowed to take over from his parents last year. After studying horticulture and then spending several years working for a garden design firm in London, returning to run Knightley Hall and restore the gardens so they could be opened to the public felt like the realest thing he’d ever done and the place he was supposed to make his mark.
He’d been fortunate enough to work on lots of magnificent gardens, but restoring the ones in his ancestral home was what he’d wanted to do since he’d been a teenager.
Carrying Elton effortlessly, Jake crossed the main patio leading to the terraced gardens that ran the back of the house and walked around the side of the building so that he could get to the front drive.
His sister, Sarah, was busy bumping her car door shut with her hip while she tried to juggle a large cake box and her laptop.
‘Sorry, Jake,’ she mumbled around the set of car keys in her mouth. She opened her mouth so that the keys fell onto the top of the cake-box she was holding and groaned, ‘Little tykes both got away from me.’
Jake reached her side and grabbed the keys that were just about to slide off. ‘Tyke number two found a dinner of sorts within seconds of arriving. Expect the distinct smell of parsley when you’re cleaning up after him later.’
‘Oh Christ, really?’ A look of tired resignation came over her face and then suddenly she was smiling. ‘Perhaps we’ll stay with you for supper and Bingley can have the roam of the gardens.’
‘I don’t need compost that badly,’ Jake laughed, walking with her back towards the rear of the house. ‘And you can stay, but I won’t be around. I was just organising cloches and cold-frames before I pop over to The Clock House.’
‘But I brought food. Well, cake.’
Jake eyed the box suspiciously. ‘No.’
‘No?’
‘No way is cake going to make up for you hatching that evil, twisted plan with Mum, last week.’
‘Oh come on. How was I supposed to know the woman mum was talking about was Gloria Pavey.’
Jake shuddered. He was sure Gloria Pavey was perfectly nice. At least she would be once she got over the bitterness of her husband Bob leaving her for a male model called Bobby. ‘Thanks to the both of you, she’s been round twice, asking if I can pose in her charity calendar.’
‘That doesn’t sound so bad.’
‘Mowing the lawn.’
Sarah winced. ‘Going for themed, is she? Well, I suppose mowing is kind of connected to what you do.’
‘Naked.’
‘What the—’ she broke off as she looked at Elton. ‘I miss swearing so bad,’ she confessed. ‘So, Gloria’s putting together a Calendar Girls but with boys?’
‘I think that’s the gist. To be honest, I tried not to pay too much attention.’
‘Is it possible you’ve got this all wrong?’
‘I don’t think so. Lady Chatterley was mentioned. She even asked me to wear my hair down.’ He tugged self-consciously on his man-bun because he knew it was only a matter of time before his family started referring to him as Pirate Pete from TOWIE. He should have got his hair cut months ago. One more thing he hadn’t had time to do. As soon as Juliet opened up her hair salon, the better. ‘Both visits were awful. Just awful,’ he said. ‘No cake is going to make up for what the two of you have started.’
‘Are you sure? It’s lemon drizzle. Sheila Somersby made it.’
Jake paused because as well as running Whispers Wood B&B, Sheila baked really nice cakes. He deposited Elton on one of the kitchen chairs and, unable to resist, lifted the lid of the box. ‘Okay, this can stay. You can leave it with the one that Mum dropped around yesterday.’
‘We just care about you, Jakey.’
Jake snorted.
‘Ever since—’
Jake held up a hand. ‘Unless you bought ear-defenders for Elton, we’re not talking about “ever since”. And to show me you really care how about putting a halt to the endless parade of women. It’s ridiculous, completely unnecessary and did I mention … ridiculous?’
‘Okay, okay. No more women. Promise.’
Jake wasn’t going to be stupid enough to believe her. He knew his family meant well but ever since he’d taken over this place and ever since – well, last Christmas – discovering they didn’t think he could run Knightley Hall without a good woman by his side was too much. Hadn’t he been working his arse off all year to show everyone he could manage the place on his own?
‘Have you got time to show me which part of the gardens you’ve been working on?’ Sarah asked, with a grin that said, ‘See, I can change a subject with the best of them.’
‘Why?’
‘I thought I’d bring a photographer friend down to take some shots.’
Jake stared at his sister, his eyes narrowing. ‘Is your photographer friend female?’
‘Yes.’
‘Single?’
‘Yes.’
‘For God’s sake, Sarah.’
‘No, it’s not like that. She works for Rural Rooms magazine and I was thinking if we got some shots of the gardens through all the seasons then you could use them for publicity.’
‘Wouldn’t she need shots of the house, too?’ Because he really didn’t have the time, not to mention the money, for a large feature article which was only going to expose how rundown the place had become since he spent every penny he made on restoring the gardens to their former glory.
‘The fam can tart up a couple of the main rooms for you, but I’ve stressed it’s the gardens that you’re going to be opening up to the public, not the house.’
‘As long as the focus isn’t on the inside. When can she come?’
‘Soon, hopefully. I’ll show you some of her work in a minute. Oh, and I have something else to show you.’ She held up her laptop and grinned determinedly. ‘If you don’t love it, tell me you do anyway, because it took a gazillion number of hours and it’s probably the best thing I’ve done in ages.’
‘Hey, you always do good work.’ Jake knew his sister struggled to feel like she was back at the cutting edge of her work since she’d had Elton and he’d seen on more than one occasion glimpses of how shocking she found motherhood. She was a brilliant mum but both she and her husband were way more used to their tech than a little person who didn’t behave like one of their designs, even though, technically, he was. ‘I wish I could pay you for doing the brochures for this place when we’re ready.’
‘Please. Are you planning on charging all of us whenever we come to you for advice?’
‘Maybe if any of you actually took it …’ It still befuddled him that any of the Knightley brood, of which there were another three brothers and a sister, came to him at all, for advice. Particularly as he wasn’t the eldest.
He guessed he was the one best able to cope with no longer having the family’s money to fall back on though – probably because the estate had never been about money for him. Out of all of them he was the one who carried this place in his bones, his heart, his soul. And maybe having those roots so deeply embedded represented a familiarity – a stability – that the actual Hall couldn’t because even when he’d been in London and his siblings dotted all over, they’d been drawn to him whenever their lives got chaotic.
Sarah sipped her tea. ‘Has Seth been around since the split?’
Seth was their youngest brother and had been married to Joanne for two years, yet they seemed to be happier apart than together. ‘I think he knows that if he does, I’m just going to send him straight back to her.’
‘I don’t know, Jake. It sounds sort of final, this time.’
‘As opposed to the other times? If it’s all so bad, why did he bother marrying her in the first place?’ An uncharitable anger kicked against his insides wanting to get out.
‘Maybe if he stayed with you for a while,’ Sarah suggested.
‘No. Way. I’ve got enough to do without babysitting a grown man with zero interest in what I’m trying to do here.’
‘But maybe a little hard work would make him see sense.’
‘No.’
