She nodded and lowered her eyes.
In the brief, intervening silence, Gabriel couldn’t help but marvel that his usually impeccable judgement had been flawed in this instance.
His own bitter experience of what a woman born into money could be like had been a deep learning curve. Wealthy men were often suspicious of gold-diggers, but as far as Gabriel was concerned with a gold-digger you knew where you stood. You had money, they wanted it and, if you chose to comply, then you did so with eyes wide open. But rich young things came with all sorts of hidden dangers and, whilst the rational part of him could concede that, rich or poor, no two people were ever the same, he still responded to trust-fund babes with a primal, gut reaction that had its roots in his own bitter, personal experience.
‘So your purpose in coming here was to...?’
‘See where my mum grew up.’
‘And you decided to go one step further and fight Evelyn’s corner when she told you about the cottage. Did you think that you would have a chat with me and I’d concede defeat?’ He wondered whether a privileged background had inured her against failure. In his steady climb up the greasy pole, it had become apparent that there was a yawning gap between the way those born into money approached life and those who had grown up without it.
Moneyed people, whether they deserved it or not, whether they were clever or not or gifted or not, assumed that success was their due.
He watched her narrowly, making assumptions now that had not been made before.
‘No, of course not.’
‘Here’s the thing.’ He leaned forward and looked at her seriously. ‘I am prepared to at least review the situation.’
‘Really?’
‘I hadn’t expected to find myself persuaded into thinking any more deeply about your friend and her living here next to my land, but she is clearly dependent on the cottage because, as you have explained, it has been her home for very many years...’
‘And of course,’ Izzy jumped in with enthusiasm, ‘the older you get, the more stuck in your ways you become and the less willing you are to have any kind of change in your life.’
‘That’s as may be.’ Gabriel had listened and taken on board what the older woman had had to say, but he had manoeuvred the conversation to exploring various options should they arise. He had encouraged her to talk about her friends in the town, and had made sure to point out how vital it was for people to have friends or family close by when old age began setting in. While she had waxed lyrical about the garden, and the joys of growing her own vegetables, he had quietly inserted the suggestion that some other properties came with outside space crying out for someone with green fingers, that the garden she maintained did not necessarily have to be the last one she ever maintained.
Far from threatening, he had charmed and had left her with things to think about. He had planted seeds. As a talented gardener, he felt that she would appreciate the effort.
Gabriel had no intention of abandoning his plans but, for once, he was not going to go for the jugular. He’d liked the woman. He would gently guide her in the direction he wished her to take and he had no hesitation that she would go exactly where directed.
But before he got there...
‘I have a proposition for you,’ he said, relaxing and watching Izzy closely.
‘What is it?’
‘You’re hell-bent on saving your friend from the horror of having to sell the cottage for an unbelievably and unrealistically generous sum of money.’ He watched as predictably she stiffened, sitting up straighter, her mouth pursing in immediate rejection of what he had said. And what a very nice mouth she had, Gabriel thought absently. Spoiled brat she undoubtedly was, despite outward appearances, but what an extremely fetching and addictively watchable spoiled brat.
Izzy opened her mouth to argue and he stifled the protest on her lips with a dismissive wave of his hand.
‘I’m in no mood to start a pointless debate about whether my offer is generous or not. Back to my proposition.’
‘You’re so arrogant,’ Izzy said.
‘I know. You’d be amazed at how few women have ever complained about that trait before.’
‘And conceited.’
‘The two often go hand in hand.’ He reluctantly smiled. Spoiled brat or not, no one had entertained him quite as much in recent times. ‘I’m prepared to, at least, consider your friend’s dilemma but in return you have to do something for me.’
‘What?’ Izzy asked cautiously.
‘I’m here without a nanny and there are times when it is impossible for me to focus entirely on entertaining Rosa because I have work to do.’
‘You want me to babysit her now and again?’
‘Rather more than that. I want you to take over where Bella left off. There’s no chance she’ll be out of hospital any time soon and if I am to stay here, mulling things over about the cottage, possibly having further chats with Evelyn...’
