Flick desperately hoped so, not that she had time to dwell.
“Anyway,” Dee carried on with a shake of her head. “As I was saying, he’s excellent with wood. An artist like you, in fact. You should see some of his work.” She paused. “I’m surprised you didn’t already know that, what with him living so close by.”
With Dee back to talking thirteen to the dozen and, once again, examining her file, Flick’s confusion grew as she struggled to keep up.
“He bought a cottage in the grounds a while ago. In the middle of the woods, can you believe?” She hesitated. “It was supposed to be a holiday home but he ended up staying. Anyway, it’s got its own entrance, which probably explains why you haven’t come across him. The man does like his privacy.”
With her bewilderment increasing, Flick thought it time to intervene. “Dee, why are you giving me all this information? I don’t need Nate’s help. Anyone’s help for that matter. Yourself excluded, naturally.”
Dee suddenly stopped thumbing through her sheets of paper. “What do you mean?” she said, her expression quizzical. It was clearly her turn to wonder what was going on.
“I asked to see you,” Flick said. “Because I want to sell the chateau, not renovate it.”
“But I thought…”
Flick felt bad for dashing what seemed to beeveryone’shopes, but she had to do what was right for her. Staying on in France just wasn’t an option, no matter how many people wished otherwise. “I simply don’t have the money to take on a project like this. Or the experience.”
“Not in one go, I understand that. But what if you did the work gradually?”
“With what?”
“With that for one.” Dee pointed to Flick’s sketchpad.
“You’re joking. This doesn’t pay the supermarket bill, let alone cover the cost of litre upon litre of paint.”
“You’d be surprised,” Dee said. “Where did you learn to draw like that anyway?”
“Art school,” Flick replied, not that she knew what that had to do with anything.
“There you go then.”
“There I go what?”
“Do you know how much people pay for painting holidays?”
Flick did, indeed, know. Having previously considered booking onto one herself, she knew exactly how much they cost. And she couldn’t afford that either. “But they include bed and breakfast, and evening meals. Plus, they tend to be set in the most gorgeous of surroundings, both inside and out.Chateau D’Enchantementisn’t exactly in the same league, we both know that.” She hated seeing the disappointment on Dee’s face, and the prospect of being able to run her own little art school was the stuff her dreams were made of, once of a day. But she had to be a realist about this. “Which brings me back to the beginning, I need to sell.”
Dee obviously knew Flick’s mind was made up, which was why she began reluctantly gathering up her sheets and putting them back into their folder. “Okay,” she said. “Although I can’t say I’m not disappointed.”
“So, you’ll put it back on the market?”
“I will. And I’ll speak to the other agents to see if they have anyone looking for this kind of thing on their books.”
“Thank you.”
“And I’ll need to come and take more photos, so it would be great if you don’t mind titivating some of the rooms up a bit. Nothing major, you know the kind of thing, a lick of white paint here and there to make it feel a bit fresher in parts.”
“Okay.”
“Although it might still take a while to find a buyer, you do realise that, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I mean it took long enough for your dad to come along and not everyone has his kind of vision.”
“I know, but he’s not here to see that vision through, is he?”
Tears pricked in Flick’s eyes. Refusing to let them come out, she didn’t mean to sound harsh. But neither did she deserve to feel guilty for somehow letting down her dad. Talking about her decision had proved harder than she’d thought and with her emotions beginning to run amok, she couldn’t help but ask herself if she was really doing the right thing? Especially when despite her complaints she shared her father’s view of the chateau. Like him, she saw beyond the aging walls, its dark corridors and lack of up-to-date facilities. In fact, given a real choice, she knew that deep down she’d have gladly thrown herself into restoring the place back to its former glory, plus all mod cons. She grabbed a tissue from her bag and dabbed the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to embarrass you.”
