She wasn’t sure whether he was testing her loyalty and decided that even if he was she didn’t care. ‘No, not this time. This is a stunning place. We even have the woods over there and these beautiful grounds and the huge pond. There’s no realistic reason to change anything.’
He glared at her, furiously leaning towards her, his nose inches from her. ‘You won’t do it?’ he asked quietly. ‘You’re choosing to disregard my instructions?’
Refusing to be intimidated and closer to telling him to shove his job where the sun didn’t shine than she had ever been before, Tasha took one step back. ‘That’s right.’ His eyes widened. ‘Callum very kindly brought your phone back to you, not that you bothered to even thank him. We don’t need that huge manor house. His family, on the other hand, are staying there, with friends travelling to the island for the party. They’re looking forward to a big family celebration and I will not ask him to change anything to appease your whim.’
She turned to leave the room. Stopping at the kitchen door as a thought occurred to her. She turned back to him. ‘I can give him your number though if you’d like to tell him we wish to swap properties with him.’
Not bothering to wait for a response, she went into her temporary office in the dining room and closed the door. Once inside Tasha held on to the top of the table, trying to gather herself. She didn’t know whether she was trembling because of her fear of upsetting Riley, or because she was so angry with him for being so uncaring about anyone else.
Hearing him stomp outside, Tasha decided she needed a cup of tea to calm herself down. She returned to the kitchen and switched on the kettle before taking a mug from the cupboard.
Tasha had barely had time to close the fridge after returning the milk to the shelf when the kitchen door opened and Riley stood at the doorway, arms crossed and a scowl on his handsome face. He relied far too much on his looks to charm people, she thought, as he stared at her, seemingly either trying to disarm her or work out whether to give her a lecture.
She had no intention of letting him think he’d intimidated her as he continually did to others. ‘Well, have you decided what you’d like to do?’ she asked.
He glared at her. ‘The way I see it you haven’t left me much choice,’ he grumbled. ‘We both know there’s not enough accommodation here to sleep too many people, so I suppose I’ll have to put up with the Prestons keeping the manor house.’
She was taken aback that he had given in so easily but had no intention of letting him know it. Tasha picked up her mug and went to leave the kitchen. ‘If that’s all, I’ll go and answer some of the emails we received today.’
Finally, Riley turned his back on her.
‘If that’s the way you feel about it, then I’ll leave things how they stand.’ He walked out of the room and all Tasha could to was stare at his retreating back, astounded that for once she had stood up to him and got her own way. It was a strange feeling but one she decided she liked.
11
CALLUM
He couldn’t believe today was the day the family all arrived from their homes in England, Spain and France. He had already welcomed his mother and Barry and settled them into his cottage and was now on his way to Beauvoir Manor to meet Erin and prepare for the rest of them to arrive. His car was packed with gifts for his grandfather and the large poster they had of him to display on the stand Erin was taking, together with his bag with enough clothes to last the week everyone would be staying there.
He wished they were all staying for longer but it had been exhausting enough arranging everyone to come for this one week. They all loved his grandad, Keith, and Callum hated to think how impossible it might have been if his relations hadn’t all wanted so desperately to make this birthday celebration a huge success.
He carried the last of the things into the hallway, deciding to let the others choose which rooms they wanted to sleep in. Whatever it took to keep everyone happy so that his grandfather had the best birthday, that’s what he intended to do.
Hearing a car pull up outside, Callum rushed outside to find his friends Brodie and Joe getting out of Brodie’s ancient Land Rover, and he hurried over to greet them.
‘Don’t look so worried,’ Brodie said, opening the back door of the vehicle. ‘Lettie’s mum, Lindy, has packed home-made cakes and scones, and your sister will be bringing the cake with her.’
He stepped back to let Callum look into the vehicle. ‘It’s packed in there,’ Callum said, delighted to see so many cool boxes and bags of food. ‘I’ll message her too, of course, but please tell Lindy how grateful I am that she’s doing so much of the baking.’
‘We all love Keith,’ Brodie said. ‘And Lindy said she was thrilled to have her offer to help out accepted by your family.’
‘Joe’s a legend in his own lifetime,’ Callum said, thinking of a recent sea rescue Joe had carried out with other firefighters. ‘It’s hot out here so I think we should take all this food into the house as soon as possible. We don’t want it to start spoiling.’
‘Good point.’ Brodie lifted out the first three bags. ‘I don’t want to have to be the one to admit to Lettie and Lindy how we messed up all their hard work with all this baking.’
Callum picked up the two nearest cool bags. ‘Neither do I.’ He followed Brodie into the hallway then led the way through to the vast kitchen.
‘This place is incredible,’ Joe said, giving a whistle of approval. ‘Your grandad will love all this. Will he be staying here tonight with the rest of you?’
Callum left what he was carrying on the kitchen table. ‘No. He’s at home tonight to give us a chance to finalise everything. He knows we’ve planned something, but he thinks it’s a meal at one of the restaurants in town. The rest of the family will come here tonight and help me set up the orangery where we’ll be holding the party, and it needs to be ready for when Dad brings him here with Betsy tomorrow evening.’
‘Does Keith know he’s staying somewhere other than his own place?’ Joe asked.
Callum shook his head. ‘No, but Dad and Betsy will pack up a few things for him and discreetly bring them. Knowing Grandad, he’ll want to be partying until the very end.’
Joe laughed. ‘And knowing Keith, he’ll probably be the last one standing.’
Callum didn’t doubt it. His grandfather might almost be eighty but he had the stamina of someone half his age when it came to socialising.
