I grab a bag and throw in as many clothes as I can find. Warm ones. I also grab my laptop and chargers for it and my phone. I might be selling Cavendish Hall but that doesn’t mean I can’t live in it until then.
CHAPTER 4
JASON
“What do you think?” my brother asks, putting another bag of growing compost on the pile. I know what he’s asking. Before we finished work yesterday, Bob called us all together and gave us the news that the hall was going to be sold. I place the last bag on top of the others and grab a sweeping brush. There isn’t a lot of work to do in the grounds in January, so we tidy the greenhouses and store rooms, which is what we’re doing today, taking advantage of it being a bright winter’s morning, a nice change after the week of rain we’ve had.
“I don’t know.” I shrug in answer, starting to sweep out the old brick store. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Jordan pulls a face, and I know that’s not something he’s good at. I understand him. He wants to plan for the future, make sure there’s security for his family.
“Did you tell Kim? What did she say?” I ask.
“The same as you,” he sighs and I straighten up, giving him a grin. I knew my sister-in-law would be more optimistic, she’s the sunshine to his more serious nature. “She says we have the inheritance money as a buffer if we need it and she can always take on extra shifts.”
“Right.” I agree. “I doubt there’ll be a line of buyers queuing up to buy a place like this, so it’ll probably take months to sell, and even then the new owners might want to keep us as we know the grounds better than anyone.”
“Or to cut costs, we could be let go immediately,” Jordan adds, shovelling up the pile I’ve just swept.
“We’d still get a month’s notice,” I reason with him, and receive a grumble in return. I don’t push. I know my elder brother well enough, he’ll get used to the idea that things might change and live with it. He just needs to sort it all out in his head. There’s only two years separating us but we’re very different. I’ve always been able to go with the flow more, trusting that life will work out instead of trying to control it. But it’s easier for me, I don’t have any ties, not even a relationship right now, so if I needed to go find another job, there wouldn’t be much to uproot. Not that I want to. I might act blasé about the news, but it did disappoint me, and I don’t want to work anywhere else.
We work in silence, each locked into our own thoughts as we start restocking everything back into the store in readiness for a summer we might not be here to see. When we’ve finished, Jordan says he wants to check the trellises in the walled garden. Now is a good time to replace them after everything has died back over winter.
I leave him to it and head out towards the lake, needing the walk more than the lake needs checking on. I work my way throughthe formal gardens, the neat box hedging creating small pockets of garden, some with a theme, others with benches, either for quiet contemplation or to take in the view across the park. I enter the last of these, a vantage point for looking over the lake, and stop suddenly. There’s a figure huddled on the bench. I step forward, ready to challenge them as this is private property, when they turn their head. From under the overhang of his hoodie I see the striking amber eyes and pale cheeks of the new earl.
“Oh, sorry, sir,” I say, stopping in my tracks. “I didn’t know you were home, or out here, or I would have gone a different way.”
“Different way? Where are you going?”
“Down to the lake, sir. To check on it, see if it’s getting silted up or if the deck needs maintenance, check the boathouse is secure, that sort of thing.” He nods and I turn to go. I get three steps before he calls out.
“I wanted to thank you. For the other day, you know, when I was choking,” he says as I pivot back round to face him.
“It was nothing,” I say dismissively. I was just doing my job. He tilts his head back to look up at me and gives me a warm smile.
“Well, I’m grateful... um, sorry, I don’t know your name.” His face scrunches up slightly in embarrassment, the light in his face fading.
“It’s Jason, sir,” I supply.
“Then thank you, Jason. I’m Kai,” he says and I nod. Not that I’m going to be calling him that of course.
“Okay, sir.” I see him wince slightly before he drops his head and returns to his brooding. I back away a few steps, and when hedoesn’t say anything else, I turn and leave. I reach the edge of the gardens before he calls out my name, and I make my way back over to him.
“Do you like it here?”
“Of course I do, sir.” I say—how else am I supposed to answer such a loaded question?—and see his jaw tighten.
“Can you come and sit down so you’re not looming over me?” I do as he asks. “And can you call me Kai?”
“I couldn’t do that, Bob would tell me off.”
“Bob?” he asks curiously.
“Err, Mr Jones. Sorry, that’s what happens when we’re too familiar, as Bob—Mr Jones—is always reminding us. He’s a stickler for that sort of thing.” I’m probably saying too much but I can’t seem to help it.
“Ah, I see, and you shouldn’t be familiar, you should be distant?”
“It wouldn’t be right would it, sir? What with you being an earl.”
