They ended the tour of the main house in a huge kitchen diner, which was the most well-worn looking place in the house. Even so, she guessed the oak kitchen cabinets and marble-topped work surfaces would have cost a pretty penny.
This room was clearly the heart of the home and Soli immediately felt much more relaxed in here. The rest of the house was beautiful, but it had been a bit like being shown around a stately home where you weren’t allowed to touch anything.
She could imagine spending lots of time in this room though, making meals for them both and perhaps baking her locally famous cakes and biscuits for Xavier to sample. She’d welcome the chance to impress him with her cooking skills. It would make her feel less insignificant in the face of his overwhelming prowess.
He’d leant back against a scrubbed oak table in the middle of the tiled floor as she looked around, and she glanced over at him, wondering how many times he’d sat there to eat in his lifetime. She could imagine him as a bright-eyed, but serious, little boy with a wicked grin, when he chose to deploy it. Not that she’d seen any evidence of it so far. Any smiles he’d given her had seemed perfunctory and lacking in any real emotion.
What must he have gone through to not have any warmth in his smile? The thought of it made her inordinately sad, especially when it occurred to her that he might well have lost his spirit when he was a little boy.
But perhaps that wasn’t the case. He seemed to have genuine love and affection for his great-aunt and clearly adored living here judging by the reverent tone he’d used when showing the rooms to her.
‘Did your great-aunt have any children?’ she asked, thinking what a wonderful house this would be for games of hide and seek. You could probably go for hours without being discovered with all the nooks and crannies available.
‘No. I think she wanted them, but it never happened. My great-uncle died before I was born so I never met him, but I used to spend a lot of time with Aunt Faith and I think she considered me the child she never had. She always invited me here during my holidays from boarding school.’
‘And your parents were okay with that? Didn’t they want you at home with them?’
He let out a low snort. ‘They didn’t mind at all. They’re not exactly “kid people”.’
‘Oh.’ The sharp edge of tension in his voice disturbed her. Was he telling her that his parents didn’t want anything to do with him? How heartbreaking.
‘Anyway,’ Xavier said loudly, making her jump, ‘let me show you the room you’ll be staying in. Part of the ground floor was converted into a bedroom for my great-aunt to live in, but wasn’t used because she had the second stroke before she could move into it.’
She followed him out of the kitchen and back to the entrance hall, suspecting there would probably be a lot of Xavier suddenly changing the subject when things started to get too personal for his liking – which would be frustrating, considering she needed to get to know this enigmatic man a lot better in a very short space of time if they were going to come across as a convincing couple.
‘It’s down here,’ he said, guiding her along a hallway towards the back of the house, then through a door with its own mortice lock and into a large, airy bedroom.
So, her bedroom was to be downstairs? As far away from Xavier’s as possible, perhaps. Not that she had any right to question this. It was his home after all and she was, to all intents and purposes, his guest.
Like the kitchen in the main house, the bedroom was decorated in a warm, homey style, which immediately made her feel comfortable. There was a queen-sized bed against the wall on the far side and the rest of the room was kitted out in tasteful modern furniture, which, she suspected from its pristine gleam, had never been used before. Her heart fluttered as she realised there was a walk-in wardrobe. She’d only ever had half a small wardrobe at home, where she’d shared a room with Domino.
‘You’ll need to put some of your things, like toiletries and clothes, in my room too, just in case one of the solicitor’s people drops round without giving us any notice and goes snooping. We don’t want to give ourselves away by overlooking details like that,’ Xavier said, crossing his arms, making him seem even more intimidating than usual.
The thought of being caught out like that only increased Soli’s anxiety about them not knowing each other well enough yet. What if she had to answer questions about him that she didn’t know the answers to? He could potentially lose his inheritance if the solicitor didn’t believe they were a real couple, which would mean their deal would fall through and that could signal the end of the cafe.
‘I can’t lose this place, Soli, and I’m definitely not going to let it go to my money-grubbing cousin because we messed up the small stuff,’ Xavier said, echoing her thoughts.
‘Okay. No problem,’ she said, trying to sound reassuring. She’d do everything in her power not to let that happen.
‘Good. Well, now you’ve had a look around I’ll bring your cases in here and you can get settled in.’
Following him out of the bedroom and back to the grand entrance hall, she tried not to let a feeling of being on the very edge of control overwhelm her.
She needed to focus on the positives, such as this amazing place being her home for the next year.
It would be so exciting to be here.
Or terrifying – depending on which way you chose to look at it.
Xavier seemed like a good guy though, if a little cold and reserved. Everything she’d found out about him had been positive, she reminded herself. Especially the things she’d read about his business practices. And her father wouldn’t have rented a property from a shyster after all; he’d always been a very cautious and thorough businessman himself.
‘Why did your great-aunt want you to be married in order to inherit this place?’ she blurted as they reached the front door. It had been playing on her mind as he’d shown her around. ‘It seems a little extreme in this day and age.’
He turned back to face her with a grimace. ‘Yes, well, my great-aunt had very traditional values. Her marriage was arranged by her family and she stayed married to my great-uncle for forty-three years, until he died of a heart attack. I think she had some romantic notion that if she forced me into getting married, I’d end up the same way she did. Blissfully happy.’ He pulled a face.
‘Not convinced, huh?’
‘Not one bit.’
