Yet again, my thoughts had looped back round to Ollie. I put my safety glasses on, and the muscle memory snapped my brain into work mode in an instant. I couldn’t mess around only half-concentrating when working with heated metal and fire. While I was here, nothing else mattered. And that was how it should be.
* * *
Mia, Ollie and I spent another quiet evening in the sitting room. I should be doing more to integrate Ollie into our extended family, but not tonight. I was tired from what had turned into a long day because I couldn’t quite get the last details on the tail how I’d envisaged them. By the time it finally came together, it was almost nine pm.
“Is Tim in?” I asked as I settled down wearily in my usual chair, fresh from the shower and a quick bowl of microwaved beef stew.
Mia shook her head, but offered nothing more. I hated that she was caught between us. I should probably try to talk to Tim again, but it seemed the more I did so, the worse things became.
I gathered what was left of my energy because I was supposed to be looking after our guest. “Did you get to the maze this afternoon?” I asked him.
“I ran out of time after Mia took me to see the donkeys and they came for cuddles,” he said, sounding as if it was the best thing that had happened in his entire life. “I always wanted to have a dog, but of course we couldn’t, and I never thought I’d get to pet another animal. But their noses were so velvety and they loved having their ears stroked, and I’m now thinking I could get a baby donkey instead of a dog and keep it in our back garden.”
Hopefully, the novelty would wear off when he saw the piles of dung the donkeys left in their wake, surprisingly large for such small creatures. Otherwise, any idea of us developing a good relationship with the Shaws would be derailed by donkey dung.
His enthusiasm for the donkeys reminded me of the way his eyes had brightened when Mia suggested I show him my commissions. Now, I felt bad about the way he’d deflated when I’d ignored her suggestion.
“If you’re interested, I could show you my work sometime,” I said offhandedly. I hoped that he wasn’t interested, while at the same time, I knew it would sting if he said he wasn’t. That combination made no sense, but none of my reactions to Ollie did.
“Really?” His eyes shone. “Thanks, Archer—that would be awesome.”
What was it about Ollie that had me acting unlike myself? I didn’t willingly share my art with anyone. The only reason I did was to make a living. But Ollie was jolting me out of my patterns.
Ollie was also the reason I’d had to buy a new bottle of lube when I’d been in Winchester. Normally, I was so tired that rubbing one out was little more than stress relief. But that had changed since Ollie had been around. And after seeing him in those sinful jeans, I wanted to fuck him more than I’d wanted anything for a long time.
I couldn’t. I mustn’t. Maybe I could take a night off and drive over to Brighton and find someone in one of the clubs there to fuck instead. I did so occasionally, after my long, dry spell when the kids had been too young to leave alone at night and I couldn’t afford a babysitter. Picking up someone at a club wasn’t what I wanted, but I didn’t know what I did want. Ihadn’tknown. What I wanted right now was sitting in front of my fire, examining the fire irons.
“They’ve gotdragonsfor handles!”he exclaimed, as if that was news to me and Mia. He turned to look at me. “Did you make these?”
“One of my early attempts,” I told him. “They’re not good enough to sell.”
“You can’t mean that. They’reperfect.I’ve never seen a poker with a dragon handle before.”
I had the suspicion that Ollie had never seen a poker before coming to this house, because Mia had needed to teach him howto tend the fire. Even so, the sincerity of his praise warmed my heart.
I picked up my phone. Not because I wanted to read it but because spending too much time talking to Ollie was dangerous. He was unlocking things in me, and I didn’t like that. It felt perilously close to being out of control.
Chapter Fifteen
OLLIE
Next morning, I rolled out of bed to find that either the house was getting warmer or I was growing used to its temperature. I’d kept Jack up late last night telling him all about Archer being a blacksmith.
No banging Mr Rochesterhe’d reminded me again as we’d signed off.
Today, I planned on exploring the folly and the maze. Archer had insisted Mia or Tim go with me to the folly. “The tower’s basically one huge spiral staircase, and we have a rule that no one climbs it alone in case they fall. It could take a long time to find you if we didn’t know you were there.”
About to inform him of the miraculous invention of mobile phones, I didn’t because I remembered that Mia and Tim were only seventeen and eighteen. They’d been kids not long ago, when the rule would have been eminently sensible. I guessed Archer hadn’t adjusted to the fact they were now adults, more or less.
The folly was set on a small hill, and after climbing millions of stone steps, winding around and around in a way that left me dizzy, I stood on the top and my breath caught at the view. This part of the country was beautiful, rolling hills, green fields and woods, and I could see formiles.I stepped closer to the crenellated wall that surrounded the top, and Mia caught my arm.
“Don’t get too close,” she warned me.
“Why not? Is the stonework loose?” It couldn’t be, surely, because I’d seen Archer perching up here.
“No, but… Oh, damn. Look, Archer told me to keep you away from the edge.” She looked exasperated and embarrassed, but my heart sang. He wanted to protect me. I didn’t know why I loved that idea so much, but there was no doubting that I did.
I took some photos, and after a little longer enjoying the view, we climbed back down. I tried counting the steps but gave up after a hundred and fifty.
