‘Wasn’t he interested?’ she asked, slipping into the seat recently vacated by the development guy. ‘He’s an idiot if he isn’t.’
‘Oh, he’s interested. It’s not that.’
Jess frowned. ‘Were the figures no good?’
Prior to this afternoon, Sebastian had seemed so certain in his decision; Jess was struggling to imagine what had gone so wrong. The building was beautiful, the rooms huge but massively characterful. The music room was stunning, the bedrooms endless – even the kitchen with its cantankerous Aga was blessed with original floor tiles and a huge antique dresser anybody would adore to have in their house, if they could fit it in. Sensational views beckoned from every window in the property and only improved the higher up you went. Kirkshield village was chocolate-box perfect, the river and the granite-strewn grasslands and even the woods (minus the shotguns) were straight-up gorgeous. In fact, the whole place had a sprinkling of magic which Jess was only beginning to appreciate.
If the developer hadn’t come up with a decent figure for a place as special as this, then Sebastian would just need to hold out for someone else to come along. Someone who would love this place as it deserved to be loved.
‘We didn’t get as far as talking figures. That comes “further down the line” apparently.’ Sebastian mimed inverted commas around the words, irritation clouding his features. ‘It’s not the money. It’s the village.’
‘What do you mean? He doesn’t want to buy the cottages?’
‘No, he wants to buy and renovate them.’
‘That’s great, isn’t it?’ As she said it, she realised there must be a massive spanner about to be inserted into the whirring cogs of the plan. Sebastian’s expression told her as much.
‘It’s not that simple, Jess. God knows I’m guilty of having stuck my head in the sand about this place for too long, but basically, his proposals mean the village tenants will end up losing their homes. Being rehomed elsewhere if they can’t afford his new rents once their cottages have been renovated, which, by the sounds of this guy, they won’t.’
‘What?’ Heat and then coldness prickled up and down Jess’s spine. ‘Mrs Keel? Isla and Craig Macwarren? Everyone?’
Sebastian rubbed at his forehead, then nodded. ‘That’s about the size of it.’
‘But …’
‘I know. He likened this place to theTitanic. Said I needed to think about who I want in the lifeboat with me.’
‘But …’
He shook his head, then attempted to smile. ‘I know, Jess. I know. Rock and a hard place.’
Absently, Jess took a piece of shortbread, biting into it and doing her best to taste it. The look of complete dejection on Sebastian’s face had her sliding the rest of the biscuit back onto the plate, the bite she had taken like sawdust in her mouth.
‘How bad are the debts?’ she asked softly, watching Sebastian as he shuffled some paperwork in a large drawer and pulled out a folder, and from that a bank statement. He swivelled it so she could see it; Jess scanned the figures, the columns and numbers scary in their magnitude. Eventually, she glanced up at him, her finger shaking as she pointed to a total. ‘And this is a minus, yes?’
‘Yes. It’s a minus. That’s our overdraft. My father has been extending the loans on this place for years. Against the advice of the accountants, obviously. Not that my father was good at taking advice from anyone. I suppose the only saving grace is that, so far, the bank hasn’t demanded a settlement. If they did that, it would be totally game over.’
Butterflies flapped around Jess’s stomach as she looked at the numbers again. No wonder Sebastian looked so forlorn. She swallowed, trying to block out the brightness of Isla Macwarren’s smile, the warmth of Mrs Keel’s welcome when Jess had arrived a stranger at the castle. She tried not to think about what would happen to Kitty McAllister, or her husband at The Old Goat. Because, although Kirkshield and its inhabitants were becoming very dear to her, if she was faced with a similar decision she would probably want to run a mile and get far, far away from a debt millstone of that magnitude.
‘What are you going to do?’ she whispered.
Sebastian frowned, his gaze travelling away from Jess, from the paperwork on the desk, out through the window and away. Jess wondered if he was looking at the snow outside, or whether he was further away still, in a faraway part of himself she had yet to access. After a while he refocused on the room, on her, and took a deep breath.
‘I’m not throwing the tenants to the wolves. I can’t do it. I don’t know how I’m going to turn this place around, but if that’s what I’ve got to do, I’ll have to find a way. Somehow.’
Jess wanted to smile, the idea that – for now at least – the estate was safe made the butterflies in her stomach settle. But Sebastian looked more weighed down than ever. The idea to sell had been his escape chute, and he’d just padlocked it closed.
‘Brick by brick?’ she said.
A glimmer of a smile crossed his lips. ‘Literally.’
‘We could do B and B in the castle, perhaps?’ she said, noticing her pronoun choice only after the word had fled her mouth. Hopefully he hadn’t noticed; he gave her a distracted smile and shuffled the papers back into the folder without answering. For her part, Jess stood and collected the coffee things, confused by her thoughts. ‘I’ll make you a fresh coffee.’
‘I would really appreciate that, Jess. Thank you.’
Chapter 24
It didn’t strike Sebastian until Jess had left the room.We could do B and B in the castle …We. He clung to that tiny word, even as the seas of his despair tossed her idea like driftwood, snapping it and dragging it under.
