“Youthink?” William snapped, registering the way this man looked at the fire poker with trepidation, as if it was the first time he noticed it. “By the way, you don’t need phone signal to call the police. So, if you don’t mind promptly fucking off–”
“Edward,” the stranger said quickly, sticking out a hand between them.
William didn’t move a muscle. “Oh good, first-name basis. If that’s the case then I’ll say it a different way. Again. Get out of my house,Edward.”
Edward pulled a face that read ‘I’ve really stuck my foot in it’. Lowering his hand to his side, fingers flexing, he said, “and you are?”
“The owner of this house! Out!”
Edward laughed. His chuckle was as rich as dark chocolate, able to calm any situation. Except William didn’t like dark chocolate enough to dampen his annoyance that this stranger had just barged into his home armed with insults.
“There is nothing funny about someone breaking into my home.” William couldn’t work out if the laugh was because Edward knew he had no phone signal or because the threat from the police was not actually a threat at all to him.
Maybe this Edward was the person hiding out in the attic at night and walking about? Or the person William was almost confident now that he’d seen slinking between the trees in his gardens.
“Oh, but I agree. Forgive me…” Edward paused to gather himself. “When I’m nervous I can’t stop myself from laughing. Bad habit.”
“Like breaking into people’s homes?”
He ran a hand down the back of his head, squinting his eyes. “Yes, something like that.”
Edward then gestured towards William as though he were waiting for something.
“What?” William barked.
“If I’m to properly apologise perhaps I can at least have your name?”
At least? The fucking cheek of it. Regardless, William found the answer falling out of his mouth. “William.”
Edward rolled his shoulders back, testing the name on silent lips. “Forgive me, Will.”
Irritation itched across the back of William’s neck. “I said my name’s William.”
“Another thing for me to apologise for then?” Edward’s smile widened until his eyes were shining with it. “Now you can call the police; it would be justified after all. But this is an awfully long way out for them to come, and I hardly imagine they would be pleased to find me being the one accused of breaking and entering.”
“Known to them already, are you?” William asked, fingers gripping the fire poker tighter. “Stonewell’s very own odd ball who breaks into people’s homes.”
“I did not break into–”
William jolted the poker towards him. “Then what do you call this!”
“Steady there, Mr. William…” Edward made certain to say his name slowly and without missing vowels. “I suggest you put down that poker before you do some damage with it.”
That’s kind of the point.
“Get. Out.” The snarl broke out of William, sharpening the headache the hangover left to new heights of intensity. “Now!”
“Wait.” Edward raised both hands in surrender. “Does this mean you won’t be requiring my services?”
“Services?” William spat out the word as though it had a sour taste. “What are you on about!”
Slowly, like a dog herding sheep, William guided the tip of the poker until Edward was forced back towards the front door.
One arm still raised, Edward gestured with the other toward the grand window to his side. “The gardens?” He answered like William had just asked an award-winningly stupid question. “There is a lot of groundwork to keep up. Unless you think you can manage those on top of Hanbury? In that case, I would happily point you in the direction of the tools you will require.”
The sarcasm which dripped from Edward’s voice was disarming. It had a way of melting the tension out of his muscles until William finally lowered his weapon. “Odd that. Because when I was given Hanbury, the solicitors didn’t tell me it came with a groundskeeper. If I did, I would’ve saved you the time and told you not to bother.”
“Given?” Edward questioned, head tilting to the left ever so slightly.
