Victoria watched her father's knuckles go white around his newspaper. Across the room, her mother had gone very still in that way that suggested someone had just committed an unforgivable social crime.
"Perhaps," Lady Charlotte said with icy politeness, "we might discuss other options."
"Oh, there are loads of options! We could do dressage rings, maybe a cross-country course through the woods…"
"The woods are also protected," Cathy interjected.
Cassandra's smile tightened. "I'm sure you mean well, but I think the family can make these decisions without input from the staff."
Victoria shook her head. Really, this was enough. She needed to give her brother a solid talking to. She knew what he was trying to do, knew that he was attempting to impress their parents with a potential wife that was going to help run the estate rather than just be a pretty face. But couldn’t he see that he was failing spectacularly?
"Cathy knows more about this estate than anyone. If she says the south lawn won't work, it won't work," she said.
"I'm sure she's very knowledgeable about gardening," Cassandra said with barely concealed condescension. "But thisis about vision. About seeing the potential for something greater than just pretty flowers."
"Pretty flowers," Cathy repeated flatly.
"Cassandra," Archie said, finally seeming to sense the danger, "maybe we should—"
"I'm just trying to help." Cassandra's voice had taken on a slight whine. "You said you wanted to modernize the estate, make it more viable. I'm offering solutions."
"Solutions that would destroy three hundred years of careful stewardship," Victoria said, her voice cool. "But I'm sure that's a small price to pay for playing horsey."
Cassandra's eyes flashed. "At least I'm thinking about the future. Not everyone wants to live in a museum."
Victoria closed her mouth. She’d take Archie to one side as soon as she could. Someone needed to put an end to this farce. Cassandra was what, the third, fourth date he’d brought in this holiday? She could sense his desperation, but honestly, couldn’t he see that firstly, Cathy was besotted with him, and secondly, that Cathy would be the perfect person to do exactly what he was trying to do? He wanted to make his mark on the estate, who better than Cathy to help him?
How could he be so blind?
She couldn’t watch this any longer. She excused herself and escaped to the terrace, her phone still clutched in her hand with the interview email glowing on the screen. She should respond immediately, confirm her attendance, start preparing. This was what she wanted. What she'd been working toward.
Wasn't it?
Except for once in her life, Victoria realized, she wasn't constantly thinking about work.
Oh, she was still applying for positions, still networking, still going through all the proper motions. But the sharp edge ofpanic had dulled. She no longer woke up at three in the morning with her heart racing, mentally cataloging everything she'd lost.
Instead, she woke up with Sasha warm against her side, and work felt like something that happened to other people in another life entirely.
Which was completely mad.
She'd spent years building her career, sacrificing relationships and social life and basically anything that didn't fit into her carefully planned trajectory. She was the golden child, the perfect daughter, the one who had everything figured out. Career came first. It always had.
Except now she kept thinking about Sasha's hands on her skin, the way she laughed, the soft sounds she made when Victoria's mouth found sensitive places. She thought about Sasha's enthusiasm for the gardens, the way she'd discovered something she genuinely loved and pursued it with wholehearted joy. She thought about mornings tangled in sheets and stolen kisses in the potting shed and the terrifying realization that this felt like significantly more than just physical attraction.
Was it possible she'd been as blind as Archie?
Her previous relationships had all ended the same way. Partners who complained she was married to her job, who wanted more time and attention than she could give, who eventually gave up on competing with investment banking for her affection. She'd always told herself they simply weren't the right fit, that the right person would understand her ambition.
But what if the problem wasn't them? What if the problem was that she'd been so focused on being perfect that she'd forgotten to actually live? That she wasn’t willing to risk what it took to be seen as anything less than perfect?
Sasha appeared on the terrace, interrupting her spiraling thoughts. Her face was flushed from working outside.
"There you are," Sasha said. "I thought you were having coffee and meeting Archie’s latest acquisition."
"Escaped. Cassandra was explaining why we should demolish three-hundred-year-old oaks for show-jumping."
"Christ. Archie really knows how to pick them."
