‘Quiet day at home?’ Rose asked, waving to the girls as they jumped up and down in the background.
‘I spent a few hours in the office this morning, but I just got home and thought I’d call,’ Jessica said. ‘Tell me everything. What’s it like there? Have you discovered anything yet?’
Rose began to walk back to the house, slowly, and making sure to stop often so that Jessica could see the property.
‘It’s beautiful here,’ she said. ‘Like a raw, honest kind of beauty. It’s all huge fields and sunshine, trees and horses. I don’t think I’ve ever been surrounded by so much space in my life before. It’s like something from a film, or a retreat.’
‘It sounds like exactly what you need,’ Jessica said. ‘Hell, it sounds like exactly whatIneed.’
Rose watched as Jessica walked from the living room to the kitchen, pouring herself a coffee before sitting down at the kitchen table. Jessica’s home was gorgeous—a New York brownstone that had been extensively renovated, the kind of home that Rose had always imagined herself living in. But as she looked at Jessica’s home in the background now, she wondered if perhaps she’d wanted what Jessica had because she hadn’t figured out what she actually wanted herself. It had been easier to see herself having the same life as her friend’s one day, rather than trying to forge her own path.
‘I like it here more than I expected I would,’ Rose said, sitting down beneath a tree and leaning against the rough bark of thetrunk as her left hand fell to the ground, fingers playing over the stems of grass below. ‘I mean, I can’t even remember the last time I touched actual grass. Part of me wants to hurry back to the familiarity of London and my flat, but the other part of me is curious about life here. About how it would feel to spend some time here and live a different kind of life for a while.’
Jessica nodded, sipping her coffee, the house sounding quiet in the background now as if the girls had either gone outside or perhaps snuck onto their iPads. ‘I was hoping you’d say that. I mean, you’ve had a year that would have defeated most people. You deserve some time to recalibrate.’
‘I haven’t given my firm an answer yet, about returning to work.’
Jessica stayed silent, and Rose blinked back at her, knowing what she was thinking.
‘You think I should quit, don’t you?’ Jessica had said as much when they’d been in London, and Rose had purposely not been thinking about the decision.
‘I think that you need to follow your heart. Do whatyouwant to do rather than what everyone expects of you,’ Jessica said. ‘If you need this break before you go back to work, and you can afford to take that break, then I don’t think it would be the worst thing for you to do. You can always go back to practising law; a short break isn’t going to end your career. I don’t think you need to be afraid of that.’
‘But what if it does?’ Rose asked, blinking away tears. She didn’t even know why she was so emotional, but even thinking about the life she’d built and walking away from it was terrifying to her. ‘What if I take the time off and nothing is ever the same again? I already feel like it will be hard to go back, but if I take even longer…’
‘You’re scared because everything has changed,’ Jessica said. ‘You feel like your job is the last link to the way your life used tobe, before the cancer, before your mum passed, but it’s not. You still have your home to go back to, and you still have me, and no one can take your memories away. You might find that you feel even closer to her there, away from everything familiar.’
Rose sighed. ‘Maybe I should just move to Argentina then, and start over.’
They both laughed, and Rose felt so much better for having spoken to her friend. She always seemed to know just what to say, just when she needed it.
‘Show me around more,’ Jessica said, leaning in closer to the screen. ‘I want the full tour, and I have to see the house. I still can’t believe it’s as beautiful as the pictures looked.’
Rose stood, realising the cat she’d seen earlier had come to stand nearby. She reached out and scratched the top of his head, noticing that he followed her as she walked away. She’d wanted a friend, and it seemed that she’d found one, albeit one who looked like he’d seen a few fights, given the tear to one of his ears and a scar that ran down his front leg. Rose gave him one last pat.We’re not so dissimilar, you and me. I feel like I’ve been through a few rounds in the ring, too.
‘Okay, so this is the house,’ Rose said, standing to show her the exterior and leaving the cat to stretch out in the sun. ‘It’s stunning, and the inside is just as gorgeous. There’s something very relaxed and peaceful about it, despite how large it is. Like you can tell it’s been loved.’
‘I can see why you like it so much.’
‘Honestly, it’s impossible not to like it, even if I can’t see myself staying here.’
‘And have you met anyone there? Do they have a groundskeeper or any staff?’
Rose glanced back out at the stables, catching sight of Benjamin leading a horse that was all saddled up for a ride. She watched him again, not quite sure what she thought of himyet. She didn’t care about the way he’d first reacted to seeing her; it had been amusing seeing him back-pedal, but there was something she couldn’t quite put her finger on yet. ‘There is someone here, I’m not sure how to describe him but he rides the polo ponies. It seems that my great-grandmother was his sponsor, which I suppose means that I am now.’ She was about to tell Jessica that there was also a housekeeper whom she hadn’t met yet, but she was interrupted before she had the chance.
‘What’s he like? Anything like the gorgeous players we found online?’
She paused. ‘He was, well, he’s fine. I’m reserving my judgement until we meet again later today.’
‘Fine?’
‘Okay, he’s absolutely gorgeous, I’m not going to lie. I mean, he’s an Argentinian sportsman, so use your imagination, but I just wasn’t sure about him when we met. I’ll let you know what I think when I see him again.’
‘All right. But I’ll hold you to that. I want to hearallabout him.’
Jessica let her get away without asking more, for now, and Rose quickly began a proper tour of the house so that she didn’t have to answer any more questions about the elusive Benjamin just yet. But her thoughts kept being drawn back to him—there had been something about the look on his face that she just couldn’t stop thinking about, and she realised that if she was going to ask him more about the figurine, then she would have to show him the piece of blue silk, too. And tell him exactly how she’d found herself on an unexpected flight from London to Buenos Aires to inherit the infamous Santiago estate.
Rose hadn’t been sure whether to walk down to the stables and look for Benjamin, or wait for him to call at the house, so she was happy to see him crossing the lawn barely three hours later. She found herself watching him, noticing the way his long stride covered the ground, his golden forearms on display thanks to his rolled-up shirtsleeves, one hand lifted to shield his eyes from the sun as he approached the house.
