Theo’s head snapped up. His expression had shifted from tense to utterly confused.
‘Grandfather?’ Theo stood up. ‘What are you doing here?’
Pete stepped aside and opened the door wider.
Pippa’s heart was beating fast as Arthur Blake walked into the living room.
Arthur looked stunned to see his grandson standing in the cottage. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘We needed to talk to Horace.’
‘About?’
Pete gestured towards the armchair, encouraging Arthur to take a seat. ‘Let me get you a mug.’
Pippa wondered who was going to go first. It felt like a game of cat and mouse. Someone knew something about something, or something about nothing, but someone had to go first.
‘Grandfather, can I introduce you to Pippa? We went to university together. She’s a clock restorer. One of ours.’
Arthur nodded kindly and leaned across to shake her hand.
Pippa took it, immediately aware that her palm was both too warm and possibly a bit sweaty.
‘I… I’ve been a huge fan of the Vale Brothers’ work for years,’ she blurted, far too quickly, as she looked from Arthur to Horace. ‘You’re both part of the reason I wanted to spend my whole life surrounded by clocks. Honestly, your designs, your craftsmanship… it’s all genius, absolute genius.’
Her voice had jumped an octave, the same way it did whenever she was nervous or overexcited, and she could practically hear herself spiralling. Great. Very professional. Exactly what one does when meeting a legend of their field.
Pippa felt her cheeks burn. ‘I’m fangirling. I’m sorry.’
But Arthur was smiling, a soft, amused lift of the mouth that instantly eased her embarrassment.
‘It’s quite all right,’ he said warmly. ‘Always nice to meet someone who loves clocks as much as we do.’ He then turned to Theo. ‘Now, why areyouhere?’
‘We read Andrew Wetherby’s book and in the past few days have discovered that Sebastian Worthington-Frost… Do you remember me talking about him at university?’
‘The guy who made your life hell?’
‘The very one, and the one currently all over the news for speaking out during the interview with Horace.’
‘That’s the same man?’
‘It is, but also… he’s Andrew Wetherby’s grandson.’
Pippa did not miss the look between Arthur and Horace, but she couldn’t read it.
‘I’m not here to cause trouble or fight his corner, but I do now believe his jealousy of me was because you were my grandfather, and the other right-hand man to Horace and Walter. He thinks his grandfather was set up, and blames you and the Vale Brothers for tearing his family apart, with his grandmother changing her name and relocating to escape the stigma of her husband being a thief. He wants the truth, but we aren’t really sure what it is.’
He looked at Horace, who hadn’t spoken since Arthur arrived. ‘The whole world believes there was a feud between you and Walter,’ Theo continued carefully, ‘and that it ended the partnership. Did it have anything to do with Andrew Wetherby?’
Before either man could answer, Pippa’s phone buzzed in her hand. She glanced at the screen to find a message from her dad.
The Vale Brothers are in the news again. Something about them working for the government. MI5 apparently.
She reread it, then looked around the room, her heart thudding. ‘Is it true, the secret commission was… for MI5?’
Theo looked at her like she’d gone mad.
Arthur was looking at Horace but neither of them was saying anything.
