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‘Why don’t we?’ he said and started the engine.
Sybella directed him to Linton Way Forest and they parked under the oaks. She got out and they walked down the overgrown walking track that famously weaved in and over the hills.
She told him about the uses the village had for the estate, and he listened.
‘We have tours on Thursday afternoons. People are free to look at the west wing on weekends. The pony club use the grounds once a month for the gymkhana. That’s about it so far. It doesn’t impact on your grandfather’s private life in the house. In fact he often appears unannounced to talk to tourists himself.’
‘What I’m more interested in is the financial benefit to your little organisation.’
Sybella looked genuinely surprised.
‘The Heritage Trust is a charity. Any money goes back into preservation—no one is pocketing it. We all volunteer.’
Nik reached around to massage the back of his neck and Sybella tried not to ogle his biceps. She was aware of him physically in a way that was making it difficult to concentrate on the serious matters they were discussing.
Although something had changed between them, Sybella just couldn’t put her finger on what it was. He was more willing to listen and she was incredibly conscious of him physically.
‘How did you come to be involved with them?’
‘I have a degree and a diploma in archives management I earned part time when Fleur was younger. I needed some work experience and the Heritage Trust is all that’s available in the area so I volunteered. That was three years ago.’
‘That can’t have been easy with a baby.’
‘No.’ She slanted a shy look his way, because it was nice to have that acknowledged. Encouraged, Sybella plunged into the tough stuff. ‘I met your grandfather when the trust approached him about opening the house. He took an immediate dislike to our president but he was rather taken by Fleur, who was with me, and invited the two of us to tea. I do tours now on Thursdays for various schools and Fleur and I take tea with your grandfather afterwards. It’s become a sort of ritual between us.’
‘He talks about you a great deal.’
Sybella chewed on her lip. ‘Nice things, I hope.’
‘Nice being the word. He wants me to settle down with a nice girl.’
Oh, yes, she’d seen those girls on the Internet.
‘The thing is, Sybella, I work hard,’ he said unexpectedly.
She could have told him she worked hard too, but she guessed he and the rest of the world put more value on his work.
She watched those long lashes sweep down, the irony in his voice only making him seem more impenetrable, and Sybella could absolutely see why very beautiful, sought-after women would make an attempt at breaching all that male beauty and privilege with the aim of being the one to stick up her flag.
‘I don’t have time to invest in someone else’s life. I date women with a corresponding world view.’
Sybella just kept nodding because she wasn’t sure why he was telling her this.
‘My grandfather doesn’t approve,’ he said dryly.
‘He’s very good with Fleur. I guess he wants great-grandchildren.’
Which was when it all fell neatly into place.
‘Oh, no,’ she said.
‘Exactly. You knew nothing of this?’
‘It simply didn’t occur to me.’
‘You do fit the criteria,’ he said, with a slight smile that had Sybella’s head snapping around in astonishment. ‘He told me you would cook, clean and be a wonderful mother to our children,’ he added.
But not Nik’s criteria. Beautiful and not looking for—what did he call it—an investment? Sybella wrinkled her nose. It was a horrible term. The antithesis of an emotion.
He was talking about his grandfather’s criteria.
Which she guessed were somewhat less exacting. To do with being a mum and a homebody. What would he say if she told him she’d never planned to take on any of this, it was life in its infinite surprises that had laid down those roles for her?
That she still, deep down, thought of herself as the independent individualist she had always been.
Did he really think she was angling herself at him?
‘I didn’t stand around in the courtyard last night waiting for you because your grandfather put me up to it!’
