A Perfect Proposal (38 page)

‘I’d better go and see what’s going on,’ said Luke, and strode off towards the front of the house, obviously looking for the builder.

‘We are – well, I am; I can’t speak for Luke, of course – a little disappointed in you.’

‘Why?’ asked Moira, when she realised Sophie couldn’t ask for herself.

‘Because she seemed such a nice girl! Mat—Luke’s grandmother was so fond of her. She helped Luke out with a tricky problem at home.’

‘Did I?’ For a moment Sophie couldn’t think what Ali was talking about.

‘Of course you did!’ Ali was softening at the memory. ‘Pretending to be Luke’s fiancée? I’d have done it myself only there’s an anti-fraternisation policy and it could have got me into trouble at work. But it was never real, you did know that.’ She frowned again. ‘So it is sad to see you’re obviously not the girl we thought you were.’

‘I don’t understand what you’re talking about.’ Sophie felt she was a long way away from the walled garden at the house – either that or she was speaking from behind a screen, observing rather than being actually present. She was quite surprised her voice was audible.

‘Oh, Sophie!’ Ali was magnanimous now. ‘We know you’re very fond of Luke’s grandmother but is it really kind or sensible to encourage an old woman in her delusions?’

‘Matilda doesn’t suffer from delusions.’

‘She’s an old woman.’ Sophie knew Ali wouldn’t have been talking about Matilda like that if Luke had been present. ‘What does she want with a house so far away from her home that obviously needs a great deal of money spending on it?’

‘It’s not for me to say,’ said Sophie, annoyance at the way Ali was talking about Matilda giving her some backbone.

‘But when you knew she was thinking of buying it, instead of telling her exactly what it is like – a complete wreck – you got a builder in! And how do you know he’s not going to rip Mat—Mrs Winchester off?’

‘We didn’t know she was definitely thinking of buying it, and he’s only here to have a look round – to give a rough
estimate on how much the house needs spending on it,’ said Moira, chipping in on behalf of her friend. ‘He came as a favour to me!’

Ali regarded Moira and recognised a worthy opponent. ‘Well, I’m sure you meant well but you may not fully comprehend the situation. Sophie had no authority to instigate anything like this.’

‘Sophie didn’t instigate anything. It was my idea to get my builder friend in,’ said Moira. Her hands were now on her hips.

‘Well, it’s just as well we arrived in time to stop things before they went too far!’ Ali wasn’t remotely intimidated by Moira’s somewhat aggressive stance.

‘What I don’t understand,’ said Sophie, ‘is what any of this has to do with you, Ali? If Matilda wants to buy this house and do it up, for whatever reason, why do you care?’

Just for a moment Ali seemed put out but then she made a little fluttery gesture and became suddenly coy. ‘I care about what Luke cares about, naturally. He and I—’

‘I wasn’t aware there was a “he and I” between you,’ said Sophie quietly.

‘Didn’t you? Well, there was no reason Luke should tell you.’ Ali was back on track now. ‘You do have a boyfriend, Sophie, and Luke and I go way back.’

‘I have a boyfriend?’

Ali nodded. ‘I – we saw the message on your phone. It was hardly prying, you and Luke were sharing it.’ She did have the grace to look embarrassed.

‘You looked at my phone? You opened a text message?’ Sophie was outraged, but she was beginning to understand. The last message she’d received on her phone had been that drunken text from her ex-boyfriend Doug. If she hadn’t been obsessively checking for messages for Luke she would have forgotten all about it by now.

‘As I said, you and Luke
were
sharing the phone.’

‘I didn’t realise that meant I was sharing it with you too!’

Ali sighed and shook her head as if tired of arguing with an unreasonable teenager. ‘Oh, don’t be childish, Sophie! It’s no big deal.’

Sophie was trying to decide if Ali and Luke seeing that text really made any difference when Luke reappeared.

‘Tell me, Sophie, what exactly have you been telling my grandmother?’

For a second Sophie pictured him in court, demanding answers from a hostile witness, and then felt maybe she was mixing up lawyers with barristers. She didn’t appreciate his tone though. ‘I told her it belonged to an old lady who was about to die.’

‘I know that part,’ he said. ‘What did you tell her about the house?’

‘We sent photographs,’ said Sophie. ‘And of course we sent the best ones, that made the house look nice, but that was because I didn’t want to make her sad to think how badly the house she’d loved had deteriorated.’ She’d picked up the long-word habit from somewhere, it seemed, and she was glad. It made her feel less like a victim of playground bullying. ‘We weren’t trying to pretend the house was fit to live in or anything.’

‘Well, she got the impression that a lick of paint and a few roof tiles would do the job,’ said Luke. ‘She also gave me the impression she had authorised you to act on her behalf.’

Sophie frowned. ‘But even if I had the money in used, non-sequential notes, it takes longer than a few hours to buy a house in England. I don’t know how it happens in America. How could you possibly think I could act for her?’

‘You could get things so far along the way it would be hard for her to back out,’ said Luke. ‘This is a big project; you
should have made it clear to her it would only ever be a dream.’

‘But why should it only be a dream? Why are you so against her buying the house?’ She hoped he would remember how they’d talked about it when they first saw it.

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ broke in Ali. ‘It would be crazy to buy a house in England! What would she do with it? She lives thousands of miles away! It would be a millstone round her neck.’

‘That’s her decision, surely?’ said Sophie. ‘She knows how far away it is.’

‘Ali’s right,’ said Luke. ‘It’s just a dream, totally impractical. You shouldn’t have encouraged her.’

‘I didn’t! I really didn’t! I love Matilda and would never do anything to hurt her. Now if you don’t mind I’ve got things to do.’

‘What things?’ demanded Luke.

‘Just things!’ She needed to get away. In a minute she’d think of a reasonable excuse.

‘Sophie, wait!’

She knew she should have just kept on walking but she stopped.

‘How did you get on with those relatives? The drilling rights?’

Sophie shook her head and bit her lip.

‘They said no,’ said Moira. ‘Turned her down flat.’

‘Then I’ll go and visit them with you,’ said Luke. ‘I might be able to help.’ He was so polite, so businesslike it hurt.

‘Are you talking about the drilling rights you had a conference call about yesterday?’ asked Ali, cutting in. ‘Yes,’ she said to Sophie, ‘it’s important to get them sorted.’ She managed to make Sophie feel it was all her fault they hadn’t been dealt with years ago. ‘We’ll all go.’

Unless she could locate a cliff and could thus drive them all
off it, Sophie was not having this. She was not going to be cooped up in a small hire car with Luke and Ali.

‘I’d have to ring first,’ she said. ‘Going on spec will just annoy them. They lead very structured lives.’

‘Do that,’ said Luke. ‘I’m not happy with the way you’ve dealt with the house, but I have a duty to make sure those drilling rights get sorted.’

Sophie sent Moira a pleading look that said, please wave a magic wand and stop this happening!

Moira rose to the challenge. ‘Um, are you sure you’ve got time for this?’ she said to Ali and Luke. ‘You probably have other things to do.’

‘It’s fine,’ snapped Luke. ‘We’re not going back until tomorrow.’

‘But have you arranged somewhere to stay? In the off season it’s not always easy—’

‘Oh, we found a darling little hotel near Newquay,’ said Ali. ‘I booked it online.’

Sophie bit her lip hard, her pang of jealousy needing a strong counter-irritant. She didn’t want to know if they’d only booked one room but would have dearly loved to hear they’d booked two.

‘Oh, that’s OK then,’ said Moira, her attempt to save Sophie having failed. ‘And you’ll eat there?’

‘Of course,’ said Ali. ‘We have a table booked.’

Seeing there was no escape Sophie capitulated. ‘I’ll ring them.’ After all, if Luke was able to talk them round she’d be able to go back home with something positive to say about her life. In fact, it was a very big positive.

‘Come in the car with us,’ ordered Ali. ‘Then you can guide us back to where you’re staying. Perhaps you’ – she looked enquiringly, and commandingly, at Moira – ‘would take Sophie’s car back?’ She waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the parked hire car.

Moira glanced from Ali to Sophie and nodded. She obviously couldn’t think of a good reason why not. ‘I’ll just tell my friend that we’re leaving,’ she said, and disappeared round to the front of the house.

Ali watched her go. ‘Is that woman your landlady? She seems cool, if a little eccentric. But then she’s English, so that would explain it.’

‘She might describe herself as Cornish,’ said Sophie, not knowing if Moira was a native Cornishwoman or had just become one because she lived there. She just wanted to contradict Ali if she possibly could. And who was Ali to describe Moira as ‘eccentric’? Moira seemed perfectly normal to her.

As she couldn’t find a reasonable excuse not to travel with Luke and Ali, Sophie folded herself into the back of their hire car. Why had Luke hired such a basic model? Surely he could have afforded one with four doors? Although to be fair – Sophie found, to her chagrin, where Luke was concerned she found it all too easy to be fair – he probably hadn’t thought he’d have passengers.

They all arrived at Moira’s house at much the same time. ‘Did you two have lunch?’ Moira asked before Sophie had finished extracting herself from the car, which took a certain amount of flexibility. ‘Maybe Sophie could …’

Sophie guessed that Moira was feeling guilty about abandoning her and was now having another go at extracting her from Luke and Ali’s clutches.

‘We’re fine,’ said Ali. ‘I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.’

‘We ate when we arrived, thank you,’ said Luke. ‘Moira is a wonderful cook,’ he added to Ali.

‘I’m sure she is,’ said Ali with a smile warmed to perfection. ‘Now, Sophie, honey, if you would just ring your people, then we can get on.’

As Sophie found the number and pressed ‘call’ she wondered if she should warn Luke and Ali about the smell of boiling giblets.

Sophie would have preferred not to eavesdrop while Ali talked to the Littlejohns. She was sure to hear something to her own detriment and her self-esteem was low enough; it didn’t need any more hammering into the ground. But Ali grabbed hold of her arm. ‘In case I can’t understand their accents,’ she said. ‘I might need you to interpret.’

Ali didn’t give Sophie a chance to explain that her relations spoke with a pretty standard English accent and not the rich and rolling Cornish burr Sophie had come to love.

‘Hello? Am I speaking with Mr Littlejohn? Good afternoon. You don’t know me, but I’m speaking on behalf of Winchester, Ambrose and Partners. We’re dealing with the drilling rights Sophie Apperly came to see you about this morning?’

Sophie could imagine if not actually hear the harrumphings and grumblings that were going on at the other end.

‘Mr Littlejohn, I do understand how you and you wife must feel about this but I don’t think matters were explained properly. This is a highly complex issue and if all the details weren’t gone into sufficiently, it’s hardly surprising you weren’t willing to sign.’

She went on in this vein for some length, making Sophie feel as if she’d gone there and talked double Dutch while looking shiftily at the family silver in case there was anything she could pinch. She looked at Luke questioningly. Was Ali
saying the company was acting for her just to make the Littlejohns take notice, or had they really undertaken all that?

Luke had his hands in his pockets and was staring down at his shoes as if he were distancing himself from what was going on. He seemed to have reverted to the distant New York lawyer she had first met, looking down his nose at her with his strange-coloured eyes. It was as if none of the other, wonderful things had ever happened.