Restoring Grace (48 page)

‘
Fine!' said
Allegra, getting to her feet, completely
missing Grace's sarcasm. 'Now,
I must be off.’

Grace followed her to the
door, hardly daring to believe
that she really
was going this time. She had the door open
and was
almost counting the minutes before Allegra would be out of sight when her
sister paused. 'Oh, and did I tell you? They're starting on Monday.'

‘No, you did not tell me!' Grace was furious.
'And you know you didn't!'

‘Sorry, darling. It slipped my mind for a
moment.' Grace took a calming breath. Nothing ever slipped Allegra's mind that
wasn't pushed.

‘You will be able to pay them promptly, won't
you? You've got enough left from your divorce settlement? It's
one of the reasons they're reducing the price: I
told them
they wouldn't have to wait for their money.’

Allegra's expression hardened very slightly and
Grace realised she was waiting for her to say that she couldn't pay. Then
Allegra would offer to lend her the money and
have
the hold over her she craved. Grace just nodded,
not wishing to lie out
loud.

‘And just one more little thing: you've all got
to move
out while they do it. Won't be a
problem, will it? Demeter
and that other girl have presumably got homes
to go to. And you could stay with someone locally, couldn't you?’

Grace stared at her
sister for a few moments, debating
whether she
should tell Allegra to cancel the whole thing,
but then
decided it wasn't worth the row. 'I think you'd
better just go, Allegra, before you say something that
really makes me lose my temper! And in future,'
she called
from the front door, as
Allegra got into her car, 'could
you ask your precious dry-rot people to
communicate with me directly?’

Allegra waggled a hand out
of her car window, and
shot off, spraying stones into the
air as she went.

Ellie appeared at the
foot of the stairs before Grace had
got the door shut.

‘Well?' she said.

‘
Do you want the good news, or the bad news?’

‘The bad
news.’

.'The dry-rot people are coming on Monday.'

‘Oh. What's the good news?'

‘
They're
knocking five thousand pounds off the price
if they can use me for a
testimonial. Which means' - she smiled brightly and artificially - 'we only
have to find twenty-five thousand pounds by the week after next!'

‘You don't have to pay before they've done the
work, surely?'

‘No, but it's only going to be a few days,
isn't it? Not long enough to earn any money!'

‘Oh, I don't know,' said Ellie. 'We're a couple
of fit-
looking girls, we could go up West
and see what we could
pick up.’

Grace smiled in spite of herself. As always,
they gravitated to the kitchen. 'And we've got to move out while they do it!'
she managed eventually. 'Would you fucking believe it!'

‘
Grace,' said Ellie, impressed. 'You swore!’

Chapter Nineteen
Flynn found Grace later that afternoon at the
far end of
the garden, pulling at dead
brambles with the fierce deter
mination
of one intent on demolishing Sleeping Beauty's
magic forest armed only
with a pair of blunt secateurs. She was wearing gardening gloves, a thick coat
and enough undergrowth to support a small bird's nest. 'I tried to phone you,
but I couldn't get an answer.'

‘
Sorry. I just had to get out of the house for a bit.'

‘Aren't you cold out here? And it's nearly
dark.'

‘I know. And yes, I am cold, but I don't care.'

‘Darling! What's wrong?'

‘
Nothing.' Grace felt
herself blush at his endearment
and tugged at a particularly stubborn bramble. She tore her gardening
glove and then her palm. 'Oh, shit,' she muttered, aware that she was very near
tears, and not wanting Flynn to precipitate them.

‘Are you
hurt?' He moved forward to look, but she snatched her hand away. She was going
to keep herself together if it meant she bled to death.

‘
I'm fine! No need to fuss!'

‘
Then let's go in. I want
to talk, and unlike you, I'm
not dressed for the Arctic. We can light a fire
and I'll make
you tea.'

‘I've drunk
so much tea I'm awash with it,' Grace grumbled.

‘
I'll find something stronger then. Demi's up, and
Ellie's
making her scrambled eggs.’

Her hand was hurting, and her nose was
beginning to
run. The thought of a fire,
friendly people and alcohol
was very tempting.

‘They sent me out to get you in.'

‘OK.' Being near him made Grace feel calmer,
and she
was proud of herself for not
flinging herself into his arms
when he first asked her what was wrong.
If she could
keep her troubles off the
agenda, she'd be fine. What she
didn't want was for him to get her to
tell him her troubles, because he would feel obliged to invite them all to stay
at his house. After all, it was enormous and practically empty, it would be the
logical thing to do - and she didn't want that either. Not because staying with
him
would be particularly unpleasant, but
because she didn't
want him thinking he had to look after her just
because
they'd slept together. She had
fought very hard to become
independent after Edward left. She didn't
want to lose what had been so hard won in the first five minutes of a new
relationship.

‘So why were you gardening on a cold winter's
night?' he asked conversationally as they walked in together.

‘Well, these things pile up if you don't get
round to them.'

‘Most people do these things in daylight.’

She allowed her mouth to
twitch. It
was
a strange time
of day
to be pulling up brambles. 'I've been busy. This was my only opportunity.’

He smiled back. 'Right. But Demi's obviously
fine now.'

‘Yes, thank goodness. Did they tell you her
mother
turned up? She'd had a call from
Rick, too. I didn't mean
to lie to
her, but when the time came I found I just couldn't
drop Demi in it. It
was probably terribly irresponsible.'

‘I don't think anyone could accuse you of being
that, Grace.' He paused and looked down at her, flicking her
nose with his finger. 'A little odd in some ways,
possibly,
but not irresponsible.'

‘What do you mean?' she said indignantly. 'I'm
not remotely odd!'

‘
It may be news to you, but usually when people
have ;pent a very pleasant night in bed together, they're a bit
more friendly when they see each other again. Of
course, t
hings may be different in England.’

Grace stopped and turned
to him, overcome with r
emorse. 'Oh, Flynn, I'm sorry! Was I
being unfriendly?’

‘A little chilly. What's the problem?’

Having
walked a little way in his strong, comforting presence, and feeling soothed by
it, Grace was able to
make herself sound
unconcerned. 'Oh, nothing much. Did
Ellie
and Dem tell you that my sister arrived at the same
time as Demi's
mother?'

‘
I think they did.'

‘Well, she always manages to rattle me. That's
all.'

‘Are you sure? She didn't bring you bad news?’

For a moment she considered denying it, but decided
it wouldn't work. 'Just boring stuff
about the dry rot. They're coming to do it on Monday, and you know how tiresome
it is having people in the house.’

He regarded
her intently. 'I do indeed. And I also know that they probably want you out of
the house while they do it.’

`Do you? How do you know that, then?'

‘
I had a house once which
was quite badly affected. It's
easier for them if they can just take all the
plaster off and
get on
with it.'

‘
Hmm.' Grace opened the
little gate which led to the
path to the back door.

‘
So would you
all like to come and stay with me? I've
got plenty of room.'

‘Oh no! There's no need for that! In fact, I'm
not at all sure it's necessary for us to move out at all!’

He paused, stopping her
with a hand on his arm. 'Grace,
what's the matter? Why aren't you
telling me anything?
Why are you being so
stubborn? Was it something I did?
Or are you just regretting going to
bed with me?’

In many ways she was. Life would have been simpler
if she hadn't. She could have
happily gone to stay with him, accepting the help of a neighbour. Making love
to him had made things different: more complicated. She
moved to go into the house, to avoid his question, but he wouldn't let
her. Instead he stood in front of her and took
her face in his hands.
'Well?’

Grace looked up at him, into his kind brown eyes with
the curly eyelashes. She let her
gaze slide over his firm, curved mouth and strong chin, and wondered why she
hadn't realised how attractive he was when they
first met.
'I loved making love to you,' she said, 'I loved everything
we did together. But life has suddenly become rather
complicated.'

‘
It's been
complicated ever since we met,' he said dryly.
'What's different?’

She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want his
sympathy, she
didn't want him to sweep her into his arms
and hold her while she sobbed out her troubles.

‘
Come on, Grace.' He
gave her a little shake. 'Spit it
out.'

‘
It's nothing. Just a money thing.'

‘
And you can't tell me? Grace, my darling, after what
we've been through together with Demi, and then after- wards, surely you
could tell me if it was "just a money thing"?'

‘No! I couldn't! Don't you see? If we were just
friends, perhaps I could have told you, although I probably wouldn't have. But
now . .

‘But now?' he prompted when she didn't speak
for several seconds.

‘
Now you'll feel obliged to
help me, and I don't want
to be helped! I want to sort things out for myself. I was too
^d
ependent
on Edward, and it was so hard getting
myself back
together again after he left. I feel as if I've climbed a long, high hill, and
I'm teetering at the top. If I'm not careful, I'll fall back all the way I've
come.'

‘Carrying on your analogy to its logical
conclusion, if you take a step forward, you'll fall down just as far. It's
going to be uncomfortable, teetering on that
peak, unable
to move. Standing first
on one foot, and then on the other.’

She smiled at him. 'It does sound rather
precarious.'

‘
And lonely.’

She sighed very deeply. 'But I'm used to that.'

‘
There's no
need for you to be used to it now. You've
got Ellie, and Demi and—' He
paused only for the tiniest second. 'Me.'

‘I know. But none of you are really mine. I
mean, Ellie
won't live here for ever. Demi
will probably go back home
eventually, and if not, she'll go to
university—'

‘
And me? I
know we haven't known each other that
long,
but surely you don't need to assume that I'm going
to wander off
sometime in the future?'

‘Don't I?' Grace was angry now. 'You said it
yourself, we hardly know each other. I have no idea what you're likely to do! I
certainly shouldn't have slept with you!'

‘I thought you said you loved it!'