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She stared at him. ‘Animals?’
‘You don’t know about them?’
She shook her head. ‘It’s news to me.’ She frowned. ‘You’re right. Perhaps you’d better come in and explain things to me.’
They went into the house, and Saffi walked slowly along the hallway, waiting in vain for more memories to come back to her. Matt showed her into the kitchen and she looked around, pleased with the homely yet modern look of the room. The units were cream coloured and there were open shelves and glass-fronted cabinets on the walls. A smart black cooker was fitted into the newly painted fireplace recess, and an oak table stood in the centre of the room.
‘I bought some food for you and stocked the refrigerator when I heard you were coming over here,’ Matt said. ‘Your solicitor said you might need time to settle in before you started to get organised.’
She smiled. ‘Thanks. That was thoughtful of you.’ She checked the fridge and some of the cupboards and chuckled. ‘This is better stocked than my kitchen back in Hampshire. We were always running out of stuff over there these last few months. I had to write notes to remind myself to shop, because my flatmate was worse than me at organisation.’
‘I can see I’ll need to keep an eye on you,’ he murmured. ‘We can’t have you wasting away.’ His glance ran over her and a flush of heat swept along her cheekbones. She was wearing jeans that moulded themselves to her hips and a camisole top that outlined her feminine curves, and she suddenly felt self-conscious under that scorching gaze.
‘I…uh…I’ll show you the rest of the house if you like,’ he said, walking towards a door at the side of the room. ‘Unless it’s all coming back to you?’
She shook her head. ‘It isn’t, I’m afraid.’ She followed him into the dining room, where the furniture followed the design of the kitchen. There was a cream wood Welsh dresser displaying patterned plates, cups and saucers, and a matching table and upholstered chairs.
‘The sitting room’s through here,’ Matt said, leading the way into a sunlit room where wide patio doors led on to a paved terrace.
She glanced around. It was a lovely room, with accents of warm colour and a sofa that looked soft and comfortable.
‘I think you’ll find it’s cosy of an evening with the log-burning stove,’ he murmured.
‘Yes.’ She had a fleeting image of a woman adding logs to the stove, and a lump formed in her throat.
‘Are you okay?’
She nodded. ‘I guess I’ll need a plentiful supply of wood, then,’ she said, getting a grip on herself. ‘Where did my aunt get her logs from, do you know?’
‘There’s a copse on the land—your land. It should supply plenty of fuel for some time to come, but your aunt did a lot of replanting. Anyway, I’ve filled up the log store for you, so you won’t need to worry about that for quite a while.’
‘It sounds as though I owe you an awful lot,’ she said with a frown. ‘What with the groceries, the wood and…you mentioned there were animals. I don’t think I’ve ever had any experience looking after pets—none that I recall, anyway.’ Yet no dog or cat had come running to greet them when they’d first entered the house. It was very puzzling.
‘Ah…yes. We’ll do a quick tour upstairs and then I’ll take you to see them.’
There were two bedrooms upstairs, one with an en suite bathroom, and along the corridor was the main bathroom. Saffi couldn’t quite work out the layout up here. There were fewer rooms than she’d expected, as though something was missing, but perhaps her senses were off somehow.
‘Okay, shall we go and solve the mystery of these pets?’ she murmured. Maybe her aunt had a small aviary outside. She’d heard quite a bit of birdsong when they’d arrived, but there were a good many trees around the house that would have accounted for that.
They went outside to the garden, and Saffi caught her breath as she looked out at the extent of her property. It wasn’t just a garden, there was also a paddock and a stable block nearby.
‘Oh, no. Tell me it’s not horses,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t know anything about looking after them.’
‘Just a couple.’ He saw her look of dismay and relented. ‘No, actually, Annie mainly used the stable block as a store for the fruit harvest.’
She breathed a small sigh of relief.
Fruit harvest, he’d said. Saffi made a mental note of that. On the south side of the garden she’d noticed an archway in a stone wall, and something flickered in her faulty memory banks. Could it be a walled garden? From somewhere in the depths of her mind she recalled images of fruit trees and glasshouses with grapes, melons and peaches.
They walked by the stable block and came to a fenced-off area that contained a hen hut complete with a large covered wire run. Half a dozen hens wandered about in there , pecking the ground for morsels of food.
‘Oh, my…’ Saffi’s eyes widened. ‘Was there anything else my aunt was into? Anything I should know about? I mean, should I ever want to go back to medicine, I don’t know how I’ll find the time to fit it in, what with fruit picking, egg gathering and keeping track of this huge garden.’
He laughed. ‘She was quite keen on beekeeping. There are three hives in the walled garden.’
Saffi rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe I should turn around right now and head back for Hampshire.’
‘I don’t think so. I hope you won’t do that.’ He gave her a long look. ‘I don’t see you as a quitter. Anyway, it’s not that difficult. I’ll show you. Let’s go and make a start with the hens.’
He led the way to the coop. ‘I let them out in the morning,’ he explained. ‘They have food pellets in feeders, as well as water, but in the afternoon or early evening, whenever I finish work, I give them a mix of corn and split peas. There’s some oyster shell and grit mixed in with it, so it’s really good for them.’ He went over to a wooden store shed and brought out a bucket filled with corn. ‘Do you want to sprinkle some on the ground for them?’
‘Uh…okay.’ This had all come as a bit of a jolt to her. Instead of the peace and quiet she’d been expecting, the chance to relax and get herself back together again after the trauma of the last few months, it was beginning to look as though her days would be filled with stuff she’d never done before.
She went into the covered run, leaving Matt to shut the door and prevent any attempted escapes. An immediate silence fell as the birds took in her presence.
‘Here you go,’ she said, scattering the corn around her, and within seconds she found herself surrounded by hens. Some even clambered over her feet to get to the grain. Gingerly, she took a step forward, but they ignored her and simply went on eating. She shot Matt a quick look of consternation and he grinned.
‘Problem?’ he asked, and she pulled a face.
‘What do I do now?’
He walked towards her and grasped her hand. ‘You just have to force your way through. Remember, you’re the one in charge here, not the hens.’
‘Hmm, if you say so.’
He was smiling as he pulled her out of the run and shut the door behind them. ‘They need to be back into the coop by nightfall. As long as their routine isn’t disturbed, things should go smoothly enough. They’re laying very well at the moment, so you’ll have a good supply of eggs.’
‘Oh, well, that’s a plus, I suppose.’
He sent her an amused glance. ‘That’s good. At least you’re beginning to look on the positive side.’
She gritted her teeth but stayed silent. Now he was patronising her. Her head was starting to ache, a throbbing beat pounding at her temples.
‘And the beehives?’ she asked. ‘What’s to be done with them?’
‘Not much, at this time of year. You just keep an eye on them to make sure everything’s all right and let them get on with making honey. Harvesting is done round about the end of August, beginning of September.’
‘You make it sound so easy. I guess I’ll have to find myself a book on beekeeping.’
‘I think Annie had several of those around the place.’
They made their way back to the house, and Saffi said quietly, ‘I should thank you for everything you’ve done here since my aunt died. I’d no idea the caretaking was so involved. You’ve managed to keep this place going, and I’m very grateful to you for that.’
‘Well, I suppose I had a vested interest.’ She frowned. ‘You did?’
He nodded. ‘Your aunt made me a beneficiary of her will. Didn’t your solicitor tell you about it?’
She stared at him. ‘No. At least, I don’t think so.’ She searched her mind for details of her conversations with the solicitor. There had been several over the last few weeks, and maybe he’d mentioned something about another beneficiary. She’d assumed he meant there was a small bequest to a friend or neighbour.
The throbbing in her temple was clouding her thinking. ‘He said he didn’t want to bother me with all the details because of my problems since the accident.’
He looked at her quizzically and she added briefly, ‘Headaches and so on. I had a short attention span for a while, and I can be a bit forgetful at times…but I’m much better now. I feel as though I’m on the mend.’
‘I’m sure you are. You seem fairly clear-headed to me.’
‘I’m glad you think so.’ She studied him. ‘So, what exactly did you inherit…a sum of money, a share in the proceeds from the livestock…the tools in the garden store?’ She said it in a light-hearted manner, but it puzzled her as to what her aunt could have left him.
‘Uh…it was a bit more than that, actually.’ He looked a trifle uneasy, and perhaps that was because he’d assumed she’d known all about it in advance. But then he seemed to throw off any doubts he might have had and said briskly, ‘Come on, I’ll show you.’
He went to the end extension of the property and unlocked a separate front door, standing back and waving her inside.
Saffi stared about her in a daze. ‘But this is…I didn’t notice this before…’ She was completely taken aback by this new discovery. She was standing in a beautifully furnished living room, and through an archway she glimpsed what looked like a kitchen-diner, fitted out with golden oak units.
‘Originally, the house was one large, complete family home, but your aunt had some alterations made,’ he said. ‘There’s a connecting door to your part of the house and another upstairs. They’re locked, so we’ll be completely separate—you’ll have a key amongst those I gave you.’
She looked at the connecting door, set unobtrusively into an alcove in the living room.
‘I’ll show you the rest of the house,’ he said, indicating an open staircase in the corner of the room.
She followed him up the stairs, her mind reeling under this new, stunning revelation. No wonder she’d thought there was something missing from the upper floor when he’d taken her to look around. The missing portion was right here, in the form of a good-sized bedroom and bathroom.
‘You’re very quiet,’ he murmured.
‘I’m trying to work out how this came about,’ she said in a soft voice. ‘You’re telling me that my aunt left this part of the house to you?’
‘She did. I’d no idea that she had written it into her will or that she planned to do it. She didn’t mention it to me. Does it bother you?’
‘I think it does, yes.’
It wasn’t that she wanted it for herself. Heaven forbid, she hadn’t even remembered this house existed until her solicitor had brought it to her attention. But her aunt couldn’t have known this man very long—by his own account he’d only been in the area for a few months. And yet she’d left him a sizeable property. How had that come about?
All at once she needed to be on her own so that she could think things through. ‘I should go,’ she said. ‘I think I need time to take this in. But…thanks for showing me around.’
‘You’re welcome.’ He went with her down the stairs. ‘Any time you need me, Saffi, I’ll be here.’
She nodded. That was certainly true. His presence gave a new meaning to the words ‘next-door neighbour’.
She’d come here expecting to find herself in a rural hideout, well away from anyone and anything, so that she might finally recuperate from the devastating head injury that had left her without any knowledge of family or friends. And none of it was turning out as she’d hoped.
Matt had seemed such a charming, likeable man, but wasn’t that the way of all confidence tricksters? How could she know what to think?
Her instincts had been all over the place since the accident, and perhaps she was letting that trauma sour her judgement. Ever since she’d woken up in hospital she’d had the niggling suspicion that all was not as it seemed as far as her fall was concerned.
She’d done what she could to put that behind her, but now the question was, could she put her trust in Matt, who seemed so obliging? What could have convinced her aunt to leave him such a substantial inheritance?
CHAPTER TWO
SAFFI FINISHED WEEDING the last of the flower borders in the walled garden and leaned back on her heels to survey her handiwork. It was a beautiful garden, filled with colour and sweet scents, just perfect for the bees that flew from flower to flower, gathering nectar and pollen. Against the wall, the pale pink of the hollyhocks was a lovely contrast to the deep rose colour of the flamboyant peonies. Close by, tall delphiniums matched the deep blue of the sky.
‘You’ve been keeping busy, from the looks of things,’ Matt commented, startling her as he appeared in the archway that separated this part of the garden from the larger, more general area. ‘You’ve done a good job here.’
She lifted her head to look at him, causing her loosely pinned curls to quiver with the movement. He started to walk towards her, and straight away her pulse went into overdrive and her heart skipped a beat. He was overwhelmingly masculine, with a perfect physique, his long legs encased in blue jeans while his muscular chest and arms were emphasised by the dark T-shirt he was wearing.
‘Thanks.’ She viewed him cautiously. She hadn’t seen much of him this last week, and perhaps that was just as well, given her concerns about him. In fact, she’d wondered if he’d deliberately stayed away from her, giving her room to sort herself out. Though, of course, he must have been out at work for a good deal of the time.
It was hard to know what to think of him. He’d said they’d known one another before this, and she wanted to trust him, but the circumstances of his inheritance had left her thoroughly confused and made her want to tread carefully where he was concerned. What could have led her aunt to leave the house to be shared by two people? It was very odd.
To give Matt his due, though, he’d kept this place going after Aunt Annie’s death—he’d had the leaky barn roof fixed, her closest neighbours told her, and he’d made sure the lawns were trimmed regularly. He’d taken good care of the hens, too, and she ought to be grateful to him for all that.
‘I see you’ve made a start on picking the fruit.’ He looked at the peach tree, trained in a fan shape across the south wall where it received the most sunshine. Nearby there were raspberry canes, alongside blackberry and redcurrant bushes.
She gave a wry smile. ‘Yes…I only had to touch the peaches and they came away from the branches, so I guessed it was time to gather them in. And I had to pick the raspberries before the birds made away with the entire crop. Actually, I’ve put some of the fruit to one side for you, back in the kitchen. I was going to bring it over to you later today.’
‘That was good of you. Thanks.’ He smiled, looking at her appreciatively, his glance wandering slowly over her slender yet curvaceous figure, and making the breath catch in her throat. She was wearing light blue denim shorts and a crop top with thin straps that left her arms bare and revealed the pale gold of her midriff. All at once, under that all-seeing gaze, she felt decidedly underdressed. Her face flushed with heat, probably from a combination of the burning rays of the sun and the fact that he was standing beside her, making her conscious of her every move.
She took off her gardening gloves and brushed a stray tendril of honey-blonde hair from her face with the back of her hand. ‘There’s so much produce, I’m not quite sure what my aunt did with it all. I thought I might take some along to the neighbours along the lane.’
‘I’m sure they’ll appreciate that. Annie sold some of it, flowers, too, and eggs, to the local shopkeepers, and there were always bunches of cut flowers on sale by the roadside at the front of the house, along with baskets of fruit. She trusted people to put the money in a box, and apparently they never let her down.’
‘That sounds like a good idea. I’ll have to try it,’ she said, getting to her feet. She was a bit stiff from being in the same position for so long, and he put out a hand to help her up.
‘Thanks.’ His grasp was strong and supportive and that unexpected human contact was strangely comforting. Warm colour brushed her cheeks once more as his gaze travelled fleetingly over her long, shapely legs.
‘You could do with a gardener’s knee pad—one of those covered foam things…’
‘Yes, you’re probably right.’ She frowned. ‘I’m beginning to think that looking after this property and the land and everything that comes with it is going to be a full-time job.’
‘It is, especially at this time of year,’ he agreed. ‘But maybe you could get someone in to help out if it becomes too much for you to handle. Funds permitting, of course.’
She nodded, going over to one of the redwood garden chairs and sitting down. ‘I suppose, sooner or later, I’ll have to make up my mind what I’m going to do.’
She waved him to the seat close by. A small table connected the two chairs, and on it she had laid out a glass jug filled with iced apple juice. She lifted the cover that was draped over it to protect the contents from the sunshine. ‘Would you like a cold drink?’
‘That’d be great, thanks.’ He came to sit beside her and she brought out a second glass from the cupboard beneath the table.
She filled both glasses, passing one to him before she drank thirstily from hers. ‘It’s lovely out here, so serene, but it’s really hot today. Great if you’re relaxing but not so good when you’re working.’ She lifted the glass, pressing it against her forehead to savour the coolness.
‘How are you coping, generally?’
‘All right, I think. I came here to rest and recuperate but the way things turned out it’s been good for me to keep busy. I’ve been exploring the village and the seaside in between looking after this place. The only thing I’ve left completely alone is anything to do with the beehives. I think I’m supposed to have equipment of some sort, aren’t I, before I go near them?’
‘There are a couple of outfits in the stable block. I can show you how to go on with them, whenever you’re ready.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks. I’ll take you up on that. I’m just not quite ready to tackle beekeeping on my own.’ She drank more juice and studied him musingly. Despite her reservations about him, this was one area where she’d better let him guide her. ‘Did you help my aunt with the hives?’
‘I did, from time to time. She needed some repairs done to the stands and while I was doing that she told me all about looking after them. She said she talked to the bees, told them what was happening in her life—I don’t think she was serious about that, but she seemed to find it calming and it helped to clear her thoughts.’
‘Hmm. Perhaps I should try it. Maybe it will help me get my mind back together.’
‘How’s that going?’
She pulled a face. ‘I recall bits and pieces every now and again. Especially when I’m in the house or out here, in the garden…not so much in the village and round about. I was told Aunt Annie brought me up after my parents died, and I know…I feel inside…that she loved me as if I was her own daughter.’
Her voice faltered. ‘I…I miss her. I keep seeing her as a lively, wonderful old lady, but she was frail towards the end, wasn’t she? That’s what the solicitor said…that she had a heart attack, but I don’t remember any of that.’
‘Perhaps your mind is blocking it out.’
‘Yes, that might be it. Even so, I feel as though I’m grieving inside, even though I can’t remember everything.’ She was troubled. Wouldn’t Matt have been here when she had come back to see her aunt, and again at the time of the funeral? Everyone told her she’d done that, that she’d visited regularly, yet she had no memory of it, or of him.
She straightened her shoulders, glancing at him. ‘Anyway, I’m glad I came back to this house. I was in two minds about it at first, but somehow I feel at peace here, as though this is where I belong.’
‘I’m glad about that. Annie would have been pleased.’
‘Yes, I think she would.’ She studied him thoughtfully. ‘It sounds as though you knew her well—even though you had only been back here for a short time.’
She hesitated for a moment and then decided to say what was on her mind. ‘How was it that you came to be living here?’ She wasn’t sure what she expected him to say. He would hardly admit to wheedling his way into an elderly lady’s confidence, would he?
He lifted his glass and took a long swallow of the cold liquid. Saffi watched him, mesmerised by the movement of his sun-bronzed throat, and by the way his strong fingers gripped the glass.
He placed it back on the table a moment later. ‘I’d started a new job in the area and I was looking for a place to live. Accommodation was in short supply, it being the height of the holiday season, but I managed to find a flat near the hospital. It was a bit basic, though, and after a while I began to hanker for a few home comforts…’
‘Oh? Such as…?’ She raised a quizzical brow and he grinned.
‘Hot and cold running water, for a start, and some means of preparing food. There was a gas ring, but it took forever to heat a pan of beans. And as to the plumbing—I was lucky if it worked at all. It was okay taking cold baths in the summer, but come wintertime it was bracing, to say the least. I spoke to the landlord about it, but he kept making excuses and delaying—he obviously didn’t want to spend money on getting things fixed.’
‘So my aunt invited you stay here?’
He nodded. ‘I’d been helping her out by doing repairs about the place, and one day she suggested that I move into the annexe.’
‘That must have been a relief to you.’
He smiled. ‘Yes, it was. Best of all was the homecooked food—I wasn’t expecting that, but she used to bring me pot roasts or invite me round to her part of the house for dinner of an evening. I think she liked to have company.’
‘Yes, that was probably it.’ Her mouth softened at the image of her aunt befriending this young doctor. ‘I suppose the hot and cold running water goes without saying?’
‘That, too.’
She sighed. ‘I wish I could say the same about mine. I would have loved to take a shower after doing all that weeding, but something seems to have gone wrong with it. I tried to get hold of a plumber, but apparently they’re all too busy to come out and look at it. Three weeks is the earliest date I could get.’
He frowned. ‘Have you any idea why it stopped working? Perhaps it’s something simple, like the shower head being blocked with calcium deposits?’
‘It isn’t that. I checked. I’ve a horrible feeling it’s to do with the electronics—I suppose in the end I’ll have to buy a new shower.’ Her mouth turned down a fraction.
‘Would you like me to have a look at it? You never know, between the two of us, we might be able to sort it out, or at least find out what’s gone wrong.’
‘Are you sure you wouldn’t mind doing that?’ She felt a small ripple of relief flow through her. He might not know much at all about plumbing, but just to have a second opinion would be good.
‘I’d be glad to. Shall we go over to the house now, if you’ve finished what you were doing out here?’
‘Okay.’ They left the walled garden, passing through the stone archway, and then followed the path to the main house. Out in the open air, the hens clucked and foraged in the run amongst the patches of grass and gravel for grain and food pellets, and ignored them completely.