‘I thought I loved Niamh, but I guess I couldn’t have.’
‘Why?’ Oo, he was too close.
‘I wouldn’t be here now, would I? Love needs space, my darling, and if you’re too scared to let it breathe, then I guess you don’t believe in it.’
‘Oh.’
‘Niamh had to grasp and hold tight, she didn’t believe. But Rory let you go.’
‘Well, we weren’t really dating properly then, and he didn’t care.’
‘Oh, I’d say he did.’
‘Oh.’ She really must stop this ‘oh’ business. ‘But he doesn’t even notice I’m there half the time. He doesn’t hear half of what I say.’
‘But does he hear the half that matters?’
‘Well…’
His eyes were twinkling. ‘Maybe you should say less?’ The rich, deep laugh stopped any thoughts of irritation dead. ‘So, did you find what you were looking for on your world travels?’
The only thing that came to mind now, when she thought about Spain, was that flaming beach and its army of police.
‘Or was it here all along?’ He patted her thigh, but this time it was more friendly than lustful, which was slightly disappointing. ‘I’d take you away from all this, my gorgeous Lottie, if I thought you’d want to go.’
Was begging on the menu? But he was kidding, just being nice.
‘Tempted by the Black Stuff and the leprechauns, chicken?’
Or maybe not. It would be handy to know if this was harmless flirting, or something else. Somebody should write a book, an idiot’s guide to understanding come-ons.
‘So, where were you off to in such a hurry that you nearly sent me into the hedge? Or is it a secret?’
Lottie wasn’t sure if he’d changed the subject because she was turning a funny shade and he didn’t want her to keel over, or he was bored.
‘I was going to see Uncle Dom and Gran, Dad’s upset at them, and Tiggy says they had a fight years ago, and I don’t understand any of it.’ She paused and dared look at him again. ‘Why does nobody ever tell me anything around here? I don’t feel like I know anything. Even Tiggy knows more about Dad than I do.’
‘Have you wanted to know?’ Mick had been quite pleased to see Lottie, even if he’d rather it had been in different circumstances. She was sexy, fun and he hadn’t adjusted his initial impression that Rory just didn’t deserve her. He’d be more than happy to give her freedom as well as someone to come home to, but something told him that her choice had been made a long time ago. And the choice wasn’t favourable to Irish farriers with wild fancies. ‘Have you ever asked about why old Billy clings on to that place of his like it owns his heart? And why your uncle looks at the man like he wouldn’t throw him a lifebelt if he was drowning?’
‘It’s his home.’ Lottie kicked some more at the clod of earth. ‘And where else would he go? And they’re just so different him and Uncle Dom, I mean Elizabeth is,’ she didn’t want to voice her concerns, that they just weren’t good enough, ‘well I think she wanted Mum to marry someone like she had, someone posh, not just a showjumper. And,’ she paused, ‘she doesn’t like Rory either, it’s the same.’
‘True.’
Lottie watched the horse, quietly munching away, and wondered how Mick did that. They just chilled when he was about. If she’d been on the end of the reins, the horse would have got fed up and wandered off by now.
‘So you were on your way to get some answers?’
‘Well, yes.’ It sounded a bit daft when he said it out loud like that. Exactly what she planned on saying when she got there she wasn’t quite sure.
‘Anyhow, darling, if it’s Dom you’re after talking to, then he’s away today competing.’
‘Oh shit, yeah. I’d forgotten about that.’ She slumped back, the last of her urge to run into battle ebbing away. She didn’t want a fight with Uncle Dom, and definitely not with her gran, who she adored in a very roundabout way. But she needed facts, and she needed to stop Billy pushing the self-destruct button. But however much she thought about it, and now she had had time to think, she couldn’t see that her only living relatives would actually be involved in a plot to take the only home she’d ever known away from her and her father. And, there was, of course, the issue of living at Tipping House. Had that really ever happened?
‘Why don’t you come back to the yard? I think old Rory needs you. He’s expecting a visitor this morning.’
Lottie raised an enquiring eyebrow.
‘Teenage Tabatha, which I do believe you arranged.’
‘Oh hell, he won’t be happy about that.’
‘Isn’t that the truth? Teenage groupies at an event is one thing; on his own doorstep is altogether more frightening.’
‘Maybe I should come back and go and see Uncle Dom later. Oh God, Mick. Why did I ever come back to Tippermere?’ It was a pathetic wail, even to her own ears.
‘There’s a saying my mam used to tell me. “Your feet will bring you back to where your heart is”,’ he patted her knee and pushed away from the car so that he was stood facing her, ‘and with those words of wisdom I’m off to let my horse take me to where the food is.’
‘I’ll race you.’
‘Ha, now is that a good idea, darling?’ But he had gathered his reins and jumped on to the horse before she’d even had a chance to stir herself. Then, with a wicked grin and a wink, he circled the horse and clicking encouragingly swung in front of her car and straight over the hedge.
‘Hey, that’s cheating.’
***
The yard was slightly overcrowded when Lottie eventually turned in and found that there was nowhere to park her car. So she abandoned it in the middle, blocking in the big yellow Jaguar (that car really was a travesty).
‘What took you, treas?’ Mick led his horse past; a horse that he’d had time to untack and hose down by the look of its steaming bay coat.
Lottie went for the mature and sophisticated response and stuck her tongue out.
In front of the block of stables stood the rest of the welcoming committee: a jovial Rory, who she could tell from his stance was actually not jovial at all, but as close to cross as he came; Tabatha, tongue practically hanging out as she looked at him with a mix of awe and teenage lust; Tom, who looked slightly bored but when he spotted her looked relieved and Pip, who was watching it all with a bemused but slightly detached air.
‘Doesn’t anybody do any work around here anymore?’
‘Says the girl who ran off in the middle of mucking out a stable and wasn’t seen for hours.’ Rory had sidled up and put a possessive arm around her shoulders, and Tom’s smile became a bit more fixed. Jealousy wasn’t a normal part of his nature, but for some reason he couldn’t stop lusting after Lottie, along, it seemed, with half the population of Tippermere.
‘We came yesterday.’ Tom gave his best apologetic smile, and hated himself for it. ‘But there was nobody about. We aren’t in the way are we? It’s just Tab seemed to think she had some kind of arrangement with you.’
‘And your dad is still out of it, and Tiggy was flapping about, so I thought I might as well leave them to it and come here.’ Tabby, Lottie noticed, had changed her top since she’d seen her an hour ago at Folly Lake. In fact she’d changed her boots and jodhpurs too. The whole outfit was decidedly more clingy, but she seemed to be swinging between putting it all out there with a thrust of her hips and a pout, and being self-conscious and awkward, twiddling her hair and shuffling her feet.
‘What’s up with Billy?’ Pip perked up, her ears tuned to anything remotely newsworthy.
‘I thought he was dead, I did; he was just laid there, like dead.’
Lottie glared at Tabby, trying to send her a subtle ‘be quiet’ message, but it was too late.
‘Seems to be a bad habit around here, dropping dead unexpectedly.’ Pip could just see her day improving in leaps and bounds. She could feel a headline coming on.
‘He’s not dead. He’s,’ Lottie didn’t really w
ant to announce the fact that he had stunk like a whiskey distillery and was as green as new-mown grass. A few drinks was par for the course around here, but normally in the company of others, but everybody knew that Billy hadn’t done out-of-his-mind drunk for a long time. Not since that last binge a week after burying the woman he loved, the day her mother had calmly told him that maybe his daughter was better off somewhere else. ‘He’d just got a hangover; he was asleep when you barged in.’
‘I didn’t barge.’ Teenage indignation made Tab thrust everything out. In a few years’ time she’d be having people’s eyes out, Lottie thought. ‘I just went to find out what he wanted doing and he was there, on the floor. It’s cursed that place.’
‘It isn’t cursed. He’s just worried and he thinks Uncle Dom and Gran are up to something.’ There, it was out, and they were all staring at her.
‘Elizabeth is always up to something. But I don’t know about Dom. He’s only interested in the horses.’
Lottie decided it was time to own up. ‘It’s my fault, I sent him a text last night saying Uncle Dom was helping Amanda out.’ It was her fault. She’d stirred things up without meaning to.
The simultaneous ‘Is he?’ from Pip and ‘With the sale?’ from Tom went ignored. All she heard was Rory’s soft, ‘Oh dear.’
‘It was meant for you. I was texting you, but I sent it to him by mistake. It was just a joke because you’d been going on about helping her.’ Now she felt even worse. ‘But I sent you another, nice text too.’ Much, much worse.
‘I’m sure he’ll be fine.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s just with their history.’ Rory shrugged. ‘He’ll be fine, it’ll blow over.’
‘I’m not sure, he was really upset.’ Lottie bit her lip. ‘He thinks Uncle Dom is plotting to get him thrown out.’
‘I didn’t think it was that bad.’
‘What? What bad. How come you know and I don’t? iI isn’t fair. Even Tiggy knows. Why would Uncle Dom hate him?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but there was a big fall-out. So, what was my other text, then?’
Lottie felt herself go red. Describing her wonky heart in front of everybody was a step too far. Even telling Rory himself was a bit embarrassing; she wasn’t often over the top with her affections. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Mick watching her, a glimmer of laughter in his dark eyes.
‘I’ll show you later.’
‘I was hoping you’d show me more than that.’
‘And what makes you think Dom is helping Amanda, if you don’t mind me butting in?’ Pip was on the scent.
‘She said so.’ Lottie was trying to ignore the way Rory was squeezing her buttock affectionately.
‘Did she?’ This was news to Pip, who was slightly miffed that she’d missed out on that nugget of information. As far as she knew, Elizabeth had been encouraging everybody but her son to get involved with the grieving widow. She knew all too well that the woman had been needling Tom, and had even egged Billy on. But this didn’t make any sense at all. Unless it was just another of Elizabeth’s attempts to draw Tom out, in which case it seemed to be working. He’d gone an interesting shade of grey and looked remarkably agitated.
‘Did she?’ Tom sounded slightly shocked. All his attempts to discuss the sale of Folly Lake Manor with Amanda had fallen on stony ground. It was as though she hadn’t any interest in a sale at all. As though she had other things on her mind, which he’d thought was completely reasonable, given her recent bereavement.
‘Ignore Dad, he’s in a mood ’cos Mum came round and said Gramps is going to sue his ass off if he rakes up the past.’
‘Tabatha.’ It came out more sharply than Tom intended, but he had the start of a migraine and had reached the end of his normally good humour.
‘Oh, really?’
And even though it shouldn’t, Pip’s casual tone sparked even more suspicion in his already tired brain. She knew something. He narrowed his eyes and tried to figure out why Philippa Keelan would know something about him and his father that he didn’t, even before he’d asked her.
But she was a journalist. She dug into everything. She couldn’t help it. Digging further into his past would be a piece of cake for her; that was if she hadn’t already done it and was waiting for him to fall into the hole. It really was time their relationship was put on a more even footing and he got something back in return, other than eye-watering sex. ‘You’re not busy for lunch are you?’
‘I think I might be now.’
Tabatha rolled her eyes. ‘So, can I work here or not?’
‘Yes.’ Pip grinned. ‘Tell you what, I’ll give you a list of jobs, then I’m going to bugger off and take your dad out for lunch.’
‘You can’t just subcontract your job.’
‘Watch me, Rory. And don’t expect any pay from him, Tab, we all do it for love around here.’
Tab went red and Rory scowled. If anything was going to make him dig in his pocket, a comment like that was. ‘Lottie will give you a riding lesson in return. Okay?’
Tab gave him the adoring spaniel look, which Lottie decided was a younger, less-sophisticated version of the look that Tiggy gave Billy on a regular basis. And it didn’t even fade when Pip abruptly pushed a fork in front of her.
‘Six stables to skip out before we exercise the horses, Tab. You up for it?’
Tabatha was up for it. If it meant she could stalk Rory, even at a distance, she was up for anything. And from the way she alternated between shovelling shit and texting, Lottie and Pip reckoned most of the teenagedom from her previous school knew about every single detail. With added photos.
The worst part, Lottie decided, was that the weather had heated up, which meant that Rory was riding in a t-shirt and Mick was stripped to the waist, shoeing horses, which left the hormone-ridden Tab with eyes on stalks, and even made her feel surprisingly randy. And it was obviously affecting Rory, whose eyes had a message all of their own every time he looked at her.
Once she’d satisfied herself that all of her morning’s tasks had satisfactorily been passed on to her new apprentice, including straightening out the towering muck heap (which looked about to topple), Pip knew she could move on to the interesting bit of the day, who was stood next to his car looking completely out of his depth, and more than a little bit grumpy.
‘I think you’d be happier with less clothes on.’ She grinned at the hapless Tom, who had a slight sheen of sweat on his immaculate brow. ‘Or maybe we should have a long, cool shower before the main course.’
‘Has anyone ever told you you’re scary?’ He didn’t look that scared.
‘Of course.’ She laughed easily. ‘Well now it’s just you and me, Tommy boy. And I think I might have just what you’re looking for.’ Pip hooked her arm through his, which left him wondering just what it was he was letting himself in for and looking around furtively to check his daughter hadn’t noticed. ‘So are we going on my scooter or in your sex-mobile?’
‘If you honestly think I’m going to get on that pink Vespa, you’ve got another thing coming. Tabatha already has mixed feelings about my sexuality.’
‘Well, I don’t.’ Pip planted a kiss on his cheek, which had him diving towards his car and wondering whether it would be rude to just bundle her in. ‘You worry too much.’ She laughed at him.
‘You’d worry if you lived with Tab and had her mother come calling.’
‘Ah, so that’s what is at the bottom of your sudden interest in wining and dining me.’
‘Not Tamara; it’s what she said.’
‘And you want me to use my superior investigative skills to your benefit?’
‘A lot of long words for this time of day.’
‘I know, I’m showing off. Horse, shit, and competition entry form are the only words that are used to express oneself around here.’
‘You’ve already used your investigative skills, though, haven’t you? I’m surprised you’ve not published anything.�
��
‘I may have, but I don’t use everything. I store it up.’ She winked. ‘And I like you. I wouldn’t drop you in the shit without letting you know first.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘Welcome.’ Pip settled herself in the car. ‘Where are you taking me, then?’
‘Not the wine bar, smelling like that.’
‘Ah, yes. Forgot about the stink.’ She opened the window. ‘The local pub it is, then.’
‘Suppose I better move my car, hadn’t I?’ Lottie said to nobody in particular, then discovered that she wasn’t the only one who’d been watching Pip. Mick, showing a serious set of abs and swinging a file, was at her shoulder, ready to fetch the next horse up for trimming.
‘They won’t be going anywhere if you don’t.’
‘Do you think there’s something going on between that pair?’
She glanced up, straight into the dark eyes, which happened to look darker and deeper than she’d ever seen them, with not a hint of twinkle. ‘She should be careful with a man who’s been through what he has.’
Lottie wasn’t sure if the comment meant that it was Pip or Tom he was concerned about.
‘She’s not daft.’
‘Oh, I know that. Sharp as a tack, that one, and she needs a man who knows what he wants, instead of wasting time and talent. She’s just going for the easy option.’
‘Have you told her that?’
‘I have.’
There was something about Mick, Lottie decided, as she watched him head for the stables, that was a bit too deep for her ever to understand. She preferred his light and flirty side; she could cope with that. But she would love to be a fly on the wall when Mick and Pip got together. Something told her neither of them would pull their punches.
***
A pint and a shared platter of mini pork pie, sausages, game terrine, prawns and chips later, Pip leant back and surveyed the bemused Tom.
‘What’s tickled you?’
‘You’ve got a healthy appetite.’
‘All this fresh air. If I ever go back to a desk job, I’m going to balloon.’
‘I doubt it.’ Despite the faint whiff of eau de horse, Pip still managed to look like she’d just stepped out of a high-powered meeting. Perfectly groomed, sleek hair, understated make-up. More racehorse than workhorse. The type of girl that once he’d have been happy to have gone home to every night, and he could still like her, fancy her, in fact lust after her. She was intelligent, strong, funny. And so much like the women he’d left behind.
The Little Shop of Afternoon Delights Page 118
