by Fiona Grace
A good ten seconds had passed now. Lacey had no choice. She couldn’t delay the sale just because she didn’t like the bidder. The gorgeous Isidore Bonheur statue was going to the Ukrainian businesswoman whether she wanted it to or not.
She looked at the smirking Oxana and brought down the gavel. “Sold for five thousand … and one pounds.”
The audience erupted into applause and Lacey took comfort that at least they’d enjoyed it, even if she was internally grimacing. Oxana also looked extremely self-satisfied.
“That’s everything,” Lacey announced. “Thank you so much for attending. It will take us a little bit of time to organize all your items and handle the packing and paperwork, so please feel free to head out for lunch and return at a convenient time later.”
The auction attendees stood and began filing out, thanking Lacey as they left and chatting amongst themselves about the items they’d acquired. Some seemed thrilled with their purchases, others bitter to have missed out.
Lacey lost sight of Colin in the din.
Gina headed to the main shop floor to attend to the few attendees who’d stayed behind, and Lacey went into her office to prepare their receipts.
She was buzzing from the auction. It had been such a high.
She scanned through the logs and quickly calculated that she’d taken in significantly more than she’d anticipated. But she was still confused about Hugh Buckingham dropping out of the bidding and letting Oxana win by a single pound.
Just then, there came a knock at her office door. Lacey looked over to see Colin.
“There you are,” she said. “I wondered where you’d disappeared to. I’m sorry you missed out on the sculpture again.”
Colin walked into the room. “That’s okay. I won something better.”
“You did?” Lacey asked. She couldn’t recall Colin having won any of his bids, but then again, she’d been in such a heady daze maybe she’d just forgotten. She looked back down to her notes trying to see what he was referring to. “What did you win?”
“An opportunity,” Colin said.
Lacey looked at him, frowning with confusion. “I don’t understand. An opportunity to…”
But before she finished speaking, Colin leaned forward, lips puckered, and attempted to kiss her.
Lacey was stunned. She immediately put her hands up to stop him. “Colin, no. I’m sorry but I think you’ve misunderstood.”
She shook her head and he backed off.
Colin looked extremely embarrassed. Lacey felt her cheeks burning, too.
“Goodness,” he said, scratching his neck. “I’m sorry. I guess I misread the signs.”
But before either had a chance to say any more, a sudden commotion sounded from the shop floor. Angry voices. Barking dogs.
Lacey exchanged a confused look with Colin.
“Excuse me,” she said, hurrying past him to see what on earth was going on.
She reached the shop floor to discover the most peculiar sight. A man in pajamas and a bathrobe was shouting at Gina, and both dogs were barking frantically at him.
Lacey quickly deduced that the man hadn’t been at the auction—there was no way she would have failed to notice a man in slippers and a bathrobe! Nor would she forget one who was so clearly unwell. The man’s face was flushed with fever. Sweat beaded his forehead.
But who on earth was he? Some random madman who’d wandered in off the streets to shout gibberish?
The handful of auction attendees who’d stayed to pay and collect their items watched on with astonishment as poor Gina bore the brunt of the angry man’s diatribe.
“Excuse me,” Lacey demanded, marching toward him. “What is going on?”
“There you are,” the man said, pointing an angry finger at her. “You are a cheating fraudster.”
As the man’s finger now pointed angrily at Lacey, Chester started barking even more sternly. He wanted to protect his owner.
“It’s okay, Chester,” she told him.
The dog started to calm down, which had a knock-on effect of calming Boudica too. At the same time, Colin emerged from the back room and tamed his own growling pooch.
With the sound of barking ceased, Lacey could finally think clearly.
“Do I know you?” she asked, affronted by his accusation.
“I’m Hugh Buckingham,” he said. “And you, dear girl, are a cheat!”
Lacey put it all together. This was Hugh Buckingham, the virtual attendee who’d missed out on the Isidore Bonheur by a pound. Clearly, he hadn’t attended the auction in person because he was sick. But why was he calling her a cheat? A fraud?
“I don’t understand what you’re accusing me of,” she said. “What have I cheated you out of?”
“Take a look for yourself!” Hugh shouted, waving a piece of paper at her. “I have the proof!”
Lacey snatched it from him angrily, ready to see whatever proof he apparently had of her so-called cheating.
She squinted, confused about what she was looking at. It was an image of her auction, a computer screenshot with a time stamp in the corner. It showed her holding the gavel, about to bring it down to award the Isidore Bonheur statue to Oxana. But the screenshot also showed Hugh’s interface, and very clearly showed he had put in a bid.
“That can’t be right,” she said, frowning. She was certain his screen hadn’t lit up again after Oxana’s petty one-pound increase. She’d even been looking for it, hoping for it, so she wouldn’t have to sell the statue to the frustrating businesswoman.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Hugh accused.
His illness was making him look quite deranged, with bloodshot eyes and a strange waxy quality to his pale skin. Lacey would very much like to get him out of her store before he infected her and everyone else within spitting distance with his sickness.
“Not at all,” she said, still confused. “I don’t know what’s going on here.” She beckoned Gabe over and showed him the screenshot. “Any idea what happened here?”
Gabe shrugged dismissively. “You can do anything with Photoshop these days. He probably screen printed the image then changed the timestamp.”
Lacey winced. She should’ve anticipated the teenager with terrible social skills would say the wrong thing. And not just the wrong thing, absolutely the worst thing he could have!
Hugh’s pale face turned so red he looked like he was about to pop.
“I did not doctor the image!” he bellowed. “I put my bid in after the pound increase and it was completely ignored!”
Lacey tried to temper the man’s frustration. “Is there any chance there was a glitch?” she asked Gabe.
Now it was Gabe’s turn to look furious. “Are you suggesting my coding was wrong?”
“Not at all,” Lacey said, feeling very much like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “I’m just spitballing here. Because something’s happened somewhere, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”
Gabe glowered. “I’ll look into it,” he said, retreating grumpily to the auction room.
Lacey turned back to Hugh. He coughed into the crook of his elbow.
“How long will this take?” he demanded through his splutters. “I need to get back to bed.”
“Then you probably should,” Lacey told him. “There’s not a lot we can do right now.”
But Hugh shook his head petulantly. “No way. I don’t trust you or that greasy-haired oik to find the truth. I’m not leaving here without my statue.”
Lacey ground her teeth. She was furious with the situation. Gabe had assured her this would be foolproof. But here she was in a very awkward and messy situation, very much looking like a fool.
Hugh continued his rant. “I won’t take no for an answer. I refuse to. The statue is mine. That woman was quite clearly backing down. Increasing the bid by one pound? She was obviously losing her cool! I can give you the extra two pounds right now.”
Lacey shook her head. “I’m sorry, but it’s too late. I can�
�t back out now. It’s against the rules.”
At that moment, Lacey noticed Oxana standing in the doorway of the store. By the expression on her face, she’d been standing there the whole time watching Hugh’s outburst.
Oxana walked across the length of the store, and Hugh looked at her like he wasn’t sure whether she was really there or if she’d been conjured by his feverish mind.
She calmly reached the counter. “I’m here to collect my statue,” she said to Lacey.
Great. If there was any way for this situation to get any more tense, this was it!
“Maybe you should come back a little later,” Gina said.
“Absolutely not,” Oxana replied. “I think you’ll find I sent an immediate payment for the statue, and it’s my legal right to take it with me.”
Lacey checked her bank account. Oxana was telling the truth. Lacey had never felt so frustrated to have such a large sum deposited into her business account! But with the uncertainty as to the true owner of the statue, it only added an extra layer of confusion. Because now there was no way she could stop Oxana from walking out of the store with the statue, and appealing to her on a personable level was quite clearly useless. Oxana had nothing to lose by taking the statue with her, and everything to lose by being “polite” and leaving it in Lacey’s possession until such a time as the dispute could be resolved.
Oxana looked at Lacey expectantly. “Well? Can I have my statue?”
Gina looked at Lacey questioningly, her eyes silently asking what to do.
Completing the triad of expectant glances was Hugh. Only he was staring at Lacey furiously. “You’re not letting her leave with it? I’ll never see it again!”
“I don’t have a choice,” Lacey said.
She retrieved the wrapped parcel from behind the counter.
With a nasty smile, Oxana snatched it up in her arms.
“Tough luck, buttercup,” she said to Hugh, then began marching toward the door. As she went, she exclaimed, “I’m going to the pub to celebrate my win!” before pausing at the threshold, turning on her heel, and blowing Hugh a kiss. Then she was gone.
Lacey could not believe what she’d just witnessed. The pettiness of the woman, to win by a single pound and then taunt Hugh to his face over it!
“I’m so sorry about that,” Lacey began.
Her apology was cut short, because Hugh Buckingham turned on Lacey and unleashed his fury.
“I’ll ruin you,” he said, pointing his finger right in her face. “Just you wait and see. I’ll end you and this stupid excuse for an auction house! You made a bad decision when you made Hugh Buckingham your enemy!”
Lacey’s heart thumped. But suddenly Colin was there. He must’ve been watching from the sidelines, and had only now decided to step in and play the Knight in Shining Armor.
“That’s enough,” he announced, turning Hugh around and marching him out into the street.
But even that didn’t stop Hugh. He just continued his rant from there, with hundreds of festival attendees witnessing it all.
“This establishment cannot be trusted!” he screamed. “It is run by a thief and a liar! I urge you not to shop here!”
Colin manhandled Hugh through the crowds, his angry screams audible long after he was out of sight.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Here,” Gina said, placing a mug of tea on the counter in front of Lacey. “Honey and lemon.”
Lacey flashed her friend a grateful smile.
On Gina’s insistence, Lacey had locked up the store following Hugh’s outburst. It was only once she was alone that she realized just how shaken she was. The altercation had come so quickly off the back of Colin’s unwanted kiss attempt, which itself had come right off the back of her auction high, Lacey was feeling scrambled and unsettled.
She took a sip of tea. It was far more bitter than she was expecting.
“Honey and lemon?” she questioned Gina.
“And a wee dram of whiskey,” her friend replied with a wink. She took the stool next to Lacey. “How are you doing?” she asked her, kindly.
“My nerves are shot.”
“I’m not surprised. It’s not like following the rules did you any favors. You would have made more money selling it to Hugh, and Oxana wasn’t the most gracious of winners either.”
Lacey heard a knock on the window. She looked up, about to call out, “We’re closed,” when she realized it was Taryn standing there.
“What does she want?” Lacey muttered.
Gina looked up. “I’ll get rid of her,” she said.
She went over to the door, unlocking it, but Taryn shoved right past her. She earned herself a growl from both Chester and Boudica.
“Lacey, are you okay?” Taryn exclaimed in her fake friendly way. “I heard all the dogs barking and a man yelling, calling you a fraud. What on earth was it about?”
Her personable routine always rubbed Lacey the wrong way. Lacey knew Taryn wasn’t here because she cared. She was here for the gossip, which she could then spread around town.
“It was just a misunderstanding,” Lacey replied dismissively.
“But why was there a man in the street in his pajamas?” Taryn asked, acting as if they were all great friends and she wasn’t getting malevolent glee from this. “Saying he’s going to ruin you? And telling everyone not to shop in your store?”
Lacey’s mouth dropped open. “He said what?”
“He was ranting and raving up and down the high street telling everyone you were a fraud,” Taryn told her, more than happy to oblige.
Lacey sunk her head into her hands. That was not good. Beyond tarnishing her reputation among the horsey folk, he’d set the tongues of the Wilfordshire rumor mill wagging.
“I’m going to see Tom,” Lacey said, standing.
The last thing she needed was to sit here and listen to Taryn recount the whole thing. She needed comfort.
The patisserie was, well, a bit of a mess. Tom clearly hadn’t had a chance to clean down the tables in a while, as they were strewn with crumbs.
Lacey headed into the kitchen where she found him using an electric whisk to whisk batter in his left hand, while piping frosting onto muffins with his right hand. And she thought her day had been bad.
“You look like you need some help,” Lacey said.
Tom startled at her voice and looked over. “Lacey,” he said, managing to flash her a loving grin despite doing two other things at once. “Is the auction over?”
Lacey nodded. She collected the wipes and went out to clean all the tables. A moment later, Tom came out of the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her. “What happened?” he asked softly in her ear.
“What makes you think something happened?” she said stiffly.
“I can tell by your face.”
Tom wasn’t usually perceptive. Perhaps her words to him before had sunk in and he was really making an effort to prove to her how much he cared. Which only made her feel even worse about everything that had happened with Colin.
She sighed. “The auction went well. I sold tons. There was an argument at the end, but nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Then why so glum?” Tom asked tenderly, tipping her chin up with his fingertips so their eyes met.
It was on the tip of her tongue, the whole situation with Colin, when the patisserie’s phone started ringing.
Tom pulled a strained face. “Damn. I’m sorry. I’m expecting a call. I really need to take it.”
“Take it,” Lacey said, shaking her head.
There was no point hanging around here if Tom wasn’t even able to give her half his attention, so she went back to her store. It was now completely empty. Lacey had gone from having a packed store to having a completely empty one.
“Lacey?” she heard someone say from behind.
She turned. It was Carol, the B&B owner.
“I heard about your auction,” she said. “Are you okay?”
Typical. The gossip was already spread
ing.
“I’m fine,” Lacey told her.
Gina bustled toward them. “Sorry, Carol, we have loads to tidy up, do you mind coming back later?” She shooed the nosy woman right out into the street, then turned back to Lacey. “You need to go home.”
“No I don’t,” Lacey countered.
“Yes. You do. You’ve had a crazy day. You’ll be out of adrenaline soon, and then you’ll crash. I’d prefer you to crash at home than here. I’m not in the mood to scoop you up off the floor like a puddle.”
She was exaggerating, of course, but Lacey relented. “Thanks, Gina. As long as you’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Go. Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lacey did as her surrogate mother commanded.
She made it back to Crag Cottage and face planted onto her bed.
*
Ring-ring. Ring-ring.
Lacey darted her head up. She was shocked to find herself lying prone on her bed, in her clothes from yesterday. Sunlight was streaming in through the window. It was morning.
“I slept through the night!” she exclaimed.
Gina was right about her crashing.
Ring-ring. Ring-ring.
Bleary eyed, Lacey grabbed her cell off the bedside table and answered.
“Yes?” she croaked.
“Lacey, this is really interesting,” came an unfamiliar voice.
“Who is this?”
“Gabe.”
“Gabe?” She’d never heard the boy sound anything but grumpy or nonchalant. But now he sounded positively animated. “What is? What’s interesting?”
“The report. From your network provider. About the lag in your connection during the auction.”
Reports, networks, and connections weren’t exactly “interesting” to Lacey. They were especially less so when her head was still foggy from sleep.
“Go on.”
“There wasn’t just a lag, there was an interruption. Like a router being reset or a modem unplugged.”
“I don’t get it. What does that mean?”
“It could just be a glitch. Or it could mean someone deliberately interfered with the auction.”
