The Secrets of Clover Castle

by Martin, Holly

  ‘It occurred to me that it might get quite lonely down here for the ghosts and as most of them are probably your ancestors, I thought they might be interested in seeing what you have achieved. Sadly it seems the ghosts have far better things to do with their time than listen to me read.’

  ‘You wanted to read to the ghosts?’ Would he ever stop being surprised by this girl?

  ‘I was thinking more about getting them on our side. This seemed like a good way to do it.’

  He stood up and offered her his hand, pulling her up too. ‘Why do we need the ghosts on our side?’

  ‘Because if we offer ghost tours, we need people to see ghosts.’

  ‘You’re determined to turn this into some kind of tourist attraction, aren’t you?’ He put his hand on the small of her back, escorting her up the stairs.

  ‘If Castle Heritage take this place on, it’s likely they would want to do that too. They are a charity and they rely on tourists paying to visit places like this to fund the renovations and upkeep. They don’t have many properties on their books that aren’t open to tourists. But I honestly think you’d be better off on your own, then you can control how the place is run and when you’re open to the public. You could stay here too. If you wanted. I just don’t think you should pin all your hopes on Castle Heritage when there are other options open to you as well. If you want to keep it, you have to make it work for you. I don’t think your writing will be enough to sustain this place, especially if you keep churning out shit books.’

  She grinned up at him as they walked into the kitchen and he laughed.

  ‘I’ll be very interested in what Jamie has to say.’

  ‘You’ll like him, everybody does. But his isn’t the only hotel chain that would be interested in Clover Castle. There are lots of possibilities. Plus there are other historical preservation associations that might help. Castle Heritage isn’t the only one. And you can use all our test results, you wouldn’t have to pay for them to come out and conduct the same tests.’

  Cameron gestured for her to sit down at the kitchen table while he cut some bread to make some sandwiches.

  ‘My PA, Olivia, did a lot of research into the different historical preservation associations and based on their criteria for which properties they accept and the current properties on their books, she said Castle Heritage was the one most likely to take us on.’

  He glanced up in time to see Milly frown.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, erm … I’m just surprised that we were the one she recommended. We have really strict rules about the kind of properties we take. Other associations are a bit more relaxed.’

  ‘She assured me that you guys were the only ones that would take the castle on.’

  Milly seemed taken aback by this, which confused him.

  ‘And your PA, is she … normally efficient?’

  ‘She’s relatively new, she’s been with me a little under a year. But yes, from what I’ve seen of her work so far, she appears to be. You’ll get to meet her Saturday, she’s coming over for a few days. She did a load of research into this place and what my options were. I need to look at it all and make a decision but I’ve been putting it off. She also managed to get me a deal with Palace Hotels. If all else fails, I guess I can sell to them.’

  Milly frowned again. He wished he could read her mind, there was so much going on inside that little head of hers. She looked up at him and must have seen his questioning gaze.

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing. I don’t think Jamie thinks too highly of Palace Hotels.’

  ‘Well they’re his competitor, so I imagine there’s bound to be a bit of bad feeling between them.’

  ‘I think it’s the CEO that Jamie doesn’t like. Maxwell is apparently a bit of a twat. There’s a rumour that his girlfriend has slept with a few potential clients to persuade them to sign with Palace Hotels or at the very least she’s been incredibly flirty and led the clients to believe there was a chance of sex in return for a signature.’

  Cameron pulled a face. ‘That sounds a bit sleazy. I’ve not met him but we have had video conference calls and he seems one of those over confident, brash types. He invited me to go and play golf with him at some exclusive resort. I declined.’

  ‘I have no idea whether it’s true but that’s certainly the rumour that Jamie told me. And he has close relationships with many of his competitors so I know he hasn’t made this stuff up to make Maxwell look bad. Jamie has recommended several of his clients to go to his competitors instead of him when he knew they would be able to handle their needs better.’

  ‘That’s good of him.’

  ‘He is a very honest man, he won’t take you on unless he thinks he is the best person for the job.’

  He was liking the sound of Jamie more and more, but she was bound to build him up, he was her brother after all.

  ‘Do you mind if I ask how much Palace Hotels are offering?’ Milly asked.

  ‘Two million pounds, it’s not great but …’

  ‘It’s not anything, that’s nowhere near what the castle is worth.’ She was angry and he wondered why.

  ‘It’s in a bad way.’

  ‘Even so, if you sold it on the housing market, you’d get at least six million for it, probably more like eight or ten million. Even if you don’t want to work with Jamie, there are plenty of companies that would offer a lot more than that.’

  ‘I really need to look at all the research she gave me. Olivia told me that two million was a really generous offer.’

  Milly grabbed her phone and pressed a few keys, then held it out for him. ‘These are castles that are for sale at the moment, look at the prices of them, five million, nine million, fifteen million. If you really want to sell it, at least get an estate agent round to see what the place is worth. Get a few round to have a look at it.’

  ‘Olivia spoke to an estate agent, she said …’

  ‘Did one come here, have a look around, take measurements? An estate agent can’t just pluck a figure out the air when dealing with properties, especially not something as unique as a castle.’

  ‘No, no one came, but … why would Olivia lie?’

  ‘I’m not saying she’s lying. Can I ask why you left something as important as this to Olivia to do? This is your family home.’

  Cameron sighed. ‘I didn’t just hand it over for her to make the decision for me. She was just supposed to come back with all the options and information on different companies. The offer from Palace Hotels was a bit of a shock as I didn’t expect her to approach companies like that on my behalf. Selling it was one of the options but the offer came through very quickly and I told her I need to take the time to look into all of this, I guess she was just being over efficient. She came to work for me not long after I inherited it. Well, it’s taken months for it to be official and she helped me through a lot of that paperwork. I had no clue what to do with it. I never exactly had fond memories of my time here, my parents were always arguing and screaming at each other. But since being back here … These last few days … I’ve sort of fallen in love with the place. I don’t want to sell it off now, I want it to stay in the family in some capacity. I shouldn’t have trusted her with this. You’re right, it’s too important.’

  ‘Maybe … she didn’t look into all the factors properly. There is nothing like this property in the whole of the UK and if she was just doing research into castles in general then maybe … her figures might be wrong.’

  ‘I don’t pay her to be wrong.’

  She quickly stood up and walked towards him, running a hand down his arm in a soothing gesture. ‘Don’t be angry …’

  All thought and reason, all anger, all decisions, went clean out of his head as he stared down at Milly stroking his arm. There was only one thing filling his mind right now and Milly had taken the possibility of finishing that kiss completely off the table that morning. She was still speaking and he tried to tune into it and ignore the feel of her hand on his body.
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br />   ‘… I’ll help you and together we can find the best possible solution for you and the castle. I’ll do some research for you, and we can get an estate agent up here just so you have all the facts and …’ she trailed off, as she could clearly see the look of desire and need in his eyes. It was taking every ounce of strength he had not to grab her, kiss her and throw her across the table, disregarding professionalism once and for all.

  She immediately stepped back. ‘I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I did that.’

  He reached forward and grabbed her, needing to feel her body next to his. She didn’t even attempt to fight him off.

  ‘Why do you cling to this professionalism so fiercely?’

  She moved out of his grasp and he let her go, missing her already.

  She sat back down and ran her nails down the heavy grooves of the table. He shouldn’t push her about this, he’d promised her he wouldn’t. It was quite obvious she wasn’t going to tell him, anyway. He started cutting the bread again, needing to do something with his hands.

  ‘My aunt never had much money,’ Milly said and he froze to listen. ‘She lives in a tiny little house and her job never paid her much. She already had a son to look after and I know she found it a struggle. She took me in without hesitation and I never went without; food, toys, clothes, holidays, she paid for everything. She paid for me to go to university, halls of residence, tuition fees and although I got a part-time job so I wasn’t quite so reliant on her, my course also required a lot of volunteering and work experience as credits for the qualification and it didn’t leave a lot of time for a job. I couldn’t have done it without my aunt, I owe her so much.’

  She hesitated, focusing on a crumb of bread as she balled it between her fingers.

  ‘It was a tiny university and the course was very specialised. I was the only girl taking it. Do you know how much attention I got from my classmates?’

  ‘I can imagine,’ Cameron said, suddenly insanely jealous.

  ‘I’d never had a boyfriend before. I was a painfully shy, chubby, spotty teenager who loved Disney. I was a right geek too, sat at the front in class so I could absorb everything the teacher said, got all the answers on all the tests correct. People hated me. Suddenly I turned eighteen, somehow lost the puppy fat, went to university and the boys were falling over themselves to be with me.’

  ‘So you had a few boyfriends, no crime in that.’

  ‘I had just one. Patrick. I fell for him hard. He was everything to me and I followed him around like a lovesick puppy. We started cutting class so we could be together. We cut class a lot.’

  ‘You were eighteen, first time away from home, we’ve all been there. Most people’s experience of university is getting as drunk as they possibly can and turning up to the bare minimum of lectures.’

  ‘That wasn’t me though. I’ve always been very studious and I was wasting the opportunity that my aunt was struggling to provide me with. When she found out, she was so disappointed. I was gutted, I had let her down. I turned it round, busted my ass and passed with flying colours. Patrick and I split up long before I finished the course. My diligence to my studies was always annoying for him, he still wanted to go out drinking, whilst I was always sat reading another book. I was gutted at the time but in hindsight I was better off without him. My studies were important to me and he didn’t understand that. I wanted to prove to my aunt that she hadn’t wasted her money on me.’

  ‘So … you’re never going to have a relationship again? Surely you’ve proved to your aunt by now that her money wasn’t wasted, you have this fantastic job …’

  ‘But that’s just it. It was her contacts that got me this job. When I came out of university, it didn’t matter how qualified or experienced I was, I really struggled to get a job anywhere. It seems that having a beard, tweed jacket and a pair of balls was more important than qualifications for most of the jobs I went for. Castle Heritage were the only ones that would give me a chance and partly – or mainly – it was because of my aunt. I love my job, it’s everything to me. If they found out I was sleeping with a client, they would sack me and … I can’t do that to my aunt again.’

  ‘So you’re never having a relationship again?’

  ‘No, I’m not saying I’m never having a relationship again. I’m saying I wouldn’t get involved with someone at work.’

  ‘So … if we were to meet up after you had finished here, that would be OK?’

  She smiled but didn’t answer. He watched her carefully.

  ‘There’s more to this than you’re saying. You’ve been on a man sabbatical for four years, what prompted that? Have there been other men since Patrick?’

  ‘There’ve been two men. Adam. He was charming and sexy as hell. I fell in love with him very quickly too. We moved in together after just a few months. But my love for Disney and pink and singing obviously grew very tiring. One day, after we’d been together for about ten months, he came home and we had a blazing row over my inadequacies and he dumped me. I was absolutely heartbroken. I figured we were going through a rough patch but I always saw marriage in our future, but he always said he wasn’t ready for any of that stuff. Anyway, turns out he was sleeping with someone else whilst he was with me. They’re married now with three kids, so I guess he was ready for that, just not with me. So, yes, I am wary of falling in love again and getting dumped a few months down the line.’

  ‘And the other man?’

  ‘Tyler.’ She swallowed and agony flashed in her eyes.

  And in that one word, he knew. Her professionalism was an excuse, a great excuse but he knew Tyler had been the sole reason for the man sabbatical. Patrick and Adam had clearly hurt her, but Tyler had destroyed her. Whatever Tyler had done had ruined her rose-tinted fairy tale existence and made her shy away from love and happy endings. He wanted to kill Tyler. What the hell had he done to her to cause that much pain?

  ‘It was one of those crazy, hedonistic type of love affairs where everything happens so quickly. I was twenty-three. After two weeks we were talking about our future, and where we were going to live and planning holidays together. I have never fallen so hard and so quickly in love with someone before. We had only been together four months when he was killed in a car accident.’

  Shit. He hadn’t expected that.

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘It’s OK. I mean it isn’t, I was devastated at the time … it was a long time ago …’ she trailed off, her voice breaking.

  He moved to comfort her and then stopped himself. She didn’t want a relationship and after that incredible kiss this morning it was unlikely a simple hug would stay as that.

  Cameron sighed. She’d had a terrible time with men. And he didn’t know why he was pushing it with her. He wasn’t after a relationship with her. She’d be gone in a few days, so really he should leave any kind of romantic entanglement well alone, for risk of hurting her again.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ she said. ‘That I shouldn’t run away from a relationship just because I’ve been hurt in the past.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking that. Grief is agonizing. Some people never get over that.’

  ‘Well I’m not completely against being in a relationship again. I’m just going to be very careful about the type of person I do get involved with. As silly and as immature as it sounds, I want marriage and babies and a long and happy life with the person I love. I’m not going to settle for anything else. Being with someone just for sex seems a bit pointless for me. I fall in love very easily and I’d only end up getting hurt.’

  She was trying to push him away in order to protect herself and he had to respect that. He turned his attention back to the bread he was slicing.

  ‘Besides, in my limited experience, sex really isn’t that great, it’s over too quickly and I’m always left sexually frustrated and wanting more.’

  Cameron nearly sliced his finger off as he looked up at her in shock.

  He leapt back with a shout and quickly suc
ked his finger. She shot out of her seat.

  ‘Are you OK, let me see?’

  He pulled his finger from his mouth and she took it in her hands. God, even that simple touch was such a turn on. He watched her examine his finger gently, wanting her hands on his body in the same way.

  ‘It’s OK, where are your plasters?’

  He swallowed. ‘Over there.’

  She left him to get a plaster and then returned to secure it to his finger. She went to move away, but he stopped her, his hand on her arm.

  ‘Milly, are you saying you’ve never …’ He hesitated about talking about sex with her. He’d never had a problem talking about it before but she was so innocent in many ways. ‘You’ve never orgasmed during sex before?’

  She blushed slightly. ‘Oh come on, all that sex you see in films or read about in books, all that shouting and groaning and toe curling, screaming orgasms, none of that stuff is real. Sex is nice, especially the cuddling afterwards, I always like that, but no, I’ve never had hot, passionate movie sex before.’

  Cameron stared down at her. He had been with many women; women whose names he didn’t even know, women whom he hadn’t cared for, women he had liked and women he had loved but all of them had come during sex, he was damned sure of that. He knew women faked orgasms, but surely all the women he had been with hadn’t faked all that screaming just to feed his ego. He’d never really been into cuddling after sex but he’d never come across a woman who thought that cuddling was the best part of sex before. He thought back to the previous night when he had held Milly in his arms all night. He’d never done that before and he’d had the best sleep he’d had in a very long time. Maybe there was something to be said for cuddling after all, but he didn’t think he’d ever rank it higher than sex. She should expect more than a quick fumble and a nice cuddle afterwards. Even if she never slept with him, she should raise the bar a bit higher than that.

  ‘Sex with someone you love should be an incredible experience; not only do you know that person well enough to know how they like it, but their pleasure actually brings you pleasure, plus you have that wonderful emotional connection, too, when you stare into each other’s eyes and feel that love between you. But even sex with a stranger should be pleasurable and fulfilling for both partners. Sex with a new partner is always a bit tricky, to find how that person ticks, what they like, where they like to be touched but yes, it should still be toe curling, sheet ripping, headboard-banging amazing sex.’