“Sell it?”

Theo watched Elle’s sunny smile wither on her face as his words hit home. “Yes. That’s the primary reason I’m here.”

Her brows wrinkled. “But we have a contract.”

“I’m well aware of your contract,” he told her. “The family’s lawyer has been over it, and your deal is solid.”

“So what then?” the brunette—Megan, if he remembered correctly—asked.

“Well, unless we can come to an agreement otherwise, I intend to honor your contract with the magazine. You ladies get your six-month stint here at the castle while I wrap things up and look around for potential buyers.”

“Who buys a place like this?” Elle asked, her green eyes wide.

“Someone with a lot of disposable income,” he said dryly.

“It would have to be worth millions—probably tens of millions,” the quiet one with the bun said.

“Yes, and in the meantime, it’s costing the family close to a million in upkeep each year, which is quite a lot for a house no one lives in.”

“But we’re here to fix that,” Elle said, squaring her shoulders. “If you’ll just hear us out, we’ve come up with some really solid ideas to help the house to pay for itself.”

“I’m sure you have, and I’m sure my grandfather would have loved to hear them. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see this little endeavor through.” Theo tapped his fingertips against the tabletop, eager to be finished with this conversation.

“But…well…” Elle glanced between her friends. “What’s the point of us setting up our program here if you’re only going to shut it down in six months?”

“Indeed.” Theo leveled his gaze on her. “Which is why I’d like to make you an offer of my own, a lump sum payout to each of you. You could stay on at the castle for a few weeks, have a nice little vacation, then take your money and start a new venture.”

“How much?” Megan asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Ten thousand each,” he told her.

“And what if we say no?” There was a stubbornness in Elle’s gaze that he hadn’t seen there before.

“Then you stay. I can’t make you leave. I can only offer you an incentive to hurry this business along. I hope you understand that it isn’t personal. With my grandfather’s passing, I really do need to get the castle sold as quickly as possible.”

All three of them stared at him, crestfallen looks on their faces. He didn’t like being the cause of that, but business was business. This place held too many painful memories for him, not to mention it was too damn big for one man to live in.

“Isn’t it possible that the castle would be more attractive to buyers with our business already up and running?” the one with the bun asked.

He rubbed his chin. He’d never considered selling the castle with their inn already established inside it. “I suppose that’s a possibility, but I certainly couldn’t make any guarantees.”

“We’ll need some time to think about our options,” Elle told him.

“That’s fine.” He stood. “Have Colin find me when you’ve made up your minds.”

Elle stood too, facing him. “We will.”

They walked into the hallway ahead of him. Elle still wore that pink dress and the sparkly shoes she’d had on when they arrived. He didn’t generally pay much attention to shoes, but these were sexy, the way her pink-painted toes peeked out from beneath all those rhinestones. Dragging his gaze back to her face, he found her watching him with an expression he couldn’t quite read. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

She nodded, turning away.

Megan put her arm around Elle, steering her back toward him. “Actually, we were just about to go exploring when we bumped into you. Care to be our tour guide?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’d be better off asking one of the staff.”

“But you live here, right?”

“I grew up here,” he answered her. “I don’t live here anymore.”

“So you’re the perfect person to show us around,” Megan insisted. “Please?”

Beside her, Elle was quiet, a pensive—almost wounded—look on her face, and he hated that he’d been the person to put it there.

“Fine,” he said, sounding irritable even to his own ears.

“We understand if you’re too busy…” the one with the bun said, looking uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat, glancing again at Elle. “I can show you around quickly.”

She fell into step beside him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Actually, it would be great to have your perspective. Places like this are all about the history, you know?”

“No,” he said with a shrug. “This place was only built fifty years ago. If you want history, you should visit our estate in England.”

“Fifty years is still a long time,” she said. “And I love hearing the stories behind things. For instance, I’ve already seen three baby grand pianos. Why so many?”

“My grandmother played, or so I’m told.”

“You don’t remember her playing?” Elle asked.

“She died before I was born.”

“Oh, no.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Your grandfather built this whole place for her, right? And she died so young. That must have just broken his heart.”

Theo’s mother had died young too. He remembered his grandfather once saying that the castle was shrouded in tragedy, yet it still hadn’t dampened his love for the place. Rosemont Castle had been big and lonely with just Theo, his father, and his grandfather here. A few years ago, his father had died of a heart attack, and now with Alistair gone… “I don’t remember anyone here ever playing the piano.”

“That’s such a shame,” Elle said.

He showed the women around the rest of the ground floor; the kitchen, the dining room, the ballroom (yet another room that was never used), and his offices. He kept them out of his grandfather’s private quarters at the rear of the estate. Alistair’s personal belongings still needed to be cleaned out and sent home to England, and until then, he didn’t want anyone but himself and the staff back there.

Oddly, all three women seemed most mesmerized by the library.

“This is the kind of library where you need a step ladder to reach the top shelves. I could spend hours in here,” Megan said with a sigh, running her fingers over the spines of some of the books. “Look, Ruby, there’s a whole collection of Greek mythology.”

Ruby. That was the quiet one’s name. Theo committed the name to memory as Ruby exclaimed in excitement over his grandfather’s collection.

“You must have spent so much time in here when you were a kid,” Elle said.

“Actually, no. I preferred to play outside.” He’d brought books from the library with him sometimes, though. There was a tree at the top of the hill where he’d fashioned himself a primitive treehouse—more of a bench to sit on, really. He’d spent countless hours up there as a boy.

“I can’t imagine what it was like growing up in a place like this.” Elle gazed dreamily around the library. “Having all these books…a whole castle to play in…and the grounds…it must have been like something out of a fairytale.”

“I’m a guy. I didn’t really think about fairytales.”

She rolled her eyes. “You never ran around outside pretending to be a knight or a king marching into battle?”

“Well, sure.”

“I bet you even had your own horse to ride,” she said.

“I did. His name was Bismarck.”

“See, you’re full of stories, and you didn’t even know it.” She touched his shoulder with a smile, and he felt the warmth of her fingers through his shirt. Elle had captured his interest from the first moment he’d seen her, but he couldn’t allow the attraction to grow. He was here to close a business deal with her and her friends, and as such, Elle Davenport was strictly off limits.

“If you really want stories, talk to Colin,” he told her. “He’s been here almost as long as Rosemont Castle has been. He knew my parents and my grandparents. He was even here when the queen visited.”

The room went very silent, and all three women were suddenly staring at him, mouths agape.

“The queen,” Megan repeated. “As in, the Queen of England?”

“The only queen I know of who’d have reason to visit, yes,” he said with amusement.

“But how could you even consider selling this place?” Elle asked, sounding outraged. “It has so much history! The friggin’ Queen of England has stayed here.”

“In fairness, she’s also visited our estate in England.”

Elle gaped at him. “So…do you know her?”

“I’ve met her, yes. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I know her.”

“Wait a minute.” Her gaze turned suspicious. “Are you considered royalty? Were we supposed to curtsy or something when we met you?”

“I wouldn’t object if you wanted to curtsy.” He was just being a smartass now, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

They all stared at him again, eyes wide.

He couldn’t fight the smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “But you’re under no obligation to do so.”

“Well, you’re the closest thing to royalty I’ll ever meet,” Elle said, and she dropped into an almost perfect curtsy in front of him.

His gaze drifted to the swell of her breasts under that pink dress, and his mind somersaulted straight into the gutter. Then the other two were curtsying, and suddenly the whole thing felt ridiculous and not at all sexy. “All right, ladies. I was just joking. And I think we’ve finished our tour of the castle.”

“Oh, but what about the grounds?” Elle asked.

“I trust that you can find your way around on your own.”

“But—”

“I really do need to get back to work.”

“Okay,” she said. “Well, thanks again for taking the time to show us around.”

“My pleasure. Please get in touch when you’ve made your decision about my offer.”

“Did anyone else catch Theo checking Elle out?” Megan asked with raised eyebrows as she leaned back against the soft bed of green grass beneath her. They’d walked to the far side of the garden and now sat, staring back at the castle.

“He did not.” Elle shook her head emphatically, even if she didn’t quite believe her own words. There’d been a few moments there in the library when she thought she’d sensed a vibe between her and Theo too. She was definitely attracted to him, but only in a superficial way. As sexy as he was, his determination to sell this castle when his grandfather had so plainly wanted him to keep it was a big turn-off for her.

“You ladies are missing the point,” Ruby said, tugging thoughtfully at her glasses. “The Queen of England has stayed here. I wonder which bedroom she stayed in?”

“Probably one in the back part of the castle where we’re not allowed to go,” Elle mused.

“Imagine sleeping in the same bed the queen has slept in? The queen’s bed!” Ruby flopped back on the grass next to Megan with a dreamy expression on her face.

“I think we need to focus on that fact that Theo is trying to buy us out of our contract.” Elle stared at her friends, both daydreaming about royalty in the warm grass. Why weren’t they as worried about this as she was?

“I knew this gig was too good to be true,” Megan said with a sigh.

“Ten grand each is nothing to thumb our noses at,” Ruby said. “Especially since we all quit our jobs to come here.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, a breeze whispering through the trees behind them, steady and restless as Elle’s resentment over Theo wanting to sell the castle.

“Maybe we can take our idea for the Fairy Tails program and put it into place somewhere else,” Ruby said finally.

Elle twirled a blade of grass between her fingers. “We could try, but a big part of the draw for me was being here.” The castle and its grounds spoke to her somehow. Being here felt a lot like finding the elusive “it” she’d been searching for her entire adult life.

“I think we should take the money,” Ruby said. “It doesn’t make any sense to get things up and running here in the castle and bring in all those adoptable pets, and then just shut it down and leave.”

“Not to mention, we’d be leaving empty-handed,” Megan said. “After working our butts off for six months.”

“Not empty-handed,” Elle said. “We get a pretty sweet salary if we stay. It’s a lot more than I was making as a theme park princess.”

“That’s true.” Ruby pursed her lips. “It’s more than all of us were making.”

“Having a dependable, well-paying job for six months is a definite plus.” Megan sat up, combing grass out of her hair with her fingers. “Although, if we took the payout, I could afford the equipment I need to start my photography business.”

“And I could upgrade my software and get that new computer monitor I’ve had my eye on.” Ruby rolled to her stomach, scuffing the toe of her sneaker in the grass.

But what would Elle do with her cut? She didn’t have a “thing.” She didn’t know what she wanted out of life. This. Living and working at the castle had become her dream over the past few weeks, however silly and irrational, and she was having an awfully hard time letting go of it. “We’d also have to look for new jobs and apartments back in Orlando. Ten grand wouldn’t last long when you take that into account.”

“We could start looking for those things while we’re still here,” Ruby said. “None of us left behind jobs we were very excited about so starting over isn’t the worst thing in the world.”

Megan nodded. “Exactly. Theo said we can stay here a few weeks. We’ll have a nice vacation and leave with enough money to get us back on our feet. It’s not quite what we had in mind, but this still doesn’t suck.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Elle agreed.

“And if we’re only here a few weeks, then I don’t see any reason for you not to go after that deliciously handsome pseudo-royal in there,” Megan said with a wicked smile.

“Megan!” Ruby looked scandalized. “He’s still our landlord.”

“He is,” Elle agreed, and while the idea of hooking up with Theo Langdon held a certain intrigue, she had absolutely no intention of doing so.

“Can you believe he’s an earl?” Megan asked as she typed something into her phone.

“Not really,” Elle answered. Honestly, she’d never been all that hung up on British royalty, but the title did sound impressive, and it definitely added to his appeal.

“Oh my God, you guys, look at this.” Megan held out her phone. The headline on the screen read “The Eligible Earl” with Theo’s photo accompanying the article. “According to this, Theo is one of the most sought-after bachelors in England right now.”

“Really?” Elle leaned in—maybe a little too quickly based on Megan’s smirk—for a closer look.

“Oh, this one is even better. ‘The Earl of Lure.’” Megan snorted as she continued to skim through headlines on her phone.

Ruby adjusted her glasses, peering at the article. “What does that even mean?”

“Apparently, he’s ‘luring’ in all the available ladies with his smoldering good looks,” Megan told her. “They’re lining up to date him.”

Elle felt her grin morph into a grimace. “No wonder he’s so anxious to get back to England.”

“Right? Well, now we officially know he’s available. If you don’t go after him, I just might,” Megan said as she stood from the grass.

“What?” Elle’s voice sounded more like a screech. She slapped a hand over her mouth, embarrassed.

“See, I knew you liked him,” Megan said with a smug smile.

“I do like him, but he’s our landlord.” She stood, dusting stray blades of grass from the back of her skirt. “And an earl.”

“The Earl of Lure,” Ruby interjected.

“If we go back to Florida without any of us having kissed that man, it will be such a shame,” Megan said as she led the way along the path further into the garden. With her tall, willowy frame, dark hair, and bronzed complexion, Megan had a sort of a supermodel vibe about her that, combined with her ready smile and bubbly personality, meant she never had trouble finding a man of her own to kiss.

“I thought you were taking a break from men, anyway?” Elle said, turning the tables on her friend.

Megan shrugged. “I am, which is why I’m encouraging you to go after him.”

“Enough about men.” Ruby bent to smell one of the many roses lining their path. “The longer we’re here, the more I appreciate how awesome this place is.”

“It really is,” Megan agreed. “Although I can see what Theo means about how much it must cost to maintain, especially when you think about all the people who work here. And if no one actually lives here…”

“We’d be living here, though,” Elle protested.

“We’re just more employees they have to pay, though, aren’t we?” Megan said. “No one from the Langdon family lives here anymore so you can hardly blame them for wanting to sell the place.”

Elle bit her tongue, but the more she thought about it, the more hurt and disappointed she felt about leaving. Megan and Ruby both had dreams they could chase with the money from the payout, but Elle didn’t. This had become her dream, and she wasn’t ready to give up on it just yet. An idea was simmering in her mind, something that might help them all get what they wanted, but she didn’t want to broach it with her friends until she’d had more of a chance to think it through.

They spent the next half hour wandering through the gardens admiring the flowers. For a house that hadn’t known a woman’s touch in years, the gardens sure were impressive. Then again, the credit for that fact probably went to the gardener.

Beyond the gardens, rolling green hills beckoned. Some of them were fenced off like pastures with pristine white-painted fences, but no animals grazed in them that she could see. She, Megan, and Ruby walked along a mulched path between the fields, taking it all in.

“Can you imagine horseback riding through here?” Megan said.

“I’ve never ridden a horse.” Ruby gazed out over the perfect green field in front of them.

“I think I see a barn,” Elle said as a wooden building came into view peeking through the trees.

They kept walking, and sure enough, a barn came into view further down the path. It was fairly small but looked well-maintained. They walked inside and found six horse stalls plus a tack room and a hay loft. Everything was empty and clean except for a thin coat of dust. A small farmhouse was visible at the other end of the field.

“Seems like such a shame to have a nice stable like this and no horses in it,” Megan said.

“Imagine how much income we could generate for Rosemont Castle if we rented this place out?” Elle mused as she stared out the end of the barn toward the farmhouse.

“No point thinking about it now,” Ruby said.

Elle turned to face them. “Well, maybe there is. I’ve been thinking. What if we offer Theo a compromise?”