Cesca’s visit had been a lovely surprise that afternoon, but Harper had felt uneasy about the news she brought with her for the rest of the day. There were no cast-iron guarantees, she’d said, but she was sending her reports to the British Museum and expected the decision on the find to go Harper’s way. She’d just been up to tell Will Frampton as much, and he’d apparently taken the news surprisingly well. Shay had arrived with typically perfect timing to hear the conversation and had been delighted, of course, whereas Pip had remained carefully neutral on the whole thing – perhaps soaking up some of Harper’s reticence. But as she sat in the bar of the Rising Sun now with them both, Harper couldn’t help but reflect on the growing feeling that neither find nor reward were rightfully hers to keep.

‘Do I have your permission to get pissed as a fart tonight?’ Shay asked, putting his second pint of lager to his lips.

‘Do you need my permission?’ Harper raised her eyebrows at Pip, who laughed.

‘You could join me – we’ve got a lot to celebrate.’

‘And I’ve got a farm full of animals to feed at the crack of dawn tomorrow, not to mention thirsty customers. How about you celebrate by giving us a hand?’

‘If you can wake me in the morning then you can have me,’ he said with a wink.

‘I’ll wake you,’ Pip said. ‘You’d be surprised how persuasive a bucket of freezing water can be.’

‘I had something a bit dirtier in mind to be honest,’ he said, giving Harper a knowing look, but she turned her gaze to the bar beyond the table where they waited for fish and chips, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of winding her up.

What would she do if the door opened now and Kristofer walked in? It had been something she’d tried to imagine all day – him showing up at the tearoom or in the farmyard. Whenever she found herself alone she’d been taunted by erotic visions of him surprising her with a hot kiss in some hidden corner of the farm, the long grass in the fields beyond, in the dappled shade of the cherry orchard out back. She’d press her fingers to those beautiful lightning scars that adorned his chest and caress every inch of them.

But her daydream was cut short by the pub door opening and someone else walking in.

‘Bloody hell,’ she murmured, the action entirely involuntary.

Shay and Pip both turned to see what had caught Harper’s attention.

‘She looks like shit,’ Pip said in a low voice. But when Harper looked at Shay, she caught, just for the briefest second, a look of concern and irritation.

‘Has she got a suitcase with her?’ Pip added.

Harper looked and saw that Allie had dragged in a case behind her, quickly propping it at the far end of the bar. She leaned over to speak quietly to the landlord, who nodded and then ushered her round to the back of the bar and out of sight.

‘I wonder what that was about?’ Pip reached for her cider and took a sip.

‘I don’t know, but it looks to me as if she’s asked for a room,’ Harper said.

‘Greg’s probably had enough of her crazy lies and kicked her out.’ Shay drained his pint glass and stood up. ‘I’m going for a slash and then I’m going to get a top-up – anyone want one?’

‘I’m not interested in your slash but I will have another half,’ Pip said.

Harper shook her head. ‘Not for me.’

She watched him go to the bar, lean in and have a brief, quiet word with the landlord, then veer off to the gents’ toilets. ‘I wonder if she has split with her husband.’

‘Who knows?’ Pip said. ‘Shay seemed pretty quick to jump to that conclusion though.’

‘I suppose it’s the most obvious one. It’s not like she’s coming here with a suitcase for a holiday, is it? And I’m pretty sure she’s got nobody else in the village. I wonder why she hasn’t gone to her parents or something, though. They live in Dorset, don’t they?’

Pip shrugged. ‘Perhaps she doesn’t want to tell them.’

‘They’ll find out sooner or later, surely. You can’t keep something like that a secret forever.’

‘But you might want to keep it a secret until you get your head around it, I suppose.’

‘Maybe,’ Harper said thoughtfully.

‘It’s weird,’ Pip added, ‘I saw her husband at the post office this afternoon and he seemed fine, not like someone who was about to kick his wife out. In fact, he asked how you and Shay were. A bit of an odd question considering he doesn’t know you very well and he doesn’t exactly love Shay. Still, he seems a decent fella and I suppose he was just making conversation.’

‘I suppose he was,’ Harper agreed. ‘I can’t help but feel sorry for her, though.’

‘Allie? I don’t know why. She’s no angel.’

‘Not many of us are. She looked like she was in a bad way just now, and if she’s as deluded as Shay says then she needs help from her husband, not throwing out onto the streets.’

‘She’s in a pub.’

Harper turned to Pip and frowned. ‘You know what I mean.’

‘I do, but it’s not your problem.’ She raised her cider glass and looked at Harper over the rim as she drank. ‘You’ve got enough of your own.’

‘I’m fine. In fact, it looks like we’re about to be more than fine.’

‘You and Shay?’

‘All three of us. I won’t leave you out of the reward.’

‘Never mind the reward. What about Kristofer?’

Harper cast an anxious glance around the pub. She lowered her voice, even though she knew Shay was in the toilets. ‘I wish I’d never told you now,’ she hissed.

‘So you’re still planning on marrying Shay, letting him share the reward and move into the farm even though you’re madly in love with someone else?’

‘I’m not in love with someone else!’

‘Doesn’t look that way to me.’ Pip sat back and regarded her coolly. ‘What is this misplaced sense of duty for? Do you think Shay would behave like this if the situation was the other way around?’

‘Yes.’

‘Liar.’

‘Look, I know you’ve never liked him but—’

‘I like him well enough. I don’t trust him – that’s the issue, and I’ve never hidden that from you.’

Harper’s gaze went to the toilet doors again. ‘What would you say,’ she began slowly, ‘if I told you that I’m thinking of letting Will Frampton have the reward money if we get it?’

A slow smile spread across Pip’s face. ‘I’d say that I never thought anything different was going to happen.’

‘And you don’t mind?’

‘It’s never been my decision so how could I mind? I know how you love life on the farm just as it is, and how much it means to you after all you went through in Weymouth. I guess a large amount of money like that would bring its own risks as well as rewards.’

‘I know. I’m already paranoid enough about Ricky getting wind of it; I don’t want him turning up at the farm. I know he wouldn’t be entitled to anything and Shay would protect me, but I just don’t want to see him, and I don’t want to do anything that might grab his attention and lead him here. It might sound weird to most people, but the reward money would benefit me more if I gave it to Will than it would if I kept it.’

‘I get where you’re coming from. Shay might have something to say about it, though.’

‘I know, and I’ll have to talk to him about it when the time comes. I just feel… I don’t know; I just feel it will bring more problems than it solves. Does that sound weird?’

‘No. I think you’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Will too… Am I right?’

‘Not like that,’ Harper said with a faint smile. ‘But I do think he’s a lovely, misunderstood man.’

‘Yes, I think Cesca was taken aback to hear you say that.’ Pip grinned. ‘It’s quite hard to see for most people.’

‘But when I showed her the vase he gave us she did say she thought it was a lovely gesture.’

‘It’s probably the last vase you’ll ever get from him now that you’re set to get his money.’

Harper was saved a reply by the sight of Shay emerging from the toilets.

‘Food not arrived yet?’ he asked, but his mood had visibly darkened since he’d left them.

‘No,’ Pip said.

‘Typical.’ Shay sat down and started to drum on the tabletop as he scanned the room. ‘I just want to eat and get home for a bit of telly.’

‘I thought you wanted to stay out and celebrate?’ Pip said.

‘I’m going to have a word with Dave, see where our meals are,’ he replied, ignoring Pip’s comment and going to the bar.

‘Weird,’ Pip said as they watched him. ‘And you’re still sure you want to marry him?’

‘Shut up, Pip,’ Harper said. ‘Please just shut up.’

---

Cesca stared at the contact for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and clicked to delete. That was it – Paolo gone from her life at last. The idea had occurred to her, as sudden and unexpected as a breeze through an open window, and as she sat at her desk and worked to catch up on what she hadn’t been able to get done during the week, she had been compelled to act on it. She hardly knew how she felt now that it was done, only that it had been a long time coming.

Casting a glance around the office that seemed oddly vast and daunting without Duncan there, her thoughts went back to Will. The responsibility for his family’s jewels had gone, but not the memories of the time she’d spent with him. Pointless to dwell, of course, and had it not been a Saturday morning, when sensible people like Duncan were at home instead of sitting in the office, then he would have been there, gently teasing her melancholy. She’d become too involved in the case, just as Duncan had said she would, and she had nobody to blame but herself. It wasn’t only that she’d stupidly fallen for Will, but she was missing everything about it – Kristofer and their shared enthusiasm for the research, the village and residents of Cerne Hay, Silver Hill Farm with its charm and tranquillity, the stately home that bore the same name, its faded grandeur all at once beguiling and moving…

Turning to her computer, she opened the bookmarked pages for the restoration schemes she’d mentioned to Will. He hadn’t seemed that keen but perhaps it was worth one more try. She jotted down some names and numbers and pertinent details in her notepad. He’d be surprised to see her, and perhaps going there was guaranteed to break her heart considering their last parting, but it was one thing to get her heart broken and quite another to let a beautiful piece of heritage go to the dogs when she could save it. Her love of history was the one constant in her life, the one thing that would always love her back – the one love she wouldn’t betray no matter what else happened.

Dragging her phone across the desk, she was about to dial his number when a text message notification appeared. She stared at the name.

Will.

Frowning, she opened the text.

Was this message intended for someone else? Yesterday it was all thanks and goodbye, and now he was texting like they were best buddies. Could this man be any more confusing if he tried? She tapped out a brief reply.

Cesca let out a squeak of frustration. She typed out a reply, her finger hovering over the send button, before deleting it and typing a new one.

She let out a sigh, annoyed at her own lack of assertiveness. She supposed she had wanted to speak to him about the house restoration schemes anyway.

Switching off her computer and tearing the page of information from her notebook, she headed out the door, muttering to herself about how she intended to grow a backbone just as soon as she’d made this visit.

---

Will was waiting for her at the front gate, pacing up down. He was pacing outside the gate, the lock already undone before Cesca had arrived, a fact worthy of note in itself. He rarely unlocked the gate and ventured out until his guest had arrived. As she pulled up on the gravel, he practically ran to the car.

‘I don’t have a Mr Whippy machine in here,’ she said wryly as she opened the door to clamber out.

‘A what?’ Will asked. Cesca waved away a joke he was hardly likely to get anyway. When was the last time Lord William Horatio Henry Frampton, sixteenth Earl of Cerne Hay, had raced down a terraced street chasing the chimes of an ice-cream van? He’d probably had a nanny who’d made gelato by hand in one of the cavernous kitchens of Silver Hill House.

‘Never mind,’ she said. ‘What’s this huge news you need to tell me?’

‘Come through to the garden,’ he said, ushering her along with so much enthusiasm that she hardly had any other choice.

After he’d locked the gates again, she followed as he led her around the back of the house to a paved area on which sat a table with a parasol. It was set for a meal for two.

Cesca threw a confused glance at him. Was this for her? Her answer came as he beckoned her to sit.

‘I thought we might eat,’ he said. ‘I hope you haven’t already dined.’

‘If you mean scoffed a sandwich at my desk, then not yet.’

‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘I was going to make something light… Anything in particular you’d like?’

Cesca’s frown returned. ‘Look, Will… this is lovely and everything but I’m confused. Perhaps you can tell me what’s going on and then we can eat, because if you disappear into the kitchen to cook now and leave me stewing here – if you’ll pardon the pun – then I might just explode with the suspense. So please… what is this amazing news?’

He dragged a chair out and plonked himself across from her, arms folded on the table as he leaned in. Then he stood up again.

‘It’s rather complicated and I have some bread in the oven.’

‘Bread? OK, I won’t ask. I’ll come to the kitchen and you can tell me while you look after your bread.’

For a moment, it seemed he would argue but then he nodded. ‘Good idea.’

They were swallowed by the cool interior of the house as they left the sun behind and went to the smaller kitchen where Will did all his cooking. Cesca had to admit it smelt amazing, the aroma of baking bread laced with strains of rosemary and garlic.

‘That is one incredible pong!’ she said approvingly. ‘You’ve made it from scratch?’

He nodded as he crossed to the oven and peered inside. Then he closed the door again and turned to face her.

‘What else are we having?’ she asked. ‘Want me to help?’

‘I want you to listen,’ he said, and she stopped and stared at him. His tone had changed again, and the strange, amiable version of Will she hardly recognised had given way to someone far more earnest. ‘I was thinking about what you said yesterday – about other ways to save Silver Hill. And you were absolutely right. You know, Cesca… you’re quite remarkable and I’m beginning to see that. I spent much of the night thinking about many of the things you’ve said in the time we’ve known each other and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve been a fool. If I want to save this house then I must do whatever it takes. And if that means opening up to the world then I must take the plunge. I’ve seen that the world is not so bad after all. I’ve met you and Harper and Pip, and you’ve all been decent with me, despite knowing my family’s shame.’

‘Your family’s shame was never yours.’

‘I’ve told myself that so many times. But you have no idea how hard it is to shake the notion. You, however, have been so kind and patient, and I know that you care about this old place. So I decided last night as I lay in bed that I would, indeed, do something to change the fortunes of Silver Hill and the Frampton family.’

‘I can help—’ Cesca began, but the sight of him now smiling broadly stunned her into silence.

‘Having reached this momentous decision, can you imagine my surprise when I had a visit this morning from Harper Woods?’

‘What did she want?’

‘To donate her finder’s reward to the restoration of Silver Hill House. Isn’t that marvellous?’

Cesca dropped into a chair at the table. ‘Wow! I knew she’d had her doubts about whether to take the money but I never thought she’d actually give it to you.’

‘I’d like to show good faith by creating some kind of trust fund for it. I’ll have a solicitor draw something up but I would value your advice on the matter.’

‘Of course! And there’s no reason why we can’t pursue other sources of income too. If you’re going for it, might as well do it properly.’ Cesca’s mind started to race with the possibilities. They could save Silver Hill House – she and Will together could save it. She felt the excitement swell up through her, the thrill of working for something she loved. ‘We could make it amazing!’

‘And if not for you, I’d still be moping around this old place watching it fall apart around me. Thank you,’ he said.

‘There’s no need—’ she began, but her protest was cut short by his mouth suddenly over hers.

She blinked as they parted. He pulled back, watching her closely.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said into her silence. ‘I thought…’

Cesca reached and pulled him back. ‘You thought right,’ she whispered. Lips locked again, his kisses raw and full of need. She’d waited so long for this moment and now it had come she could barely contain the desire that pulsed through her. He was a puzzling, ridiculous contradiction of a man, but she wanted him like no man ever before.

He broke for air, his smile for the first time one of genuine joy. ‘I’ve wanted to do that since the first time we met.’

‘You only had to ask.’

He nodded with mock solemnity. ‘I must remember that next time.’ He moved in again, the tension gone and his touch less frantic as they settled into an easy rhythm, kissing as if they’d been born to kiss each other.

‘Your bread…’ Cesca murmured as his hands travelled the length of her back. ‘It’ll burn.’

But he pulled her closer, all thoughts of bread forgotten.