Chapter 28
Back at the cottage, Matt’s van was still parked in the yard but he wasn’t anywhere to be found in the house. I had been careful to keep a tight grip on Minnie’s collar as I worked my way through the rooms, but I needn’t have bothered. Forgetting I had left the front door ajar, I set her down in the kitchen and in a heartbeat she was off, tearing out of the door, with me hot on her heels.
It didn’t take a genius to work out where she was heading, just someone with average hearing, and I followed the expletives all the way to the bottom of the ladder that she had chased Matt back up and which was propped up against one of the barns.
‘What are you doing down here?’ I frowned, annoyed to have caught him looking, what could only be described as, up to no good. ‘I thought you said you had jobs to finish in the house? I don’t remember asking you to come down to the yard for anything.’
Having just had a conversation with Jake about his and Will’s reservations about my builder’s credentials, I was none too pleased to find him skulking about somewhere which, although not exactly off-limits, was certainly none of his concern.
‘Do you think you could call her off?’ Matt requested, with a nod to the bottom of the ladder where Minnie was standing with her front feet on the second rung, her teeth barred and a menacing growl resonating through her tiny chest.
‘In a minute,’ I said. ‘When you’ve answered my question.’
Matt looked rather taken aback by my response. He gripped the ladder a little tighter and stepped up another rung. To my mind he couldn’t have looked guiltier if he tried.
‘I’d rather not say, if it’s all the same to you,’ he muttered.
‘I’m sure you wouldn’t,’ I said, ‘but unless you do, you’re going to find yourself up there for a very long time.’
‘All right, all right,’ he caved as Minnie attempted to balance a paw on the next step up. ‘Just don’t go off on one, OK.’
‘All right,’ I said, bending to clip on Minnie’s lead, but I still didn’t pick her up.
‘Are you going to take her back up to the house?’
‘Not yet. Come on, out with it. You’ve left the cottage unlocked and I’d like to get back up there at some point today.’
Matt let out a long breath and I braced myself to listen to the excuse he was going to come up with to try and justify what he was up to.
‘I had a message from Simon earlier.’
‘Right.’
‘He said he was worried about you working down here when he hadn’t had a chance to check out how the electricity had been installed. He was concerned that it was rigged up illegally or something and that you were in more danger down here than you had been inside the cottage.’
‘And what has any of that got to do with you?’ I demanded, thinking that drunk and bullish Simon was very different to the sober and considerate version. ‘You aren’t an electrician.’
‘He wanted to come back himself but he’s busy today and when I told him you were worried about the work stacking up, he gave me a few pointers to look out for that would give him an idea as to whether his concerns were justified.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me any of this earlier, and what exactly are you looking for up there?’
‘I’m checking the connection and I didn’t tell you earlier because, like I said to Simon, I didn’t want to stress you out over spending more money if everything turned out to be all right.’
That sounded fair enough. Sort of. He did know I had been worrying about the bills stacking up and therefore having me out of the way before he had a look did make sense, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced.
‘Oh great,’ said Matt, his head dropping as he looked back up the yard.
‘Hello, hello,’ said a voice behind me. ‘What’s going on here then?’
Will sounded incredibly amused to have stumbled upon what must have looked like a scene from a farce. Minnie momentarily took her eyes off her prey, wagged her tail in Will’s direction, gave a playful little yap and then turned her attention, as well as her teeth, back to Matt.
‘I suppose you know the psychology behind this kind of scenario, don’t you?’ Will said to me playfully. ‘Never trust a human your dog hates. That’s how it goes, isn’t it, Minnie?’
Another yap from Minnie and a head shake from Matt.
‘What do you want, Will?’ he called down.
‘Do you know,’ said Will, rocking back on his heels and clearly loving every moment, ‘right now I can’t remember.’
‘Matt’s just checking how the barn is hooked up to the electric,’ I said, pulling Minnie away.
‘But don’t the cables run underground?’ frowned Will.
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know, but I hoped he was wrong, for Matt’s sake if nothing else.
‘So have you remembered what you want?’ I asked.
‘Oh yes,’ he said with a grin. ‘I wanted to ask how you got on driving to Skylark Farm this morning. I take it you’ve been?’
‘Yes,’ I nodded, ‘and it was fine. Better than fine actually, brilliant.’
‘Well done you,’ said Will, giving my shoulder a squeeze and sounding genuinely delighted. ‘And I also wanted to let you know that David is going to be back in town from tomorrow. Mags mentioned that you were hoping to see him about something, is that right?’
‘Yes,’ I said, feeling pleased that I would finally be able to get some answers from the expert. ‘That’s great. Thanks, Will; although I’m not sure I’m up to driving in to Wynbridge just yet.’
‘Well, that’s where you’re in luck,’ he said. ‘I have a day off tomorrow and I need to go to town. I thought you could pick me up and we’d go in together. How does that sound?’
‘Perfect,’ I said quickly before my nerves got the better of me again and I asked him to drive me in. ‘Absolutely perfect.’
‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance you could pick that bloody dog up, is there?’ Matt called down from his lofty spot at the top of the ladder.
So caught up with what Will had to say, I’d momentarily forgotten that he was still up there.
‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ Will smiled down at me, completely ignoring Matt’s request. ‘We could have a spot to eat in the Cherry Tree if you fancy it?’
‘That would be lovely,’ I said. ‘I can’t think of anywhere better.’
‘You are sure he’s up there for the reason he says he is, aren’t you, Lottie?’ he said quietly.
I swallowed but didn’t answer.
‘Thanks mate,’ said Matt in disgust. ‘I can hear you, you know.’
‘So?’ shouted Will. ‘I don’t care if you can hear me, and I’m not your mate.’
‘It’s all right,’ I said, laying a hand on Will’s arm. ‘It’s fine. If anyone’s got the situation wrong, it’s probably Simon. I dare say he’s told him to look in the wrong place or something.’
I wanted to believe that was the case, but really I couldn’t be sure. Will shook his head and glared up at Matt and I knew that all it would take was one hint of a doubt on my behalf and Will would be knocking Matt off the ladder and throwing him off my land.
‘Will,’ I said loudly, pulling his attention back to me for fear that he was about to actually do just that. ‘I would love to drive you to town tomorrow, but for now would you please just take Minnie back up to the cottage and put her out of harm’s way in the dining room for me?’
‘Sure,’ he said, scooping Minnie up. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Without another word he strode off up the yard and into the cottage. I was amused to see that Matt stayed up the ladder until Will came back out of the house empty-handed, climbed into his truck and drove off.
‘I wish I knew what it was he’s got against me,’ he said as he joined me back on solid ground. ‘We were both close to Gwen,’ he went on, ‘so it’s not as if he didn’t know all this work needed doing, is it?’
‘I don’t know,’ I shrugged.
‘I mean,’ Matt went on, ‘if he was such a good friend and such a hero then surely, given all the work he did on his barn, you’d think he would have offered to do these jobs for her, wouldn’t you?’
‘Maybe,’ I relented.
‘Well, you want to watch yourself with him, Lottie,’ he said, echoing what others had said about him. ‘He’s got one hell of a temper on him.’
I didn’t say anything, just waited while he folded up the ladder.
‘And what did you want to see David about?’
‘Just a couple of things I want to clarify.’
‘It isn’t about the ag regs, is it?’
‘Might be,’ I shrugged non-committally.
‘Well, I hope you won’t be disappointed when he charges you a fortune just to confirm what I’ve already told you for free,’ he said, striding ahead. ‘I thought you were supposed to be watching the pennies.’