He smiled. ‘She told you about that too.’ He crossed to the fridge. ‘I play golf with the man she would have worked for. He asked me why she’d turned the job down—a first, apparently. I never told her mother. Beer?’
‘No... Once I’ve talked to Kevin Rose, I have to get back to London.’ She’d given him so much; the least he could do for her was deliver the front page of the Country Chronicle. With that very public demonstration of her ability to turn disaster into triumph, she would be able to name her price when she was negotiating terms with Miles Morgan. ‘This was just a flying visit. I’m installing a sculpture in Lambourn in a week or two and I had to come down to look at the site.’ It was a pathetic excuse by any standards, but Derrick accepted it at face value. ‘If I don’t manage to catch Natasha before I go, tell her...’ What? What could he say? ‘Tell her she’s better than the best.’
* * *
‘Darius? Can you talk?’
‘If you’re quick.’
Tash frowned. Nothing had seemed quite the same between them since the open day. Okay, she’d been busy, he had to be somewhere else, but he’d left without saying goodbye and something was missing. The sex—snatched in brief moments when he wasn’t working—was still stunningly hot, but the perfect focus that made her believe that she was the only woman in the world had gone. And those fun ‘dates’ had been forgotten. It was as if the shutters had come down and she was afraid that the reality of the sale had cut deeper than he’d anticipated. In which case he wasn’t going to want to hear this.
Or he was ready to move on. In which case he would.
‘I’m working,’ he prompted impatiently.
‘Yes... Sorry... I just wanted you to know that I’ve got two firm offers for the house on the table.’
‘Two? Are we going to have a bidding war?’ He sounded bored rather than excited by the prospect.
‘Behave yourself. One is from an overseas buyer who’s looking for a small country house to complement his London apartment. He’s offering the guide price.’
‘Take it.’
‘The second offer is lower. I’ve negotiated them up from their opening bid but it’s still half a million below the guide price.’
‘So why are we talking about it?’
‘Because it’s a better package.’
‘Can you keep this short? They’re waiting to weld the heart in place.’
‘Really? You’re that close?’
‘Natasha, please...’
‘Sorry. The second offer is from the IT company across the river. They’re expanding and need more space but there are planning restrictions on their own site. The thing is, most of the staff live locally and their children go to the village school so they don’t want to move.’
‘Then maybe they should up their offer.’
‘It’s lower, but it’s actually worth more. I’ve managed to exclude the estate cottages, which means you won’t have to rehouse the tenants and you’ll have more disposable income from the sale. Sitting tenants will also affect the resale value of the properties so it will help reduce the inheritance tax bill. Repairs and maintenance can be offset against tax and the cottages will be realisable assets in the future. Finally—’