It was a grand old estate, and on the slim funds Hamish had had to play with he’d worked miracles. ‘I’m impressed,’ Chico admitted, remembering that he had done something very similar himself in Brazil.
‘This is a lifetime’s work.’
‘And you could use some help,’ Chico suggested.
‘It wouldn’t go amiss,’ Hamish agreed gruffly as they shook hands. ‘Will we be seeing you tomorrow?’
‘I expect so.’ This was a man with whom he was already forming a firm bond of respect, Chico acknowledged, but he wasn’t ready to reveal his plans to anyone yet.
‘That’s good,’ Hamish said, shooting him the straight look he might give to a man in whom Hamish believed he could place his trust.
* * *
Biting her lip so it hurt enough to stop her crying when she thought about all the kind words for her grandmother, Lizzie closed the door on the last of their guests. Leaning back with her eyes tightly shut, she closed her heart too. Where was Chico? And why was she wasting even more time caring about a man who was probably on his way back to Brazil by now?
Walking into the library, she opened the desk drawer where Annie had put the letter from the bank. Bringing it out, she read it again to be sure there was no mistake. She had also found a stash of unopened bills in her grandmother’s dressing table that had lain untouched since her grandmother had been taken ill. The letter from the bank was quite specific. The last of the ponies and the livestock would go, and then the land would be parcelled up, and the house sold off. Everything Lizzie’s grandmother had worked so hard to build up would be torn down and sold off for a fraction of its value. She would have to let the staff go—tell them the estate was going to be sold, and they would have to make other plans. She had a few personal trinkets to sell, and she would share that money between the tenants and staff. It was a derisory amount for generations of loyalty, but it was all she could do for them.
‘Am I interrupting?’
‘Chico? I thought you’d gone.’ She gulped in a breath as her heart went crazy with shock.
‘Annie gave me the keys.’ He held them up. ‘I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t think you should be alone tonight.’
‘I told you before. I’m fine,’ she insisted.
‘Will you stop saying you’re fine, when it’s clear to me that you’re anything but fine?’
He tossed the keys in a dish by the door and walked towards her, shedding his scarf and jacket along the way. He’d already taken off the tie he’d worn earlier, and his shirt had a few buttons undone at the neck.
‘You look tired too,’ she said as he came closer.
‘Me?’ Chico’s smile was slow, and now he was standing close enough for her to detect his clean spicy scent, and the chill of the winter air on his face. She was surprised to feel a frisson of awareness pass between them even now when she was at her lowest ebb.
‘I think it’s time for you to go to bed. It’s been a long day for you, Lizzie.’
Surely, he didn’t mean with him? She glanced at the door, wondering how to politely broach the subject of him leaving. She couldn’t take any false dawns today. It would be the best thing ever to sleep with Chico, and have his comfort throughout the night, but not when morning came and she was alone again.