‘I might want it,’ she argued angrily, ‘but I’ve got more sense.’
‘More sense than to do what?’ he challenged.
‘To love you,’ she blurted out, surprising him with her ferocity. ‘I’ve got more sense than to love you.’ With an angry huff, she turned her face away. ‘And now I’m going to check on the horses,’ she said gruffly, ‘and when I’ve done that, I’ll pack a bag and you’ll never have to see me again—’
‘Not so fast.’ He caught her close. ‘You’re not going to leave here, and desert everyone before you’ve even heard my plan?’
‘I no longer have a place here,’ she said proudly. ‘Rottingdean doesn’t belong to the Fane family. It belongs to you. The estate is no longer my responsibility.’
‘So, will you say goodbye to the staff on your way out?’ he demanded mildly.
She made an angry, impatient sound in reply.
‘Would you mind moving away from the door, please?’
‘Yes, I’d mind,’ he assured her, standing firm. ‘Don’t tar me with the same brush as your parents, Lizzie. I’m not here to take anything. I’m here to give. I want to restore the estate so that everyone has the chance of a good future. I understand the uncertainty you’ve all been through, and I want to bring it to an end. I know you’re angry now, because this change of ownership has happened so fast, but don’t act on impulse. Stay and we can work miracles here.’
‘You can’t just make everything right,’ she said. ‘You can’t just walk back into Rottingdean House and expect to pick up where we left off.’
‘Why not? Why not, Lizzie?’ he demanded fiercely. ‘We can do anything we want to, if we want it enough.’
She drew breath for a moment, and then slowly relaxed. ‘Do you remember this?’ she said, pushing back her sleeve.
‘That’s not the friendship bracelet I made for you?’ He shook his head with surprise. ‘You’ve still got it after all these years?’ He saw the hurt in her eyes, and understood how Lizzie had felt when she thought he had deserted her. ‘If there’d been any other way...’
There was a long silence and then she said softly, ‘I feel like you, in that I’m glad you came to Scotland, because you and Eduardo inspired me. I would never have been ready for you to leave.’
‘And I didn’t want to leave,’ he admitted. ‘I raged against it.’
‘My mother would have destroyed you. I know that now. No one turns down Serena, but you did. That was your only sin. My father’s a violent alcoholic, who would have ruined what little remained of the estate so my grandmother had good reason to take the power to do that out of his hands. I remember my mother swearing at my grandmother on that last day, saying she didn’t care if they were thrown out, because there were richer pickings for a woman like my mother who still had her looks. There was a lot of gossip after they left, and even if I didn’t understand half of it at the time, I know my grandmother wouldn’t have been granted custody of me, if it hadn’t been bad. And why would Grannie allow me to come on your course in Brazil, if she didn’t believe in your innocence? I think she was pleased I won your scholarship, because she wanted justice to prevail, and giving me her blessing was her way of apologising to you for the harm done to you by my parents.’
‘And what did you think, Lizzie?’