“Still, you’ve got a great guy as an employer,” he said. “Tom’s great. Really, he is. And you’ll have met the girls? Little Gaia and Coco.”
“Yes. They’re really special . . .”
He nodded. “Yes. It’s such a shame . . .” he said, throwing a strange look at Derry.
“Such a shame,” she agreed.
I presumed they were talking about the death of the girls’ mother, Aurelia, but just then we pulled up at a sign that seemed to indicate that one of the lanes across the bridge was closed and the traffic was slowing to a halt, so I wasn’t quite sure whether he was referring to the dead mother or the traffic. We sat in silence for a few moments, indicating to merge, until someone let us in and we pulled off.
“So . . . you’re Tom’s business partner?” I asked Clive, wondering why that meant he should be in Norway, or picking me up from the airport.
“We run the company together,” he said. “Architecture. I’m not sure how much he’s told you about the build . . .”
“Not a lot, actually. It’s a summer house, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. He and Aurelia acquired the site last year. There’s an old lodge on the land, just behind the woods. That’s where everyone is staying at the moment. By everyone, I mean you, Tom, the children, Maren, the housekeeper—I gather you’ve met her already?”
I nodded. The blonde woman who interviewed me at Tom’s house in Hampstead.
“Occasionally Derry and I pop over and stay for a weekend to project manage, or kick the contractors up the backside, in layman’s terms.”
This news made me feel uneasy. I don’t exactly know what I was expecting, but certainly not a household filled with watchful, confident adults.
“The build’s important,” Clive continued in a somber voice, “because regardless of what Tom tells you or anyone else, this house is not just his family holiday home. It’s also a kind of showstopper of a piece for the company. It’s our calling card, if you like. The centerpiece of our portfolio. And this one’s ten times better than the first house.”
“First house?” I asked.
“Oh, blimey,” Derry said, in a voice that sounded like there was a whole backstory I wasn’t aware of.
“Yes, well . . .” Clive said, clearing his throat. “There was a house before this one, but . . .”
“They built it on a river,” Derry said, as though building on a river was a big nope. “Basecamp, it was called.”
“I’m sure Tom will be very glad to fill you in on Basecamp,” Clive added loudly, keen to move on. “Aurelia’s Nest is going to be the ticket.”
“Aurelia’s Nest?” I asked.
“The name of the new house,” Derry explained.
“Prior to this we’ve focused mostly on commercial design,” Clive said, “but once we’ve built Aurelia’s Nest we’ll attract more clients engaging with high-end residential design. And right now, that’s where the money is.”
I nodded as if I followed any of this. “And . . . how long do you think it’ll take? The . . . build, I mean?”
Clive became very sullen then and I worried I’d hit a nerve. “Unfortunately a project as ambitious in scope as this one requires a lot of red tape. That’s before the construction, which is fairly precarious. Basecamp was built over a river, which in hindsight was a very bad idea, and we’ve all since learned from our mistakes. Now Tom is taking zero chances. Aurelia’s Nest is being built on the side of a cliff.”
“Beg pardon?” I said in a mousy voice. “Did you say . . . ?”
“Right?” Derry said, turning all the way around. “A house on the side of a two-hundred-foot sheer drop!”
I looked from Derry to Clive with abject terror.
“Trying to find a team of builders who’ll do their job while hanging off a sheer drop has proved . . . challenging, shall we say?” Clive said. “Impossible, that’s another word. This is why Tom and I work well together, you see. He’s the risk-taking artist and I’m . . .”
“The sane one?” I offered.
Clive liked that. He threw me a smile in the mirror. “Something like that.”
“Still, it’ll look terrific when it’s finished,” Derry added.
“Very modest, aren’t you?” Clive added, and I must have looked confused because Derry explained. “Tom has asked me to do all the interiors. I run an interior design company. That’s why it’s going to look fabulous.”
“You mentioned an old lodge,” I said. I was suddenly glad that I’d be staying in the