get over it. He’s just angry because he knows it’s the right thing to do even though he doesn’t want it,’ said Willow.
‘You think?’
‘I think he has been alone for so long he’s always had his own way, so considering other people isn’t really something he’s used to,’ said Willow knowingly. Growing up with therapist parents had taught her a thing or two about people and their actions. Shame she didn’t apply it to Kerr when she met him, she thought.
Merritt walked into the room with a bottle of claret and three glasses as a peace offering. Opening the bottle, he poured for the women and then sat in the chair opposite them.
‘It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good idea in theory, but I am so overwhelmed with the details, trying to fix up the house and work out where the money will come from. The garden I’m all over, but I can’t afford a proper interior designer to get it back into shape inside. I don’t know the difference between a chaise longue and a credenza.’
‘Don’t look at me,’ said Kitty throwing her hands up. ‘I have no idea about that stuff either.’
‘I do,’ said Willow slowly. ‘Let me come up with a few ideas. I won’t be like a real interior designer, but I can pull pages from magazines and books and give you a feel to get you started,’ she offered.
It was her favourite thing to do. She would be so excited if Merritt let her. Merritt raised his hands as if surrendering.
‘Whatever,’ he said, and they all laughed.
On the morning that Harold Gaumont was due to arrive for the appraisal of Middlemist, Willow was in a flap.
‘Kitty, keep the children away if you can. I don’t think he likes children. Well he doesn’t look like he would like them,’ she called down the hallway from her bedroom.
Poppy screwed up her face as Kitty dressed her. ‘I don’t like him then either,’ she said.
‘Shhh,’ said Kitty as she brushed Poppy’s golden curls and put a red ribbon in her hair.
‘Where’s Lucian?’ Kitty asked.
‘Out with Mewwitt,’ said Poppy.
Kitty lifted her off the bed and set her on the floor. ‘Go and watch Jinty while I make the beds,’ she said, and Poppy ran down to the playroom where Jinty sat surrounded by Merritt’s old building blocks, which Kitty had found in the nursery.
Lucian had taken an immediate liking to Merritt, following him around the garden and watching him work. Merritt kept up a continuous monologue with Lucian, as he had seen the mother and father do with the child in Florida, and occasionally Merritt saw Lucian open his mouth to speak.
Willow didn’t mind Lucian being out with Merritt; in fact she encouraged it. It meant he was less likely to follow her around, which got on her nerves, she had to admit.
Willow had dressed carefully for this next meeting with Harold. She wanted him to see her at her best, and considering the limited wardrobe she had brought with her to Middlemist, she had managed to pull together the appropriate look, she thought.
Black, tight Calvin Klein pants and black suede ankle boots – a neutral base – but on top she had taken her lace Chloé blouse and layered over it one of the red Victorian hunting jackets that Poppy had found in the eaves.
She and Kitty had gone through all the trunks upstairs and had found clothes from nearly every era. It was a costume party shop’s dream, and Willow looked the part today with the blouse, the jacket and another discovery: a beautiful golden brooch with what looked to be a plait of hair inside it.
Willow made her cheeks a little flushed and applied eye makeup. She had washed and dried her hair, setting it in rollers so it hung in gentle rolls down her back, and sprayed herself with the violet water, which surprisingly still smelled quite fresh, that she found in the bathroom cupboard. Applying a quick sheen of nude lip gloss, she ran down the stairs two at a time.
Merritt looked up as she came bounding down towards him and he felt his stomach give way. She looked beautiful. Not like the pale, harassed woman he had seen over the few days he had come to know her.
She smiled at him and stood posing on the steps. ‘Enough?’ she asked.
‘More than enough,’ he smiled, looking at her in a way that Willow hadn’t seen for a long time, and she felt