The Perfect Retreat Page 0,34

her stomach flip.

‘Thanks,’ she said, blushing. ‘Sorry about bullying you into this, but I do think it could be the miracle you need to save Middlemist.’

Merritt shrugged his shoulders. I gave up on miracles a long time ago, he thought, but he said nothing and put his hands in his pockets.

Merritt had washed his hands for the occasion, but that was it. In his old work boots, trousers and flannel shirt he looked like a roadside labourer, but Willow knew it didn’t matter. Harold was here for the house, not for its owner.

Merritt heard a car pull up and opened the large Gothic front doors. The driver came around and opened the door to the Bentley. Harold emerged. ‘Hello. I’m Merritt Middlemist. Pleased to meet you,’ said Merritt, stretching out his hand.

‘Indeed,’ said Harold, taking the hand in his tiny paw and looking beyond Merritt at the house. ‘What a grand dame.’

‘Yes, she is wonderful, although a little tired I’m afraid,’ said Merritt apologetically. Harold waved his apology away.

‘Willow, how lovely you look.’ He kissed Willow on each cheek as she emerged from the house. ‘Is this your lovely boyfriend then?’ asked Harold, looking at Merritt.

‘No, no. No. Not at all. Of course not,’ said Willow, suddenly nervous.

Merritt looked down. ‘No, I’m the brother of her nanny. She’s staying with us,’ he said.

‘Not that I meant it would be terrible. God, I sounded so rude. Of course you could be my boyfriend. Oh dammit!’ she said, fumbling over her words.

‘No offence taken,’ said Merritt, still looking down. Harold watched them with interest.

‘Show me the house then,’ said Harold, and Merritt and Willow walked him through it, which took over an hour.

‘I would like to sit now. The lovely drawing room at the front would be fine,’ said Harold, and Willow led the way back.

‘Can I get you tea, or something else?’ she asked, hoping he wouldn’t ask for coffee, thinking of the pot sitting on the stove back in London.

‘A water would be fine,’ he said to be polite, and Willow left the room. He and Merritt sat in comfortable silence.

The double doors at the other end of the room, leading into the billiard room, were flung open. An angry Poppy stood in the doorway.

‘Why don’t you like children?’ she demanded to know of Harold.

‘I do like children. Wherever you’re getting your information from, I would consider getting a new source,’ said Harold, not at all fazed by Poppy’s arrival.

‘I only like sauce on chips,’ she said. She walked over to Harold and stood in front of him. ‘Mummy says you don’t look like the sort of person who would like children, so she told me and my brother to stay away.’

Merritt sat watching the precocious child, who reminded him so much of Willow. He tried not to laugh.

Willow walked into the room with Harold’s water and glared at Poppy. ‘Poppy darling, why are you in here?’ she asked, her voice steely.

‘I wanted to see the man. I’ve seen him now. He does like children, Mummy, you were wrong. And he doesn’t want water, he wants sauce,’ she said, smiling angelically at Harold.

Harold laughed uproariously. ‘What a mind she has. A wonderful child. Tell me – what’s your name?’

‘Poppy.’

‘That’s very pretty.’

‘I know. What’s your name?’

‘Harry,’ said Harold.

‘That’s a good name. His name is Mewwitt. It’s a silly name. I’m not being rude – even he thinks so, don’t you Mewwitt?’

Merritt nodded his agreement and Poppy sat down close to Harold. Willow sat down and tried to give Poppy a look to tell her to leave but Poppy ignored her and crossed her legs, like her new friend Harry.

Harold spoke. ‘Merritt, I understand this is a terrible inconvenience but we are prepared to do all the legwork in the gardens and inside where we need to get things up to scratch. While we won’t be planting anything, we will need to get the fences and the retaining walls fixed and some of the gardens cleared. I imagine it would be quite costly to do.’

‘Yes, the costs are high,’ said Merritt with a sigh.

‘We would require a month to get the house ready for production and we would be here for six weeks for the shoot. I can get my assistant to send you over all the details. We will pay you a weekly fee for use of the house and also a fee for any props we use. You can guide us on the garden work, as we would like it