girl on the horizon for him to shack up with. The only girl he wanted to be with was Kitty, and she had disappeared.
Merritt looked at Ivo. He felt sorry for him. ‘You can stay here for a while I guess. I could use the company.’
He was surprised at himself for being so honest. It was lonely in the house without everyone around him. He had become used to the sound of the children and talking to Willow at night and chatting with Kitty over a pot of tea in the morning.
Ivo looked up. ‘Really?’
‘Why not?’ said Merritt, going back to his task of digging the same area of soil, over and over again.
Ivo reached into his jacket pocket. ‘I have Clementina’s journals. Kitty lent them to me,’ he said, holding them in his hand.
Merritt looked over. ‘Ah yes. There are letters too, but I haven’t gone through them yet,’ he said.
Ivo looked up. ‘She mentioned that there were also some letters. Would you mind if I had a look at them? The journals are fascinating, and I would love to piece them together with the letters.’
‘Go for it,’ said Merritt. ‘They are in the drawing room, I think, near the computer.’
Ivo jumped up. ‘I’ll head back to town and get my things then. Do you think Kitty would mind me being here after everything that happened?’ he asked carefully.
Merritt looked over at him. ‘I understand why you did it. I would have done the same thing. Willow’s behaviour was appalling. Kitty will understand one day,’ he said, a frown on his face.
Ivo nodded. ‘Thanks.’ He started to walk away.
‘I don’t think she meant it,’ he said as he turned back to his new housemate.
‘Who? Kitty?’ asked Merritt.
‘No, Willow. I think she was under enormous stress and while it doesn’t give her the right to say or do what she did to Kitty, she just lost it. I think it was actually about everything,’ said Ivo slowly, thinking. ‘She’s not a bad person, she’s just a bit out of touch with the real world,’ he said.
Merritt said nothing. He went back to the earth, and Ivo walked away.
He had run through his time with Willow over and over again in his mind. It was as though there were two sides to her: a lovely, warm person and then a spoilt brat with a huge sense of entitlement. Her treatment of Kitty was unforgivable, thought Merritt, but when she had revealed her secret to him and to Lucy, he had been shocked. No wonder she was so insecure, he thought as he packed up his tools and headed back to the house. Kerr cheating on her, denying her child was clearly not right, no money, accolades for an Oscar that didn’t really exist.
As he walked towards the house, he saw a flash of blue in the grass. He picked up Lucian’s Thomas the Tank Engine. He would miss that, thought Merritt, and he wiped away the dirt from its little face and put it in his pocket.
Ivo was back within the hour and had set up in one of the draughty bedrooms of the manor.
He found the letters where Merritt had said they would be, next to the new computer that Willow had installed.
‘Did Willow leave this here?’ asked Ivo as he sat down at the screen.
Merritt looked over from where he was sorting through the accounts on the sofa.
‘Yes, she sent for most things, gave a list to the packers, but she left that and a few other items here,’ he said. ‘I think she forgot about it. I’ll return it to her,’ he said distractedly.
Ivo nodded and opened up the internet browser. ‘I might use it for a bit then, if that’s alright?’
‘Go for it,’ said Merritt.
Ivo sorted through the pile of papers on the desk and found a black linen-covered sketchbook. He opened it and saw individual pictures of every room in Middlemist. On the other side of the page, fabric swatches were pasted onto the paper, with images cut from magazines and printed off the internet with recommendations for the interiors of the rooms.
Paint swatches were also included, as were images of light fittings, even taps and door handles, and notes in an uneven scrawl.
‘Here you go, you left your book here,’ said Ivo. He stood up and passed the book to Merritt and went back to his desk.
Merritt looked at the front and was about to say it wasn’t his until he opened it. His heart