The House in the Clouds - Victoria Connelly Page 0,10

And there were plenty of photos of her online – interviews on websites, features in online newspapers and fan sites for her shop and products. It was pretty impressive, he had to admit.

Then he read the news reports of her having sold her business and he frowned. Why had she done that? It was a sound business that was doing well. That concerned Edward for a moment, but then he realised she had money because she had been bidding for Winfield Hall, hadn’t she? And maybe she was starting another company. Entrepreneurs often did that, didn’t they? Perhaps she was the sort that started one project and then got bored and moved on to a new venture. Yes, he thought, that was probably it. Anyway, he could always ask her. If they were going to be partners, it would only be fair to know where they stood with each other. Perhaps he’d ask to see her business plan. That would put his mind at rest, wouldn’t it? But what if she asked to see his? It was all right him sitting in judgement of her, but what if she wanted to know his plans? He’d been made redundant – what would she make of that?

But you also own Winfield, he told himself, and she wanted Winfield.

Anyway, maybe she was retired now. Maybe she didn’t have any plans to work again. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Well, he was actually. He thought it was very strange indeed. A person needed an occupation, he believed. One shouldn’t just sit around all day without a purpose. He would have to make sure she wasn’t one of those types of people. He didn’t think he could bear that.

Switching his laptop off, he put the kettle on and wandered through to the hallway, dipping in and out of the rooms the builders had been working in earlier that day. It seemed eerily quiet now that they’d gone, the rooms returning to their natural state of silence. For a moment, Edward wondered what it would be like to live here alone – to have so much space all to himself, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Not only was it impractical, but he wasn’t at all sure he’d enjoy the reality of living in such a large place on his own. He wasn’t exactly a gregarious person. He didn’t need people around him all the time and he’d always valued his privacy, but he liked the idea of people being nearby. In their own homes, of course.

Anyway, it was becoming very clear that he couldn’t afford to live in Winfield on his own. Not that he’d ever planned that. It was much too large a property for one single man. And, seeing that he’d always planned to let out a percentage of the space as apartments, where was the harm in taking that idea further?

Abigail had been sitting at her desk overlooking the river. She’d given herself the exquisite pleasure of opening a brand new sketchbook that morning and had been doodling in it ever since, careful to switch her phone off and to ignore her computer. The February light was a soft dove-grey and Abi had had a crisp, brisk walk first thing. Now, she was settling down to some work. Well, not work really. She had allowed her mind to wander and her pencil to do its own thing. She wasn’t quite sure which direction she was going in and she didn’t want to put any pressure on herself. After the recent sale of her company and the press interest, she wanted to create a safe little cocoon with her work. She needed to get back to basics and remember her first love of drawing. When had she last just sat down and doodled? She really couldn’t remember and that made her sad.

Her pencil paused in mid-stroke and she glanced out of the window and then she did something that was fatal: she looked at her computer. It was after eleven. Maybe she should check her email? Just quickly. She wouldn’t hang around and get sucked in – she’d just do a quick sweep to make sure she wasn’t missing something important, and she wouldn’t make the mistake of going to any social media sites. Since people had been tagging her and sending all sorts of hateful messages for leaving her company, Abi had closed all her accounts down. By simply removing them and herself, she’d managed to reclaim a certain