The House in the Clouds - Victoria Connelly Page 0,15

option if she didn’t own the whole place? Would Edward become a sort of landlord or boss over her? She’d have to find out exactly how this would work before she let her heart run away with her and she ended up crushed for a second time.

The front door was still open when she returned to the hall and, as she entered, a builder was coming towards her with a wheelbarrow full of rubble. She quickly grabbed the hard hat Edward had told her to wear and put it on.

‘Excuse me!’ he said cheerily and Abi smiled, wondering if some of that rubble was from what might well be her half of Winfield.

‘No,’ she told herself. ‘Facts first. Fantasies later.’

She popped her head round the doors of a few of the rooms, reacquainting herself with the place, but it was so dusty and noisy that she finally gave up the idea of a proper house tour and returned to the room Edward was in, knocking lightly on the door which had been left ajar.

‘Hey,’ he said, turning around from his laptop.

‘Thank you.’

‘What for?’

‘Giving me some time to walk around and think.’

‘Can I get you another tea?’

She shook her head. ‘How much?’

His eyes widened. ‘You mean…’

‘How much would you be selling half of Winfield for?’

Edward leaned across his table and picked up an envelope, handing it to Abi. She opened it and took out a sheet of paper on which was a neatly typed price together with his contact details. She folded the sheet and placed it back in the envelope.

‘Are you going to keep me in suspense?’ he asked with a nervous kind of laugh.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m interested.’

‘You are?’

‘But I have a few questions as I’m sure you do of me.’

‘Okay, good,’ he said. ‘You want to sit down?’

Abi shook her head. ‘I’m too hyped up to sit down.’ She walked towards the window and gazed up into the misty hills.

‘What are your plans for Winfield?’ she asked.

‘You mean my half if you buy in with me?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m going to split the place up into apartments.’

‘Apartments? You’re not going to sell them, are you?’ Abi asked. It was what she’d been dreading for the fate of Winfield – to become a collection of second homes for people based in London. They’d be left unloved for weeks on end.

‘No, I’m going to lease them. They’ll make a good income and enable me to live here.’

‘I see. And how will you decide who rents them?’

‘Well, I want professional people who appreciate a beautiful space but who aren’t going to be partying in it every weekend.’

Abi smiled. ‘Good. I value peace and quiet.’

‘Me too. And I want to keep the leases short. You know – in case we do need to get rid of anyone.’

Abi noted his use of the word ‘we’ then. Already, he was thinking of them as co-owners.

‘What would you do with your half?’ he asked.

‘The same. Make a few apartments to rent out.’

‘Really?’

Abi nodded, deciding to hide the fact that she wanted artists in her half. She wasn’t yet sure how he’d react to that announcement and she didn’t want to risk losing the opportunity to live here.

‘Then we’re on the same page,’ he said.

‘It certainly looks like it.’

There was a pause, but Abi could tell that Edward had something he wanted to say.

‘What is it?’ she asked him.

‘Why did you sell your company?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I’m interested in why you sold your company.’

Abi frowned at him. ‘You researched me?’

‘Yes, of course. As I would before any serious business transaction.’

Abi bit her lip, trying not to laugh.

‘Are you telling me you didn’t research me?’ he asked.

‘I might have popped your name into a search engine,’ she confessed, feeling her cheeks flush. ‘But everyone does that these days, don’t they? Even if you’re just meeting somebody for coffee.’

‘And what did you find?’

‘Nothing much.’

‘No. My former employer has already taken my details down from the website so I no longer officially exist. So, why did you sell your company?’

Abi decided that there was no use hiding the truth. ‘It got too big.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The company. It was all too much and too many of everything. Too many shops, too many people, too many decisions. It had got so far away from what I wanted to do with my life that I felt selling was the only decision left to me.’

‘And you just walked away?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It was quite easy really.’

Edward looked astounded by her declaration. ‘But you’re going to start a