the barns are a feasible proposition.’
To Sarah’s intense relief they were. After introducing her to his sister and her husband, Harry kept in the background while Mavis, a smaller, jollier version of her brother, insisted on serving coffee before she let her large, amiable husband take Sarah on a tour of the barns. The meal giving out savoury aromas in the big farm kitchen would be ready in one hour exactly, Mavis informed them.
‘So you’d best go too, Harry,’ she said, ‘and make sure Bob brings Miss Carver back here on time.’
Sarah was jubilant later, on the way home. The barns were small enough to be viable for conversion, though not to the holiday lets the Grovers had intended. Permanent dwellings were essential for Sarah to gain her necessary profit. A lane separated the barns from the main farm, and gave good access for the equipment Sarah would hire—also for the tenants who would eventually occupy the finished houses.
‘What do you think, Harry?’ she asked. ‘If I make an offer to your brother-in-law are you game to go on working with me?’
‘Wouldn’t have mentioned the barns else,’ he assured her. ‘So you see them as a workable proposition?’
‘I certainly do.’ She gave him a sparkling look. ‘Mr Grover told me he owns fishing rights on a short stretch of the river, too, which could appeal to male buyers. And for women who don’t fish it’s not far to Hereford for retail therapy.’
Harry laughed. ‘You had all this worked out in your head before Mavis dished up the rhubarb crumble.’
Sarah grinned. ‘I certainly did.’ She sobered. ‘But I can’t make a firm offer until I sell the cottages. With luck I should be able to some time next week.’
‘You’ve got someone interested in one of the cottages?’
Sarah nodded. ‘I’ve got a possible buyer for the lot, but I haven’t clinched the deal yet.’
‘All six houses?’ Harry took his eyes off the road for a second to look at her. ‘You don’t look all that pleased about it.’
Sarah smiled ruefully. ‘We’ve been working on those cottages for quite a while now, Harry. It’s a wrench to part with them.’ Especially to a Merrick. ‘But if the sale goes through I can start planning the new look for the barns right away. Do you think Ian and Fred will fancy helping again?’
‘Try stopping them,’ said Harry dryly as he drove into Medlar House. ‘Now, get a good night’s rest. I’ll check up on the youngsters myself on the way back.’
Sarah did her best to take Harry’s advice, but after a phone call from Oliver to confirm that she still intended to sell to Alex she was too wound up to sleep much—partly from excitement over the barns, but mainly because she couldn’t rid herself of the idea that now, when she’d finally, reluctantly, made up her mind, Alex Merrick would say his offer had been withdrawn when she rang him to accept it.
When the sun began streaming through the shutters next morning Sarah gave up all pretence of even trying to sleep and got dressed. She let herself out of the flat, and later enjoyed her morning coffee all the more for the mile long round trip to buy a paper. She ate some toast while she caught up on the day’s news, then just sat with her phone in her hand, gazing out at the sunlit garden as she waited for the appointed hour. Exactly on the stroke of nine she rang Alex Merrick’s office number, and in response to Greg Harris’s familiar accents told him Miss Carver wished to speak to Mr Merrick.
‘I’ll see if he’s free,’ said the young man stiffly, obviously still smarting from their previous exchange. ‘Will you hold?’
‘Certainly.’
‘I’m putting you through,’ he said a moment later, and her stomach clenched as the familiar, confident voice came on the line.
‘Good morning, Miss Carver.’
‘Good morning, Mr Merrick.’
‘I take it you have an answer for me?’
‘Yes. I accept your offer for the Medlar Farm Cottages.’
Alex was silent for so long Sarah’s stomach did a nosedive. Had she been right to worry? Had he changed his mind?
‘Good,’ he said at last.
Her eyes kindled. Swine! He’d done that on purpose.
‘I suggest,’ he went on, ‘that we meet here at my office at eleven tomorrow to make the exchange. Is that convenient for you?’
‘Yes.’
‘One of the Merrick Group lawyers will be present, and you will naturally wish to bring your own legal support.’
‘Naturally,’ she said crisply, praying that the solicitor Oliver had found