‘I don’t want him living here.’
Thea bit her lip and started to mentally count to ten. Her grandmother had sworn by giving life ten seconds before commenting on difficult situations, and often it helped. However, Thea had found herself counting to ten so often over the past week that she was considering reciting the colours of the rainbow or listing the top ten most worshipped Roman gods and goddesses, just for variety.
‘And I don’t want you working here, so I suppose that makes us even.’
John was sitting on the opposite side of her desk, fidgeting with a pile of paperclips. ‘He is clearly after you.’ He placed his palms flat against its edge, his legs wide as if trying to make himself bigger. Thea found herself holding back a hysterical laugh as she remembered a nature documentary she’d seen. Sir David Attenborough had been explaining how lower ranking male gibbons attempted to make themselves appear more attractive to the female gibbons. John’s current stance was almost identical.
‘Did you hear what I said, Thea? I don’t want that man…’
This same scenario had played out over each of the last five mornings. And every morning Thea had given the same response. She found the words forming on her lips in readiness. Any minute now John would ask her when she was coming out for a meal with him. Then he’d return to the subject of not wanting Shaun to move in that evening. Well, enough was enough. Today she didn’t want to hear it.
It was bad enough that everyone here liked John. At least, the women did. Diane seemed particularly susceptible to his charms, and Thea had heard the girlish giggles of the Biggleswaite sisters undercutting her ex’s dulcet tones on a number of occasions.
On the other hand, Thea thought she’d seen Derek giving John a wary eye glance every now and then, although that could have been wishful thinking on her behalf. Sam had passed no comment, but Tina was convinced he was keeping a quiet eye on their less welcome volunteer.
Shaun was polite to John, but then Shaun was polite to everyone. Nonetheless, if Thea was alone in a situation where John could get to her, the archaeologist would magically appear. She was convinced it was Shaun’s ability to continually get in the way of his plans that had led John to start showing up so early in the morning.
Ignoring the tingling numbness that was racing down her arms, ready to remind Thea how much she hated confrontation, she slammed her own palms on the table.
‘This is the very last time I am going to say this. The only reason you are still here is that we are desperate for hands and I have no legal grounds to remove you. We are never going to date again. I do not want to be part of your life. You do not know me. You just think you do. Do you understand?’
John’s face flushed. ‘Then let me get to know you. I want to, Thea. You’re everything to me, you must see that. Beautiful, funny, driven, clever, and I…’ He slumped back in his seat, as if all the fight was wiped out of him. Pity hit Thea’s kind heart as she looked at him across the table.
‘If you want to stay here to work, then I can’t stop you, but if you want to get to know me as a friend, then you’re going to have to stop acting like this.’ Thea bit the inside of her lips, choosing her words carefully. ‘You’re capable of being a nice man. Start proving it to everyone here. Remember your self-respect.’
‘Self-respect?’ John pushed his hands into his jacket pockets as he spoke with controlled calm. ‘The thing is, Thea—’
‘Thea! Are you about?’
The echo of Mabel’s shrill voice as she called ahead of herself down the servants’ corridor cut John’s sentence in half as he rose to his feet.
‘Good morning, Mrs Hastings, you’re looking most appetising today.’
Giggling girlishly, Mabel beamed. ‘Foolish boy.’ She gave him a playful push. ‘Have you finished with Thea? I have a few things I need to talk to her about.’
‘For now.’ He almost bowed to Mabel as he turned so that only Thea could see his face. ‘I’ll be back later to finish what we were discussing.’
‘Are you alright, dear?’ For the first time, Mabel noticed Thea was looking a bit pale. ‘Can I get you some water?’
‘I’m fine, thanks. I didn’t get much sleep.’ Licking some moisture back into her dry lips, Thea asked, ‘How can I help you?’
Flourishing a large piece of paper, and a calendar, Mabel sat down. She was clearly very pleased with herself. ‘I’ve made a plan for the volunteers’ work structure. It’s more efficient than what we had before.’
Glad of Mabel’s timely arrival, Thea would have agreed to listen to any plan she had at all. ‘Sounds good – let’s hear it.’
*
Thea sat on the edge of her bed. She’d only caught a few parts of Mabel’s plan; enough to know she wasn’t dooming the volunteers to a Victorian prison-like regime of hard labour.
The whole time the old lady was speaking Thea had been visited by flashbacks of her time with John.
When she’d first seen him, literally across a crowded room, she’d been hit by his amazing smile. It seemed to grow wider the longer he grinned, making you feel as if he was the happiest man in the world, simply because he was talking to you.
How did we get from there to here?
It had been a Christmas party for a local business. The Baths often hired out rooms for such events, but Thea had only been involved on that occasion because half the events team had been hit with a bout of food poisoning after an unwise night out in a suspiciously cheap burger bar.
John had mistaken her for a waitress at first. He’d run out of champagne and wanted his glass topping up, ‘by the woman with the most beautiful chestnut eyes I’ve ever seen.’
She’d laughed openly at the cliché, but he hadn’t minded. They’d got talking, she explaining she was more host than waitress, and he that he was bored with office gossip and welcomed the chance to speak to someone more interesting.
Thea had been so surprised when he’d asked her out for ‘some good food and fun,’ that she’d accepted without hesitation.
Food and fun. ‘And that’s what it was for me, John. When did that change for you?’
Moving to the window, keeping back from the glass so no one could see her from outside, Thea surveyed the grounds. Sam was raking over the most recently cleared area of garden. John was near him. He stood out like a sore thumb in his designer overalls and rubble clearance gloves. She wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing according to Mabel’s new rota, but what he was actually doing was piling up branches and weeds for burning.
Deciding to do as much admin work as she could from her room and more practical jobs once everyone else had gone home, Thea sat at her little desk.
Tina would soon be back from a meeting she was having with the trustees, so she could keep up-to-date on the properties she was temporarily neglecting in favour of Mill Grange, and Shaun was due to arrive with his luggage around twelve. All week Thea had been telling herself she had to move out of the manor. She had to find a room to rent before Shaun arrived. Somehow it hadn’t happened. There had always been something more urgent to do.
It was going to be impossible not to tell him she was also living in. The best she could think of, was to pretend she’d just arrived; that his idea of paying rent to the Trust was such a good idea that she’d decided to do the same. She was sure Shaun would believe her if she said she wanted to keep the arrangement private because she didn’t want John to find out where she was staying.
Dragging herself away from her desk, Thea travelled to the opposite end of the servants’ corridor to what would be Shaun’s temporary abode. Admiring the view from the window, which took in the other end of the garden, Thea knew part of her wanted Shaun here. ‘But do I want him here because I want him to ravish me, or because I want someone to show John I’m off limits?’
*
‘Tina looks happy.’ Shaun dropped his oversized holdall onto the little bed. ‘Sam tells me she has found some chickens.’
‘She has. We get delivery of six Light Sussexes tomorrow.’ Thea smiled as she thought of Tina and Sam working together on the construction of the coop with all the care reserved for decorating a nursery.
‘What’s a Light Sussex, apart from it being a chicken I mean?’
‘According to Tina they are one of the easiest breeds to keep. They’re hardy, will forage for some of their food around the garden, and they are good layers. We can also use them for meat if we have to.’
Shaun laughed. ‘But you’re already squeamish about that.’
‘Yeah. Stupid as I eat meat, but there you go.’
‘Human nature, not stupid at all.’
‘Don’t forget, if you hear someone moving around downstairs in the evening or early morning, it’ll be Sam. He’s started using the downstairs bathroom now he’s camping in the woods.’
‘He’s coming inside?’
‘The only time I was around to witness it, he was in and out incredibly fast, but the shower had been used, so yes. I’d love to know why he’s so averse to being inside but…’
‘But you’re wisely leaving it to him to tell you when he’s ready.’
‘Yes.’ Thea frowned. ‘You know why?’
‘I have my suspicions, but I don’t know. And like you, I will not ask.’ Changing the subject, Shaun surveyed the room with an air of approval. ‘This looks great. Thanks, Thea.’
He sat on the edge of the bed and immediately Thea realised her mistake. How hadn’t she seen it before? Shaun’s broad frame already dwarfed the slim servants’ single bed. No way would his six-foot-plus length squeeze inside the sheets and blankets she’d just used to make it up.
‘You are never going to fit in that little bed.’
‘I’ll be fine. I sleep curled up.’
Finding herself picturing Shaun asleep, his knees under his chin, his arms hooked up over the counterpane, Thea said, ‘Even if you were to squeeze yourself up like a concertina, there is no way you’ll get a good night’s sleep.’
Cross for missing the obvious again, Thea hooked Shaun’s holdall up in her arms. ‘Come on, let’s go downstairs and find you a double bed. We can redo the room before we open.’
Thea was already marching down the corridor when Shaun caught up with her.
‘There’s no need, I’ll be fine. I told you, I’m used to simple sleeping arrangements.’
‘Well, there’s simple, and there’s stupid.’ She kept walking down the narrow stairs. ‘I’m not having you move out of one of Moira’s comfy rooms into an army billet.’
Shaun laughed. ‘You sounded just like Mabel then. Good to see you two in harmony.’
‘If she’d just see that the sun doesn’t shine out of John’s butt, she’d be perfect.’
The mention of John cast a cloud over them as Thea pushed open the door to the smallest, and therefore easiest to re-clean, of all the double rooms. ‘This do? Not exactly the best bedroom. It belonged to the governess originally.’
‘It has a bigger bed, a desk, a window with a stunning view and its own sink. What more could a man want?’
The way he looked at her sent Thea’s pulse racing. His eyes made it very clear what else a man might want. Thea gulped. She had intended this to be the moment when she told Shaun she was living there too. No way could she do that now.