‘So you just happened to find these frogs,’ Sebastian said.
‘Toads,’ Chase corrected.
Sebastian turned and glowered at him. He could be quite intimidating when he put his mind to it but Viola knew he was just playing another part tonight. The part of the concerned brother, growling and threatening anyone who approached his sister. This wasn’t really about frogs or toads, although the toads were about to change Viola’s life. At least, she hoped they were.
Viola hadn’t been sure whether to trust Chase at first. He had lied to her by omission back in June and she couldn’t be sure whether or not there was some other, more suspicious reason why Chase was so interested in these toads. After all, he seemed the least likely newt-fancier she had ever seen. But he’d met her by the lake every afternoon and they’d watched the toads together as he’d told her more about how rare they were, how they’d only been found in Scotland for the last forty years and what a big deal this could be for Haverford – a make-or-break deal.
She hadn’t told anyone about the toads at first, wanting to do her own research and be one hundred per cent sure of Chase before she broke the news to Seraphina. She couldn’t find any holes in his story at all. She’d gone into Harrogate to look up ‘smooth-bellied toads’ at the library and spent so long reading about them the librarian looked at her as though she was going mad. She’d even phoned up a local conservation group to ask their opinion. Not knowing who she was and thinking she was talking about toads in a backyard pond, the chair of the group had tried his hardest not to laugh at her, telling her that it was extremely unlikely she had found smooth-bellied toads anywhere in England.
The discovery of the toads had thrown a new light on Chase as well, and Viola was beginning to see him as the person he wanted to be rather than the person he thought his father wanted him to be. He talked less and listened more, answered her amphibian-related questions patiently and smiled a lot more than he had done before his newt-loving secret was out, especially when they were down by the lake. She might not have kissed him immediately after having seen the toads for the first time, but she did kiss him three days later by the lake, the toads croaking in the background.
Two weeks had passed since Chase had first shown Viola the miracle that might save Haverford and, now she was sure of everything, she was going to tell Seraphina all about it the next morning. She had no idea how David would take it as the toads would likely mean that the property couldn’t be sold and developed after all, but she was sure the dowager countess would be delighted. But first she had to tell her brother everything.
Which is how they came to be sitting in a row on Viola’s tiny sofa in her small sitting room at Haverford, looking as though they were waiting for a bus. Sebastian sat in between Chase and Viola and grilled Chase about amphibious wildlife for a surprisingly long time considering that he couldn’t tell the difference between a frog and a toad.
‘So you’re absolutely genuine?’ he asked after a while, sounding a little bit calmer. It was understandable he hadn’t trusted Chase at first – after all, neither had Viola.
‘Absolutely,’ Chase replied. ‘I have no idea if the Conservation Trust will help or if this really will save Haverford from developers but I do know that it’s definitely worth a try and I would be very surprised if they weren’t interested.
‘Hmmmm,’ Sebastian grumbled. ‘And what about my sister?’
‘My intentions with your sister are entirely honourable,’ Chase jumped in before Viola had a chance to say anything. ‘I messed up last time and I’ve explained and apologised about…’
‘I’m right here,’ Viola interrupted. ‘And none of this is your business, Sebastian. I’m just keeping you in the loop.’
Sebastian glowered at both of them a little bit more in an affected sort of way as though even he was tired of playing the part of protective brother.
‘I don’t quiz you on every girl you’re photographed with after all,’ Viola went on. ‘Now tomorrow, I suggest we go and see Seraphina and we tell her everything.’
‘And I’ll take her down to the lake and show her the toads,’ Chase said, his eyes lighting up at the prospect, which made Viola smile. ‘You should come too, Sebastian.’
‘Maybe,’ Sebastian replied. But Viola knew he’d be there. He was invested now, she could tell.
*
‘Toads?’ Seraphina said for about the fifteenth time. ‘Toads are going to save Haverford?’
‘That’s the plan,’ Viola replied.
‘Come and see them,’ Chase said, enthusiastically.
They stood – Sebastian, Viola, Chase and Seraphina herself – in the living room of the dower house, too excited to sit, too unsettled to make tea or talk around a table. To an outsider it was a bizarre ensemble – the movie star, the dowager countess, the heir to a hotel magnate (although after this toad escapade he may well be written out of his father’s will), and Viola in her Haverford House polo shirt.
‘Yes, let’s go and see them,’ Seraphina said, turning to Viola. ‘David is not going to like this,’ she went on, but her smile betrayed the fact that she was delighted that maybe Haverford would be saved, that it might not be sold.
They walked up to the old boathouse two by two, Chase and Viola leading the way, hand in hand, and Seraphina and Sebastian bringing up the rear.
What was happening between her and Chase? Viola wasn’t sure for now. She was sailing on a cloud of positivity brought on by the idea that she might not have to leave Haverford, coupled with Chase’s frequent kisses. Once things with the Conservation Trust were certain, once everything was in writing, then she would talk to Chase and ask what was going on. Until then she was just living day to day, hour to hour, relishing a sense of joy she hadn’t known for a very long time.
When they arrived at the lake, Chase took Seraphina to one side to show her the toads and explain their importance once again (although he certainly didn’t seem to mind talking about his favourite subject).
Viola stood with her brother as the others peered at toads through binoculars. Pleased as she was about the toads she was in no hurry to look at the ugly things again.
‘Can we really trust him?’ Sebastian said.
‘I think we have to. I mean how likely is it that he’s winding us up about these toads? And if he is won’t the Conservation Trust just nip it in the bud and then we’ll know?’
Sebastian nodded. ‘And what about you and him? I’m not interfering,’ he said. ‘Honestly. I just don’t want you to get hurt.’
Viola sighed. ‘Oh, Seb, I’m thirty-three years old. I can take my own risks, you know.’
‘I know it’s just… well… he lied to you before…’
‘Omitted to tell me something important as encouraged by David,’ Viola interrupted. ‘And David can be rather ruthless.’
‘OK.’ Sebastian shrugged, reluctance in his voice. ‘But how can you be sure?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Viola smiled. ‘How can any one of us be sure? How can he be sure about me? Chase and I have only just met and we’d be mad to be sure or trusting each other already. I do really like him – you were right about that – but for now it’s just a bit of fun.’
‘I’m sorry. I know you don’t need your brother here telling you what to do,’ Sebastian said.
‘But it is good to have you here during this momentous toad-related occasion.’
He smiled then. ‘I haven’t seen you for so long, Vi,’ he went on. ‘It’s years since we spent any proper time together and I know that’s my fault. I’d just hoped we’d spend this summer together.’
Viola reached out then, taking her brother’s hand in hers. ‘And we will, I promise. There’s still quite a lot of summer left you know.’
‘And I’d hoped, when I made the decision about Sunset Bay that you’d come back to Australia too but now we’ve found these damn toads…’ He paused, looked away. ‘I know I’m being ridiculous.’
‘Seb, if we can save Haverford then I’ll stay because this is the nearest thing I’ve had to a home since I was eighteen. But I promise that I won’t let things slip back into how they have been. Even if we live half a world away from each other we won’t go years without seeing each other again. I don’t think it’s good for either of us. But it cuts both ways.’
Sebastian looked at her then. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I know.’
The fact that Viola and Sebastian had drifted apart hadn’t happened on purpose; it wasn’t anybody’s fault. It had just been the result of two people running away from their own feelings when they should have been talking to each other. And now they were here, and talking – Viola wasn’t going to let that go again.
‘Come and look at these toads properly,’ Viola said then, pulling her brother towards the lake. ‘Look at them through binoculars and let Chase bore you to death about them. You never know, maybe he is winding us up about them and then you’ll get your way and I’ll come back to Australia.’
*
Chase wasn’t winding them up about the toads. The Conservation Trust confirmed their presence just a week later, three weeks to the day since Chase had first shown them to Viola.
A group of three men and a woman arrived one morning, laden down with equipment. It was extremely early, not long past dawn, but Viola and Chase were ready and waiting for them. Sebastian, who had promised to be up and ready, was nowhere to be seen and Viola wasn’t surprised. He’d never been a morning person and he’d been up late the night before after the performance of Macbeth. The Shakespeare Festival seemed to be running itself this year without much interference from her, which was just as well because her mind was full of toads.
There was a sentence she never thought she’d say to herself.
‘I hardly slept last night,’ Viola admitted as she clutched Chase’s arm as though her life depended on it. ‘I’m so nervous, this is make or break.’
Chase ducked to kiss the top of her head. ‘It’s make,’ he said. ‘I promise.’
‘Hi, I’m Michelle,’ the woman said as the Conservation Trust team piled out of their van. She shook Viola’s hand vigorously. ‘I’m one of the amphibian experts at the trust.’ She turned then to her team. ‘This is Nick, Dale and Jason.’
Viola nodded, smiling at the men, not really sure who was who.
‘Shall we go and see the toads then?’
Chase led the way, talking to Michelle the whole time about amphibians of various kinds while Viola brought up the rear, desperately trying to quell the increasing nausea she felt as they got nearer to the old boathouse. When they arrived she hung back, not wanting to hear what was going on. She had convinced herself that the toads in the lake were common-or-garden toads, not smooth-bellied ones at all. She was about to make a complete fool of herself in front of the Conservation Trust and that would be the end of Haverford forever.
She looked out across the lake. It was the most beautiful morning and the boathouse was shrouded in early morning mist, making it look ethereal. The sun was already warm and Viola felt suddenly tired as though she wanted to just lie down here in the sun and sleep for days. So much seemed to have happened this summer.
Chase interrupted her thoughts. ‘Come on,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her toward the lake just as she had with Sebastian a week before. ‘This is your moment. You don’t want to miss it.’
‘But what if they’re not…
‘They are,’ Chase interrupted quietly. ‘Stop worrying.’
‘It’s incredible,’ Michelle said as Viola approached. She was looking intently towards the toads through powerful binoculars as Nick, Dale and Jason were measuring various things with complicated-looking equipment down by the edge of the lake. ‘I’ve never seen smooth-bellied toads so far south before.’ Michelle took the binoculars away from her face and grinned at Viola. ‘I cannot tell you what a joy this is to see,’ she said. ‘These little guys are incredibly rare and for them to have a breeding ground in Yorkshire is…’ She paused and rubbed a hand across her face. ‘It’s unbelievable really.’
‘So they are definitely smooth-bellied toads?’ Viola asked nervously.
‘Definitely,’ Michelle replied. ‘Congratulations, Viola, I can’t believe you found them!’
‘It wasn’t me who found them,’ she said, finally starting to believe that Chase’s toads were going to save Haverford. ‘If it hadn’t been for my friend we’d never have known they were here.’
‘Well, whoever found them, I am absolutely delighted,’ Michelle went on. ‘The Conservation Trust will want to preserve and improve the habitat for the toads, which means we will probably want to acquire the whole estate.’
‘What about the house and gardens?’ Viola asked.
‘Well, we’ll need them to keep running to bring money into the estate. The trust will want to continue to run the estate as a business. Or rather help the Montagu family run the estate. From the family’s point of view things will remain much the same. We’ll be on hand to help financially and in any other ways that are needed. While the toads live quite some way from the house itself, we won’t want anything to change significantly. It’ll be too disruptive to the habitat, especially in the early days.’
Viola felt the relief flowing through her body. She would be able to stay at Haverford. The Conservation Trust would help preserve the house, her job and Seraphina’s home. Despite having spent the summer desperate to find some way of saving the house and grounds, she hadn’t really expected to, not in the end.
‘How busy does it get in this part of the estate?’ Michelle asked.
‘Oh not very busy at all. This area isn’t really open to the public. We don’t close it off exactly but we don’t encourage walks around here.’
‘Good because we are going to have to close it off, for a while at least. The situation here isn’t ideal. The pH of the water is all wrong and that boathouse is slowly rotting into the lake. We’ll have to dismantle it and have it removed before the water becomes detrimental to the health of the wildlife. Then we’ll have to work on growing various plants and encouraging various wildlife to make the perfect ecosystem for the toads.’
‘I see,’ Viola said slowly. ‘The boathouse would have to go.’
‘Is that a problem?’
Viola thought about this part of the lake and the boathouse, the place where David’s grandmother and her siblings had swum as children. What would Seraphina say? Would this change things? Surely not? At the end of the day it was just a boathouse made of rotting wood. Sacrificing that to save Haverford had to be worth it.
‘I’m not the owner, so I can’t really say one way or the other…’ Viola began.
‘No, sorry, I do realise that.’ Michelle smiled but she seemed to be starting to get impatient now, as though she was ready to tear down the boathouse with her bare hands. ‘Is it possible to speak to the owner?’
‘Well David… um, I mean the Earl of Haverford, is in America right now but his mother is meant to be meeting us here.’ Viola looked at her watch. Seraphina was late – another person who wasn’t great in the mornings.
‘Perhaps you could call her?’ Michelle asked.
‘Of course.’
Michelle went back to the lake and Viola walked over to a place where she knew there was a better phone signal. She flipped open her phone to dial, but in the end didn’t need to as she spotted Seraphina walking towards her.
‘So sorry I’m late,’ she said. ‘I was on the phone to David – it’s about midnight over there. What’s the verdict?’ She nodded towards where the Conservation Trust team and Chase stood at the side of the lake.
‘They are definitely smooth-bellied toads and the trust will almost definitely help us keep Haverford open.’
‘Oh thank God,’ Seraphina said, letting go of a huge breath. ‘I’ve been so anxious. I mean after what Chase Matthews did I had no idea if we could trust him, although I suspect that was more David’s fault than Chase’s.’
‘What did the earl say when you spoke to him?’ Viola asked.
‘Oh he’s in the most terrible rage. Absolutely furious that it looks like he won’t be able to sell the estate. He’s flying home on the first available flight.’
‘Is this going to be a problem?’
‘Of course not. Leave David to me.’
‘And your daughter – Belinda?’
‘I’ve spoken to her as well and while she pretends not to care either way and tries not to take sides between David and me, I think she was relieved when I told her, to be honest. All’s well that ends well I guess.’
‘Perhaps,’ Viola said quietly.
‘There’s a problem isn’t there?’
‘Maybe…’ Viola looked back towards the lake. ‘The trust say that the lake is not in an ideal condition for the toads. They want to make some changes.’
‘Well, that is to be expected I suppose. What sort of changes?’
‘They want to pull down the boathouse.’
‘Oh,’ Seraphina said with a smile. ‘Is that all?’
‘I thought it might be a problem, what with the family connection and everything.’
‘That’s all sentimental nonsense really, me hanging on to my husband’s memory.’ She sighed. ‘If it’s a choice between the boathouse and the whole estate, well, quite frankly, the boathouse can go.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. In fact let’s get the damn thing torn down before David gets back and starts pretending he’s interested in the memory of Daniel Montagu just to annoy us all!’
*
The team started work on the lake almost immediately and a few days later Viola received a letter that she felt she had been waiting years for – a letter confirming the terms of the acquisition and a five-year preservation grant from the Conservation Trust to the Haverford estate. Her job, and her life here, secured for the next five years with one piece of paper.
‘Let’s celebrate,’ Chase said when she showed him the letter. ‘All of us. You, me, Sebastian, Seraphina. We can go anywhere you like. My treat.’ Despite everything he was still trying to prove himself to her brother and to the dowager countess, even though they had both accepted that he had been misled about the hotel situation by David.
As for David, his rage seemed to have dissipated somewhere over the Atlantic and by the time he had returned to Haverford, like a modern-day prodigal son, he too had learned the art of acceptance.
‘It’s a bloody shame I can’t make any money out of it all,’ he’d said ruefully, ‘but at least I won’t be losing money anymore with the Conservation Trust plugging up the gaps.’ He’d stayed overnight, simply to keep his mother happy, and then disappeared back to London to make more of the money that he loved so much.
‘I’d rather celebrate alone with you,’ Viola said now, taking the letter back off Chase and wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him rather chastely on the cheek but they were standing in the hallway of the house where anyone could see them – the hallway where, just a few weeks ago, Viola had first found out that Chase was the son of Reese Montgomery. So much had happened since then and she and Chase still hadn’t had a chance to talk about where their relationship was going. She wondered if he wanted to go back to America at the end of the summer and how she would feel about that if he did. She should just ask him, but there was something she had to do first.
‘Just the two of us it is,’ he said. ‘Besides I have something I want to tell you.’
Viola felt her stomach flip at that, wondering what it could be. But she pushed it aside for now.
‘I need to go and find Sebastian,’ she said. ‘Show him the letter.’ She waved the piece of paper in the air.
‘He won’t be happy,’ Chase replied. ‘This means you won’t be going back to Australia with him.’
‘He’ll live.’ She turned away from Chase then, towards the visitor’ entrance to see if she could find her brother before rehearsals started. She met Michelle coming the other way, breathless and red in the face.
‘Michelle?’ Viola asked. ‘Is everything all right?’
Michelle looked at Viola and then at Chase standing behind her. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t think it is. We started to dismantle the boathouse this morning and we’ve found something. I…’ She stopped and took a breath. ‘I’m afraid we’re going to have to call the police.’