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‘Have some more bread, dear.’ Rowena all but shoved the basket under Cam’s nose, leaving him no choice but to accept a slice, even though he still had two pieces untouched on his plate.
‘Thank you.’ Cam flashed her a quick smile, saw the slight panic in her eyes. ‘This really is delicious.’ Though his appetite had deserted him at the sudden tension around the table, Cam added a piece of brie to the slice and forced himself to take a large bite.
‘I’ll take a slice,’ Barnie said, reaching across to snag one. ‘And some of those delicious-looking pickles too, if I may.’ God bless his friend for trying, but Cam could tell he felt just as awkward.
He shot a quick glance at Hope, who was staring between her mother and her uncles with a mystified expression on her face. ‘What on earth is going on?’ she demanded.
‘It’s nothing,’ Ziggy said with that same tight smile.
‘Isn’t it always?’ Hope didn’t sound at all happy and Cam couldn’t blame her. He raised his brows at Barnie and gave his head the slightest tilt towards the door in a should-we-go gesture.
Barnie raised a hand as though to scratch an itch on his face, lifting his shoulders in a shrug hopefully no one but Cam had caught. ‘I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the archive tomorrow,’ Barnie said to no one in particular. ‘I’d love to be able to build a family tree if you don’t already have one. I have a computer program that makes it easy to plug in the data as I come across it.’
‘There might be something like that already,’ Ziggy said. ‘As I said, I didn’t pay close attention to that side of things as I was busy trying to get up to speed with learning how to run the estate.’
‘Only because Daddy let him dump it all on your shoulders, it wasn’t fair the way the two of them treated you.’ Stevie was fiddling with a pendant around her neck, her earlier cheer having completely given way to agitation.
Ziggy raised a shoulder as though it was no big deal, but his eyes were still troubled. ‘Someone had to step up. Regardless of Grandfather’s methods, it was the right thing to do. We wouldn’t have what we do now, and I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.’
‘Not anything?’ Zap asked him. ‘What a saint you are, big brother.’
‘Better that than someone who gives into their feelings, no matter who gets hurt in the process,’ Ziggy snapped back. A shocked silence settled over the group and Cam wished a hole would open up beneath the table and swallow him. The conversation was beyond uncomfortable now, but the family seemed to have forgotten he and Barnie were there and he couldn’t see an easy way to escape without making even more of a scene.
‘Hold on a minute, how come I’ve never heard about any of this before? I thought you all agreed to take over the business because it was what you wanted to do. No one told us anything about you being put under pressure.’ Rhys looked across at Hope. ‘Did you know anything about this?’
‘No.’ Hope’s ponytail bounced as she shook her head. Cam had had enough. Whatever was going on with this family, it was none of his business. He pushed back his chair and was about to stand when Ziggy spoke again.
‘What’s past is past.’ Ziggy set down his glass as though to emphasise the topic was over. ‘What’s important is how we do things now.’
Hope muttered something that sounded like ‘more bloody secrets’ and Cam closed his eyes for a moment. There was no way he and Barnie could leave without making things even more awkward. They would just have to try harder to change the subject. He turned to Hope and sent her a pleading look. ‘I can send you a copy of the desk survey results, if you like? I still need to finalise a few things, but I’d be very happy to share it once it’s completed.’
Hope nodded, looking relieved. ‘That would be great, thank you.’
‘I can take you through it in the morning, show you what we’ve found out so far. We also need to finalise the timetable for the dig, and some other bits and pieces of admin. As you’re the project manager, I’ll leave it to you to decide how often you’ll want a progress update, and what level of detail you’ll want. I’ve brought a few examples of different kinds of reports I’ve done in the past so you can choose what you think works best.’ Some of the tension around the table seemed to dissipate as he rattled on and on, reminding the family of his presence, begging them silently not to continue what was clearly brewing into a fight – no matter how polite everyone sounded.
Hope’s shoulders relaxed and Cam sent her an encouraging smile. ‘That sounds good,’ she said. ‘I’ll bring along my work diary as well, and a copy of the summer events we’ve got planned for the estate. It’s mostly smaller-scale stuff, visitor days at the distillery and a few child-friendly activity days centred around The Old Stable Yard. The only really big thing we have planned is a sound and light show for the late bank holiday weekend. We’re using the Hall as the backdrop for the projections and there’s going to be a live orchestra playing.’
‘That sounds fantastic. I’ve got a month pencilled in for the dig, with a couple of weeks spare for tidying up and securing the site, so we should be out of your hair by mid-August at the latest.’ It was Cam’s parents’ anniversary that weekend and he was planning on a trip home to see them before the new term started, so it sounded like things were already falling into place.
Barnie picked up the conversation and started asking Rowena questions about the sound and light show and Zap soon joined in. Ziggy said nothing, his eyes fixed on something in the middle distance, the fingers of one hand drumming on the table the only remaining sign of tension. Those stilled when Stevie reached out and placed her hand briefly over her brother’s before she got up from the table to cut some more bread.
Dinner progressed with everyone doing their best to pretend everything was normal. The starter platters were supplemented with salad fresh from Rowena’s kitchen garden and a delicious dressing Ziggy whipped up at the table. Cam was happy to graze and let the conversation carry on around him as he continued to try to understand the Travers family dynamics. Whatever had been said earlier about Ziggy being the one selected by their grandfather to run things, it struck him as a pretty egalitarian set-up. Each member of the family appeared to have autonomy over the part of the business they ran, and Cam recalled Ziggy’s comment about what mattered being how they ran things now. The champagne had been substituted with a delicious elderflower and lime pressé, which given the previous tensions was probably a sensible idea. Cam accepted a glass from Zap, who explained he’d been working on some non-alcoholic lines to expand the distillery’s range.
‘Isn’t it fabulous?’ Hope asked as she offered him a refill from a large glass jug beaded with condensation. ‘I can’t decide if this one is my favourite or the raspberry and mint.’
Cam wasn’t sure what he thought about that as a combination, but he guessed you didn’t run a successful distillery without understanding what flavours worked together. ‘I’ll take your word for it, but I’m very happy with this. Thank you.’
Zap beamed with obvious pride. ‘I’ll sort you out a couple of bottles to take back to the lodge, unless you’d rather have some gin? I’ve got a few quarter bottles here I make as samples.’ He was already rooting around in one of the cupboards before Cam could say anything. Something caught his attention, a movement on the edge of his peripheral vision and he turned to see Barnie gesturing, a frantic thumbs up to indicate he should accept the offer of the gin.
‘I think you’ve got a taker for the gin over there.’ Hope’s words were followed by that lovely rich laugh.
‘Barnie is much more of an expert on gin, I’m sure he’ll be happy to accept,’ Cam agreed, sharing a conspiratorial smile with Hope.
‘Honestly, it’s the only reason I agreed to get involved in the project in the first place,’ his friend said, rising to accept the two bottles Zap offered to him without a trace of shame. ‘I’d love a look around the distillery sometime as well, if that’d be possible.’
‘The chance to talk someone’s ear off about gin?’ Rowena glanced back up at her husband with a gentle smile. ‘Sounds like your idea of heaven, darling.’
Bending down, Zap pressed a quick kiss to her lips before straightening up with a grin. ‘I’m surrounded by philistines, so it’ll be wonderful to share my unappreciated skills with a true connoisseur. You can come down tomorrow if you like.’
