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‘Then why haven’t they?’ Dante asked bluntly. Jess blanched as he went on, ‘According to your father, there hasn’t been a single offer. He explained that not everyone has the appetite to live up here and cope with the climate and unrelenting work involved.’
‘So what will be his position?’ she demanded. ‘Lackey to you?’
‘He will do the job that suits him best, leaving my professional team to handle the business side of things. It’s time to face facts. Your father needs more help than you can give him. You can’t go on like this, working on the farm, caring for your father, maintaining a practice—you’re running yourself ragged. And you would still have the bank hounding you.’
‘It’s not up to you to decide how I handle this, or what I need,’ she gritted out, filled with fury that any and all decisions had been made, irrespective of her opinion.
‘So you don’t want this?’ Dante held out the document.
She waited for the red mist to clear before trusting herself to speak. What he said made a certain amount of sense. It was the way Dante was looking at her now that chilled her. So many people must have seen that same stare—in Dante’s office, his boardroom or in his lawyer’s office. It was a cool and decisive look that contained no emotion. Dante had struck a deal and that was that. Even half an hour ago she would have said it was impossible for him to treat her like this.
‘It’s a done deal,’ he said as if to confirm her thoughts. ‘It’s what your father wanted, so there’s no going back. You might as well accept—’
‘I don’t have to accept anything,’ she interrupted. ‘And I’m not prepared to say anything more to you until I’ve spoken to my father.’
‘Be my guest,’ Dante invited, glancing at the phone. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he added, standing up. ‘But I can assure you that your father is extremely happy with our deal. He sees it as a great way forward—for both of you.’
‘So the two of you have decided my future without discussing it with me?’
‘Your father didn’t want to give you anything more to worry about. He wanted to present it to you as a fait accompli. It’s his farm to sell, Jess. He thought you’d be pleased. His knowledge and experience is invaluable to me, and now he’ll have a wider role as advisor to all my equine facilities.’
‘I can’t deal with this right now.’ She held up her hands, palms flat. ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this. I trusted you.’
‘I’m not the enemy here, Jess.’
How could she deny her father what would be the most wonderful opportunity? She couldn’t. She loved him too much. Protecting him was her mother’s last wish, and this was a chance beyond their wildest dreams. But there was one thing she could refuse. ‘You can take that contract with you. I don’t want the farm. I haven’t earned it.’
‘You don’t want your family farm, free from debt and with money in the bank?’ Dante asked, frowning.
‘If you’re such a philanthropist, why didn’t you give the farm to my father?’
‘Because this was what he wanted, what he asked for. And this is what I want to do for you.’
‘Seriously?’ Jess shook her head. ‘How do you think that makes me feel? Will you call by each time you’re in Yorkshire to accept payment in kind?’
‘Dios, Jess! Is that how little you think of me?’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ she admitted, grabbing her coat. ‘I’ll speak to my father face to face, and then I’ll decide what to do.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IT TOOK JESS a while to catch her breath as she rushed down the lane leading home. Dante’s offer was too much to take in. He was too much. She should have known better than to give way to feelings that had been ten long years in the making. Dante wanted more than she could give.
Huge sums of money passed through his hands on a regular basis, but his offer of the farm was incredible to Jess. It didn’t seem right. She had to hear directly from her father that it was his wish too. Maybe he’d been blinded by the fact that Dante’s offer put him back on top and hadn’t thought things through.
She would do anything not to spoil his chances, but pride alone would stop her accepting Dante’s gift. In monetary terms, she accepted that it was probably equal to Jess shaking out a few coins from her piggy bank, but that didn’t make it right.
What made Dante’s offer sting the most was that all she wanted was him, but Dante hadn’t put that on the table. That wasn’t part of his deal.
Jess marched towards the farmhouse entrance before suddenly hesitating. It was Christmas morning. Was she really going to ruin it with a blazing row with her father? Was that really what she wanted after all they’d been through? Changing course, she headed for the stables, made for it like a homing pigeon flying back to its roost. She had some serious thinking to do.
* * *
Diplomacy had never been his strong point, but he would not allow things between him and Jess to end like this. Tugging on his jacket, he headed out. It was a straight road to the farm and the directions were imprinted on his memory. He guessed he’d find Jess in the stable with the animals, where their company would warm her better than any brazier.
As he had expected, he found her hunched up in the bleak grey light on a hay bale. ‘Hey...’
‘Dante!’ Jess didn’t appear to breathe, and then noisily dragged in a huge gulp of air. ‘I told you I needed time to think. Don’t do this. You stunned me. I need space.’
‘I’m here to make sure you got home safely.’
‘I do know the way.’
‘It can still be dangerous in this weather.’
‘You’re concerned about me now?’ she challenged with a sceptical sideways look.
‘Always.’
‘Then why drop the bombshell about the farm as you did? Why cut me out of the discussions in the first place?’
‘I could have led up to telling you with more grace,’ he conceded, ‘but I was impatient for you to know. As for cutting you out? I did what your father asked, but keeping you in the dark didn’t sit well with me—hence my impatience to make things right.’
‘It’s all a mix-up,’ she flared with a shake of her head. ‘The only thing not in doubt is that you’re an impatient man. Leaving hospital too soon. Riding before you could walk.’
He conceded all these comments with a shrug—all except one. ‘I’m not always impatient. Not when it comes to you.’
She blushed at the reminder.
‘You must see me as overbearing,’ he confirmed with a shrug.
‘You think?’ she fired back.
‘This was something I had to do for you, Jess.’
‘I haven’t had chance to speak to my father yet,’ she admitted in an attempt to close the conversation down.
‘What are you waiting for?’ he challenged.
‘You are overbearing, and you should have run this past me,’ she stated hotly, ‘but I won’t disturb my father when he might have a second shot at happiness.’
‘He’s not here?’
‘He’s with Ella.’
He let that hang for a while and then remarked, ‘It’s good he’s finally got his life back.’
‘Meaning I haven’t?’ Jess suggested with an accusing look.
‘You can do anything you choose to,’ he said evenly. ‘In the words of the cliché, the world is your oyster.’
‘You mean, if I sell the farm back to you?’
‘That’s a novel idea.’
‘I’m full of them.’
‘I’d prefer you to keep the farm as your security going forward,’ he said honestly. ‘You don’t have to live here. You can live anywhere you like.’
‘Your people will move in to help out,’ she intuited.
‘If you want them to—they’re waiting for your instructions.’
‘You’ve
thought of everything, haven’t you, Dante?’
He remained silent.
Averting her face, Jess chewed her thumb before turning back to face him. ‘This is all about trust,’ she said.
‘Without it we’re going nowhere,’ he agreed.
‘We?’ she queried.
There was a long silence, and then she said, ‘Isn’t time supposed to heal all wounds?’
‘Some cut deeper than others and leave scars we have to deal with, but they do get better over time.’
She looked at him as if she wanted to believe him. ‘I didn’t mean to make this about me. I just wish I had my mother to confide in sometimes.’
‘I understand that. It’s as if we’ve both been set adrift. I was without an anchor for years until I got my head together and knew we must pull together as a family. You’ve changed and grown too,’ he reminded Jess. ‘You completed your training, as you promised your mother you would, and now you’re an excellent physiotherapist. Here’s the living proof,’ he added with a flourish as he spread his hands wide.
‘No cane,’ Jess agreed with the glimmer of a smile. ‘Your return to polo’s been well documented, though playing like the devil on horseback so soon after your recovery is asking for trouble.’
He seized on her cue. ‘That’s why I need you. See what happens when you leave me to my own devices?’
‘As I remember it, my contract ended and you appointed someone else in my place.’
