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Placing her cutlery in the finished position, Alice pushed her empty plate away from her and rested her hands in her lap as she waited for Liam to finish eating too, watching him shovel food into his mouth, the action totally incongruous with his dinner jacket and bow tie. Consciously, she straightened her back, lowered her shoulders and practised the calming breathing that one of the courses from earlier in the year had taught her. Liam, apparently unaware that he’d just gained his fiercest opponent yet, continued eating.
Since he wasn’t paying her any attention anyway, Alice allowed herself a moment to study him. He was more attractive than she’d expected, she admitted to herself. His photo on his website showed his face half in shadow—a professional headshot in black and white, with a sombre expression and a tie knotted tightly around his neck. In person, seeing him every day, he wasn’t like that at all. He seemed relaxed, at home and untroubled by life—even in black tie.
Alice frowned as she realised how unlikely that was.
She didn’t know the whole of Liam’s story, but for him to be Rose’s only living relative, well, that kind of hinted that there wasn’t a lot of family in his life. In fact, she knew more than that—Rose had told her once that he’d been orphaned young. Add in the whole ‘his father never acknowledged him before he died’ thing, which everyone knew about, and, well... Untroubled by life and Liam Jenkins probably didn’t go together in a sentence often, did they?
But she wouldn’t have guessed that from looking at him.
Liam shoved his last forkful of Maud’s leftover roast into his mouth, moaned appreciatively as he chewed, and closed his eyes as he swallowed.
‘That is a hell of a lot better than those fiddly canapés.’
Alice allowed herself a small smile. He liked the food—that much had been clear from the way he hadn’t missed a meal in the dining hall since he’d arrived. That in itself was a start—and not always a given with visitors from overseas. Maud had strong feelings about the sort of meals that should be served in a British castle. If a person wasn’t into roasted meats, goose fat roast potatoes and a whole lot of gravy, there wasn’t much for them in Maud’s kitchen. But Liam had been vocally appreciative of her meals, which had definitely earned Maud’s approval.
‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Alice said.
Liam put down his cutlery and opened his eyes, his dark blue gaze meeting hers across the table. ‘But now it’s time to talk.’
‘Apparently so.’ Alice folded her hands in front of her and steeled herself. ‘So, you’ve seen what we do here, I’ve talked about why it’s so important, you’ve spoken with everyone here tonight about it too. I know you’ve spent the week getting to know the place. So, now it’s your turn. What do you have planned for Thornwood?’
CHAPTER FIVE
LIAM TRIED TO shift mentally from taste bud bliss to business. For some reason, it was more difficult than usual—perhaps because of Alice’s nervous gaze on the other side of the table. She was clenching her hands together so tightly that the knuckles were white, and the tension in her shoulders made her look as if she was wearing some sort of torture device to keep her upright—like those ridiculous corsets they all wore in the period dramas.
Liam frowned. Seriously, how many of those things had he watched that he remembered all the details? Apparently the universe had been preparing him to inherit Thornwood all along.
Even if nobody else had.
And, anyway, she wasn’t wearing anything of the sort. She was wearing that slippery golden dress that moved with every breath she took, emphasising the cowl neckline that led down to the gentle curve of her cleavage...
Actually, maybe it was the dress that was distracting him. Or Alice in it.
But this wasn’t the time for thoughts like that. It was time to lay it all out on the table, and see how Alice took the news.
Reaching up, he loosened his bow tie and left it hanging around his neck, popping open the top couple of buttons of his shirt.
‘Okay, well, first off you have to understand that I’ve had no contact with Thornwood for years. I had no idea of the work you were doing here until I arrived last week, and all I know about it is what I’ve seen and what you’ve told me. Understood?’
Alice nodded.
‘Good. Then you’ll appreciate that when I first learned I’d be inheriting the castle I had my own ideas and plans for the place.’
‘Plans that didn’t involve helping local women, I’d guess,’ Alice said.
‘Exactly.’
‘But now you’ve seen what we’re doing here, how much good we’re doing—’
Liam winced, and she cut herself off without him having to do it for her, which he appreciated. Someone who could read the conversational cues was always easier to reason with.
‘My plans...they’re already underway,’ he admitted. ‘I have investors interested, contractors coming out to look at the place next week...’ He’d given himself a week to settle in before the first of the appointments his assistant had set up, but now that week was up.
‘So finding us here has put a real spanner in the works.’
‘You could say that.’
Alice bit her lower lip, and Liam hoped against hope that she wasn’t about to start crying. He never knew what to do with crying women.
Well, he did. But those women weren’t Alice Walters. They weren’t his great-aunt’s employee, or the woman he was about to turf out of her home. Liam was pretty sure his usual methods of cheering up women wouldn’t work so well on Alice right now. Or ever, possibly.
‘So. You’re going to make us leave.’ Alice’s expression grew mulish and Liam knew that, even if that was what he’d planned, it wouldn’t be as easy as the words suggested. He might own the castle, he might have all the money and the power in this situation, but Alice, doing what she believed in, was a force to be reckoned with.
In that sense, she almost reminded him of his great-aunt Rose.
‘I didn’t say that,’ he pointed out.
‘But that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?’ Alice snapped back. ‘The women and families we’re helping here aren’t as important as whatever money-making scheme you’ve got ready to go.’
‘Hey.’ Liam put some edge in his voice, a sharpness clear enough to make Alice settle back down in her seat, at least. ‘I understand your frustration—’
‘Frustration!’ Alice cried, and he gave her a look.
‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let
you yell and rant at me before you’ve actually heard my proposal.’
‘Let me? Ha. What on earth makes you think that a man like you lets me do anything?’ Alice pushed her chair away from the table and stood, hands planted firmly on the wood between them. Liam waited patiently for her to catch on. ‘Listen to me, mister. My life is entirely my own. Nothing you do, say or want can influence it without my say-so. This might be your castle, but that doesn’t mean that I’m part of the property, okay? You don’t let me do—’ She broke off suddenly, and Liam knew her ears were catching up with her mouth at last. ‘Your proposal?’
‘Yes, my proposal.’ Liam rolled his eyes. ‘Why don’t you take a seat and we can discuss it? Rationally. Without either of us trying to make the other do anything they don’t want to do. Okay?’
Alice’s eyes were cautious, but she lowered herself back into her chair all the same. ‘I doubt we can manage that,’ she said, most of the anger gone now. ‘I mean, the very fact that you’re calling it a proposal, and that you talked about negotiations before, suggests that your plan means that my plans will have to change. And I don’t want that.’
‘What if I could give you a better plan?’
‘A better plan?’ Alice scoffed. ‘You’ve been here, what? A week? And you really think you know better than I do what we need here?’
‘I think I can offer you something that you wouldn’t have considered an option before.’ He’d given this a lot of thought, while he’d been exploring the estate. Alice really was doing good work at Thornwood. And, given his own history, he couldn’t just cast that aside. He just needed her to do it in a way that worked for him.
‘Which is?’ Alice asked, her tone sceptical.
‘A dedicated building, for you to run the services you’re already running here.’
Alice narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What’s the catch?’
‘No catch,’ Liam said with a shrug. ‘I admire the work you’re doing here. I think hiring you might have been Rose’s last-ditch attempt to get into heaven, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. So I want you to continue.’
