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‘I’M REALLY glad I managed to catch you before you left town,’ Philip exclaimed as he came rushing into t
he foyer of the hotel just as Maggie was on the point of leaving. ‘I’m really sorry about the Dower House,’ he plunged on, ignoring Maggie’s cool reception.
‘You virtually told me that there were not going to be any other serious bidders for the property,’ Maggie burst out, unable to keep her feelings to herself as she had promised herself she would do when she had first seen him hurrying towards her. After all, a humiliation like the one she had endured at Finn’s hands was hardly something anyone would want to dwell on.
Unable to endure the thought of spending another night in Shropshire, she had decided to travel back to London immediately.
‘I didn’t think there were going to be,’ the agent insisted.
He looked so anxious for her to believe him that Maggie knew he was telling the truth.
‘Finn had told me that he intended to bid for the house, and the land, but I assumed that they were all that he was interested in. Like you, he asked me about the possibility of pre-empting the auction, but of course I told him that the owner was insistent on the property being broken up into lots and sold separately. We very often find a large house with land sells for more as separate lots, as indeed was the case. Finn has been looking to buy either a farm or a small estate locally for some time.’ He paused and shrugged, looking uncomfortable as he told her, ‘I really am sorry. I had no idea he intended to bid for the Dower House.’
Maggie gave him a thin smile. She suspected she knew exactly what had prompted Finn’s unexpected decision to bid. The minute he had realised she wanted it he had obviously decided he was going to prevent her from getting it, no matter what it cost him.
Feigning a casual disregard she did not feel, she told the agent truthfully, ‘Well, there was certainly no way I could have afforded to outbid him.’
Maybe not, but she had certainly tried hard enough, Phillip reflected inwardly. The Dower House had gone for more than twice its real market value.
Of course, he was very familiar with the red mist that could so easily overwhelm rival bidders, each determined to better the other, however, he could not remember ever experiencing such a charged atmosphere as the one generated by Finn and Maggie as they had fought for possession of the Dower House. It had been his concern for her ashen-faced despair as she had left that had prompted him to come in search of her, to assure her that he had had no prior knowledge of Finn’s intentions.
‘I know how much securing the Dower House meant to you,’ Philip continued. There had been, he was sure, a sheen of tears in her eyes earlier as she had conceded defeat to Finn. ‘Finn is a very generous man, something of a philanthropist. Perhaps if you were to approach him he might be prepared to rent the house to you…I know that he’s offered to rent one of the cottages to Linda and Pete Hardy—they were at the auction. They’re both over the moon and singing Finn’s praises to whoever will listen to them, and now Pete is going to be working for Finn as well.’ The agent chuckled. ‘One of the reasons they had hoped to pick up the cottage cheaply was because whilst Linda works full time as a nurse, Pete didn’t have a job.’
Even as she was digesting the agent’s surprising news about Finn’s generosity to the young couple who had wanted to bid for one of the cottages, Maggie’s reaction to his suggestion that she throw herself on Finn’s charity was as immediate as it was instinctive.
‘No.’
Maggie could see that the harshness of her denial had shocked him. Forcing her lips to part in poor imitation of her normal smile, she told him in a less emotional voice, ‘I wanted to give the house itself to my grandmother, not a rental agreement.’
She knew her excuse was not exactly logical, but there was no way she could tell the agent the real reason why she knew that Finn would refuse any request from her—for anything.
‘Well, if you’re sure, I’d better go and see Finn,’ Philip was telling her a little awkwardly. ‘Buying the estate is going to leave his bank account several million pounds lighter. Not that he can’t afford it, of course.’
He was talking about Finn as though Maggie herself knew his circumstances, and even though she knew she would regret giving in to the temptation Maggie found it impossible not to say a little acerbically, ‘I hadn’t realised there was so much money in farming.’
The agent laughed. ‘There isn’t. And I’m afraid Finn’s plans to extend the scope of his organic farming venture are not very popular with the likes of Audley Slater. But then of course Finn is not reliant on the land financially. He made a fortune as a City trader in the boom, and he had the foresight to take a large proportion of his bonuses in share options. He’s worth millions,’ he told Maggie.
Finn had been a city trader. Maggie fought to conceal her disbelief—she found it almost impossible to equate the man Finn had seemed to be with the stories she had heard about groups of wild young men who had become almost a byword for all types of excess. Things were different now, of course; there had been too many falls from grace for it to be otherwise.
The agent’s revelation had affected her more deeply than she wanted to acknowledge, but somehow she managed to force a polite smile as he shook her hand before turning to leave.
Why hadn’t Finn said anything? Told her—told her…Why had he let her think that the City was an alien concept to him? The certainty that she had known so little about him, been so wrong about his background, reinforced the fear she had fought so determinedly to subdue that with Finn, both he and their relationship would be outside her control.
The square was virtually empty as she hurried towards her car. What had she expected? To see Finn’s Land Rover parked there? A dirty muddy old Land Rover! City traders drove up-market gleaming sports cars, the faster and more expensive the better. They dated models and actresses, and they loved city life and city women. But Finn did not. Finn felt only contempt for city women…
City women…or just one city woman…just her?
Sombrely Maggie got into her car. She had a long drive ahead of her, and the one thing she was determined she was not going to do was spend it thinking about Finn Gordon. Why should she? After all, he meant nothing to her. Nothing at all.
Finn didn’t know why on earth he was bothering wasting his time like this. After all, he had far better things to do. And why should he apologise anyway? Grimly he crashed the Land Rover’s gears, his attention more on his thoughts than what he was doing as he drove through the small town’s narrow streets, heading for Maggie’s hotel. Anyone would think he was looking for any excuse he could find just to see her And there was no way he was fool enough to do anything like that. She already had a man in her life, and even if she hadn’t she had made it more than plain that she wasn’t prepared to give up her city lifestyle.
Swinging into a convenient car park space, he reminded himself that he had had to come into the town anyway, to see Philip.
‘Finn, I was just on my way back to the office to ring you.’
Cursing under his breath as Philip hailed him, Finn couldn’t resist looking past him and across the square to the hotel. The memory of the angry kiss he and Maggie had exchanged outside the house still burned at danger heat…
‘I’m just on my way back to the office now,’ Philip was telling him. ‘I’ve just been to see Maggie Russell—I felt I ought to. I hadn’t realised that you were intending to bid for the Dower House, and I’m afraid I encouraged her to believe she had every chance of bidding successfully for it herself. Luckily I just managed to catch her before she left.’
