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‘Even so, it mightn’t do any harm to have her tested.’ Harriet was thinking uneasily about that ill-spelt note.
Rafael laughed out loud as he turned the Range Rover on to the road. ‘What for? Being a teenager?’
Harriet went pink and scolded herself for suspecting that he might not be aware of his sister’s difficulties with the written word. It was hardly surprising that he should prefer to keep that issue confidential. Having rustled frantically through her pockets, Harriet managed to print her phone numbers on to a scrap of paper. She set the note on the dash. ‘Tell her the horses will really miss her attention, and that if she gets the time I’d love to hear from her.’
Without comment, Rafael turned into the Flynn Court estate by the entrance at the gate lodge where Tolly lived. Harriet liked Una? He was really surprised. Was Una good with horses? He had no idea. Getting even basic dialogue out of his half-sister was more pain than gain. He would demand an explanation of her latest offence, she would sulk or sob and refuse to speak, and he would pronounce judgement. He had given up talking about the value of education and the rewards of good behaviour in terms of privilege and respect. He ruled now by force of personality and threat. But that was not how he had intended it to be.
‘Where on earth are you taking me?’ Harriet asked.
‘Have patience.’
The long drive looped round through a glorious avenue of vast spreading cedar trees and then back again before leading down a gentle sloping gradient to a vast walled building that was tucked completely out of view of the cottage.
‘I didn’t even know this existed,’ Harriet admitted as Rafael drove below an ancient stone archway.
‘It’s only visible from the sea.’
As the car came to a halt on the cobbles in the vast enclosed space, Harriet’s eyes were huge. ‘Oh, my word…’ she breathed in wonderment, levering the door open with an eager hand to spring out and take a closer look.
It was a magnificent stable yard in which time appeared to have stood miraculously still, for the ancient stonework and the stable doors were in immaculate order. There was not a weed to be seen, not so much as a cobblestone out of alignment. Fascinated, she wandered round below the classic arches lining three sides of the yard. The loose boxes had been renovated to modern standards, with water and drainage and smoke alarms. Of equal interest was the spacious room that lay behind the imposing Doric pillars at the furthest end. What a tack shop it would make, she thought instantly, peering through the windows.
‘What do you think?’
Snatched from her reverie, Harriet whirled round. Rafael was lounging up against the bonnet of his four-wheel-drive, the beginnings of a smile playing over his devastatingly handsome mouth.
‘What do I think?’ Harriet was so knocked out by the sheer possibilities of the place that she was excited to death. ‘How come it’s in such incredibly good condition?’
‘Unlike the Court?’ Rafael followed her reasoning with ease. ‘This place has belonged to me for a long time. About fifteen years ago I began buying back parts of the original estate whenever they came on the market. But the house belonged to my father until he died.’
Harriet was puzzled. ‘Then why didn’t he maintain it?’
‘It was my mother’s family home, and because she loved it he hated it. Valente always
went with his gut reactions, and none of them were charitable.’
Harriet was taken aback by the complete casualness with which he implied that such unreasoning malice could only have been expected. ‘I gather your parents didn’t get on?’
‘They were divorced.’
Surely only the most malign influence could have deliberately sentenced that exquisite house on the hill to neglect and ruin? Now Harriet could see the superb stable yard in another light. Rafael might betray little emotion, but the strength of his attachment to his mother’s home, and possibly even her memory, was patent in the beautifully maintained buildings around her.
‘Why did you bring me here to see this?’
‘I thought you would already have worked that out. I get my view back, and in return you get an embarrassment of purpose built stables in which to operate. You also gain the services of a full-time groom. I only keep a couple of horses here, and Davis could do with more work.’
Harriet surveyed Rafael with dazed blue eyes. ‘I can’t believe you’re serious. You’re offering me the use of this huge, amazing yard in place of some tumbledown sheds? What’s the catch?’
‘There is no catch.’ Strong dark features impassive, his lean powerful physique relaxed, he studied her with unruffled composure. ‘Don’t bite every hand that seeks to feed you.’
Yet his indolent calm unnerved her, for natural instinct warned that there had to be a lot more happening below that deceptively cool surface than he ever showed.
‘But there has to be…I mean, for a start, basing the business here would be impractical.’ Harriet attempted to voice the more obvious objections to such a proposal. ‘I can’t take care of horses that are stabled a couple of miles away by road!’
‘That’s not a problem. I’ll reopen the lane that once linked with the one behind the cottage. You and your clientele can use it as a shortcut onto the estate. It’ll also keep the traffic well away from the Court. The groom already lives in an apartment above the stables, which means he’ll be on site to provide emergency cover.’
Harriet had expected Rafael to put obstacles in her way. Instead he appeared to be offering her a free, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘I’d also like to discuss the possibility of exchanging the field you own in front of the cottage with one adjacent to the back lane. It would enable the replanting of some of the trees that were cut down.’
