Just then, Percival started, his eyes bugging as he looked at something behind Pippa. “What on earth is that?”
Pippa turned and couldn’t hide her laughter. Good old Juniper was bearing down on the vegetable patch with such determination she looked almost human. “It’s only Juniper,” she assured the man. “She doesn’t mean any harm.”
“Can they not keep that blasted pig in a sty?” Wolfie groaned. “Damned thing treats my garden like her own private space.” But Pippa swore she could see a glint of amusement in those eyes of his. Percival, however, was less relaxed about being so close to a hungry Tamworth and was backing away. Juniper, oblivious to Percival’s fear, made her way towards the corner of the vegetable patch he was next to. This had a dramatic impact on Percival. Throwing his hands up in the air, he let out a deafening bellow.
“Shoo!” Percival yelled, running away. “Shoo!” The noise clearly startled the poor pig, who let out a panicked squeal and began to run. Unfortunately for Percival, her flight interrupted his trajectory. Man and pig collided. Juniper, being almost a half-ton of solid flesh, was thankfully unscathed but Percival flew over her and landed square in the middle of the vegetable patch, bringing Pippa’s makeshift pig-guard down around him. Furious, Percival jumped to his feet, ripping up two of the raspberry canes and brandishing them before him in a demented attempt at defence.
“Hey!” Pippa had never moved so fast in her life. “Put those down! She won’t hurt you!” She manoeuvred herself between Percival and Juniper.
“What is the meaning of this?” Percival roared at her. “Wild animals roaming the place? Attacking innocent bystanders?”
“Does she look like a wild animal?” Pippa scolded. Juniper plodded around her to reach the now churned-up vegetable patch and began to placidly nose at the earth. “You scared her!”
“She’s vicious. You saw that!” Percival gestured at Wolfie. “Come on, back me up here! The pig went for me.”
Wolfie regarded Percival with his trademark assessing stare, then flicked his gaze to Pippa who met it defiantly. Wolfie folded his arms. “Juniper is trespassing, I grant you that, but she meant no harm.”
Percival’s face turned bright red. “Trespas—! Of all the nonsense.” He swiped at his clothes in a feeble attempt to rid them of stinking mulch, but he was coated. “I can’t possibly recommend this location for development if there are wild pigs roaming around. I could be sued.”
“For the second time, she’s not wild!” Pippa snapped. “She’s free-spirited.”
Percival tossed his head back regally, a move incongruous with his now dishevelled state. “This place is a nightmare.”
“Steady on,” Wolfie said. “Let’s get you cleaned up so you can finish.”
Percival waved a hand. “I think I’ve seen enough,” he sneered. “Let’s not forget I’m an expert. I know what my recommendations to the client will be. I’ll see myself out.” And with that, he stormed off.
Wolfie levelled Pippa with an icy gaze. “Well, that was quite something.”
“What was?”
Wolfie’s lips thinned further. “I don’t even want to guess at how you trained that pig to come charging at us like tha—”
“Wait, whoa, I didn’t train her to do anything!” Pippa interrupted. As if anyone could train Juniper to do anything that wasn’t her own idea. “He scared her, you saw.”
“I know you don’t think I should sell up, but seriously?” Wolfie’s voice was tight with exasperation. “Do you honestly think these childish games will stop me from getting what I want?”
There was a sensual menace laced through his words that Pippa found hard to dismiss. Pippa lifted her chin and met his gaze, squarely. “It’s not childish to struggle to understand how someone could dismiss something so beautiful as if it means nothing.” She sounded angrier than she had intended and Wolfie looked at her in alarm. Pippa took a breath. Maybe after everything Alex had put her through, she was overly sensitive. But Pippa knew she had a point, one that was shared by most of the citizens of Hurst Bridge.
Now it was Wolfie’s turn to look vulnerable. “God, all I hear is how beautiful this house is. How meaningful.” He shook his head, jamming his hands in his pockets. “Beautiful doesn’t mean perfect, you know.”
“I never said it did,” Pippa retorted.
“It’s a house,” Wolfie went on. “A simple house. Nothing special about it.”
“Maybe not to you.” Pippa shrugged. “But perhaps if you opened your eyes for a moment, you might see what I see. You might see what’s special.”
Wolfie’s lips thinned but he didn’t reply. He merely stood, staring as if waiting for her to say more. Pippa didn’t trust herself to meet that intense gaze of his, so she turned to inspect the vegetable patch, where Juniper was happily nuzzling around. Pippa looked at the bruised leaves amidst churned-up soil, the exposed roots with raw green flesh poking through torn skin. It had taken Percival mere seconds to damage days of hard work. Pippa’s throat clogged with emotion.
“I mean, take that Percival guy,” she blurted suddenly, startling Wolfie. “There’s someone who doesn’t stop to think about what’s important. So quick to lash out he didn’t even think about the devastation he left behind.” Pippa knew she was ranting about more than just the vegetable patch, but it was like something had unlocked inside her and the words poured from somewhere deep and painful. “A person puts in all that effort, all that sacrifice, and it ends up being treated like total crap.”
Wolfie stepped forward. “I’m not sure I un—”
But she wasn’t done. “And a voicemail. A fucking voicemail after all this time. He thinks that I’ll let him back in, after giving over a decade of myself and waiting for my life to truly beginlike asap!”
“I’m not sure what’s going on here, but you aren’t a sap,” Wolfie said softly, his well-meaning tenderness like salt on a wound.
“Well, Alex treated me like one.” The adrenaline ebbed away, leaving Pippa breathless and red-faced. But it had felt good to say the words out loud, to send them soaring across the open skies of the moorland where they could dissipate. It was a freeing,finalfeeling. After all, if Alex hadn’t done what he did, would Pippa still be stuck in a cycle of work and elder care without a moment for herself? Was it entirely possible Alex had done her a favour? Pippa laughed, causing Wolfie to look more alarmed.
