He let out a puzzled laugh. “What?”
“Look, this town is my home and I love it,” she said. “So much so that when Alex wanted to take me away from it, I refused to follow him. But you? I’d follow you. To Kent. Or Rome. Or Siberia. Doesn’t matter where.”
Wolfie straightened his shoulders. “You’d follow me? Tell me, why is that?”
Pippa smiled the kind of smile that put the sun to shame. “Because I’m in love with you, Wolfie Squires.”
Wolfie grabbed her hand and raised it to his lips. “Right back at you, Pippa Munro.”
Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
“Why can’t I take it off?” Pippa scratched at the blindfold.
“Because I said so,” Wolfie said haughtily. “Mind your step.”
They were outside, Pippa knew that much, somewhere in the garden at Squires. The evening was cooling, and she could sense the sun slipping down behind the hills.
“I’m exhausted,” she said. “Can we not just get a takeaway and watch some shit on TV?”
Wolfie spluttered. “Be still my beating heart.”
“Well then you’re going to have to explain pretty quickly what’s happening here,” Pippa said.
“Excuse me for thinking the one-year anniversary of our first kiss should be special,” Wolfie said, his lips moving close to her ear. Pippa’s heart sped up; she’d never stop finding this man irresistible.
“I’m suddenly very much on board with the blindfold,” she said, reaching for him.
“Uh-uh-uh,” he tutted cheekily. “All in good time, Pippa Munro.”
Pippa couldn’t fight the smile. She still loved hearing him say her name like that. Wolfie’s hand slid to her lower back and she leaned into his touch, letting him guide her. It had been a manic year, starting with Wolfie’s bold step of selling off much of Carmichael’s precious wine collection, defying his late father’s wishes. “He won’t be here to drink it, will he?” was Wolfie’s rationale and he’d suffered no resistance from his mother or sister. The funds raised from the sales had wiped out virtually all Carmichael’s debts and allowed them to stay at the house, where they were embarking on a new dream together.
Squires B&B was to open to the public the very next day and Wolfie and Pippa had worked all the hours possible to turn the old house into a chic yet cosy boutique hotel. Thanks to Pippa’s business acumen and Wolfie’s extensive contacts, the summer was already looking to be incredibly busy with masses of bookings. So long as their joint business followed projections, it seemed as though their big gamble might just pay off, and handsomely so. Despite this, Wolfie had been forced to keep his job as a security consultant whilst the renovations were ongoing – they needed every penny they could scrape together – so Pippa had had to manage a lot of the works by herself. But he hoped to wind his consultancy down soon enough, should the venture succeed the way they believed it would. Theirs had been a true partnership, light years away from what she had shared with Alex.
“How was Joan today?” Pippa asked, gladly pushing all thoughts of Alex far from her mind.
“Good.” Wolfie’s tone dipped, as it usually did when talking about Joan. She had moved into a special care home that Grantham was proudly funding himself, although he did permit Wolfie and Pippa to visit whenever they wanted and bring whatever treats they wanted to help cheer her up. Pippa fell more deeply in love with Wolfie every time she watched him with the woman. On her bad days he would feed Joan soup or comb her hair. She had sadly lost the ability of speech and could often be found staring into space, but Pippa swore her eyes lit up when Wolfie walked in, that her mouth quirked in a half-smile whenever he talked about Squires or its gardens. “She ate some of the carrot cake you made,” he went on. “Think she liked it too.”
“Aw.” Pippa grinned. Her carrots had been particularly good this summer.
“Right, watch yourself.” The air suddenly became a little more hushed and Pippa knew she was amongst the high hedges of the maze.
“What are we doing?” she asked. The maze had been a laborious project of theirs but an important one. Pippa had an instinct that it would be a unique selling point for any guests that came to Squires. After all, how many B&Bs had their own maze with a view of the Yorkshire Moors? But the neglect had been extensive and fixing it properly had ended up being costly and time-consuming. Due to Wolfie’s work keeping him busy, Pippa had really struggled to complete the final tidy up of the maze and unfortunately, it wouldn’t be available to visitors until at least a few weeks after the hotel opened.
“You’ll see,” Wolfie said. “Come along.” They walked a few more paces, twisting and turning. Pippa knew he was leading her to the heart of the maze. Soon enough, they stopped.
“Can I take it off now?” she begged. As an answer, Wolfie tugged at the fabric and pulled it away from her eyes. “Oh, my.”
The maze had been transformed. The tatty, ragged hedges of before were now healthy and vibrant, filling the air with a fresh green scent. The grass beneath Pippa’s feet was lush and even, with patches of fragrant verbena and striking foxgloves dotted about. Festoon lighting had been strung around the hedges, casting the space in a golden glow. It was magical.
“Wolfie,” Pippa giggled. “You finished it. How did you—?”
Wolfie grimaced. “Don’t ask. Let’s just say I owe Frankie and Theo several rounds of drinks.”
Pippa shook her head in disbelief. “And your piano? Why is that here?” The huge piano from the library was inexplicably placed right in the centre, stool and all.
Wolfie pointed to the old bench, lovingly restored with a simple brass plaque that read ‘Joan’s Bench’. “Sit.”
