Page 123 of A Scottish Country Escape

‘Hey back.’

His face broke into an appreciative smile. He moved towards me, but Elsa, who had disappeared out of the library, reappeared. ‘So sorry, but Linda Carlucci is here.’

Seconds later, Linda made her way into the room. Cameron appeared awkward when he saw her again, as if all his long limbs were suddenly too big for his body.

Her hair was drawn back at the base of her neck in an Eva Peron style bun and she was wearing a knee-length beige woollen dress and boots.

She nodded at everyone as she hovered by the table. I approached her with a small smile of welcome. Her lips flickered. ‘Thank you for letting me see I couldn’t continue the way I was.’

I squeezed her hand, which was poking out of the ribbed sleeve of her dress. Her eyes flew to the library door. ‘Atticus Development and the council are here now too?’

Dexter, resplendent in a three-piece navy suit and mauve tie, nodded. ‘Please come and take a seat and we can all introduce ourselves. Then we can begin.’

* * *

‘You don’t have that sort of money,’ scoffed Joshua Boyd at the hastily assembled meeting. ‘All your efforts are to be applauded, Ms Cassidy, but I would be very surprised if baking stalls and raffles have raised the amount we are talking about here.’

I narrowed my eyes across the table. ‘The local community have dug deep to try and save the reserve. We have been doing all we can.’

I wanted to wipe that supercilious smirk from his round face.

‘But the fact remains that you simply can’t make an offer to buy the reserve from the council without the necessary funds, which you clearly don’t have.’

From beside me, Cameron Lomax coughed. ‘And you know that for a fact, do you?’

Joshua Boyd toyed with the pen in front of him. ‘Well, no, of course not, but the amount of money we’re talking here—’

Cameron cut him off mid-sentence. He smoothed down the gold silk tie which Dexter had lent him. ‘One of the first rules of business: always research the competition.’

He sat back in his chair.

Joshua Boyd, his boss, John Gerrard, who was seated beside him and the council representative, a stork-like lady by the name of Una Groves, shuffled in their chairs.

Cameron leant forward. ‘I am an art collector. I own a number of very high-profile pieces of artwork.’ He scanned everyone at the table. ‘I take it you’ve heard of the local Fir Haven artist Stratford Miller? Well, one of his paintings, Little Town, was recently discovered by a local gentleman by the name of Robert Masters. It was handed down from generation to generation in his family and when his brother passed away recently he discovered it amongst his possessions in his attic.’ A small smile hovered on his lips. ‘Mr Masters was all set to donate it to a local charity shop but he happened to hear a radio interview with me and made contact.’

I froze in my chair, recalling the news item about the discovery of the painting on the radio while Elsa and I had sat in my car outside Cameron’s apartment that day.

Robert Masters? His name rang like a bell in my head. So it was his late brother who had owned it? I let out a tiny gasp of shock and tried to refocus.

The three officials made uncomfortable murmurs at each other.

Cameron continued to explain. ‘I was thrilled to buy it from him. In fact, you could say it was a team effort. When I told Robert of the importance of his discovery, he insisted that he sell it to me for a modest fee under the proviso that it be auctioned and the proceeds go towards saving the reserve.’

Cameron smiled gently at our stunned faces gawping at him from around the table. ‘He said we should be working together to support the efforts of the Fir Haven community.’

My heart pummelled my chest. So, Robert Masters’ brother had held on to this elusive painting for goodness knows how long and now he was indirectly helping to save the reserve.

There were more grunts and tuts from the suits who were present, but Cameron seized on their disquiet. ‘My plan is to have the painting auctioned as soon as possible and all the proceeds from the sale will go towards purchasing and maintaining the nature reserve.’ He then announced a figure he was confident Little Town would achieve at auction. ‘In fact, that’s a bit of a conservative estimate.’

Una Groves’s small eyes grew big. She flicked her ash-blonde fringe out of her eyes. ‘So, let me clarify, Mr Lomax. You are saying you want to purchase the nature reserve.’

‘But we’ve already got interested parties on board for those homes,’ choked Joshua Boyd. ‘High-profile names! What are we going to tell them?’

‘You can tell them,’ said Dexter, ‘that there is alternative land available, still in Fir Haven.’

I frowned at him. What was he talking about? There was no other alternative land that could be used. Or at least, I wasn’t aware of any.

Everyone observed Dexter rise out of his seat and stroll across to the library window. He pointed across the swathe of grass beyond a high fence decorated with climbing vines. ‘Over there is land I also own, which I had intended to develop as stables but I’ve changed my mind about that.’