Page 49 of Secret Paths

But enough.

I look down at my wine before I am caught smiling at him like an idiot.

It does not help.

When I glance back, Peter is already looking at me.

Chapter 6

Peter

By the time Alexandra decides I need feeding, managing and possibly sedating, I have already agreed to go to Morton Hall on Monday.

I am not sure how that happened.

One minute, I am sitting at the bar, trying not to look too closely at Mandy while my sister recommends another man to her as if she is choosing a starter from the specials board. The next, I have told Alexandra about the bank, nearly made her cry over the cottage and agreed to discuss a finance job at my best friend’s hotel.

All in all, a lively Thursday.

“You can come here after,” Alexandra says.

I look at her. “After what?”

“Morton Hall. On Monday.”

“So you can ask me how it went before I have taken my coat off?”

She wipes an invisible mark from the bar. “I was going to offer dinner.”

“You were going to offer an interrogation with food.”

“Food improves most things.”

Hunter, who still has the fingers of one hand linked with hers, kisses the side of her head. “It does when you are not the one being interrogated.”

“I have never interrogated you.”

He gives her a look.

She smiles sweetly. “Not excessively.”

Mandy finishes the last of her wine without joining in. She has been quieter since I told them about the cottage. Not awkward. Not cold. Just watching in that way she has, as if she is keeping track of what people do not say.

I can handle Alexandra fussing. I can handle Hunter being practical and annoyingly kind. I can even handle the idea of sitting opposite Morton Hall’s Director of Finance on Monday while she decides whether I am a useful hire or a sentimental act of village pity.

What I am less sure I can handle is Mandy noticing which parts get under my skin.

“I should go,” Mandy says, setting her empty glass on the bar.

Alexandra glances towards the window, then turns to me. “Walk her home.”

I look at my sister. “Sorry, was that a request or have I been conscripted?”

Mandy pauses with one arm in her coat. “Why?”

“Because the football was on,” Alexandra says, “and there will be drunken idiots wandering about.”

“This is St Claire,” Mandy says.