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‘Yes. She’s quite famous round here, actually. She was engaged to local millionaire Ronnie Weeks until he called their wedding off?’ Jaz shrugs. ‘Maybe buying the stables is her way of making a fresh start, so I guess we should wish her luck.’
My heart lurches with shock. ‘She was engaged toRonnie?’
Jaz nods. ‘Do you know him, then?’
‘Er, yes. Yes, I do.’ My head is spinning with confusion. ‘Gosh, it’s a small world.’
But it can’t be Lois, surely? Why would she step in and offer more money for the stables than Rory? It doesn’t make any sense...
‘Clara, could you fill up the cutlery baskets, please?’ calls Ellie.
‘Of course. It was good to see you, Jaz.’ I hurry through the back with my tray, feeling like I’m Alice and I’ve stepped through the Looking Glass.
What the hell is going on?
Setting down the tray by the dishwasher, I stand at the window and stare out over the green, my mind completely blown.
The bidder who gazumped Rory was... Lois?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It’s too wild to even contemplate. Why would she do that to Rory? It doesn’t make sense.
It can’t possibly beLoiswho’s buying the stables, surely? Apart from anything else, she’s not working right now, so how would she get a mortgage for the place? But Jaz seemed pretty certain the buyer was Ronnie’s ex-fiancée. And the lack of interest in horses certainly fits.
But no, Jaz must surely have got it wrong.
Unless...
But no, even Lois wouldn’t bethatscheming, surely?
I go straight up to her room when I get back and tackle her, and she admits it straight away.
‘Obviously I was going to withdraw my offer later,’ she says sulkily, as if that makes it all right. ‘Idon’t want the bloody stables, do I?’
‘No, but Rory does. What the hell were youthinking, Lois?’
‘I don’t know. I just thought maybe if it all went wrong, he might give up on it altogether. Especially if I could convince him that it wasn’t right for us.’
‘But I thought you said you were going to take riding lessons? And get some pink and purple wellies? I thought you said that at some point in the future, you’d work alongside him and help him make his dream a reality?’
She gives me a sheepish look and turns away.
‘You made all of that up?’ I gasp. ‘Oh my God, you did! It was all lies. You never had any intention of living in the country. You just said it so you could get your own way, hoping I suppose that you could change his mind in the future. Jeez, Lois, Machiavelli had absolutely nothing on you.’
‘Machiavelli was a highly intelligent man.’
‘Yes. And he used evil deception to get his own way.’
She shrugs obstinately. ‘You have to protect yourself in this life. No one else is going to do it for you.’
I shake my head in wonder at her capacity for deceit.
‘So when are you going to tell Rory it was you who gazumped him?’
She looks at me sulkily. ‘Does he really have to know, Clara?’
‘Of course he does!’
