Love Nest Read Free

everyone else. Business hasn’t been good for me recently and she’s not going to get anything like her usual bonus. Everything has got so much more expensive, and Alfie’s really not thriving at the local school, so we’ve got to start thinking about going private.’ He sighed. ‘I’m really sorry, Grace, but it’s going to have to go.’
    ‘And where will I live?’ she asked, as the car turned the last curving bend and entered the tall metal gates, flanked by the derelict lodge, that marked the drive.
    ‘Vee and I discussed that. Of course you can’t be left homeless. I mean, you would be left with a decent sum of money from the sale of the house, plenty to allow you to buy a decent place of your own. But you did nurse Mummy for a long time and you’re not married and you don’t have anything even vaguely resembling a career. So we’ve agreed it would be only fair to let you have the village cottage when the tenant moves out.’
    ‘Oh!’ Grace’s head was swimming. They were pulling up in front of Chadlicote now: Chadlicote with its beautiful, red-brick Elizabethan façade choked with ivy. Mullioned windows glinting in the sun. Wide stone steps. Perfect proportions. All right, the stonework was crumbling, there were boards over a couple of the windows, but still… it was her home. Half hers, anyway. But Sebastian had a splendid home of his own in Wimbledon, near the Common.
    It had never occurred to her he wouldn’t let her stay.
    But there was no time for further discussion. The drive was full of cars, and people in black were standing around the dried-up fountain, wanting to let her know how sorry they were. Grace couldn’t face them. She needed time alone. She was still taking in this news, that her brother and sister-in-law were sending her to live in a run-down workman’s cottage on the edge of the village, which – as far as she recalled – had a patch of scrubby garden and no central heating.
    ‘Look, do we really have to…?’ she began, but Mrs Legan, the village’s chief nosy parker, was peering at her through the window. Reluctantly, Grace wound it down.
    ‘Grace. I’m so sorry I didn’t get the chance to say it before. But I am truly sorry for your loss.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Grace. She glanced urgently at her brother.
    ‘Do we really have to?’ she said softly, winding up the window again.
    ‘I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier. I called the estate agents last night. They’re coming tomorrow for a valuation. They think we should have no problem with a quick sale.’
    ‘I…’ But guests were approaching. Grace gave up and got out of the car. She’d fight this battle later, she told herself, although if Sebby said they had no choice…
    Grace needed a sausage roll. That would help her think straight.

1
    It was the final viewing of the day and the client was late. As usual. Lucinda stood outside the heavy front door of the converted bottle factory, tapping her heel on the concrete and looking at photos on her mobile. How did people pass the time before they had phones? She smiled at the picture of herself last summer by the pool of the villa in Tobago, wearing a very flattering orange bikini. Mummy and Daddy at the lunch table, sheltered by an umbrella from the Caribbean sun. Ginevra and Wolfie, arms wrapped round each other. Benjie about to do a silly backwards dive into the pool.
    Happy memories. Looking up, Lucinda caught sight of herself grinning in the plate-glass doors leading into the lobby. It was the kind of thing you could never admit to anyone, but she knew she was looking beautiful that day. Her auburn hair shone, her green eyes sparkled, her skin glowed. Just lucky, she reminded herself, knowing she was in danger of tipping over from self-confident into smug. She came from a good gene pool. She was young. And going places. She couldn’t help it; she smiled again at her huge fortune in being her.
    ‘Lucinda?’
    At the sound of her name, she jumped.