Portia had been unmoved. ‘I don’t like cats. And the term “spinster”, Ms Taylor, is no longer politically correct.’
‘Nor does it apply to you, darling, yet. But it might if you don’t watch out!’
Portia drove home, had a bath, put some supper together, then opened her briefcase and with reluctance settled down to study the brochure of Turret House. The recent owners had renovated it throughout, but she was surprised the Frenchman was interested in it. Turret House was in immaculate condition now, according to Ben Parrish, but it was big, expensive, in a remote location, and not even pleasing to the eye unless one had a taste for the Gothic. Built as a dower house for the owner of Ravenswood, the architecture was typical of the latter part of Victoria’s reign. These days Ravenswood was an expensive country house hotel, and Turret House a separate property far too big to attract the average family. Portia eyed the brochure with foreboding. Tomorrow would be a deeply personal ordeal, but otherwise a complete waste of time. The man would take one look at the house, give a Gallic shudder of distaste, and race back to Paris on the next plane. She brightened. In which case she could shake off the dust of Turret House for ever, drive back to London and take up her weekend where she’d left off.
The February afternoon was bright with cold sunshine as Portia drove west next day along the crowded motorway. She made good time, eventually turned off into the West Country, and arrived well on schedule at the crossroads between Ravenswood and Turret House. Her reluctance deepened as she took the familiar right-hand fork to head for the house she’d hoped never to set eyes on again. But as she slowed to turn into the drive Portia sternly controlled her misgivings. She took professional note of the refurbished splendour of the gates and the well-tended air of the tiered garden as she negotiated the hairpin bends of the steep drive. At last, no matter how slowly she drove, she reached the gravelled terrace and came face to face with Turret House again.
Portia switched off the ignition, but remained in the car for a while. With time to spare before her client arrived, she put her feelings aside and tried to view the house with a purchaser’s eye as the last rays of sunset light glittered on arched windows and flamed on red brick walls. It was a typical, rambling villa of its era, with a turreted square tower stuck on the end like an afterthought—the taste of the self-made industrialist who’d bought elegant, Palladian Ravenswood for his aristocratic bride. And promptly built Turret House three miles away for his mother-in-law.
Unable to put off the moment any longer, Portia got out of the car, shivering more with apprehension than cold. She belted her long winter white coat tightly, pulled her velvet Cossack hat low over her eyes, collected her briefcase and crossed the terrace to the arched front door. She breathed in deeply, then unlocked the door, switched on the lights, and stood still in surprise on the threshold. She had noted the renovations in the brochure, but it was still strange to find the old red Turkey carpet gone and the austere beauty of the black and white tiles left bare. And the heavy dark wood of the staircase had been stripped and sealed, the artistry of the carving revealed now by the light from the stained-glass window on the landing. Portia let out the breath she’d been holding. The hall was so much smaller than her memory of it. But, most important of all, it was empty. No ghosts at all.
Almost light-headed with relief, Portia went through the rest of the rooms, switching on lights, noting the quality of the pale carpets and the padded silk curtains. No furniture, which was a drawback. It was much easier to sell an inhabited, furnished house. Which was probably why the place was sticking. And upstairs everything was so unfamiliar it could have been a different house. Smaller rooms had been converted into bathrooms to connect with the larger bedrooms, and the pastel paint everywhere was a far cry from the dark gloom of the past. Portia glanced at her watch, frowning, then went back downstairs. The client was an hour late. And Turret House was not a place she cared to linger in after dark.
Nor, Portia found, could she bring herself to look over the tower rooms alone first. A cold shiver ran through her at the mere thought. She turned on her heel and went back to the bright, welcoming kitchen instead, hoping Monsieur Brissac was bringing the woman in his life. Kitchens were a very important selling point. These days very few clients wanted a formal dining room as the only place to eat. Fortunately the vendors had joined the old larder to the kitchen to form one vast room, with space for an eating area. In contrast to the old-fashioned, comfortless place of the past, the result was a glossy magazine vision of a country kitchen, complete with fashionable dark blue Aga stove.
Portia stood very still, staring at it. There had been an Aga stove in the past, coal-fired and ancient, its beige enamel discoloured with age and constant use. It had been a devil to load and rake out…
A voice outside in the hall plucked Portia back into the present. She went through the leather-backed door to find a tall man craning his neck to look up the staircase, impatience radiating from him like nuclear fallout.
Portia coughed. ‘Monsieur Brissac?’
He swung round sharply, the impatience falling from him like a cloak as she moved forward under the bare central light of the hall. He bowed slightly, his eyes narrowing as he saw her face. ‘Pardon. The door was open so I came in. My plane was delayed. If I kept you waiting I am sorry.’
Even at first glance Portia doubted that penitence was part of this man’s make-up. ‘How do you do?’ she said politely.
He was silent for a moment, taking in every detail of her appearance. ‘You are Miss Grant from Whitefriars Estates?’
‘Yes. Unfortunately my assistant’s ill and couldn’t come,’ she admitted reluctantly, and returned his scrutiny with interest. He wore a formal dark overcoat, worn open over a city suit, and he was younger than she’d expected, with thick, longish black hair and smooth olive skin, a straight noise. But his mouth curved in strikingly sensuous contrast to the firm, dark-shadowed jaw. And something about him revived the feeling of unease she’d experienced at the first sound of his voice on the phone.
‘I had expected someone older, mademoiselle,’ he said at last.
So had Portia. But you’re stuck with me, she thought silently, then stiffened as a sudden gleam in his eyes told her he’d read her mind. Reminding herself that her mission was to sell the house, not alienate the client, she exerted herself to please as she took him on a tour of the ground-floor rooms, extolling virtues of space and the wonderful views by daylight over the bay.
‘A pity you arrived so late,’ she said pleasantly. ‘The view is a major attraction of Turret House.’
‘So I was told.’ He raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Is it good enough to compensate for the architecture? You must admit that the exterior lacks charm.’
‘True. But the house was built to last.’ Portia led the way upstairs, pointing out the various selling points as her elegant client explored the bedrooms. On the way downstairs again she stressed the advantages of the immaculate interior decoration, the new central heating system, the recent rewiring, the curtains and carpets included in the price. In the kitchen, she pointed out its practical and aesthetic virtues, but at last there was only the tower left to explore. Portia preceded her client into the hall, her pulse racing and her hands clammy as she pressed a button in the wall beneath the stairwell. A door slid aside in the panelling to reveal a lift. ‘This is set in the turret itself,’ she said colourlessly. ‘It takes you to the bedroom floor, of course, then on to the top room in the tower, Monsieur Brissac.’
He smiled. ‘Ah! You saved the pièce de résistance for last, Miss Grant. Is it in good working order?’
‘Yes,’ she said, devoutly hoping she was right. ‘To demonstrate this we can inspect the three floors of the tower on foot, then call the lift up to the top floor to bring us down again.’
Wishing now she’d forced herself to inspect the tower alone first, Portia preceded her client into the ground-floor room, a light, airy apartment, with windows on the three outer walls. And empty, just like the hall. She relaxed slightly. ‘I believe this was used as the morning room by the lady of the house when it was first built. This door opens into the lift, and the one beside it conceals a spiral stair