hair was lighter and straighter than Aaron’s and his face less animated but Clancy knew him too. She looked into his eyes – also lighter than Aaron’s – and was shocked. He looked so weary, and more like five years older than his brother than two years younger. ‘Hello, Lee. I’m glad to see you.’ She would have been gladder to see him with the boyish grin he used to wear.
His smile looked to be an effort. ‘But perhaps not at such speed? I’m late for a thing at my parents’ house but I didn’t mean to mow you down.’
‘Don’t worry, you missed.’
An awkward pause, Clancy absorbing the fact that she’d said she was glad to see Lee but he hadn’t returned the compliment. In fact, he was regarding her in the way a child might regard a spoonful of medicine – unpleasant but unavoidable.
She decided to try a gentle tackle on the elephant in the lane. ‘I hope me being around doesn’t bring back bad memories. I just … needed somewhere to go.’
He looked struck as he digested this. ‘I suppose I did the same.’ Then he patted her shoulder awkwardly, returned to his vehicle and drove away.
She returned to the Roundhouse thinking sombrely that life just beat some people up. She’d continue to fight against becoming one of them.
The summer sky had taken on a navy blue hue between box hedges and chalk cottages when Aaron arrived, unannounced, at Clancy’s door, Nelson sporting a doggy grin, at his side.
‘Got a minute to chat?’ Aaron asked, by way of greeting.
Conscious that he owned half the building she was living in and so, presumably, didn’t really need to ask, she decided to be civilised and invite him in for coffee. ‘Good meeting?’ she asked politely, as she took down mugs. They’d been Alice’s and were plain white with Royal Doulton on the bottom. Alice was nothing if not aspirational.
Aaron had helped himself to a seat at the kitchen table, dark eyes on her as she tried to remember how to work her new coffee machine. ‘I suppose so,’ he answered. ‘The usual stuff: the school in Thornham closed in the eighties – that always gets an airing – so we need young couples to stay in the village and increase the population. We should have a village hall but no one knows how to come up with the money. Kaz at the B&B wants more tourism and is worried about the future of the business. Obviously, wanting Roundhouse Row to be as full as possible, I agreed with her, not least because the B&B is in our literature as somewhere our guests might get a meal, but some villagers huffed and puffed about not wanting Nelson’s Bar “overrun with tourists”.’
‘Three holiday rentals and one B&B won’t attract enough tourists to “overrun” will they?’ In view of her current occupation, Clancy felt an affinity with Kaz and Oli. Kaz had seemed very nice if – understandably, it seemed – a little preoccupied with business.
‘Unlikely,’ Aaron agreed drily. ‘And those same people want the B&B there when they fancy lunch on the lawn or somewhere local for friends and relatives to stay. Ernie says the B&B needs a bigger bar so more than five people can get in at a time – nobody disagreed with that one. And, as you knew she would, Dilys took the position that Nelson’s Bar needs the internet and Ernie boomed out that the internet’s full of viruses and crooks.’
The coffee machine hissed and began to emit the unmistakeable coffee-is-nigh fragrance. Clancy gave him the first cup – with a splash in a saucer for Nelson – and popped in a coffee pod for the second. ‘The B&B seems a big part of the village.’
He gave a short laugh. ‘It would certainly be a worry if it came under threat. I had a chat with Kaz and Oli afterwards, trying to remember all the points about rural communities that you’d fired at me. Anyway,’ he went on, before she could ask more, ‘I’ve come to apologise. And explain.’ He’d propped his chin on his fist.
‘Go on then,’ she said, intrigued. The second coffee ready, she scooped it up and joined him at the table.
He ran a fingertip moodily around the rim of his mug. ‘I’m not impressed with myself. I deliberately made you feel unwelcome to go to the meeting.’
‘I got that.’
He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘Which makes it worse. I’m sure it felt personal but, really, it wasn’t.’
‘It was because of Lee,’ she supplied.
The dark eyes flicked open, looking wary. ‘Yes. You probably think I’m way exceeding my protectiveness but—’
‘I’ve seen him,’ she put in, remembering the fragility in Lee’s eyes. ‘He stopped to say hello.’ She told Aaron about the meeting, adding, ‘I couldn’t get over the change in him. He looks a genuinely troubled soul. I have to admit that at first I was stung that you so obviously wanted to keep me away from De Silva House and impatient if Lee was still rotting inside about what Alice did, but he looks so … beaten.’
Aaron’s shoulders relaxed a notch. ‘Thank you for saying that but it proves how misguided I was to try and protect him, when he chose to meet the issue head-on.’ He inhaled the steam of his coffee before taking an appreciative swig. ‘I’m guilty of excessive big-brotherliness – but I don’t think you have siblings, do you?’
‘I’m an only child,’ Clancy agreed slowly, ‘but did you know that because our mothers are identical twins, the DNA profiles of Alice and me are more like half-sisters than cousins?’
He lowered his coffee cup, looking struck. ‘Maybe Lee told me that once. Does it make a difference?’
‘I think so. I feel closer to her than my few cousins on Dad’s side, which allows me a glimmer of insight into why your family closes ranks around Lee.’ Clancy still had to push aside a pinprick of hurt though. ‘It’s more about Lee than it is about me.’
‘Yeah.’ But he was frowning again. ‘But you’re just as entitled to a safe haven.’
‘Oh.’ The pinprick of hurt blossomed suddenly into warmth. ‘Thank you.’ Feeling in charity with him, she broke out a packet of chocolate Hobnobs, which led to more coffee making as neither of them really had enough of the first cup left to allow dunking. Nelson jumped up hopefully when he heard the packet rustle but lay down again with a sigh when none of the bounty came his way.
Clancy resumed her seat and tried a less contentious subject. ‘I saw Genevieve at the B&B. It sounds as if her insurance company are playing ball OK. She’s moving into the B&B soon, isn’t she?’
He shrugged. ‘Think so.’ He dunked a Hobnob and popped it into his mouth whole. After he’d chewed and swallowed he added, ‘She ended things between us.’
‘Oh!’ Clancy paused. So much for less contentious subjects. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Thanks,’ he said moodily. ‘I think we were moving through the relationship at different speeds, but there’s something about being dumped, isn’t there?’
‘Yes.’ Her stomach gave the familiar lurch when she thought of Will. Will and Renée. ‘And when it’s a nice person who does the dumping, you wonder what that says about you.’
His gaze flew to her face and he cursed under his breath. ‘Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to—’
‘It’s OK.’ She buried her face in her coffee mug. Moving away from everything she knew had provided lots of distractions. Will had moved on in a brutally permanent way and so must she.
Aaron selected another Hobnob. ‘Actually, Genevieve quoted you. Something about women not being defined by men.’
‘I did say that, but I was talking about myself, not her.’ She began to add something about his love life being none of her business, but then stuttered to a halt when the memory of their kiss in the garden flashed into her mind. That had been a tiny bit of his love life, and it had certainly been her business. Did he ever think of that when he was at De Silva House?