who offered his hand by way of a more formal introduction.
‘The name’s Robert Bell. Your face looks familiar. Have I met you somewhere before?’
‘No,’ Theo said flatly, ignoring the outstretched hand and moving towards one of the desks on which he perched, while Sophie looked on, mouth agape at the sheer nerve of the man.
‘You probably recognise him from the cover of a book somewhere. Theo’s a writer.’
‘In the presence of fame,’ Robert remarked, grinning. ‘Aren’t you lucky, Soph? You can take his picture and build up a wall of fame over the years! Do wonders for the rental income, you know.’ He moved to sling one arm over Sophie’s shoulder and she eased herself away and towards Theo, now idly rifling through the reams of disorganised paperwork on her desk.
‘You never said what you wanted. Is everything all right with the cottage? Are Catherine and Annie working out okay?’ She snatched the papers from him and dumped them back on the desk.
He had, she noticed abstractedly, great hands. Strong, with long fingers and sufficient dark hair curling at the strap of his watch to make her wonder whether he had hair on his chest or not. She caught herself midway through the treacherous uninvited thought and frowned at him.
‘Fine. The house is beyond clean and the food is beyond good.’
‘Then why are you here?’ Sophie asked bluntly. ‘I have an awful lot of work to get through and I really can’t spare the time for chit-chat.’
Theo looked around him. ‘You do seem to be a bit…overwhelmed here…’
‘Not overwhelmed, just…’
‘Trying to impose order on chaos…’ Robert approached them and clicked his tongue in good-natured reprimand at Sophie. ‘Sophie has inherited all this from her father and…’
‘Do you mind, Robert? I’m sure Mr…Theo…isn’t interested in all of that!’ She tempered the sharpness of her reply with an apologetic smile and gave his arm a brief warm squeeze. All said and done, Robert had been her rock in recent months, sacrificing quite a bit of his free time to help her out, taking her out for the odd pizza when she had been feeling particularly down, always looking on the bright side of things. Yes, they went back a few years, but there was no way that she was going to take him for granted!
‘What sort of job was your father in?’ Theo asked, curious now that she had made a point of trying to steer him away from her boundaries. ‘Was he a doctor?’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because the papers seem to indicate a medical bent.’
Sophie’s mouth dropped open and she shut it quickly. She didn’t care what he thought of her, but the gaping goldfish impression wasn’t an attractive one.
‘Dad trained as a pharmacist, if you must know, and after he retired he dabbled here in one or two things…’ Talking about him still upset her and she turned away and walked towards another part of the office where yet more boxes awaited inspection. ‘Now, I really must ask you to leave. I have heaps to do.’ She busied herself with the little bundle of files on the desk.
‘Take a break. Join me for a cup of coffee at the café next door.’ Theo was mildly surprised that he had offered the invitation and he wasn’t at all surprised when she turned him down. ‘There are, actually, one or two things I need to discuss with you about the cottage.’
‘I thought you said everything was fine.’ Sophie looked at him anxiously. From the laborious process of going through her father’s belongings, one thing was becoming clearer and clearer by the day. His assets were heavily compromised. Invoices for supplies of substances she could barely pronounce, never mind recognise, littered the office. There were people waiting by the door for payment. Most weren’t as yet baying, because her father had been a lovable man and had obviously surrounded himself with very loyal and supportive people, even the ones waiting to have their bills met, but her father was no longer around and it wouldn’t be long before the patient waiting turned ugly. No one, owed money, remained jolly indefinitely.
The cottage was his greatest asset and she had to make a go of renting it because she just couldn’t bring herself to sell it.
If Theo wasn’t happy then her bank manager wasn’t going to be happy either.
‘What kind of things?’ she asked with a worried frown.
‘We could discuss this next door…’ He watched as she glanced hesitantly around the office and ran her fingers through her hair. She looked frazzled. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail that had probably commenced the day in a far neater condition than it was now. And Robert, he noticed, was eager for the role of protector, rushing to her side and patting her gently on the back, leaning over to whisper something in her ear. The other two women, both middle-aged, glanced at each other covertly and buried themselves in whatever they had been doing before he had interrupted their afternoon.
The dynamics of a provincial office. If office wasn’t a laughable overstatement, because nothing here resembled Theo’s offices—a huge smoked glass building, with each of its eight floors devoted to the efficient running of an empire that had tentacles stretching from his inherited shipping business to a thousand other concerns, all thriving, all diverse. And, at the top of the impressive building, a monument to modern architecture, sat Theo’s domain, a suite of partitioned offices where members of his close staff worked in silent productivity.
He dragged his attention back to Sophie, who was trying hard now to produce a crisp businesslike manner which was not in keeping with the ruffled hair, the flushed cheeks and the casual attire of faded jeans and an oversized rugby shirt.
‘I guess I could spare a few minutes,’ she conceded. He must think her blind not to have noticed the scathing look he gave her premises. He might be a hot shot writer, but she doubted he would have known where to start if he had been in her shoes. She grabbed her bag which, as usual, seemed to be stuffed with too many things and nodded at him. ‘I’ll only be a short while,’ she said to the others, smiling when Moira told her to take her time, that they were fine to carry on sifting through the paperwork without her for a bit.
‘I would appreciate it if you could phone me with queries in the future,’ was the first thing she said as they left the office. ‘I realise that I’m responsible for what goes on in the cottage but, unless it’s an absolute emergency, I would rather you waited until after working hours.’ Next to him, she felt ridiculously small yet she was an average five foot six. He just seemed very tall and very big. Oppressive, in fact, she thought. And how did he manage to look so expensive when he was really only wearing some cords and a cream jumper with a very ordinary suede jacket? She glanced across at him, cross with herself for letting him get to her. Again.
He pushed open the door to the café without answering and Sophie slipped past him, brushing against the suede jacket and feeling her body stiffen in sudden self-consciousness.
‘So what seems to be the problem? You said that Catherine and Annie were doing their jobs…’
‘To perfection…’
‘Then what?’
At three-thirty on a cold autumn afternoon, Theo was amused to see that the café was practically full. Old biddies were chatting over plates of scones and pots
