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Talk shifted to safer topics, namely the investor letters.

“You need to find out who this person is,” Isabella advised them both. “Better a devil you know than one that can take you by surprise. While neither of you may have any intention of taking up the offer, you should know who’s behind it in case they’re minded to make more trouble.”

Eleanor nodded, the advice was sound. “We will.”

And Danni, for once, agreed.

AS THEY LEFT, walking out into the cool evening, Eleanor decided to offer Danni a compliment. Not something she did often, but frankly, she thought Danni deserved it.

“You did well tonight,” she said.

Danni stopped in her tracks, turning to look at Eleanor with a raised eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

It was clear from her tone that she’d taken the compliment as an insult. Eleanor tried to back-track. “I just meant—”

“Oh, no, please. Do elaborate,” Danni said, crossing her arms. “What? Did you think I was going to start throwing food? Eating dessert with my hands?”

Eleanor sighed. “I was trying to be nice.”

“Well don’t,” Danni snapped. “It’s patronizing and unnecessary. I’m fully aware of what you think of me, and I don’t need a gold star just for not embarrassing you.”

“I don’t think—” Eleanor began, temper flaring, but Danni was already stomping off toward the Land Rover, leaving Eleanor fuming behind her.

She took a deep breath, reminding herself that none of this was real. None of this really mattered. In fact, she shouldn’t be getting close enough to Danni for it to matter. She shouldn’t be getting close at all. She should have precisely zero feelings for Danni. Her business partner, because that’s what she was.

When it came to Danni, she shouldn’t be feeling anything about her at all.

And yet… she did.

Chapter Thirteen

After dinner with Isabella, the investor letters had been on Danni’s mind. And the more she thought about them, the more they pissed her off. So when she went up to the big farmhouse to pick up her mail and saw another, she was cross enough that she balled it up and threw it into the Aga before going out to track Hector down.

She found him in one of the outbuildings, stacking bags of feed.

“Tell me something,” she said, leaning against the wooden doorframe. “Who do you think keeps sending me those damn letters trying to buy the farm?”

Hector straightened up and wiped his brow. “Hello Danni, nice to see you, how are you, how’s married life, what a lovely day we’re having.”

“Huh?”

“Just illustrating how conversations usually begin,” Hector said.

“Right,” Danni said. “So. The letters?”

Hector wiped his hands on an already dirty rag. “It’s a developer, it’s always a developer. That’s how these things work.”

“You don’t know that for certain. You can’t,” said Danni, reaching down and picking up a feedbag to add to the stack.

Hector raised an eyebrow and got back to work himself. “I don’t need to know. It’s just how these things work,” he saidagain. “They see the land, they think about all the money they could make developing the land, they want the land, they buy the land. Simple as that. And if you, the landowner, say no, then they make sure you change your mind.”

Danni looked at him curiously. “How?”

Hector tossed another bag onto the pile. “Don’t underestimate just how much these people want to build hundreds of identical houses in what used to be a field,” he said. “They don’t play fair. You think they’ll just take ‘no’ for an answer? Developers pull strings. They mysteriously get zoning laws changed. Crops get sabotaged. Equipment starts to mysteriously break down. That’s just the way they work. Which is why I keep saying that you need to be smart about all this.”

Danni stopped and folded her arms. “I am being smart.”

“No, you’re being stubborn.”