Perfect Scents. Virginia Taylor
“It’s a heritage house. It’s listed. Everyone knows Adrian owns it. Aside from that…” She looked uncomfortable. “He’s a friend of my father.”
“Have you seen him recently? The judge, not your father.”
She shrugged. “I think he is touring the Mediterranean.”
“Why would you think that?” He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at her.
“Because he and his wife went with my stepmother’s sister and her husband.”
Kell sighed. “Let’s get this basket indoors.” He grabbed one handle and Trent took the other.
“If he was dead, I would have heard, because my stepaunt certainly would have said something to my stepmother.” Vix walked down the side of the house.
Once this area would have been sheltered by an open veranda with a view onto a tennis court, but the roof had long since been dismantled, which saved Kell the trouble of knocking off the tiles. And the old tennis court had been lost in the weeds. “Well, the kid is up to something.”
“I’m sure Adrian will be very glad to know you are keeping an eye on his place.” She opened the back door of the house and stepped aside so that Kell and Trent could enter ahead of her. “If someone is planting a bomb to surprise him when he gets back, he would like to know before he opens the front door.”
“You may think this is funny, but the kid was wearing a disguise and snooping around.” Kell walked through the back lobby to the kitchen.
Vix followed behind Trent. “I’ll go and talk to him.”
“Then he’ll know we’re onto him,” Trent said, puffing a little. He grunted as he helped lift the wicker hamper onto the table. “It’s best if we keep cool.”
“Do you believe he is doing something wrong, or don’t you?” Vix gave them both a schoolteacher frown.
Kell inclined his head to the side. “I think it’s unlikely that anyone would employ a gardener to spray blue spots on the lawn, especially when they’re away.”
“So, I’ll talk to him. You two would only scare him off. At the moment you look like a couple medical examiner’s assistants. And with your masks, you would be downright scary. Lunch will be ready as soon as you are.” She raised her eyebrows at their garb.
“If she wasn’t my sister-in-law, I would suspect her of wanting to check out my body,” Kell said to Trent.
“She’s seen better.” Trent was already struggling out of his filthy white coverall as he headed toward the bathroom.
“Let’s hope he leaves the bathroom clear for me,” Kell muttered, having been annoyed by Trent’s habit of leaving his towels on the floor of the bathroom for the past three days.
Vix seemed to be on another track entirely. “You know, this is a beautiful house.” She glanced around the kitchen.
“I don’t see it, myself.” Kell couldn’t imagine who would want a kitchen double the size of the average living room, with a tiny laundry and bathroom opening into the same space. He would need to reconfigure. “I could make this room look pretty special, but it’s not worth too much bother.”
“Isn’t it listed?”
“That’s why I got it at a bargain price. Every other buyer wanted to knock it down.” His mouth hitched with dissatisfaction. “I only have permission to get rid of the later-built outhouses. I want to do a quick reno and then get on with my life.”
“The brickwork is something special,” she said, completely ignoring his words again and getting right back onto her own track. “My gran’s house was like this. When she sold it and went to live with my father, the man who bought the place added on a modern extension.”
Exasperated, he raked one hand though his hair. “I suppose that’s what will happen here. I’m not a builder. I’m a chippy, and I do interiors. I can’t afford to waste money on extensions. I need to get in quick, make a profit, and get out.”
She sighed. “My mind sees this place all spruced up and beautiful again.”
Lifting one palm, he rubbed a thumb over the ends of his fingers. “Money. When I can afford altruism will be the time for me to think that way.”
Her cheeks turned red and she nodded. He didn’t like bringing up her situation, but he had only stepped onto the first rung of success, unlike her father who had built a taller ladder and hauled his family to the pinnacle. One day Kell might do that.
“Your turn,” Trent said, returning a little sprucer than when he had left. “It’s a shame we don’t have any clean plates.”
“They’re in that cupboard above the sink.” Vix shot him a frown. “Don’t try your helpless act with me. I’m married to Jay who can set a table as well as I do.”
“That’s because he’s been domesticated. I’m still training Trent,” Kell said on his way to the bathroom where he yet again picked up Trent’s towel and washed.
By the time he returned, the card table in the center of the kitchen had been spread with a red tablecloth and dotted with white plates. Bread, ham, cheese, pickles, and a salad to eat, and he was a new man. Vix left the food in the fridge and took the basket back, likely for her father to refill.
Kell liked knowing that one of the richest men in the state was putty in his gentle daughter’s hands.
* * * *
The afternoon flew by while Calli concentrated, referring again and again to her diagrams. She wanted sudden views in the garden and hidden nooks. She wanted beds of color, patches of sunlight, and swathes of green. On paper, her plan seemed feasible. While she ducked through the old haphazardly planted undergrowth, the job looked bigger than she could manage. However, she had to manage. She had made a mess of her personal life and her business life, and she was tired of being used.
She whacked at the stake marking one of the curved edges for the front garden, using her righteous energy productively. For too long she had been no more than her parents’ daughter, and she had to find another self. If she wanted to change herself and her life, she had to do so now. Before she finished this job, she would be a whole new Calli. She gave an extra whack to the next stake.
During the afternoon, she finished shaping the new front garden. Re-plotting the complicated back garden would take her more than a week, in her estimation. She stripped off her gloves as she returned to the cottage and the cat, who greeted her with a raised head and a blink.
Calli put fresh food out for the animal, a bare mouthful, which seemed to be the amount Hobo could manage. She watched the cat eat for a moment and then she changed into slim black pants with a loose top patterned in black and white. With her short toffee-colored hair brushed back, she doubted anyone would look at her long enough to recognize her. She had omitted the lashes she had always worn and only added gloss to her lips. Her slight nod to vanity was her black-and-white striped heels, which made her as tall as the average man. Satisfied she looked neat and clean, she took herself and her phone to the local pub for a bar special.
The place employed a cook and not a chef, and the cook couldn’t cook. In between web searching for plants on her phone, she picked at the watery vegetables from the serve-yourself bain-marie. After cutting off the fat, she ate the greasy roast lamb, wishing she wasn’t hungry enough to do so, and she left after taking the last mouthful. She could drink good coffee at home, since the cottage was now her home.
Dark had descended when she arrived back. Lights glimmered through the forest surrounding the house next door. She now knew more than one person lived there, since the white SUV had left during the day. Later, she had seen two white-wrapped men, one blonde woman, and a Ferrari.
Perhaps because walking into a dark house alone at night spooked her, her mind began to hover over her speculations about the neighbors again.