Nina half-smiled. “Oh, I can see that happening. Doesn’t he make you a counteroffer?”
“He says he’s waiting for one from us. But my lawyer is adamant. And meanwhile, everything will just get swallowed up in costs.”
“Oh for goodness’ sake,” said Nina. “Just ask him— ”
She suddenly realized what she was about to say. But they had to end this, didn’t they?
“Why don’t you ask him for the barn? I bet you could sell that, or rent it, and then you could live wherever you liked.”
Kate frowned. “But if he said no to that, I really would be losing.”
“He wouldn’t,” protested Nina. Lennox was, it was becoming increasingly clear to her, taciturn, stubborn, bloody-minded . . . but more than anything, underneath his crusty exterior, he was kind. Fundamentally and deeply. She believed that. She liked it more than anything else about him.
Kate looked at her. “Do you think?”
I think you two need your heads knocked together, Nina thought but thankfully managed not to say.
She went back outside to where Lennox was pacing the yard furiously, Parsley trying to get his attention to cheer him up, but failing.
Lennox looked at her gloomily. “Do you think I should just give her the farm?” he said. “I know I can do something else . . . probably.”
“Don’t be silly! She doesn’t want the farm. She was just starting from that standpoint to negotiate.”
“That’s why Ranald said to play hardball.”
“Well, you’ve been playing stupidball. Why don’t you just offer her the barn?”
Lennox frowned. “I don’t want her living next door.”
“She isn’t going to live next door, you moron. She’ll sell it or rent it as a vacation cottage for loads of money.”
Lennox looked at her. “But where will you go?”
“Can we manage one problem at a time, please?”
Lennox sighed. “Seriously? You think that might work?”
“Go into the van and sort it out,” said Nina. “Now. Quickly, before those evil lawyers ruin everything.”
Nina sat on top of a low sun-warmed stone wall in the courtyard. Parsley came over and put his head in her lap.
“I know,” she said, stroking his ears. “Me too, Parse. Me too.”
Everything inside the van was quiet, and they were in there for a long time. Nina let out a great sigh. What on earth were they doing? Getting back together? Talking about their future? Had Lennox just signed everything over to her the second he saw her? Oh Lord. It was getting cold, too.
Eventually, Lennox emerged, pale-faced. He glanced at Nina and nodded.
“Well?” said Nina.
“I said . . . I hope you don’t mind, but I said she could have the barn. I’m so sorry, Nina.”
Nina sighed. She left a little space for him to say, “So would you like to move into the farmhouse?” but of course he didn’t, and why would he? They’d only been together a few weeks, and they hadn’t even managed to have a conversation about what they were doing. So. Of course not. She thought once again of the Orkneys, and felt her throat go dry.
“Oh,” said Lennox casually. “Also, there was one of your books she wanted.”
She looked up at him, startled. “Did you give it to her?”
He looked at her. There was a long pause.
“Of course not,” he said shortly. “I told her she’d have to kill me to get one of your books.”
She gazed at him, and then smiled, the tension broken.
“Um . . . tea?”
At that exact instant, her lovely last remaining copy of Up on the Rooftops came soaring through the air, thrown with tremendous force, hit the damp wall and fell straight into the muddy horse trough. Lennox and Nina turned in shock to look at it as Kate came storming out of the van, a malicious look on her face.
“You don’t get everything you want. Not bloody everything.”
And she jumped into her car and drove away.
They tried to retrieve the book, but it was irredeemably ruined.
“I’m so sorry,” Lennox said. “I’ll get you another.”
“They’re like hen’s teeth,” said Nina. “Oh well. Maybe it was better in my memory anyway.”
They looked at each other.
“Can you come in?”
Lennox shook his head. “I’m not finished. There’s something else I have to do today; I promised Nige. His chainsaw’s broken.”
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “You won’t like it. It was thinking about the job that made me . . . made me want to see you.”
“Can I come with you?”
“If you like.”
They sat in silence on the way. Parsley rested his head on Nina’s knees, his big eyes looking up at her. Nina didn’t know where they were going until they turned down a familiar wildflower-lined lane.
“What?” she said, her heart beating dangerously fast.
“It’s . . . it’s that tree,” said Lennox, looking at her carefully. “It’s diseased. It has to come down. It’s a hazard. I did warn you.”
Nina bit her lip. “I see,” she said. She prodded her heart to see how she felt. Sad, she realized, but not heartbroken.
While Lennox took an ax and a chainsaw from the back of the Land Rover, Nina walked down the track toward the tree. Marek’s books were piled up against the trunk, but as she got closer, she noticed something else. Little plastic models of books; book key rings; book icons hanging from every branch, with names on them: Elspeth and Jim forever. Callie loves Donal. Kyle+Pete 4EVA.
“Where did all these come from?” she said, amazed.
Lennox stared at it, shaking his head. “People are crazy,” he said. “Honestly. Who does this?”
But Nina was walking around the tree, exclaiming in delight.
“It’s . . . Lovers come here,” she said. “Like the bridge of padlocks in Paris. Look! They leave little books! And models of books! And poems! But how did they even hear about it?”
The tree jangled gently in the wind.
“Someone must have spread it around. Oh, wow . . .” She smiled. “I think Marek would have liked it.”
“Do you think about him a lot?” Lennox said gruffly.