Tilly Bagshawe - The Bachelor - Racy, pacy and very funny!

‘Just that here, at Peony Cottage, you can do what you like. You’ve made it your home because you designed all the interiors yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I love what you’re doing up at Hanborough,’ Eva explained hastily. ‘It’s just that you’re doing it. You and Henry. Not me.’

Flora beamed. This couldn’t be going more perfectly.

‘That’s exactly why I invited you over,’ she said. ‘You’ve hit the nail on the head. Graydon and I both felt that you’ve been excluded from the design process up till now, and that maybe what we’ve been doing up at the castle is a bit …’ She searched around for the right word. ‘A bit simplistic – a bit one-dimensional, shall we say – as a result. Take a look at these.’

Slowly, one by one, Flora walked Eva through Graydon’s revised plans. Naturally far more of a modernist than Henry, Eva was instantly drawn to the stark, minimalist, even industrial style of the party barn, with its steel and glass and light. ‘It looks very Swedish,’ she observed approvingly. Within half an hour, Flora had as good as convinced Eva that the designs were her own – or at least that she and Graydon had merely ‘anticipated’ her vision.

‘I know Henry wants Hanborough to feel like your home too,’ said Flora. ‘That’s why he moved here, after all. So the two of you could make a life together.’

‘That’s true,’ Eva mused, flipping longingly through the new plans.

‘But you need to speak up for yourself,’ Flora told her. ‘I can’t do it. If I showed Henry these plans, he’d shut me down immediately. But you can. And I really think you should.’

Eva nodded, taking another sip of Earl Grey tea from Flora’s shabby-chic china cup. Flora noticed she had left her fruit cake completely untouched. Being a world-famous lingerie model did have some disadvantages, apparently.

‘You’re right,’ said Eva boldly, tucking the plans under her arm. ‘I can’t complain about being left out of the process if I never tell Henry what I want. Thanks, Flora.’ Standing up to her full five feet eleven, towering over Flora, she hugged her goodbye. ‘And thanks for asking me over today. I really appreciate your friendship. I hope you know that.’

‘Likewise,’ said Flora, suppressing a mighty wave of guilt.

She felt bad, using Eva so blatantly to get these design changes past Henry. But it was the only way. Henry and Flora had such similar tastes; if Flora presented them he would smell a rat immediately. Plexiglas tunnels and party barns were definitively not Flora’s style. And the International Designer of the Year award was not going to win itself.

‘I’m sorry,’ Henry told Flora two days later, re-presenting her own plans to her over coffee in the castle kitchen, ‘I know these are big changes. And I know they’re godawful. But it means so much to Eva. I want to at least meet her halfway.’

‘I understand.’ Flora nodded sympathetically. ‘You realize it’s a lot more money?’

Henry shrugged. ‘Money’s not a problem. Don’t tell your bloody boss I said that,’ he added quickly.

‘Of course not,’ said Flora, trying her best to look loyal and supportive. Once again she successfully suppressed a pang of guilt. She was surprising herself by how good she was becoming at this manipulation lark. Perhaps she’d learned more from Graydon James than she realized?

‘I’m not having the tunnel,’ Henry said firmly. ‘It looks like a fucking small intestine.’

Flora laughed loudly. She wouldn’t tell Graydon that either, although she wanted to.

‘But I told her yes to the barn.’

‘OK,’ said Flora. ‘I’ll put the change orders in to Tony and we’ll get started.’

Draining her coffee, she was getting up to leave when Henry put a hand on her arm.

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