Free Priceless by Olivia Darling Page A

client?”
    “Yes. Where are her contact details? I can’t find them in the database.”
    “Perhaps they haven’t been inputted yet,” Lizzy suggested.
    “For God’s sake,” said Nat. “Why do I have to deal with such incompetence?”
    Sarah Jane and Lizzy shared a look. “He definitely didn’t get laid,” Sarah Jane mouthed once Nat went back into his office.
    Lizzy couldn’t keep the relief off her face.
    Nat had recovered his equilibrium by Monday of the following week. The Trebarwen sale was his. Though, as he explained to Lizzy, there had never really been any danger that the Trebarwen estate would go to Sotheby’s or Christie’s. “This should serve as an example to you of how important it is to keep up with those old-school ties.” Lizzy nodded, hanging on his every word as usual. “Which school was it you went to? Cheltenham Ladies’?”
    “No. I was at the High School for Girls in Gloucester,” she reminded him. “State grammar.”
    “Ah, well,” said Nat with a subtle frown. “Anyway, since you’ve been such a star of late, I’ve decided to give you the all-important job of making sure this sale runs smoothly.”
    Lizzy’s heart leaped.
    “You’ll need to go down to Cornwall and make a proper inventory.”
    “Will you be coming?” she asked.
    “I don’t think there’s any need. You know what you’re doing.”
    “It’s quite a responsibility. Your old school friend … Perhaps Sarah Jane could come with me.”
    “No,” said Nat. “I need Sarah Jane here in London. Don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have at least one of you looking after me.”
    Lizzy found that thought much less amusing than Nat did.
    “Right. Have we got a date for the sale?”
    “End of April,” said Lizzy. “We can fit it in on a Wednesday.”
    “That’s good. But it means that you’ll need to get cracking right away. The catalog deadline is …”
    “In five days,” Lizzy told him.
    “Then you better book yourself onto a train for tomorrow.”
    “Where should I stay?”
    “Oh, you can stay in the house. But watch out for Julian Trebarwen. He may be good-looking, but he’s a terrible shit. Can’t be trusted. Understand?”
    Lizzy nodded. She was at least slightly mollified that Nat cared enough to warn her off another man.
    “I got the Trebarwen job,” Lizzy told Sarah Jane. “And I’ve got to take Marcus with me.” She nodded at the bespectacled junior.
    Sarah Jane patted her hand in sympathy. “It’ll be great. I would kill for a few days out of London. Fresh air. Countryside.”
    “I’ll swap,” said Lizzy hopefully.
    “No chance,” said Sarah Jane.

CHAPTER 12

    L ife in Cornwall was much the poorer for Louisa’s death. Katie had sulked about it for weeks, though Serena suspected that her daughter was pining more for the right to ride on the Trebarwen boys’ old rocking horse than for her dear auntie Louisa.
    Serena still wondered what would happen to the place. Since Julian had gone back to London “on business,” the house had remained empty. Two months had passed. The shutters were closed, like sleeping eyelids. It was eerily silent. The dogs had been packed off to “a relative.” Serena suspected that relative might actually be a dogs’ home. The lone peacock that had roamed the grounds had also disappeared, leading Serena to conclude that perhaps she really had heard a shot one night while she’d lain in bed rereading Pride and Prejudice .
    It being early in the year, the garden remained pretty much under control. Everything was dormant. But it wouldn’t stay like that. If the Trebarwen boys decided to put the house on the market, they would need to make sure it looked tidy. Would they put it on the market? Serena definitely didn’t fancy the idea of having Mark Trebarwen, his brittle wife, and their whey-faced teenagers as neighbors. Just as she was sure that the brittle wife and teenagers would not want to be so far south of Exeter. But would Julian’s