Free Priceless by Olivia Darling Page B

work allow him to live in Cornwall? What did Julian actually do for a living? And if neither brother took the house, would the alternative be any better? Serena had a horrible vision of Donna Harvey buying thehouse with her divorce settlement so that Tom could be closer to his daughter. She imagined all Louisa’s beautiful furniture and paintings replaced by an interior designer’s version of country chic—all of it straight from the furniture department at Harrods.
    Bloody Donna. Tom had called that morning to make arrangements for the Easter holiday. Donna wanted to take Katie to Majorca, where she had a villa, so that they could “bond.” Serena took it as another sign that the cow that had stolen her husband was staying on the scene. She feared for her little girl, growing up with a woman like Donna Harvey in her life. Someone so controlled and controlling. Someone who might eventually convince Katie that her mother was the loser Serena so often felt herself to be.
    It was almost time to pick Katie up from school. Feeling somewhat flabby and frumpy after her conversation with Tom, which seemed to have been nothing more than a list of places where he would be shagging his hard-faced new love, Serena decided to walk rather than take the car. Katie would groan, as she always did when she had to walk back, but it would be good for her, too. It was one of those unusually beautiful early spring days. The sky was clear. Those birds that hadn’t flown south for the winter were stretching their wings and their lungs. Serena relished the sound of the skylark. You wouldn’t hear that in London , she reminded herself.
    The quickest way to the school took Serena straight across Trebarwen land. Louisa had insisted that Serena should consider the path behind the house as her personal right-of-way. And Serena was half over the gate before she remembered that Louisa wasn’t around anymore and Trebarwen’s new owners might feel differently.
    “Hey!”
    Rats. Julian Trebarwen had caught her in the act.
    “Sorry,” Serena climbed down on her side of the fence. “Was just walking to pick Katie up from school. I used to take a shortcut through here when your mother was alive, but … I’ll take the car.”
    “It’s okay. You can walk through here if you want to,” said Julian. “I was just coming over to give you a hand. Thought you might get stuck on the gate and rip your jeans or something.”
    Serena blushed as she pushed her hair out of her face. Of course she was wearing her very worst jeans again. The ones that had been “decorating jeans” back when she and Tom had still been playing happy family and experimenting with National Trust tester pots in what would become Katie’s room. The jeans were covered in paint splotches and worse. Why was it you never noticed you’d gotten egg yolk on yourself until you were in company?
    “Need a hand?” Julian asked, reaching out for her.
    Serena nodded. “Thank you.” He helped her over the gate.
    “Which way is school?” he asked.
    “Over there.” Serena waved toward the village, thinking it odd that Julian didn’t know where the village school was, before she remembered that he and his brother had been sent to boarding school at the age of five.
    “Mind if I walk with you?”
    Serena tried not to think about the egg yolk as she and Julian skirted the edge of the garden.
    “I suppose I should think about getting someone in to deal with all this,” said Julian, waving his hand at the flower beds.
    “I don’t imagine you’ve had much time to think about anything,” said Serena kindly. “It must be so hard for you to take in. I know what it’s like when one of your parents dies.”
    Julian agreed. “Yes. I have been rather shocked by how much I miss the old bag. When she was alive, I could just about manage three hours in her company without incurring her wrath in some way or other. I couldn’t wait to be back on the motorway to London. But now … What was