Free Life Support: Escape to the Country by Nicki Edwards Page B

the perfectly aligned edges. Judging by his mannerisms, Emma could understand what Lleyton had seen in Andrew. They were a lot alike.
    By contrast, Emma was messy and disorganized which had driven Lleyton mad. When she’d first moved in, Lleyton said he didn’t care how untidy she was, as long as he didn’t have to look at her mess. “A place for everything and everything in its place” was his motto – a motto that for the most part she tried to adhere to. But it didn’t matter that she had a walk-in robe bigger than most people’s bedroom, her clothes always ended up strewn across the floor. Lleyton lined up his business shirts in order of color, and shelved his shoes beneath the shirts in opaque plastic boxes. Labeled opaque plastic boxes. She vaguely wondered what Andrew’s wardrobe looked like. No doubt, he brought much-desired order and structure into their relationship.
    “The insurance policy was worth five million dollars,” Andrew said softly, interrupting her wandering thoughts.
    Emma let her breath out in a rush. “Whoa. That’s a lot of money. Far more than I expected.”
    “You get the car too.”
    She nodded. She’d expected that.
    “He gave me that car for my birthday.”
    The car was the massive white Mercedes SUV she hated driving because it was too big to fit between the white lines of the supermarket car park. Lleyton had called it the “king of the jungle” when he’d proudly presented her with the keys and told her it was the safest vehicle on the road. He’d driven a brand new black Audi sports car himself, which in hindsight had not been the best or safest option given the police had to unwrap what was left of it from around the gum tree in the mountains. She shuddered, glad she’d never seen any evidence of the accident scene.
    Andrew shuffled more papers without looking at her. “There’s also a house.”
    “What do you mean? The house belongs to Win and Mary-Margaret.”
    Andrew opened the front page of another document in front of him and smoothed his hand across imaginary wrinkles in the paper. “I’m not talking about the house in Kew.”
    “What house are you talking about?”
    Andrew coughed nervously once behind a closed fist. She wanted to tell him to spit it out, but could tell he wasn’t a man who liked to be rushed.
    “A property called Lexton Downs.”
    Emma frowned. “Where is it?”
    He rubbed at his wrist again. “New South Wales.”
    She tucked her hair behind her right ear and stared at him. “Where in New South Wales? On the coast? Is it a holiday house?”
    “Er, no, not a holiday house. It’s marginally larger than a holiday house.” Andrew rubbed his chin.
    Emma sat back in her seat and crossed one leg over the other. “So where is it? And why do I know nothing about it?”
    “It’s near a town called Birrangulla.”
    “What?” She uncrossed her legs and scooted forward on the edge of the chair.
    “It’s a regional town in central New South Wales west of Sydney. Near Orange.”
    “I know where it is. I grew up there.”
    Now it was Andrew’s turn to look surprised. “I didn’t know that.” His brows knit together. “I always wondered what made Lleyton choose a house in the middle of nowhere.” He leaned over and opened the top drawer of his desk. Pulling out a set of keys, he laid them on the papers in front of him. “Emma, Lleyton has left you a three-hundred-hectare heritage listed property.”
    Emma burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be joking. A farm? He’s left me a farm?”
    “It’s more than a farm. According to the report from the real estate agent, it’s a substantial property. It comes complete with an 1860s bluestone homestead, a gatekeeper’s cottage and another one-bedroom cottage behind the stables. The homestead was in a terrible state of disrepair when Lleyton bought it a couple of years ago. He paid a builder to restore it to its original state. From what I understand, the renovations are almost