‘A favour?’
‘The recommendation to Bennett’s that they read your manuscript,’ he reminded her mockingly. ‘Surely you don’t think anyone would have paid it a blind bit of notice otherwise?’
What was he implying? Lucy looked at him suspiciously.
‘OK, I’m sure the book’s well enough written, but well written books are a hundred a penny—you know that. Without my father’s pull, it would never have got past the first read—if it had made it that far.’
There was enough truth in his statement to make her hesitate to deny it. There were hundreds of other writers far more skilled than she was herself—she knew that, but she had been lucky enough to have an entrée into the publishing world. Even so…
‘What sort of favour Neville?’ she demanded sharply.
‘Nothing too painful,’ he assured her, giving a soft, satisfied laugh as she capitulated. ‘Some business friends of mine are interested in buying this place—at the right price of course.’ He saw her expression and laughed softly, ‘Oh come on, Lucy, don’t give me that look. All I want you to do is to drop a word in old Patterson’s ear that you’ve heard of someone who’s interested in buying the place. He thinks a lot of you—he’s always had a soft spot for you. As far as we know no one else is interested in buying.’
‘So why go about making your offer in such an underhand way?’ Lucy asked hotly. ‘Why not approach Saul openly and honestly?’
Neville laughed jeeringly. ‘Oh come on—you know the answer to that. He’d never sell this place to us if he knew I was involved.
Lucy knew that Neville spoke the truth. On the surface his request seemed perfectly feasible… and yet… ‘What is it exactly you want me to do?’ she asked him suspiciously.
‘I just want you to have a word with old Patterson and find out if anyone else is interested and if so…’
‘You said they weren’t,’ Lucy reminded him sharply, watching him shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other. She didn’t trust Neville; his request, on the surface so reasonable, seemed to her to be just an excuse, a front to hide his real purpose behind, but unless she played along with him a little she would have absolutely no chance of discovering what that purpose was. And she wanted to find out because instinctively she knew it threatened Saul.
‘Come on Lucy, you owe me a favour.’
Normally she would have reminded him that it had been his father who had helped her to find a publisher, but now she kept silent, pretending to consider for a few seconds.
‘Well?’
‘I’ll do what I can,’ she fibbed, smiling at him, ‘but first of all I want to know exactly what’s going on.’
He looked so satisfied that Lucy knew she had been right to distrust him. Alarm leapt along her veins as she contemplated his gloating expression.
‘Well… why not,’ he agreed grinning at her. ‘After all, you’ve got about as much love for our wild colonial usurper as I have myself, haven’t you?
‘There’s a whisper in the City that the Government are planning to build a new armaments place down here. I picked it up in my club from an old school chum. They haven’t fixed on a site as yet, but it’s odds on that it will be within a couple of miles or so of this place. There’s a lot of money going into it, and lots of top brass involved.
‘All those people stuck down here are going to want somewhere to let off steam and enjoy themselves, and that’s where this place comes in. If we could get it at the right price, we can turn it into a hotel-cum-sports complex to outclass any in the country. We’d make a real killing, especially if we can buy it off little ol’ Saul for peanuts. And that’s where you come in, my love. A word from you to Patterson will almost guarantee that we can get the place at a knock-down price, especially if you told him that you were involved as a shareholder—which you could be. If I know my uncle’s solicitor he’ll be thinking that you’re getting a pretty raw deal out of the estate.’
His words came very close to the truth, her father’s solicitor had never approved of what her father had done and had said so. He was also very fond of her and would no doubt be prepared to look favourably on a request from her, but she felt sure that Neville misjudged him when he hinted that he might put her interests before Saul’s. The solicitor was far too honourable and honest for that, but she was not going to tell Neville that.
What frightened her most was the knowledge that, if there were no other buyers, Saul could well be forced to part with the house at a knock-down price to Neville and his business friends, leaving them to make a good deal of money out of their acquisition.