‘It’s a bit nerdy.’
He smiled. He’d expect nothing less from Grace. ‘Nerdy’s good. Tell me.’
‘I’d love to go on the Orient Express,’ she said, ‘all the way from Paris to Istanbul.’ She shrugged. ‘But that particular trip is only scheduled once a year.’
If Roland had been planning to get married to Grace, he would’ve arranged their wedding so they could start their honeymoon with the train journey from Paris to Istanbul before venturing further afield. Why hadn’t Howard done that? Didn’t he like trains? Or had he never bothered to find out what made his fiancée tick?
Not that it was any of Roland’s business. And he wasn’t planning to get married any time soon. This was practice dating, he reminded himself. Talking to his date and finding out more about her. ‘Where else would you like to go?’
‘Do you mean my fantasy travel wish-list—the really wild stuff that I know I’m never actually going to do?’ she asked. At his nod, she continued, ‘I’d like to go to Australia and see the stars in the outback, and to Alaska to see the glaciers and the whales, and maybe the Antarctic to see the penguins, and to walk along some of the Great Wall of China.’ She paused. ‘How about you?’
‘Actually, I like the sound of all of those.’ He was faintly shocked by how much their tastes dovetailed. Only a few days ago, he would’ve said that they had nothing in common. But it looked as if some of her dreams were very similar to his own.
‘You haven’t already done them?’ She looked surprised.
‘No. Lyn really liked city breaks, so I’ve been to all the big cities in Europe,’ he explained, ‘plus New York, Boston, San Francisco and LA. And I’ve travelled pretty extensively on business, with conferences and the like; I always try to spend a day looking round wherever I’m based.’
‘So where would you go for your fantasy travel list?’ she asked.
‘I’d like to see the Victoria Falls, and swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland,’ he said. ‘And visit Yosemite, to see the hot springs and waterfalls.’
‘So it’s water that draws you?’
‘I’ve never thought about it that way, but yes, I suppose it is,’ he said, surprised. ‘Venice is one of my favourite places ever, and I love the sea. There’s nothing better than walking on the cliffs with the waves crashing below and sending spray everywhere. Or strolling on a flat sandy beach in the moonlight with the sea all calm and just lapping at the shore.’
‘Plus you live right on the Thames,’ she pointed out.
‘And you could never keep me off the lake as a boy.’
‘Would this lake be at one of the chateaux?’ she asked.
‘No. At my family home in Kent,’ he admitted.
‘You had a lake?’ She blinked. ‘So are you telling me that you grew up somewhere like this?’ She gestured to the stately home in front of them.
He squirmed. This felt like bragging—and that wasn’t who he was. ‘It’s not as big as this. But, um...yes, I guess it’s this sort of thing. Though it’s been in the family for generations, and the roof is a total money pit, to the point where Dad’s opened the gardens to the public, and we’re turning the boathouse at the lake into a café.’
‘And would I be right in guessing that his favourite architect,’ she asked with a grin, ‘is going to suggest having a glass wall all along the side of the building that faces the lake?’
‘You are.’ He smiled back at her. ‘Though I guess that was obvious.’
‘Not necessarily. Do you have another brother or sister who’s an architect?’
He shook his head. ‘Will’s the oldest, so he’s pretty much involved with the estate because he’ll take over from Dad. Actually, he’s already doing his own projects—he’s sorting out a licence so we can hold wedding ceremonies. I’m the middle child, and I get hauled in to look at the roof from time to time and give my professional opinion on any renovation work that crops up. And Philly’s the baby—she basically adopted the head gardener as her honorary uncle when she was a toddler and moved up to nagging him to let her have a corner of the greenhouse all to herself by the time she was ten. So it was always obvious that she’d end up being either a landscape gardener or a florist. And she’s brilliant. Really gifted.’
‘You sound close to your family,’ she said.