Third Solstice Page 9
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“I’ve just had the strangest call from the estate agent.” Ezekiel returned to his seat by Ma’s bed, putting away his phone. “I thought they’d be closed for Christmas by now, but apparently not.”
Ma looked up from her knitting. She was chafing against her confinement, even though the doctors had promised she could leave before sundown. She’d enjoyed Tamsyn’s party—all the more once Michel Duroy had come to pick Elowen up, kissed the baby wistfully and left—but Gideon had had to persuade her that her granddaughter would freeze to death without the knitted jacket she’d been working on. “Not bad news, I hope.”
“No. Good news and... weird.”
Good news and weird was about as good as it got around a Tyack-Frayne family solstice. Gideon exchanged a glance with Lee, who was entertaining Tamsyn with her new plush ball. It chimed softly if you held it the right way, which was a big improvement on the porridge song. “Everything all right, Zeke?”
“Yes. That young couple who’ve been dithering over the parish house—they’ve signed their contract and marched into Kern Estates, wanting to exchange as soon as possible.”
“Wow.” Gideon had almost forgotten about the sale of his old family home in Dark. There’d been offers, drop-outs and all kinds of drama since Ma had decided to sell the place, all of which he’d left his brother to get on with. “That is good news.”
Ma laid down her knitting, eyes sparkling. “Yes, it is. Now I can split the proceeds between you two boys, and you can get out of that tiny flat, Gideon. It isn’t good for Tamsyn Elizabeth not to have a garden.”
“Well—this is something we’ve been meaning to talk to you and Zeke about.” Gideon caught Lee’s affirmative nod. “Lee and I are all right, you know. We’re both working, or we will be once Tamsyn’s in nursery. Zeke’s the one who’s always helped you and Dad out, especially when he got ill, and we thought it would be fairer if you just—”
“Don’t be stupid,” Zeke interrupted him, blushing purple. “Or irresponsible, for that matter. You have a daughter.”
“I know,” Lee said absently. “But you’ll have two sons by July.” He looked up into the astounded silence that followed. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”
“Honestly, Lee.” Gideon could barely keep back laughter. Zeke had scrambled to sit beside Eleanor, who was turning pink and white by turns and staring at her belly as if she expected a whole football team to spring out of it. “They might have wanted a surprise. What was the weird part of the news, Zeke?”
“It concerns you two,” Zeke replied, when he recovered the power of speech, “as these things usually do. Kern Estates are handling the sale of the Bowe Farm houses as well. It seems Dev Bowe had a few hours of clarity yesterday, and called his lawyers in. He’s developed a conviction that the old Lowen house on Morgan’s hill should belong to you and Lee.”
“Seriously? Old Jana Ragwen told me that too.”
“Do you remember the place?”
“Sure I do. Lee and I were talking about it the other day. We used to go up there to scrump apples.”
“No, you used to make me carry you up there so you could scrump them. It’s very beautiful, as I recall.”
“Yes, with a beautiful price tag. It’s very kind of Dev, but—”
“That’s just the thing. He’s lowered the price to—well, Kern Estates reckon it’s pretty much what you and Lee could afford by way of mortgage if you had half the proceeds of the parish-house sale. He must have worked it all out.”
Gideon took Tamsyn out of Lee’s arms. He jounced her on his hip, imagining her and his husband in the sunlight of the Lowen House orchard. “We couldn’t,” he said slowly, trying and failing to pick up a signal from Lee that this was an impossible dream. “Dev isn’t capable of making that kind of decision, is he?”
“He was capable enough yesterday. His lawyers say he won’t sell it to anyone else. And given that he blew up your old house and tried to murder Lee and your daughter, I think you should give him the chance.”
Ma began to clap her hands in sheer pleasure. Tamsyn caught the infection of joy and applauded too, dropping her ball for Lee to catch. Gideon hadn’t really looked at it until now, and for some reason it captured his attention. The patterns on its velvet weren’t random. It was a little globe, beautifully made, the continents delicately marked on blue plush oceans and seas. Typical of Zeke and Eleanor, a gift like this. Never too soon to begin a child’s education...
Lee’s eyes widened in alarm. The ball had leapt out of his hand. This time Gideon hadn’t felt the slightest inner warning or tug. But he didn’t need to, did he? All he needed was to watch and listen to the person he loved, like anybody else. “Sorry, everyone,” he said, collecting Lee and the baby and the ball into a comprehensive embrace. “Nappy time. You’d better get used to this, Zeke, in time for next July. Come on, Lee—help me get the little blighter changed.”
Tamsyn contained herself as far as the hospital corridor. Then, in an alcove, protected on both sides by her wondering parents, she lifted the world into the warm space between them, tipped it correctly on its axis, and set it to spin.
About the Author
Harper Fox is the author of many critically acclaimed M/M Romance novels, including Stonewall Book Award-nominated Scrap Metal and Brothers Of The Wild North Sea, Publishers Weekly Best Book 2013. Her novels and novellas are powerfully sensual, with a dynamic of strongly developed characters finding love and a forever future – after an appropriate degree of turmoil. She loves to show the romance implicit in everyday life, and she writes a sharp action scene too.
To find out more about Harper and see updates on her current writing projects, please visit www.harperfox.net