A Winter Flame by Milly Johnson Page A

they had enough money to buy a huge house by the sea or try their luck in Hollywood. I never for a
moment thought that she was actually in the process of building a real theme park. She was always drawing little sketches and coming up with new ideas for it – but I thought it was a harmless
fantasy. A diversion.’
    ‘And where did you have these “hours of conversation”?’ Eve asked tightly.
    ‘Some in her house, some in mine, some in other places.’
    ‘How long did you know my aunt, Mr Glace?’
    ‘Long enough to know when she passed away what she would have wanted.’
    ‘And what was that?’
    Jacques leaped up from the desk, wheeled his chair into the middle of the room, positioned an angle-poise lamp on his desk to shine directly on his face, then quickly sat down.
    ‘Okay, Mrs Gestapo officer. I’ll tell you everything. Just promise not to tickle me.’
    Very unamused, Eve looked at the man in the chair who was pretending that his arms were tied behind his back. She didn’t know how to deal with him. The man was insane. Talking of tickling,
her side was still itching like mad. The calamine lotion she had put on the previous night had made it worse if anything. She hadn’t slept very well at all. Lack of rest wasn’t helping
her temper.
    ‘Mr Glace. Old ladies do not leave fortunes to strangers. Who are you? Where do you come from, and why are you so bloody secretive?’
    Jacques stopped pretending to be tortured and for the first time she heard him talking seriously.
    ‘I’m exactly what it says on the tin, Miss Douglas. I’m Jacques Glace and whatever your aunt did was as big a surprise to me as it was a shock to you, but she was a fine judge
of character and I consider it an honour that she trusted me to help fulfil a dream that sadly came too late for her to see to fruition. I’m half-French, half-Yorkshire, as I said, and I will
do my damnedest to make sure your aunt’s dream comes true, and that is all you need to know about me.’ He stood up then and took two long strides to the door. ‘If you’ll
excuse me, I have some straw for the paddocks arriving in approximately ten minutes. I’ll be back at eleven with the site manager, Effin Williams.’
    And with that he walked outside with his big boots on, leaving Eve wondering if she was actually locked in a bad dream after eating far too much cheese late last night.
    Effin Williams looked like a weeble. Eve thought that if she were to push the little round man, he would wobble but not fall down. He had shoulders wider than his short legs
were long but when he shouted, his workforce jumped to attention. His voice was from the Welsh valley of Carmarthen but sounded as if it was full of coal rather than daffodils. He had a name that
suited him down to the ground as most of his workforce called him Effin Williams to his face and effin Effin Williams behind his back.
    ‘’Ere is the reindeer park.’ He stabbed a stubby finger down on the architect’s plan. ‘Miss Douglas wanted a stable for them, so a stable is what she has
’ad.’
    ‘Hmm,’ said Eve under her breath, sounding like a very unimpressed Lord Sugar. As soon as this meeting was over she was going to ring up and see what the situation was about
cancelling the reindeer.
    ‘Is there any other livestock coming?’ asked Eve, casting her eye over the map and doing a double-check for anything with the word ‘penguin’ scribbled on it.
    ‘Only reindeer and white ponies, and I do believe there was some talk about rescue snowy owls,’ said Effin. ‘Oh, and the polar bear. Not sure if Miss Douglas was
jo-kin’
or not about that. We certainly haven’t built an enclosure, so if one arrives, it’ll have to bunk up
eyor
with the reindeer, until we can build him a
cage.’
    Eve saw Effin give Jacques a sly wink, and she bit down on her lip to stem her annoyance. She hadn’t liked Effin Williams any more than she had liked Jacques Glace on sight. She had a
feeling that