‘Oh! I’m sure. It wasn’t a criticism. It’s great, actually. Peyton and Patrick have left a lot of the boots-on-the-ground preparation to me and Lorcan so the more I know he’s actually invested in this, despite what he says, the easier that makes my job.’

‘Oh, he’s invested. Don’t worry.’

‘Yes, I can see that now.’

Calum was studying me.

‘What?’ I asked, taking a bite of a feather-light biscuit.

‘I mean, he’s totally invested in all senses of the word. You know Lorcan owns this place, right?’

21

The biscuit, apparently as much in shock as I was, decided to take a wrong turn at this point and tried to enter my lungs. I coughed, snorted, gasped for breath and finally found some air after Calum, despite being small and lean, gave me a surprisingly hefty ‘pat’ on the back, which helped reroute things.

‘From your reaction, I take it you didn’t know that.’

‘He owns the castle?’

‘Yep. I know he doesn’t say too much about it generally, but I thought, as it was all business between you two, he might have mentioned it.’

‘No. He didn’t. Earlier he said that it was going to rack and ruin and that investors helped restore it and make it what it is now.’

‘He’s right. There were investors but he’s gradually bought them out over the last ten years or so. Some of them had ideas as to how the castle should be run.’ He pulled a face.

‘Ideas that you didn’t agree with?’

‘Well, if you want a totally tasteless version of Ireland, complete with the serving staff dressing as leprechauns…’

‘Oh, God! That sounds awful!’

‘I know. Direct flight to Tacky Central!’

‘Dreadful.’

‘So, Lorcan was the main shareholder, thankfully, and managed to charm them into waiting a while before we changed the way we were running things. Bearing in mind we were fully booked for months ahead and had rave reviews, things were clearly going well. It bought him time to find the money to buy them out.’

‘I’m glad it worked out. What you’re doing here is great. I wonder why he didn’t mention that it was his castle.’

‘I don’t know. He can be pretty private outside the village – you don’t really have that choice as part of it. Everyone knows your business whether you want them to or not. But we’ve definitely had extra attention in him from a few visitors when they find out he owns the place.’

‘Oh-h-h, I see. Well, you and he can both rest assured I’m definitely not interested in him because he owns a castle.’

Calum raised a brow, delight washing across his face.

‘That is, I’m definitely not interested in him at all! The fact that he owns a castle is neither here nor there.’