Before she could remind him to finish his toast, he said suddenly, ‘I don’t think my predecessor went inside them, either.’

She gaped at him. ‘But they’ve been in your family for ever, and you’ve owned them for years!’

He shrugged. ‘Well, no one expected me to inherit, even though I came here several times as a child. And after Dennings became mine, Joanna and I had enough on our plates bringing up the kids and dealing with the interior of the big house.’

He looked sad as he added quietly, ‘We were discussing turning our attention to Saffron Lane when she was killed. I—didn’t feel ready to follow through on that afterwards.’

Nell reached out to give his hand a squeeze. It was lovely to hear how he spoke about his first wife, who’d been killed by a drunken driver. He had a huge capacity for love, her Angus did. She’d never expected to marry again after an abusive first husband, but she’d tumbled headlong into love with this man.

She watched with a fond smile as he continued to think aloud, still waving the piece of uneaten toast to emphasise what he was saying.

‘I don’t even know who used to live in Saffron Lane or why it was abandoned. I’m still going through the various records but I haven’t come across the ones dealing with it yet.’

‘What made you think of it now?’

‘I was wondering whether the buildings could be renovated and rented out. They aren’t Grade I listed like this house, so we could even knock them down if we wanted without seeking permission and jumping through heritage hoops.’

‘And put what in their place?’

‘I don’t know. Workshops to rent, perhaps, or offices. Commercial properties are in short supply in Sexton Bassett.’

She frowned. ‘It’d cost a lot to erect new buildings. It’d be better if we could convert the present ones, surely? But I don’t think we have the money for that, either.’

He suddenly noticed the toast and put it in his mouth, but she doubted he’d tasted it, because he was still frowning in thought as he chomped.

She loved her new home and was planning to help him in every way she could, but he didn’t want her to put her Australian house sale money into it, because he wanted her to have a nest egg to fall back on if anything happened to him.

Nell agreed that was wise because if anything happened to Angus she’d have to leave. The previous owner, Miss Henrietta Denning, had been obsessed by making sure the old house was kept in the hands of the family who’d built it, and the trust she’d set up stipulated that Dennings had to be passed to the next ‘Denning by birth’ in line. After Angus, this would be his son Oliver, currently working his way round the world.

‘Um. I got an email yesterday. Another quarter’s money has come in, not a fortune, though quite a nice amount. We could spend it on renovating the houses in Saffron Lane, as a sort of investment to bring in money steadily. What do you think?’