I made it home that night more by luck than judgement. Lucia’s parting gift to me was still there front and centre in my mind after the flight to London. My temporary delirium almost caused me to miss getting off on the Underground at Kings Cross.

I had to run for the train to Doncaster after buying a ticket which seemed to take forever. It was my own fault for not buying it online but my mind was on other things. I knew that there was another one in half an hour but that would make me miss the connection for Grimsby so run or miss the connection. I ran and just made it as the whistle was going. I hadn’t even found a seat before we glided into Gasworks Tunnel.

Lucia was the first woman I’d kissed since my divorce. I had tried dating a few times while we were separated but they went nowhere. That kiss would stay with me for a long time.

The sky darkened as my train headed north, and I began to wonder if that kiss would ruin things between us. I hoped not. I liked her as a person and Scamp had not taken a dislike to me, which was a win in my books but… getting involved with her could make me mess up the decisions that were needed in the event of an improved offer for the company.

---

[Monday Morning]

“So, you made it back from wherever it was that you went on Friday?” said my assistant Sue as I walked into the office.

It was not even 08:00 and most days, she would not be in until after 09:00 because of taking her two children to school.

“You are in early? Was that just to give me the 3rd Degree?”

She smiled.

“Well, where did you go?”

“Cannes. I went to Cannes. Just for a few hours and then I came back.”

“Who is she and what has she done with the Ant that I know and love?”

“Eh?”

“For starters, you were smiling when you came into the office. That is unheard of for you at this time on a Monday. I watched you come across the car park. There was a spring in your step that I’ve not seen before. Will that do for seconds?”

She had me right by the short and curlies.

“I went to interview a prospective housekeeper.”

Sue laughed.
“No one goes to Cannes for that.”

I had to show her so I pulled up Lucia’s profile on Facebook. She’d corrected it a bit as she had said that she would on Saturday.

“This is her. Lucia Lambretti, or that’s her married name. Her maiden name was Lucia Moretti.”

Sue flicked through the pages and shook her head.
Then she hit some keys on her computer. After about ten seconds she shook her head even harder.

“This Lucia is way out of your league. Do you have any idea how much she is worth?”

“Some but we never discussed figures. Money really didn’t come up. She is coming to work for me for a three-month trial.”

“She is worth-over fifty million thanks to her late husband. Why?”

“I didn’t know the exact amount. That has been right up there on my mind ever since I said goodbye to her at Cannes Station. Thanks for saving me the trouble.”

Sue looked me right in the eye.
“She didn’t, did she?”

“Didn’t do what?”

With a shake of her head, Sue said,
“Kissed you silly?”

My inability to answer told her everything. Sue got up from her desk and left the office humming the funeral march. The smile on her face told me that she was pleased for me.

---

A formal reply to our rejection of the initial bid and the refusal to do business with Toby Youngman arrived late on Tuesday. I read the email over the phone to Rona, who didn’t seem surprised by the lack of an increase in money.

“They are in this for the long term. They’ll hope to wear you down by making this drag on for months. Uncertainty is the killer in the financial markets and even though your company is not listed, the same applies here,” said Rona.

“Business as usual then?”

“Exactly,” she replied.
“If you have any plans for expansion or the receipt of a big new order then a word to the local newspaper would not go amiss, if you get my meaning.”

I knew exactly what she meant. The sort of fight fire with fire game.

“I don’t have anything in the pipeline. As you know, we took on another unit only last year and have not moved all our legacy work into it yet.”

“Get it done. Show your employees that you are here for the long term. I would not put it past Mr Youngman to have a mole in your workforce. Wafting a wad of Fifty-pound notes around can often work wonders. All it needs is just one person in their pay and they will know everything that you are doing. In this case, you would just be following existing plans. Business as usual is a powerful message.”

“I’ll tell the team at the planning meeting tomorrow.”

Then she changed the subject.
“Lucia told me what happened on Saturday. You clearly made an impression on her just like I expected you to do...”

“Sorry Rona, if I did then it was more by luck than judgement or any planning or wishful thinking on my part. It just happened.”

Rona laughed.
“That’s exactly what Lucia said to me on Sunday.”

I didn’t know what to say for several seconds.
“I’d better get the place sorted before she arrives. There is nowhere for Scamp to sleep.”

“Scamp sleeps on her bed with her. Leave the place as it is. Lucia loves a challenge but you had better do something about the pitiful state of your larder and fridge. Lucia loves cooking and not just using pasta, tomato and garlic.”

I audibly groaned. Rona heard that.
“I’ll send you a sample shopping list. Many men can cook, but often lack the creativity that is needed to please a woman of the world like Lucia.”

The more I found out about her, the more I was worried that I’d be her next victim. Memories of the ‘Black Dahlia’ or some film like that came flooding back into my mind.

“Hang fire. Don’t respond to Toby or anyone else. It is their move,” said Rona bringing the conversation back full circle.
“We have made it clear that we will not deal with any bids or anything else coming through him.”

“That does not seem to have filtered through yet?”

“It will. These things take time. In the meantime, just run your company as if nothing has happened.”

“Easier said than done but I’ll try. Speak later.”

I hung up feeling as if I was trying to stay afloat in thick quicksand.

---

Rona’s shopping list came through a couple of hours later. I had to admit that many of the ingredients were foreign to me but I was not going to be put off by that. If I ran into problems, then I could always ask even if it meant getting egg on my face.

I hit the supermarket after work that evening and managed to get most of what was on the list. Black truffle oil was new to me and no one at my local superstore had heard of it. There was nothing for it, I’d have to ask Sue the next day.

---

Thanks to the internet, some black truffle oil was ordered and received from a specialist in London. Even so, I was full of nerves as I waited for Lucia to arrive that Saturday morning.

For hours, I had wondered how she’d get from the airport or wherever it was that she’d entered the country. I need not have worried as just before 10:00, an old BMW 5 Series Touring glided to a halt in my driveway, and a smiling Lucia emerged. Scamp followed her out of the car and immediately christened the brick pillar of the front gate with a nice spray of urine.

People talk about chalk and cheese. This version of Lucia was much dowdier than the version from Cannes. That made me very relieved. Lucia was a very beautiful woman who dressed very well and would make even my best suit look dowdy.

I emerged from the house to greet her smiling.

“Lucia… Welcome. I’m so glad that you were able to find me.”

“Rona gave me some tips. I stayed with her last night.”

Then Lucia greeted me with a peck on both cheeks. I felt myself go very red in the face.

“Let me help you unload your car.”

“The rest of my things are in storage down in London. These will have to do for now.”

The car was packed to the roof with cases, boxes and bags. I wondered where it would all fit. It looked like the garage would be used as a dumping ground for at least the short term.

It was almost lunchtime by the time before the car was empty and at least some of her clothes were hanging in the small wardrobe that was in her bedroom.

“We’ll have to get at least one more wardrobe for all your clothes,” I remarked.

“Nothing special. I passed an Ikea on my way here.”

Lucia was starting to amaze me. She had none of the airs and graces that most rich people had when in the company of mere mortals such as myself. Her down to earth attitude was very different to that of my former wife where only the most expensive things would do even when we were struggling financially.

“Then we should go after we have something to eat?”

“Nothing special. Rona told me that she’d sent you a shopping list. I will cook tonight which will be the start of my duties. Ok?”

“That will be fine but I have not made anything special for lunch…”

She laughed. God… she was so beautiful when she laughed.

“I think our phrase will be ‘nothing special’…”

“Well, a ham and chutney sandwich, is certainly nothing special even if the chutney comes from the local farmers market.”

Lucia smiled at me.
“I’m sure that it will be good. Rona told me about your local honey. I can’t wait to try it out.”

“You two are close, aren’t you?”

“We are but not close in a romantic sense but we clicked as people when we first met. I had to trust her to sort of my husbands’ finances. She did exactly that and didn’t rip me off. There are far too many people in this world who want to rip people like me off at every opportunity. She repelled boarders like any good pirate. I owe her lots… lots that money could not buy.”

Her voice was accent-free. When we were in Cannes, she spoke with a definite French accent. She seemed to be able to mimic others at will. The one good point about having that skill was that she would not stand out in our neck of the world.

I served up the sandwich. Lucia turned her nose up at the bread. To me, it was just bread from the supermarket but she very much had other ideas.

I knew that the chutney had scored a hit when she spread some more on the ham. To tell the truth, it was probably the tastiest part of the meal.

Lucia insisted on doing the washing up. I helped by putting things away. I’d sort of stopped using most of the cupboards and had everything I needed in one that was right where I stood when I prepared food for cooking. I sensed Lucia doing a lot of silent ‘tut-tutting’ as she explored the kitchen.

“I know that this is not to your normal size of kitchen but it all I have.”

“And once I get finished with it, it will be far more functional.”

“Lucia, please do whatever changes you want to but please do it slowly. I’ll need time to adjust, ok?”

Her smile made me weak at the knees. For the life of me, I could not understand why she was here. It certainly wasn’t for the money that I was paying her. At that moment, I didn’t care. She was in my house and willing to cook and clean for me.

We went to 'the Swedish shop' that afternoon. Boy, was it busy with families who failed miserably to keep their brood from getting in everyone's way? Thankfully, a few shortcuts took us to the bedroom furniture department.

Lucia seemed to go mad with the list of items.
“I have some nice clothes that need hanging up. Your third bedroom would be perfect for that once it has been cleaned out”.

She was right. It had become something of a junk room since my divorce. I was never very good at throwing things away.

The back of her BMW was full of flatpacks. All that remained to do was to put it all together.

“Tomorrow,” she said when I began to open the first of the cardboard packages.
“First, I want to see the garden and everything.”

I took her on a tour of my garden. Like the inside of the house, it needed a lot of TLC.

“It is not much but… after my divorce and what with running the company I never seemed to have time to do anything other than cutting the grass in the summer.”

“There is plenty of time to plan how to bring this back to life. Winter is approaching.”

She wasn’t wrong there.

“Come on, you can help me prepare dinner,” said Lucia as she took my hand.

As she led me into the house, once again, what had I done to deserve having this woman in my life at least temporarily?

---

If I had any doubts about how skilled Lucia was in the kitchen, they went right out the door when she served up a meal fit for a king that evening. A bottle of Chianti Classico finished it off nicely.

“That was delicious,” I said as I helped her clear things away.
“But Lucia, that was far too rich for every day.”

She smiled at me.
“I know. You are a simple man. I have learned that much already. I’m going to try a few things out over the next few weeks. Please be honest with me. If you don’t like it then tell me and I will take note. Don’t be afraid of telling me that you don’t like it. I promise not to get offended.”

“I’ll try but it will be hard if tonight was anything to go by.”

“I am sure to make mistakes. Everyone does in life, don’t they?”

Then she said,
“Tomorrow, you can show me the local food shops.”

“Speaking of which, you will need some money for food and other things.”

“I’ll give you a receipt and you can give me the money back.”

I shook my head.
“No. What is to stop you not presenting me with receipts? I’d prefer to set a weekly budget if you don’t mind? Anything outside food and cleaning, we can decide together and I’ll pay for them. After all, if you want to treat yourself to a little something or have lunch while you are out then as long as it is in the budget then go right ahead.”

Lucia grinned.
“Rona said that you were different and I’m beginning to understand why. Most men want to micromanage people who work for them but it is clear that you don’t do that.”

“True, I prefer to trust them. If they fail but are honest and tell me about it, that’s ok but if they try to hide things, then that’s when I get angry.”

“That is good to know.”

---

During the next week, we heard nothing about the proposed bid for my company. Rona agreed with me that this was the calm before the storm.

“If those guys are serious then they’ll be back with all guns blazing in the hope of putting us on the defensive. There is little we can do but wait.”

She kept up her mantra of ‘get on with running the company and make it appear as business as usual. It was hard but her words kept me on the straight and narrow.

“That’s hard for someone like me who has never been through this sort of thing before.”

“True that’s why I’m here for you.”

“Thanks Rona.”

“How’s Lucia settling in?” she asked changing the subject.

“So far, so good. She’s found the local charity shops and recycling centre.”

Rona laughed.
“So, she’s making a difference already?”

“If you call having my sock drawer totally reorganised then yes.”

Rona laughed again.
“I take it that you have not objected to her doing that?”

“I haven’t. So far, she’s done things that I had expected her to do.”

“No hidden secrets for her to find then?”

It was my turn to laugh.
“All safely disposed of before she started,” I said jokingly.

“Ohhhh… please tell me more.”

“No chance.”

After we'd ended the call, I felt a lot better. Now all I had to deal with was my No 2, Sue. I'd told her that I would not discuss how my housekeeper was doing until the Friday of the first week. After some dirty looks, Sue accepted my wishes.

---

“Well boss, I’m waiting?” asked Sue early on the Friday afternoon as I returned from making us a cup of tea. This was a regular event for three thirty on a Friday. It generally marked the start of the weekend.

“Well… the first week has been interesting. It is early days but so far, the results are promising.”

“Only promising?”

“Yes, promising and there is nothing going on between us. Got it?”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, I’m sure, and that my dear Sue, is my final answer.”

[to be continued]