‘Why the long face? That went really well.’ Tina leapt around the kitchen, piling paper plates into the cardboard box that doubled as their recycling bin.
‘They enjoyed your cake.’ Thea dabbed at some sugar-crusted crumbs.
‘Lemon cake has always been my signature dish.’ Plucking a handful of antiseptic wipes from their dispenser, Tina ran them over the table. ‘Can you actually have cake as a signature dish?’
‘I don’t see why not.’ Thea’s hands plunged into the washing up. ‘It was delicious.’
‘Thanks. I learnt to make it before I went to university. Mum swore it would guarantee me friends for life.’
‘Which it did!’ Thea smiled as she remembered Sunday afternoons in Tina’s shared house with fresh cake, coffee and a pile-up of students watching a movie they’d rented from Blockbuster.
Lounging next to the sink, Tina fixed Thea with a searching look. ‘So, why the defeatist expression when you should be celebrating your victory?’
Staring into the water, Thea played an excess of foam between her fingers. ‘I can’t do the television thing. Radio would have been risky enough, but television shows your face.’
‘I believe that is the whole idea of television.’
Sighing, Thea let her hands rest beneath the bubbly surface. ‘Do you remember me telling you about John Sommers?’
Tina frowned. ‘The last bloke you dated? The one who was so upset when you ended it that he moved away?’
‘The very same. Although it turns out he was going away anyway.’
‘What about him?’
‘He moved back to Bath again.’
Tina laid down her drying cloth. ‘You’ve been holding out on me.’
‘It’s more not wanting to bore you with a ridiculous problem.’
‘Go ahead – bore me.’ Tina threw a towel into Thea’s hands and steered her back to the table. ‘John was the one who suddenly landed you with an ideal home/corporate wife life plan, yes?’
‘That’s him.’
‘Why’s he back in Bath?’
‘An old school friend offered him a better job. John turned up out of the blue in February to tell me he’d had a rethink, and that he still thought we should be together, and that he didn’t mind if I kept my job once we were married – although he didn’t say married, but that was the general impression I got.’
‘Turned up?’
‘He found out where I spent my lunchtimes by tracking me on Facebook.’
‘That’s creepy.’ Tina wrinkled her nose. ‘Isn’t it?’
Thea sighed. ‘I know I hurt him, but I honestly had no idea he’d fallen for me good and proper.’
‘Maybe he hasn’t. Maybe he’s just fallen for the idea of you being his wife? No offence meant.’
‘None taken. You could be right.’ Thea picked up her empty wine glass and twirled the stem through her fingers. ‘Either way, for reasons I can’t fathom, John announced he wants us to try again.’
‘Oh hell.’
‘Quite. As far as I was concerned our time together was nothing beyond a fling and a few meals out. John was hardly ever around. He was always off career-building. Then, on what he called our first anniversary – which it sort of was, I suppose – he suddenly told me which schools our children would be going to.’
‘That’s enough to freak anyone out, though I suppose he meant well from his point of view.’
Thea nodded. ‘It was horrible and I hated doing it. I spent ages in the toilet summoning up the courage to tell him, but it would have been cruel to leave him thinking I wanted the same as him. Wouldn’t it?’
‘Of course it would!’ Tina gave a sympathetic smile. ‘But I can’t blame him for falling in love with you.’
‘You know, now I think about it, I reckon you were right before. I doubt John’s ever really loved me, although he might believe he does. I just fitted his image of the perfect “businessman’s wife”. I remember him saying he pictured me “looking great in family photos with two children on my knee.” That was the point at which I made a hasty exit for the bathroom with an excuse of desperately needing to pee, and tried to think how to get the hell out of there in the kindest way possible.’
‘Bloody hell, I thought we were the ones supposed to be stuck in the Victorian past, not him.’ Tina gestured around the antiquated kitchen. ‘No wonder you left him!’
Thea ran her eyes around the kitchen. ‘I hoped I’d be out of reach here.’
Getting up to bolt the kitchen door, Tina said, ‘John found you in Bath, and now you’re worried he’ll come here if he sees you on TV?’
‘It sounds insane, doesn’t it? I’m no one special, and I felt awful for crushing his plans, however unrealistic they were. If he comes here, he might try to win me back again. It’s tiring saying no all the time.’
‘You’re worried you’ll cave in and go out with him again because it’s easier?’
‘No, yes… I don’t know. He’s so good at hitting my guilt-chip.’ Thea shrugged. ‘I don’t understand why he wants me. The man has pride and he’s intelligent. He’s not bad-looking either. He could have anyone he wanted.’
‘But the one thing he wants is resisting him.’ Tina tapped her fingernails against the oak table. ‘Is John used to getting what he wants?’
‘Hell, yes.’ Thea nodded. ‘He always gets what he wants.’
‘Apart from you.’
Thea was horrified. ‘Do you think that’s it? That, for the first time in his life someone has said no, and he’s stamping his feet like a spoilt toddler?’
‘Could be.’ Tina pulled thoughtfully at her blonde pigtails. ‘How old is he?’
‘Thirty-seven.’
‘Perhaps John feels the clock is ticking, and his chances of having the perfect family are ebbing away. As you already know each other, the groundwork is done – and you’re so much younger than him.’
‘Only five years, but I take your point.’
‘What the hell did you see in him in the first place?’
‘I need more wine before I answer that.’
Tina was on her feet, plonking two glasses and the emergency bottle of Pinot on the table. ‘So, what was it about John in those heady days of a year ago that made you go out with him in the first place? It must have been something special. I don’t remember you dating anyone else for ages before that.’
‘That’s because I didn’t. And, with hindsight, that was the thing.’
‘The thing?’
‘Apart from a brief three-day disaster in my first year at university, and another brief encounter a year after I moved to Bath, there hasn’t been anyone beyond a few dinner dates. I was the only one out of all my friends who had no proper boyfriend or girlfriend during my entire university education. When John asked me out while attending a work pre-Christmas do at the Roman Baths that I helped organise, I was so surprised I said yes. He can be very charming. He’s interesting and intelligent, but…’
‘But he rarely stops talking about himself?’
‘Exactly.’ Thea examined her grubby jeans, jumper and worn trainers. ‘It was my fault. I was so flattered someone found me attractive that I let him talk; I laughed in all the right places and was basically a pathetic excuse for a female. Until I woke up in a Chinese restaurant a year later.’
‘We’ve all made that sort of mistake.’
‘But usually when we’re sixteen, not thirty-two!’ Thea shook her head. ‘Perhaps I’d have had better luck with blokes if I took a bit more trouble with my appearance, but I never saw the point as a student, when I spent so much of my time scrabbling in the dirt on archaeological sites, and then I just sat in an office in Bath on my own, so there was no real need to be anything other than clean and smart-ish there. Now, I’m back to the comfy scruffs.’
Tina examined her own beautifully manicured fingernails and then Thea’s unvarnished chipped nails and dry hands. ‘That’s the difference between what we do for a living, nothing more. I gave up the mud and sand for shuffling paper, walking around various houses and offices holding nice clean clipboards and talking to people. You roll up your sleeves and get on with real work.’
Thea gave her friend a fond smile. ‘It’s all real work, but one kills your hands quicker than the other.’ Noticing the assessing expression on Tina’s face, Thea found herself shifting her chair backwards. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘Now don’t bite my head off, but when was the last time you had a haircut?’
‘How did we get from me not wanting to go on television in case my ex spots me, to wondering about the state of my hair?’
‘No need to sound so terrified. Viewing the hairdresser’s as a place of torture is supposed to end once you reach ten.’
‘We have already established that I’m an emotional late developer.’ Thea pushed her fringe from her eyes. It was rather longer than she usually allowed it to get. Now Tina mentioned it, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a trim. She found herself curling her fingers into her palms to hide her nails. How had she got so tatty?
Tina cut through Thea’s spiralling thoughts. ‘I’m not saying you should have a makeover or anything. You’re one of those annoying women who are attractive without makeup, but it would do you good to have a haircut. It’s relaxing and good for the confidence.’
‘What do you mean I don’t need a makeover? Look at me!’ Thea ran her hands over her face. ‘I’m a mess, and yet John still—’
‘Ahhh…’ Tina suddenly understood, or thought she did. ‘You haven’t been bothering in the hope that John would be put off, and you’ve got into the habit of not bothering. That makes sense.’
‘I haven’t bothered because it never crosses my mind to bother. Of course, now I’m wondering if I should put a bag over my face and invest in some cotton gloves.’
‘Don’t be daft. You know I didn’t mean anything like that. I’m saying you’d feel more confident if you made an effort sometimes.’
Thea groaned. ‘And I’d look better in front of the television cameras. I really don’t think I can do it, Tina. Are you sure I can’t persuade you to step in? You’re used to talking to strangers. These days I’m more comfortable talking to broken pots, bits of brick and the spiders whose cobwebs I dust away.’
Tina pushed Thea’s wine glass closer to her friend’s hand. ‘John might not watch the local news. Chances are slim if you think about it.’
‘He’ll see it.’
‘Why so sure?’
‘John thinks it’s everyone’s duty to keep abreast of the news. Local and national, and sadly, as Somerset encompasses Bath these days, he’ll get the same news as us.’
‘Oh.’ Tina’s forehead creased into furrows. ‘I’m beginning to feel grateful I never met him. Hang on, why didn’t I meet him?’
‘Largely because you were busy here, and then you had that two-month sabbatical in Tuscany.’
‘So I did.’ Tina beamed. ‘Tuscany, land of Roman remains, excellent red wine and a very attractive waiter called Ethan.’
‘Ethan? Hardly Italian?’
‘Scottish, darling… very much so. Son of some Lord or other in the Highlands.’
Thea laughed. ‘If you say so.’
Reluctantly dragging her mind from her Scottish-Italian encounter, Tina returned to the matter in hand. ‘John finding you via Facebook bothers me a bit.’
‘Yeah. I know what you mean. Me too.’ Thea stared at her glass. ‘After that first time, he kept popping up in Bath to ask me out. Each time I said no, I felt sorrier for him.’
‘Maybe he was trying to wear you down until your patience snapped, and you took him back.’ Tina dabbed some cake crumbs up with her finger. ‘I wondered why you wanted this job so badly. It is several centuries away from your historical period of passion.’
‘To be honest, he was merely the catalyst. I fancied a fresh challenge. Although I loved my job at the Baths, I wasn’t meeting new people.’
‘Men, you mean?’
‘People in general; but I wouldn’t say no to the chance to meet a decent bloke. Wouldn’t you like someone to come home to sometimes?’
‘Of course.’
‘Remembering the queue of chaps interested in you in Durham, I wouldn’t have said you’d have problems finding one.’
‘Finding one isn’t a problem; finding the right one, on the other hand…’
‘And your version of “the one” is still someone with a castle and a unicorn?’
Tina laughed. ‘If you mean someone older and more experienced than me, with a bit of money in the bank, then yes.’
Thea’s eyebrows rose. ‘That matters to you? The money I mean?’
‘Too right. My last two boyfriends were nice enough, but we hardly did anything or went anywhere as we never had enough cash. I’m tired of making do.’
‘Your job’s not that badly paid, is it?’
‘It’s not a disaster, but my rent is high and it costs forty quid in petrol to get from home to here – or wherever else I’m sent – each week. Even with the Trust’s token gesture towards mileage allowance it costs a fortune to run my car. Then there’s food and clothes and…’
‘I get it. You’re expensive and high-maintenance!’
Tina stuck her tongue out. ‘Pretty much.’
‘All this makes no difference though. I came here to restore this house and meet new people. So far, all I’ve met is a load of pensioners and a wall of silence. After making a breakthrough tonight, it would be churlish to refuse Mabel’s offer of a television interview. Especially as it’s an excellent idea.’ Thea could feel the alcohol soothing her insides. ‘Maybe I can sweet-talk Mabel into doing the broadcast, or perhaps I could bribe you into doing it after all? I’ll buy you all the wine and chocolate you could ever want.’
‘Stop right there! You’re doing it. You’re the face of Mill Grange now. Anyway, I’d go to pieces.’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘I hate large-scale public speaking and stuff. It’s very different to having a conversation with a landlord about an abandoned cottage or whatever. You’ve done it loads, at meetings and conferences and stuff.’
‘True, but not for ages and I don’t like doing it. I’m much better off chatting to the spiders. I’m a ball of nervous tension the whole time I’m addressing more than two people at once. It’s terrifying.’
‘You’re still good at it though.’
‘Maybe.’ Thea pushed a stray hair from her cheek. ‘Anyway, I haven’t got much choice if we want to keep things smoothed over with Mabel, have I?’
‘Don’t worry, these things take ages to arrange. It may never even happen.’
Thea pushed herself to her feet. ‘Come on, let’s clear up or you’ll never get home tonight.’
‘Talking of home, where did you find lodgings in the end? Did they have room at the pub in the village?’
Thea had almost told Tina on a few occasions that she was sleeping on the job, but they’d never been out of earshot of other people for long enough. ‘Well, actually I’m staying—’
The high-pitched bell of Thea’s mobile phone echoed through the kitchen.
‘Oh my God!’ Tina jumped off her chair in surprise at the shrill sound in the otherwise silent house. ‘How come you have a signal? This is a dead zone for most phones.’
‘I only get a phone signal in here, nowhere else.’ Thea looked at the number. ‘It’s Mabel. You don’t think…’
‘Answer it!’
*
Thea managed to contain her nerves until Tina had gone. Promising her friend she’d be leaving to find her bed very soon, which wasn’t exactly a lie, Thea locked all the doors.
Adopting her nightly routine of telling herself the house absolutely was not haunted, as she walked up the ill-lit servants’ stairways and along the deadly quiet corridors to the attic, Thea dropped onto her bed. Thanks to Mabel’s vast supply of useful connections, Thea was to expect a small television crew to arrive at the manor in two days’ time. She felt her palms start to sweat. The only saving grace was that it was to be a pre-recorded interview and not a live one.
‘John won’t see it,’ Thea told the crack in the ceiling plaster. ‘It will be a tiny feature at the end of the news. He will have got all the depressing information of the day he desires and have switched the TV off before the “and finally” bit. And, even if he does see it, he’s only just started a new job, so won’t be able to take time off.
I hope.’