Turning over, Thea punched her pillow and checked the time. It was five o’clock in the morning. She couldn’t have had more than an hour’s sleep for worrying about being seen on television by John. The spectre of that one person witnessing her first ever broadcast far outweighed any natural nerves she may have had about appearing on screen in the first place.
Giving up on sleep, Thea hauled herself out of bed and pulled on yesterday’s clothes. She needed a plan, a way to persuade Tina that she couldn’t appear before the cameras – one that was more convincing than her fear of John seeing her. And that meant she needed coffee and fresh air.
*
The dew-soaked grass seeped moisture across her trainers’ toes at record speed, but Thea ignored the sensation as she surveyed the scene before her. The vista across the gardens and down into the woodland beyond deserved to appear on television. ‘But not with me stood next to it!’
Sitting on a bench, making a mental note to add ‘sand and paint benches’ to her to-do list, Thea sighed. It all came down to persuading Tina that, as the Exmoor Trust’s representative, she’d be much better off representing Mill Grange.
‘The Trust!’ Thea felt the stirrings of an idea nudge at her brain, but it would involve a little underhand persuading.
Thea addressed a pheasant that was having an early morning stroll across the lawn. ‘Tina will forgive me – eventually. And she knows how worried I am about John seeing me on the local news. After all, I’d do it for her if our places were reversed.’
Thea swallowed back an attack of guilt and got to her feet. If she got started now on writing out how her conversation with Malcolm at the trust office might go, then by the time he got to work, she’d be ready to turn on the charm – or at least try to.
*
‘Me and Mabel?’
‘That’s what Malcolm Ware said, and as he’s the head trustee I didn’t like to argue.’ Thea was struggling to disguise her relief at not having to risk the discovery of her newfound hidey-hole. ‘He was thrilled with Mabel’s idea for getting Mill Grange on the television. But rather than me take the helm, he wants to flag up the Trust’s role in the proceedings by having you front the interview. Then he suggested that Mabel should be on hand in case they want her to chat about what future volunteers could expect to do.’
Tina looked as sceptical as she sounded. ‘Are you sure you didn’t persuade Malcolm that’s what he wanted?’
‘All I said was that Mabel had got us a slot on the local news, and how it was an excellent opportunity to put the work the Trust is doing in the local area on the map.’
‘So you did steer him into choosing me to do it!’
Thea blushed. ‘Well, maybe a little bit, but you know I can’t do it Tina. I’ve worked so hard to go off-grid, if John sees it he might come here to help, and it’d all have been for nothing.’ She passed a consoling cup of coffee in her friend’s direction. ‘I swear I didn’t have to say anything to Malcolm about how I thought you’d be the perfect face of Mill Grange.’
‘But you would have if he hadn’t got in first.’ Tina anxiously twirled her pigtails.
‘Maybe.’ Thea confessed. ‘Look, I’m sorry I landed you in it, but as Malcolm never even hinted at me doing it, he clearly expected you to be the one to front the report anyway.’
‘Possibly.’ Tina took a sip of her extra strong coffee. ‘Have you told Mabel yet?’
‘I have. She repeated her claim that someone younger and prettier should be there with you, before accepting the situation without a fight and booking a haircut.’
Tina laughed despite herself. ‘Alright, you win on this one, but if they ask Mabel who is in charge of the restoration and she gives out your name, you’ll be no better off, will you?’
‘Oh God, I hadn’t thought of that. She wouldn’t, would she?’
‘Not unless she’s asked to, but there’s a good chance the question will come up. I don’t mind saying that I’m in charge on behalf of the trust, but Mabel’s a law unto herself. If you want to make sure your name isn’t mentioned, then you’re either going to have to tell her about John, or you’ll have to come up with a damn good reason why not.’
*
April 6th
‘They just called. They’ll be here in an hour.’ Mabel patted her new coiffure as she arrived in front of Thea’s desk.
‘An hour?’ Thea checked the clock at the corner of her laptop screen as her stomach did a backflip. ‘Right, so that’ll be about two o’clock. Have you told Tina?’
‘I came straight here. I’ll go and track her down now.’
‘I’ll come with you. She said something about wanting to check if a safety rail would be needed between the garden and the steeper parts of the drop into the wood.’
Having spent the last twenty-four hours trying to think of ways to ask Mabel not to mention her name on air, and having come up with nothing that didn’t sound false, Thea was about to ask Mabel to only give out trust details and not her name, when she saw Tina dashing towards them.
‘I have to go!’
‘What? Why?’ Thea felt her stomach turn to jelly as Tina came to an abrupt halt.
‘A text just came through from my housemate. God knows when she actually sent it. The house could be ankle deep in water by now what with the crap signal round here.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘A burst pipe. Apparently our kitchen resembles a pond. I’m really sorry, I must go.’
‘But…’
Tina kept marching towards her car with Thea and Mabel hot on her heels. ‘But what?’
‘The television people are on their way. They’ll be here in under an hour.’
Tina’s hand came to her mouth, ‘Oh my God, in my panic about the house, I totally forgot. I’m really sorry Thea, but you’ll have to do it. I have to go home.’
‘Of course you must!’ Mabel cut in before Thea could suggest she went to dry out her friend’s kitchen instead. ‘Thea and I will be just fine. Now off you pop.’
Having virtually shooed Tina away, Mabel turned to Thea and gave her a critical stare. ‘If you hurry you’ll have time to go grab a shower and change into something presentable. Off you go! This is for Mill Grange, remember!’
*
Cursing fate and dodgy plumbing with every step she took, Thea ran up the manor’s back staircase. With Tina’s words about her less-than-well-kempt appearance echoing in her ears, Thea risked a glance in the ancient bathroom mirror. It had been just over two weeks since she’d started working at Mill Grange. Eighteen days of using mirrors which were spotted with age and clouded with years of neglect. Hardly reliable indicators of one’s appearance. Thea rather liked them.
Now she was being forced to peer beyond the clouded parts of the glass, she saw just how much of a bird’s nest her hair had become, and how huge the bags under her eyes were. Neglect felt like a word she could apply to herself, along with the manor’s mirrors.
The lack of an iron at Mill Grange also meant she’d had to (semi) un-crease her only shirt and smart black trousers by hand. Although her outfit had served her well for years, now that she examined it properly, Thea saw how the black suit material had taken on a washed-out grey tinge, and the white blouse was thinning in places.
Crossing her fingers and hoping that the crew would bring a makeup artist with them – and that they wouldn’t take one look at her inexpertly applied foundation and despair – Thea left the bathroom with a resigned groan.
All the time she’d been washing and changing, Thea had fought to keep the spectre of John at the back of her mind. If that was going to remain the case, she needed to keep busy right up until the television people arrived. After wasting ten minutes guessing what sort of questions they’d ask her, Thea had reached the point where she feared she’d forget her name and the reason she was at Mill Grange as soon as the camera rolled, when a knock on her bedroom door broke through her nerves.
A buoyant Mabel was virtually hopping from one foot to the other in excitement. ‘They’re early! Come on, Miss Thomas, it’s time to show off Mill Grange.’
*
Mabel picked up the television remote control and pressed the off button. Pulling the notebook she used exclusively for her WI committee work towards her, she switched her attention from the local news to the allocation of seats in the coach she’d hired for an outing to Buckingham Palace.
‘What you up to, love?’ Bert lay down his newspaper and watched as his wife attacked her latest project.
‘Making a seating plan for the trip to London.’
Bert chuckled. ‘You can’t tell people where they’re allowed to sit on a bus.’
‘I can and I will.’ Mabel wrote a few more names on her seating plan. ‘Anything to stop a repeat of Mrs Paxton’s wind ripping from the front of the coach to the back, and gassing us all in the process. If I sit her on the wheel at the back, the noise will be disguised and the air conditioning will limit the damage.’
‘Won’t she fart more due to the juddering of the wheel beneath her butt?’
‘Oh, go and play one of your silly games!’ Mabel gave her husband a stern look, before switching her attention back to her plan.
Chuckling, Bert picked up his tablet. ‘I wish the grandkids hadn’t introduced me to Tetris. Bloody addictive!’
‘Bert! Language!’
Rolling his eyes, Bert Hastings eased himself from his chair and joined Mabel at the tiny table that was squashed against the living room’s far wall. ‘Come on, love, enough work for one day.’
‘Maybe.’ Mabel picked up the remote control and aimed it at the television. ‘I just want to watch the news again in case…’
Bert gently prised the remote from his wife’s fingers. ‘It won’t be on again tonight. Thea did a good job. You know she did. You should be pleased; it was your idea after all.’
‘She did Mill Grange proud.’
‘But?’
‘She comes in without so much as a by-your-leave and…’
‘And you feel sidelined because they didn’t have time to interview you as well, and after all your years of hard work someone else has arrived at the last minute to steal your glory.’
‘Bert! It’s not about glory, it’s about—’
‘Mabel, my girl, I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you fifty-six years ago. As a result I know when you’re disappointed and put out. In this case I can see why. It’s a real shame you didn’t get a go in front of the cameras, but I’ve met Thea; she’s a good kid with a job to do. Why don’t you let her take the strain? It isn’t as if you haven’t got your plate full.’ Bert gestured to the pile of labelled box files on the table. One for each of the seven committees his wife ran.
Mabel was quiet for a while, before repeating, ‘Thea was good on the television, wasn’t she?’
‘Excellent. A natural, I’d say.’ Bert put a frail hand over his wife’s. ‘Has she done TV in the past?’
‘She didn’t say so. But then she didn’t tell us she was coming to Mill Grange either.’
‘Which wasn’t her fault. An overlooked email is no one’s fault.’ Bert spoke with the infinite patience needed for his wife when her avalanche-style good intentions had been disturbed or gone unappreciated. ‘And she’s going to be stuck with all the jobs you don’t want to do. Four months to get the place open to the paying public is nothing, you know that.’
Mabel gave a single brisk nod. ‘Hot chocolate before bed?’
‘Please.’
‘I’ll make it, if you can work out how to allocate coach seats in such a way as people won’t ignore my instructions and sit where they want anyway.’
*
‘What do you mean you didn’t watch it?’ Tina passed Thea her drink and crashed onto the cushion covered pew near the pub’s open fire. ‘I watched even though I was squeezing water out of the living room carpet at the same time.’
‘I went straight back to work at the manor. No television, remember. How’s your house anyway?’
‘Oh, it’s fine. Landlord’s promised new carpets downstairs and luckily the emergency plumber stopped the flow of water before it reached above carpet level.’ Tina flapped away talk of her domestic emergency. ‘I could find the news on catch-up TV and record it for you if you want to see yourself in action.’
‘Thanks, but no thanks. I doubt I would have watched even if I’d had something to view the news on. I dread to think what I sounded like.’ Thea took a mouthful of wine. ‘At least I didn’t look too much of a disaster after the makeup woman attacked me with her range of brushes. I have no idea what she did, but it seemed to work.’
‘You looked great. You still do, despite the blob of whatever the hell that is on the leg of your jeans.’
Thea absentmindedly rubbed at the stain. ‘I had a quick investigation of the stables when I got back. Probably a bit of paint from one of the old tins stacked in there.’
Brushing non-existent dust off her miniskirt and tights, Tina said, ‘At least you won’t need to worry about clearing the stables alone. After that appeal, you’ll be inundated with helpers.’
‘You think so?’
‘Bound to be. You’ve probably got a heap of emails awaiting your attention from willing volunteers. Hopefully they’ll be a nice chap or two among them. One each if we’re lucky.’
‘I doubt it. I know you like older men, but we need workers all day, which will mean retired folk. I can’t picture you dating an octogenarian.’
‘We could get students wanting work experience over the end of the Easter and early part of the summer holidays, and people on a work break or unemployed folk or…’
‘Or John.’ Thea felt queasy as she put down her wine glass. ‘Do you know why I drink Pinot?’
‘No.’ Tina frowned, thrown by the abrupt change in conversation.
‘Because I know sod all about wine, but I know I like it.’
Tina was confused. ‘And that’s a problem because?’
‘I never try new things. I’m so stuck in what’s safe.’
‘And yet you gave up a job you loved and took this one. A job that’s not even secure.’
‘Not secure?’ Thea sat up a little straighter. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Nothing.’ Tina hid her face in her glass. ‘I just meant that the restoration won’t last forever.’
‘No, you didn’t. The truth, Miss Martin, if you please.’
‘It’s probably nothing.’ Tina crossed and re-crossed her legs before leaning closer to her friend so no one could overhear them. ‘I was in the office at the trustees’ headquarters today. I caught wind of a rumour that the Trust is running out of money. I don’t know what that means for us, or if it’s even true.’
‘I see.’ Thea sighed. ‘Well, if John did see the TV thing and has a mad idea about volunteering, then perhaps I won’t be around for him to hassle me. I think I need another drink.’
‘I shouldn’t have mentioned it. It could be nothing.’
‘Let’s hope it was a case of catching the wrong part of an unrelated discussion, or we could both be out of a job.’
‘I really don’t want to think about that. I love my job so much.’ Tina drained her glass and stood up to get some refills. ‘And it seems unlikely they’d hire you and then fire you before the house was restored.’
‘Let’s assume you misheard or heard something that doesn’t apply to either us or Mill Grange. Some things in life, we aren’t meant to know.’
‘True.’ Tina gave a half-smile. ‘Talking of things we aren’t meant to know – I popped into Mill Grange early this morning prior to my inspection of the garden fence. Thought I’d find out how far you’d got with cleaning the bedrooms while you were hitting the paperwork. I went into the attic.’
‘Ahh.’ Thea chewed her bottom lip. ‘I was going to tell you the other day, and then the interview thing came up and…’
‘You’re living on site?’
‘Yes.’
‘And eating stuff out of the box in your room that needs very little cooking, hence leaving no trace in the kitchen?’
‘Yes.’
Tina was quiet for a moment, before asking, ‘Jacket potato with your Pinot?’
*
John scribbled down the contact details written across the bottom of the television screen as if they were the answer to his prayers.
There’d be a few creases to iron out at the office if he were to take time off, but he’d worked very hard to ensure the merger was a success. He deserved a holiday.
John’s gaze fell to the invitation on his designer glass coffee table.
It was time to win Thea Thomas’ heart.