“You’re late.” Steve was in the kitchen when I returned to the cottage. His clothes were white with dust and a grey film coated his face and greyed his dark hair.
“I went for a drink after the class.” It wasn’t any of his business how I spent my free time. After all, I didn’t ask him about the barmaid at the Coach and Horses. I still felt a bit guilty as if I should have texted him and said I’d be late, and this annoyed me no end. It was equally irritating that he didn’t ask me who I’d gone with.
“Was the class any good? Did you find out much about the history of the cottage?” Steve clumped around the kitchen making himself a drink of squash and shedding small piles of grey dust everywhere he went.
I bit my tongue in irritation. Horrible, gravelly film settled on all the work surfaces that I’d scrubbed before I’d gone out. “I learned quite a lot.” I told him what Mark had said about the fire and tried not to care about the mess. If nothing else, at least he'd been productive, I hoped.
“Hmm, probably why that pencil-neck at the council is giving us so much grief over the renovations.” Steve added some water to his drink and knocked it back, draining the glass in a few large gulps.
“What have you been doing while I’ve been out? You’re covered in dust.” I ran a finger along the breakfast bar.
“I started knocking out that Artexed wall in the lounge. The one I thought was covering up the original fireplace. I could have done with some help to barrow the plaster away.” He placed his glass in the sink and carefully avoided meeting my eyes.
I knew that was a big hint. He’d been quite excited about the lounge wall, tapping the cracked Artexed surface at various points and insisting it was hollow.
Normally I’d have been excited too. I actually do like old buildings and really enjoy bringing them back to life. Just – well - not this particular old building.
It had even been partly my fault that Steve had gone to the auction in the first place. I’d had my eye on a lovely barn on the other side of town. It was in our price range, ripe for conversion and in a beautiful spot. In my mind I’d planned the garden, decorated the rooms and pictured Steve and I snuggled up together on a big squashy leather settee in front of the log burner on a cold winter night.
I’d thought of nothing else for weeks. There would have been enough money in the pot for us to start off with some small projects to generate an income and we’d have our dream home. I’d made a note of the auction date, registered for the sale and collected the brochure. Steve had seemed keen on it too, although I suppose looking back I’d been the one babbling on.
The day before the auction I fell ill with the flu bug that was sweeping the office after Nasreen had been in the week before coughing and sneezing over everyone. So on the day of the sale I was in bed with a temperature of a hundred and three, propped up on pillows and sneezing my way through my DVD of Pride and Prejudice.
I’d waited for a text to say we’d got the barn all afternoon. Then I’d heard Steve’s key in the door and his footsteps hurrying up the stairs.
“Well?” I’d asked, shuffling myself into a sitting position so fast my head had swum. “Did we get the barn?”
Steve had dropped down onto the end of the bed, his thin dark face alive with excitement and I’d felt dizzy all over again with love.
“We’ve got something even better.” He’d said, spreading a property brochure out on the quilt in front of me.
I hadn’t understood, not at first. “Better? What? We didn’t get it, but what happened? Did we get outbid?” My palms had been as sweaty and heated as my forehead. All my dreams had come tumbling down around my ears.
Then Steve had issued the fatal blow. “I didn’t bid for it.”
I didn’t hear anything else he said. If he’d have punched me he couldn’t have hurt me more than he did with that one short sentence.
“What do you mean, you didn’t bid?” I’d croaked the question out desperately hoping that I’d misheard him.
“I saw something much better. Myrtle Cottage is a much better investment opportunity. I went to see it the other week. I didn’t say anything to you as I wanted to surprise you. The bidding went a fair bit higher than I thought it would probably because of the land but it’s still a fantastic buy. Just look at it Kate, I know you’ll love it.” He had waved the brochure at me and had tried to get me to look at the pictures.
“But the barn was our forever house.” This hadn’t been about investment. The barn had been where we would raise our children, get another cat, grow vegetables and give barbecues. “All the time you had no intention of bidding for the barn. Instead you’ve been sneaking around, getting surveys and bought this dump.” I hurled the house brochure back at him. I’d seen Myrtle Cottage when I’d flicked through the auction catalogue. Run down and manky, it had held no appeal compared with my beautiful barn.
“But Kate, this is so much better.” Steve had looked completely bewildered.
“How much did you pay?”
When he’d told me the price my heart had shattered completely. It had taken virtually all of our capital.
Dimly, I came back to the present and realised Steve had been talking to me.
“The dust should have settled down by now, come and see, Kate. It’s really exciting.”
I placed my folder down on a relatively clean bit of the counter top and followed Steve along the hall. He opened the old-fashioned latch door to the lounge and stood aside.
Dust still hung in the air, filling my lungs with the damp malodorous scent of ancient plaster. A naked light bulb dangled from the wall illuminating the scene. Dust sheets covered the broad oak floorboards in front of what had been a bland Artexed wall with a naff seventies mock brick fireplace. Now it was a huge cavern of exposed Elizabethan brickwork. The original stone hearth was still in place and as I stepped further into the room I could see the inglenook seats and a hole which must have been the bread oven.
“Isn’t it great? They’d just boarded it over and Artexed it.” Steve grinned at me, his teeth gleaming white in the grime of his face.
“What about the planning inspector? I didn’t think he’d okay’d doing this yet?”
“This is real history, Kate. It’s an original feature.”
I should have loved it but a cold chill ran down my spine as I looked into the newly exposed hearth. The bulb on the wall flickered and I could have sworn that somewhere in the distance, I heard someone sigh.
* * *
I didn’t mention what I thought I’d seen to anyone. Times were uncertain enough with the war. If folk thought I was seeing visions they might think me mazed or possessed. Yet seeing that strange maid in her funny clothes had left me feeling out of sorts and queer.
‘Time you put your needle up Mary-Ann, the light’s almost gone now.’ I laid aside the breeches I’d been mending and rubbed my eyes. My mother gave the dying embers of the fire a poke.
Whether it t’were that my eyes were tired I’m not full certain but as I stared at the glowing ash and looked back up I saw the strange maid again standing next to the fire. I almost cried out but when I blinked she was gone and only mother was there with a frown upon her face.
* * *
I woke the next morning feeling faintly depressed and not quite sure why.
Well, I suppose knowing my lounge was full of rubble and that on Friday evening I faced ordeal by dinner party with my mum and her new American hubby was probably part of it.
I also still had a niggling worry about Lou. Although she’d continued to try and flirt with Mark at the pub I’d sensed her heart hadn’t really been in it. I’d actually wondered if Mark might be more interested in me even though he was younger. He’d certainly appeared to pay me a lot of attention, but then again I could simply have been a good listener for his local history stories. It had been so long since I’d been free and single I wasn’t sure if I’d still recognise the signs if someone did fancy me.
Lou sent me a text at lunch time asking if we should get Mum and Chuck a wedding present. I wasn’t quite sure what the protocol was for this kind of situation.
Still, as Lou pointed out, we could hardly turn up with our usual bottle of supermarket plonk and flowers.
The general consensus at the bank was that a department store gift voucher and some champagne was the way to go, so I scooted into Marks and Sparks as it was the closest store to the bank. It was another blazing hot day so I lingered for a while in the food department enjoying the cool from the freezers while I pretended to be interested in purchasing a fresh chicken marinated with lemon, thyme and oregano.
Nasreen had insisted on accompanying me. She claimed she had to get something for her sister-in-law’s birthday. I’d rather have been on my own.
She nudged my arm as we left the food department and sauntered towards lingerie. “That’s her!”
“Who?” I looked around the department. I could see two elderly women looking at nightdresses and a mum with a toddler in a buggy studying dressing gowns.
Nasreen grabbed my arm and tugged me behind a stand of nursing bras. She peeped out and ducked back again. “Over there, looking at bras.”
Mystified, I peeped out. A tall skinny girl with dyed blonde hair and a pink stud in her nose was examining a black and red lacy lingerie set.
“That’s Chloe, the barmaid, the girl I saw with your Steve at the pub.”
The girl appeared to be about eighteen or twenty. Her white cheesecloth top showed a flat stomach and her short denim skirt flattered her long slim legs. In short, she looked like the kind of girl who had probably hung around after Steve back in his boy band days.
My heart gave a painful squeeze. So this was Steve’s new girlfriend. Nas had told me what she looked like but somehow not having seen her had made it easier for me to demonise her. Now though, in the flesh, she appeared heartbreakingly young and pretty. I don’t know why it hurt so much knowing he had someone new. It wasn’t as if I wanted us to get back together. He’d made it clear when he’d bought the cottage that he didn’t see his future with me. Even so, I found myself blinking back tears and swallowing a hard lump in my throat.
“See, didn’t I tell you?” Nasreen wore such a smug smile I fought back the urge to smack her silly face.
“I hope they’ll be happy together.” I kept my voice neutral, determined not to give Nas the satisfaction of seeing me upset.
“Doesn’t it bother you? Her being so young and everything?” If Nas had been hoping I’d go storming over and have a cat fight in the knicker aisle she was going to be disappointed.
“Why should it? She wasn’t the reason we broke up and Steve’s free to make his own choices. Besides I went out for a drink with a very nice man myself last night.” I didn’t bother to mention the fact that he was my tutor and that Lou had been with us.
Nas had to trot to keep up with me as I walked off swiftly through the store.
“You didn’t say you’d met someone new?” She puffed as we exited onto the pavement outside the store.
“Well. It’s very early days.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, more of a bending of the truth, but at least it shut Little Miss Nosey up till we arrived back at work.
“Do you think it might be serious then, this thing between Steve and that girl?” Nas asked as we hung our coats up in the staffroom. Her round dark eyes met mine. Lou had always said Nas fancied Steve for herself. Maybe she was right.
“I’ve no idea. I don’t ask Steve who he’s seeing and he doesn’t ask me. Our relationship is purely business, nothing else.” I touched up my lip gloss and fluffed my hair in the mirror by the door ready to go back to my counter.
“I think you’re being very brave about it.” Nas adjusted one of the jewelled clips in her long black hair.
“It’s nothing to do with being brave. Steve’s love life is of no interest to me whatsoever.” I walked out, banging the door shut behind me before she could reply.
As I re-entered the main foyer of the bank and slipped back behind my work station I wondered if maybe I’d protested my disinterest too much. Seeing Chloe had certainly hurt me much more than I’d expected. I switched my light on to call the first customer forward from the queue, a smile pinned to my face. Maybe Nas was right; I wasn’t quite as over Steve as I thought I was.