“Oh my God!” I stared at the splintered remains of my bathroom window.
“Bloody thing.” Steve gave it a small kick with the reinforced toe of his work boot.
Jamie coughed and wandered away down the path as Lou emerged from the back door.
“I was on my way downstairs and I heard a crash.” She halted next to the broken window frame.
“I knew I’d have to break it to get it out but I’d expected to get a controlled break so I could patch it.” Steve scowled at the frame and raked his dark hair back from his forehead.
“What do you mean, you knew you’d have to break it?” Visions of the full force of the planning laws descending on us accompanied by a huge fine sent waves of nausea crashing into my throat.
“How did you think I was going to get it out?” Steve stared at me.
I hadn’t thought about it.
Silly me, I’d assumed that commonsense would prevail and the combination of illegally removing the window and the need to return it undamaged might have told him he couldn’t get away with breaking the damned thing.
“Honest to God, Steve… What’s going to happen when the planning department see this? We’re going to be in so much trouble, you know what Mr Poole is like.” I wanted to cry. They could stop the work, fine us and I’d be stuck in this hideous cottage forever.
He paced up and down the patio. “It’ll be okay, we can get another window.”
“I’ll just nip down B and Q then shall I?” How were we going to find another eighteenth century oak framed window the exact same size and opening light pattern as the one he’d broken? Somehow I didn’t think they’d even have them at the salvage yard.
“Don’t be stupid. We can get one made. I know a carpenter, George, he helped us before when we did the town house. If he’s got some green oak it’ll only take him a couple of weeks.” He reached in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out his mobile.
“And what happens when our friendly neighbourhood planning officer arrives to inspect the work?”
He held up his hand signalling me to keep quiet while he made the call.
Fuming, I walked away towards Lou and Jamie who were huddled together talking at the far end of the patio. They broke off their conversation as I approached.
“What are you going to do about the window?” Lou asked, “Won’t you get into a lot of trouble?”
“Steve’s ringing someone he knows, a carpenter. He says he’ll get a replacement made.”
Jamie and Lou exchanged questioning glances before Jamie ambled off to see what Steve was up to.
“Oh Lou, this place is like a nightmare. We could get done for thousands over this. They could stop the work and we’ll lose everything.” My voice quivered and I pressed my hands to my eyes to stop the tears from falling down my face.
My sister slipped her arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug. “It’ll be all right. Steve will sort it out. Maybe the planning people will understand if you explain.
It’s not as if you could get the bath in any other way is it?”
I took a deep breath to try and calm myself down. “We did talk about taking the tiles off the roof and getting it in that way but that would probably have been even worse.”
She gave me a little shake. “Well, then. Look, Steve’s off the phone now, lets go and see if he’s managed to get things sorted out.”
I wished I had my sister’s confidence. From our past dealings with this particular council I couldn’t see that they would be sympathetic. They had even complained when Steve had uncovered the inglenook in the lounge because we hadn’t filled out the appropriate forms.
“Well, what did he say?” I looked at Steve.
“George has some oak. We’ll get the bath in and I’ll take this frame round to his workshop. He’ll salvage what he can and make an identical frame. We’ll have to board the window over for now and hope we can get the new frame back in with the glass before Mr Poole comes again.”
Since Mr Poole’s mission in life was to visit us as often as possible I couldn’t see that we were going to get away with it. Steve stalked off inside the house accompanied by Jamie.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Lou’s worried gaze met mine. “The window I mean.”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Steve and Jamie staggered out of the house with the bath. I shinned up the scaffolding with Jamie while Steve fixed the thick rope and canvas sling around the bath. He tossed the end up so it could go around the block and tackle.
Steve was to supply the muscle from the ground to lift the bath into the air while Jamie and I steadied it and guided it in to the bathroom. Once in, Steve would run inside while Jamie took the scaffold side and together they would ease it fully over the sill into the bathroom.
At least that was the plan. Lou took herself further down the patio and settled back to watch the proceedings. For once, everything went to plan and Steve heaved on the rope raising the huge bath into the air much more easily than I’d expected. Lou gave a round of applause as Jamie and I guided it through the window. My part done, I came down while Steve and Jamie heaved and tugged the bath on the last part of its journey.
“Thank God that worked. I don’t think I could have stood it if anything else had gone wrong.” I joined Lou.
“I’m sure everything will be fine.” Her mobile rang and she dug her hand into the back pocket of her jeans to fish it out.
She frowned at the number on the screen. “Hello, yes, this is Louise.”
I went to step away so she could take her call in private but she placed her hand on my arm to stop me.
“No, Mrs Gulliver. My sister’s here with me, I’ll ask her.” She covered the mobile with her hand. “It’s Mrs Gulliver, Mum’s next door neighbour. She sounds upset. She says two men were prowling around Mum’s house this morning and there’s a sign gone up in the garden.”
“What kind of sign?” I stared at Lou.
“An estate agents sign. The house is up for sale. Mrs Gulliver was worried it might be a mistake as Mum hadn’t said anything to her and you know they’ve been friends since forever. She thinks Mum’s upset with her or something. Did Mum say anything to you about putting the house on the market?”
“No, of course not. She asked me to take care of the post and water the hanging baskets, nothing about selling up.”
Lou took her hand off the mouthpiece of the phone and tried to soothe Mrs Gulliver. After a couple of minutes she rang off and immediately jabbed the button to call Mum.
“This is that Chuck’s doing, I can tell.” Her face pinked and her eyes sparked as she waited for Mum to answer her phone. “I swear she’s taken complete leave of her senses. It’s those damn hormone replacement pills she’s been taking-” Lou broke off.
“Grr.” Lou stamped her foot and ended the call. “I am not leaving a message, I’ll try her again later.”
“Maybe it is a mistake, like Mrs Gulliver thinks. She could have just asked them to value the house and they’ve gone ahead and stuck up the sign thinking she intended to sell.” Mum had always been impulsive, her marriage to Chuck proved that, but I couldn’t see she would have gone and put her home on the market without saying a word to anyone. She’d told me she planned to look for a holiday house by the sea not moving away altogether.
“It’s listed with Mortlake and Benson. Do you have any contacts there? Can we find out if it’s a mistake?” Lou worried her bottom lip between her teeth. She only did that when she was seriously perturbed.
“I can try. I’ve had some contact with Carolyn Benson. She normally tips me off if there’s something she thinks we might be interested in coming onto the market.”
Lou handed me her phone. “Do you know the number?”
While Steve and Jamie were still bumping and banging in the bathroom I scrabbled the estate agent’s number from my memory and dialled. A few minutes conversation with Carolyn confirmed that Mum’s house was indeed on the market.
She and Chuck had agreed to it being valued and had called yesterday afternoon to say it could be listed.
“Thanks, Carolyn.” I rang off and handed the phone back to Lou.
“So that’s it then? The house is on the market?” The hurt expression in Lou’s eyes said it all. Why hadn’t Mum said anything to us?
I rubbed my forehead trying to disperse the frown on my brow. “We really need to get hold of Mum and find out what’s going on.”
Lou slipped the phone back into the pocket of her jeans and gave a small shrug. “It sounds as if they’ve found a house by the sea.”
Steve emerged from the house.
“Right, the bath’s in. We’re going to drop off the busted frame at George’s workshop and we’ll get some sheeting to board the window over. Can you stay here till we get back? Only the house won’t be secure.” Steve frowned as he caught sight of Lou’s woebegone face.
“Mum’s put her house up for sale. She’s moving to Devon with Chuck.” Lou burst into tears. Steve looked at me as if I would have an explanation.
“We only found out because Mrs Gulliver was worried when the sale board went up and rang us to see if there’d been a mistake. Mum hadn’t said anything to her either and now Mum isn’t answering her mobile so we can’t talk to her about it.” My own voice gave a traitorous wobble.
“I’m sure when you get hold of Claire it’ll all get sorted out. Perhaps she fell in love with another house and didn’t want to miss out on it. People can be quite irrational about houses.” His dark brown eyes met mine and I knew he meant my passion for the barn. The comment stung and I couldn’t answer.
“I’m going to head home. I need to get some shopping and do my laundry.
Will you be okay here by yourself?” Lou dried her eyes and squared her shoulders.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll carry on with the garden. Will you keep trying to get hold of mum?”
She nodded. “As soon as I get to talk to her I’ll call you. I’m worried about who is paying for this move. Chuck said he had money but if Mum’s selling her house then I’m wondering what’s going on.”
“I know.” I’d had the same thoughts.
“What’s got into her lately? First she marries Chuck, international man of mystery, and now this! I’m worried Kate.”
She wasn’t the only one. “I agree. She’s always been so happy in that house.”
I watched Lou set off to catch her bus and returned to my attack on the weeds and brambles. I took out my worries about my mother by launching a full scale massacre of the foliage until a large splash of rain on my cheek alerted me to an imminent downpour. The sunny start to the day had vanished and grey clouds now covered the sky.
I finished raking up the cut greenery and left it in an untidy heap at the side of the path before hurrying inside. I’d no sooner made it through the back door than the heavens opened and large silvery raindrops pelted down onto the dry sunbaked surface of the garden releasing the earthy scent of the ground.
After closing the back door against the deluge I hurried up the narrow staircase to the bathroom. The rain was blowing in through the large hole where the window had used to be. I grabbed the plastic wrapper that had been around the bath and duct taped it to the wall as best as I could.
“Damn that man and his bright ideas.” By the time I’d finished my face, hair and tee shirt were all soaked. I also needed a wee but as my toilet was currently quite exposed to the elements and every passing neighbour, it was something that would have to wait until Steve got back.
Shivering, I crossed the small landing to my bedroom so I could towel off my wet hair and change my top. I’d just stripped off my sopping wet top when I thought I heard the click of the back door opening.
“Steve, is that you?” I bundled my hair into a towel and clutching a clean tee shirt ventured out onto the landing.
No one replied. I crept down the top three steps taking care to step over the plank that squeaked on the second tread down. The hall was empty and I paused to listen for a moment trying to hear if there was anyone in the kitchen. Nothing, only the drumming of the rain on the windows of the cottage disturbed the silence. I tiptoed down another couple of steps and listened again, my inner senses warning me that I wasn’t alone.
* * *
Father finally returned today, bringing the rains with him. I was shocked by his appearance. He seems to have aged many years in the few weeks that he has been away from home. Mother ran out into the storm to greet him, uncaring of the rain and wind. I waited in my chamber afraid not so much of his anger but of his disappointment. Since the deaths of both my older brothers and my younger sister during the last few years I am the only one left of his children still living and now I have bought shame upon him.
* * *
I had almost made it to the hall when I heard the heavy tread of footsteps coming from behind me up on the landing. I ran into the kitchen latching the door shut and pushed the pine table in front of the opening. Whoever or whatever was behind that door could stay there. The rational bit of my brain told me that if anything supernatural was there then my actions were futile. The rational side of me however was drowned out by the rapid thumping of my heart and the panic rising in my chest.
Without waiting to see if anyone or anything had followed me I ran out of the back door straight into the rain and Steve.