‘Or sheep.’ Her voice was quiet, defeated, the joke a lame way to cover up how she was feeling. She watched as he waded through the wallpaper and plaster covering the floor until he was beside her.

‘And I’m guessing from the way you’re holding your hands and the fact you’re completely drenched, that you’ve hit a pipe?’

She narrowed her eyes. Was he trying to be funny? At least their moment from yesterday had well and truly passed. ‘No,I’m installing a hallway shower. I’m surprised you’ve not heard of them, what with all the renovating you do. It’s all the craze, apparently. Decontaminate the guests before they enter.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Jackson held his hands up, palms forward, a sheepish expression on his face. ‘I asked for that. Let’s take a look.’

‘My pleasure.’ Stepping back, she removed her hands, watching the water spurt out before jumping back into place and stemming the flow again. ‘Believe me now?’

Frowning, Jackson shook his head slightly, obviously thinking better of cracking another joke. ‘Give me a moment and I’ll turn the water off at the stopcock.’

Laura watched him disappear through to the kitchen and listened as he rummaged through the cupboard under the sink before appearing back by her side.

‘It’s not working. It seems to be stuck. I’ll run next door and grab my tools but will see if I can find the outside one on my way. Hold tight.’

Laura breathed heavily out through her nose. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘No, of course not. Two minutes.’ Turning on his heels, Jackson rushed outside, leaving the front door slightly ajar behind him.

Sniffing, Laura surveyed the hallway. She couldn’t blame him for making a joke. It did rather look as though a herd of goats had made themselves at home. Still, it hadn’t been the right time and she certainly wouldn’t be in the mood to joke about the situation anytime soon. This – the pipe, the plaster, the wallpaper – was going to push her opening date back and drain the remaining few pounds in her savings account. And that was if she could find a tradesperson who was willing to step across the threshold.

She heard the clink of the gate shut, and then Jackson reappeared. Relief flooded through her at the thought of having him to help, and once again she was thankful her plan to have a completely fresh start had been flawed. ‘Did you find the outside stopcock? Can I step away?’ Laura shifted, ready to remove her hands.

‘No!’ Jackson shouted and held up a hand. ‘I couldn’t find it. It’s probably long hidden under the grass or flowerbeds or somewhere.’

‘Okay,’ Laura answered. ‘What now? Am I just going to have to stay like this for eternity?’

‘Hey, I’ve got you. We’ll fix it.’ Jackson laid his hand gently on her shoulder.

And she believed him. Right there, right then, she believed that he had her back, that he would be able to undo the damage that she’d done.

‘Right, let’s see what we need.’ Hefting his large toolbox onto the reception desk, Jackson filled his pockets with a handful of tools before coming to stand next to her. ‘Okay, let’s do this slowly to limit the amount of water which escapes.’

After toing and froing for a few minutes, Jackson had full control of the pipe and Laura was finally free.

‘Ouch.’ She rolled her shoulders back, trying to relieve some of the pain travelling from her fingertips to her neck.

‘You okay?’ With one hand blocking the pipe, he looked across at her and frowned.

‘I will be. I just ache after standing in the same position for so long.’ She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. She was cold too and the wet clothes weren’t helping. ‘Thank you for coming to the rescue.’

‘No problem at all. Happy to help.’ Jackson looked around the room again before pulling a rag from his back pocket. ‘I’ve got to ask, what happened here?’

‘Everything.’ Laura slumped against the reception desk, suddenly unable to hold her emotions in check any longer. ‘There were a couple of patches of crumbling plaster, so I stupidly decided that I could patch it up.’

‘That’s not stupid.’

‘Oh, it is.’ She kicked at the pile of used tubes of ready-mixed wall filler. ‘I kept finding more and more patches and before I knew it, the wallpaper was ruined and the easiest thing was to rip the rest of it down so I could see where the wall needed filling.’

‘That makes sense.’

‘Does it? Does it really? Because from where I’m standing, nothing does anymore. I bought the damn place in the hope I could freshen it up a little and open it up straight away, start earning money, and now… now even if I had enough in my savings, I can’t even get any tradespeople in to help me, anyway.’ She sank to the floor. She was covered in plaster debris, pieces of sticky wallpaper and water from the pipe anyway. What would a little more do?

‘You’ll sort it.’

‘No, no, I won’t. Have you seen the end of the banister?’ She glanced behind her at the once intricately carved banister, now ruined. ‘And if there’s woodworm in that, well, it’s probably everywhere.’

‘It might not be woodworm. I’ll take a look at it after this. We’ll figure it out.’ Jackson gave a small smile.