Page 39 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
‘If you’re going out now, I hope you’re taking that creature with you,’ she said, giving Fang the evil eye, and then stomped off towards the backstairs.
‘Friendly,’ I commented.
‘Yes, and she seems to haunt the house at random – I never know when I’ll open a door and find her on the other side.’
‘Not a cheery thought, though I suppose she’s used to having the run of the place, as she said.’
He was frowning. ‘I think she listens at doors. I’m pretty sure she hadn’t just arrived when we saw her. And when Mr Wilmslow was here the day I arrived she was waiting to meet me and offered to make coffee and bring it through into the sitting room. I suspect she hung about outside afterwards, while we were discussing a codicil to my will I’d asked Mr Wilmslow to draw up, making her the residuary legatee to the house if anything happened to me. But by then I’d decided I needed a bit more time to think about it.’
‘Do you really think she was listening then, too?’
‘Yes, because I heard a noise in the drawing room and when I went out into the hall, the baize door was swinging.’
‘If she overheard you say that about leaving Mossby to her, she’ll probably be slipping weedkiller into your coffee from now on. You’d better write another one quickly, leaving everything to a dog’s home and then leave it lying around where she can see it.’
‘I’ll discuss it with Mr Wilmslow again on Wednesday. He’s pretty keen I make a whole new will, because the one I’ve got is just something I drew up myself after the accident,’ Carey said. ‘I’m hoping to survive till then.’
‘I don’t see that there’s such a huge hurry. He might let you settle in first.’
Carey shrugged. ‘I think we’ve both learned recently that you never know what might happen. For instance, I must have had my accident just a week after my uncle signedhiswill, so if that hit-and-run driver had made a better job of it, Ella would have copped the lot when he died not long afterwards. Come to think of it, I’d already had a near miss only a couple of days before. London’s getting dangerous for cyclists, even in the suburbs. All I was doing was heading for my usual lunch at Gino’s Café.’
I shivered. ‘Oh, don’t! I’m just grateful you got out of it more or less in one piece. And speaking of which,’ I said firmly, ‘you’re going to have to pace yourself more. I’m sure you’ve already been doing way too much.’
‘Yes, but from tomorrow I’ll have my very own personal assistant to run about for me,’ he teased.
‘In your dreams, buster!’ I said. ‘Now, take me back to Molly and Grant’s house, so you can rest up for a bit. I wish I’d thought to follow you in my own car, so you didn’t have to go out again.’
‘Oh, I’m OK,’ he assured me, though I could tell he wasn’t really from the way he limped and leaned heavily on his stick as we headed for the back door.
‘Come on, Fang,’ he called to the little dog, who I’d put down when Ella Parry vanished upstairs, and we went out into the chilly, dark late afternoon.
When we got there, Grant had just arrived home from the workshop and invited Carey in, though I’d wanted him to get straight back and have a rest.
It worked out OK, though, because Molly, who had a strong maternal streak, took one look at him and instantly went into feed-and-cosset mode.
While we ate, I told them that I was moving into Mossby next day and would be renovating an old stained-glass workshop on the estate. Grant was keenly interested.
‘And Carey wants you to restock his freezer, Molly, because it’s currently full of all the bland stodge his uncle was eating. That will all need getting rid of first.’
Molly asked Carey what sort of things he liked to eat and started jotting down a few ideas, though he said I should have some input too, since I’d also be eating them.
‘Well, I don’t eat meat any more,’ I told him. ‘I eat fish and eggs, though.’
‘You’ve gone semi-vegetarian?’
‘Yes. It was odd. One day I just felt I couldn’t eat another living creature … not even a hen. Julian said he didn’t mind going meat free with me, though neither of us had quite the same cuddly feeling about fish, or eggs, so long as they’re from happy, free-range hens.’
‘Which mine are,’ said Grant, since he kept leghorns on the patch of land he owned at the end of his garden.
‘I can give meat up, too; I don’t eat much these days myself,’ Carey said. ‘That’ll make it easier for Molly to cater for us both. And often I’ll have a few people staying in the house, Molly, helping out with things, so some meals that will feed several people would be useful. I enjoy cooking, but I’ll be too busy or tired to do it all the time.’
‘I’ll get some ideas together and maybe come up and discuss them one day soon?’ she suggested.
‘I’d love to see this old workshop some time,’ Grant said. ‘Ivan will probably want to come with me. I don’t know what he’s going to do with himself now Nat’s told him not to turn up any more. And Julian was going to take Louis on over the summer, when he left college.’
‘Louis is Ivan’s grandson and keen on a career in stained glass,’ Iexplained to Carey. ‘You probably saw him earlier, in the workshop. It’s such a shame Nat doesn’t want him, because he’s a nice boy.’
‘When he helped out in the holidays, he was starting to get useful, too,’ Grant agreed.
