Page 74 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
‘It’s the human angle – the accident, being dumped from your old series and then getting – quite literally – back on your feet again,’ the agent had told him persuasively.
‘But I don’t want to be a sob story,’ Carey had protested to me afterwards.
‘You won’t be, just bravely picking yourself up and stoically getting on with life,’ I said. ‘The readers will love it and there’ll be a bidding war for theMansion Makeoverrights, so Nick will be delirious with excitement.’
He grinned. ‘So will I – I’ve got shares in Nick’s company, you know!’
‘There you are, then: you need to raise your profile, then the series and the spin-off books will be a huge success and keep Mossby going for years.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ he said, and then after the interview was done and the photographs taken, the electrician arrived to carry out a survey and estimate, and they vanished down into the cellars.
I suppose they had to start somewhere.
While they were still down in the depths, Mitch came over from the old wing, looking slightly worried.
‘A woman called Ella’s turned up. We were working and then I turned round and got quite a shock, because she was just standing there watching us and we hadn’t heard her arrive.’
‘Oh dear – she does seem to specialize in sudden, silent appearances!’
‘She told us she was a member of the family and she’d always looked after the old wing herself, and was very particular about the panelling.’
‘She’s a connection of the family by marriage and used to be the housekeeper,’ I explained. ‘She seems to have a compulsion to clean that panelling and when she gets to the end she must start again, like painting the Forth Bridge.’
‘It’s certainly the only thing in there that’s been properly cleaned in living memory,’ Mitch said critically. ‘I thought I’d better check with you if you want us to leave that to her. Only if so, we’ve got a better polish, one of the Stately Solutions brand that Dolly Mops orders specially for historic homes.’
‘If she isn’t being a nuisance, then I’m sure leaving the panelling to Ella, using the new polish, will be all right with Carey,’ I told him and he looked relieved.
‘Just as well, because I don’t think it’s going to be possible to stop her!’
‘Carey’s just showing an electrician round and he’ll be coming into your wing soon anyway.’
‘Good, because there are a few things I’d like to discuss with him when he does: you’ve been pretty lucky with moth damage, but I’ll put some moth traps down and I can give him the details of a good place to clean and restore the tapestries and bed hangings.’
‘I suspect that will be expensive, so possibly it’ll have to wait a bit,’ I said, and he went off back to his cleaning.
Later, Carey said he and the electrician had come across Ella in the muniment room and he was sure she’d been trying to get in the locked bureau, though she’d pretended to be polishing it when she saw them.
‘Not that there’s anything of any importance in there, anyway. But it was odd: when I spoke to her she just ignored me as if I wasn’t there.’
‘I think she’s sent us both to Coventry,’ I said, and told him about Mitch coming over when she’d turned up and what she’d said about the panelling. ‘So I told him to let her get on with it, as long as she used the special polish.’
‘I suppose it won’t do any harm … though actually, when we left the room she was rubbing the linenfold panelling so hard it’ll probably lookmore like flat bedsheets when I see it again,’ he said gloomily. ‘I’m starting to think she’s a sandwich short of a picnic.’
‘I think she’s a sandwich, two sausage rolls and a jam tart short of a picnic,’ I told him. And when he’d signed his new will, I’d make sure he left a copy in the bureau, so she’d know exactly what was what!
Apart from a couple of walks on his lead, Fang had been confined to the kitchen for most of the day and although he’d seemed happy to welcome the female cleaners when they came down for their elevenses, he’d taken exception to the three male ones and been banished to the housekeeper’s parlour till the coast was clear again.
It did make things difficult, so it was a relief when Chris, the dog whisperer, called just after everyone had finally left, and whisked Fang away.
‘I’ll ring you in a few days, when he’s ready to come home – don’t worry, he’ll be fine,’ he assured us, but the house seemed very empty without Fang. He might be small, but he made his presence felt.
And the house not only seemed empty, but amazingly, dazzlingly clean, too.
When I said so, Carey remarked wryly that he was going to have a dazzling bill to match.
‘Never mind – the house will never be quite that filthy again,’ I consoled him.
I kept my condition to myself for as long as possible, not wishing for any fuss, but since I had discovered it so late there was no hiding it for ever, so eventually I had to tell Ralph. He was quite overjoyed and kissed me, something that had not happened for so long that I felt quite shy.
