Page 54 of The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday
‘Ketchup would be great. Shall I?’ Ben pointed to the breakfast bar.
‘I thought we’d eat in the front room.’ She’d put the bottle of Prosecco in a bucket, her glass and a fresh one alongside it in preparation.
She brought the food in and they sat down, Scooter whining until Ben said, ‘I’ve just fed you,’ in his gentle, patient voice. The dog stared balefully at him, then lay on the floor, managing to squeeze himself between the tea chest and their feet. His fur was soft against Thea’s toes.
She and Ben were close on the sofa, and the air seemed to fizz between them. She reached over and picked up the bottle, filling both their glasses.
‘Thank you for this,’ Ben said. ‘And for coming with me to Sylvia’s. It felt easier, somehow, with you there.’ He held his glass out, and she clinked hers against it.
‘I can’t believe there are bats,’ she said, once they’d both taken a sip.
He groaned, long and low, and she felt it all the way to her toes, her nerve endings sparking with interest. It wasn’texactlyhow she should be reacting to his obvious frustration, but it was such a rumbly, delicious sound.
‘What does it mean, apart from someone having to get a specialist in to deal with them?’ she asked, forcing her thoughts away from the direction they were heading in.
‘They will have caused some damage to the structure,’ Ben said. ‘Their … guano does that. I don’t have a wholeheap of experience with bats, but that’s what’s happened in the couple of places I’ve worked on that were affected by them. And we have no clue how long they’ve been at the Old Post House. Sylvia needs to move out, but when she hands the building over to the town, she’ll be handing over a huge problem.’ He shook his head. ‘The place needs so much work, and it should have happened long before now. With Sylvia, it’s just that …’ He put his glass on the table and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
‘What about her?’ Thea asked gently.
‘She should have been looked after,’ he said. ‘She and Eric did so much for this town, and that building will still mean a lot to her, even once she’s moved away.’
‘But when she leaves, won’t the council – or whoever she’s giving the building to – make the repairs? If they’re getting it for free, then they could do that, couldn’t they?’
Ben turned to face her, bending his leg so his knee was on the sofa cushion, inches from her thigh. ‘The risk is that they’ll accept it, but won’t invest the money needed to refurbish it properly, and it’ll fall further into disuse. Anisha, who you met at the cook-off, is on the planning team, and I know she’d fight as hard as she could, but so often councils’ hands are tied: they have to spend their budget on whatever the local councillor thinks will get them more votes at the next election. Is an old post office going to be top of their agenda?’
‘It’s so sad,’ Thea murmured.
‘It’s not the best situation,’ Ben agreed. ‘I want to do everything I can, but I can’t fix the bat problem without investing weeks of my time, not to mention getting this specialist in.’
‘And you can’t do all that for free. Even if you weren’t trying to get your own house ready, you can’t work for nothing.’
He sighed and slumped against the back of the sofa, his gaze on Thea. ‘Nope. Sometimes, I wish I hadn’t made the move.’ He shook his head, his hair lifting with static as it rubbed against the fabric. ‘No, that’s not true. I have flashes of regret, but those are nothing compared to the long stretches of satisfaction. I can’t say I’m properly content yet, but that’s because I’m not getting on as much as I’d like to be.’
‘Why did you move?’ she asked. ‘Did work run out in the Lake District?’
‘No.’ He laughed gently. ‘It was always busy: people moving in, doing up homes and holiday cottages. Like here, I suppose. No, it was a personal thing.’ He sipped his Prosecco, and when he put his glass down, Thea topped them both up. ‘It was time to move on. I made the right decision.’
Thea nodded. ‘It’s not surprising that you’re stalling with the building work.’
‘Why’s that?’
She gestured towards where the curtain fluttered in front of the open window, giving the impression there was someone lurking behind it.
‘If I had that view outside my house, I’d never get any work done.’
He smiled. ‘That was, partly, the point of buying Oystercatcher Cottage. I’ve always liked being near the water – I think I mentioned – and this was my chance to live within sight of it. I bought young in the Lakes, with help from my parents, admittedly, but because I was newly qualified I wasable to get a complete wreck and do it up. It was good training, and a big achievement early on that gave me the confidence to run my own business. Then the market exploded, everyone wanted a second home up there, so when I came to sell – it was ridiculous. It meant I could get Oystercatcher.’
‘Do you always work on your own?’
‘Mostly.’ Ben took a long swallow of Prosecco. ‘I hire contractors if I need to: electricians, gas engineers and plumbers for particular jobs. Everything else, I try and get done myself.’
‘A lone wolf,’ Thea said, smiling.
‘A bit more than I should be, perhaps. With the Old Post House, that whole situation, I’m definitely out of my depth.’
‘You could talk to Anisha,’ Thea suggested. ‘See what she says. They might have some kind of plan to do it up anyway, in which case you can just warn her about how much work it needs, and the bats.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll do that.’
