CHAPTER SIX
It turned out that the leaking tap was just the start of Lois’s house issues.
She was having her kitchen and bathroom refurbished, and she’d decided to move back to the family home for now, away from the mess. So it was a bit like old times on the nights I wasn’t staying over at Rory’s, with both of us in our childhood bedrooms.
Rory had realised a long-held dream and bought stables near Sunnybrook, taking over a business that was thriving and which kept him very busy. The sale had included the old house attached to the stables and I’d become rather fond of it, despite its outdated kitchen and quirky heating system.
‘Hey, I’ve got some free time this morning,’ said Lois over breakfast. ‘Do you need any help at the dance centre, Clara?’
I looked at her in surprise. She’d never offered before. But opening day was galloping ever nearer, and as far as hands-on-deck were concerned, it was a case of the more the merrier.
‘Well, yes. Thanks, Lois. That would be really good of you.’
She smiled broadly. ‘No problem at all. I’ll just go and get a shower and I’ll be ready in ten minutes?’
‘Great!’
She bounced out of the kitchen and I heard her humming a jolly tune as she ran upstairs. And I sat there, feeling bewildered by the sudden change in her mood.
Had Mark been in touch?
Were they getting back together?
Because the switch from dark to light seemed to have happened overnight.
A few days ago in Rory’s car, she’d been so glum and snappy, she couldn’t even look at me when I was trying to tempt her into the café for a chat.
But the next day when I saw her, it had been immediately clear from her smiling greeting that her perpetually dismal mood had lifted.
She’d actually apologised to me for being so irritating lately.
But why the sudden change? I was glad of it, of course, but it was puzzling...
The only explanation I could think of was that her chat with Rory in the supermarket car park had worked some kind of magic.
They’d been away a long time – far too long to simply be doing Lois’s weekly shop.
‘I was getting worried,’ I’d said to Rory when he arrived back at his place. He’d said he would cook that night, but I’d already let myself into the house and started making a salad to go with the pasta dish by the time he returned. I went into the hall when I heard his key in the door.
‘I couldn’t get hold of you. Is your mobile switched off?’
‘Oh. Sorry,’ he’d said vaguely, looking quite tired and distracted. ‘Yeah, my phone was dead.’ He dug it out of his pocket and slid it onto the hall table.
‘Right. Another hour and I’d have been phoning the hospitals,’ I joked, and I was rewarded with a smile as he hung his jacket on a peg.
‘Sorry,’ he repeated. ‘We... well, Lois was wanting to talk about Mark, you know? So we ended up sitting in the car after she’d done her shopping and having a bit of a heart-to-heart.’
‘A bit of a heart-to-heart!’ I’d chuckled. ‘You were ages. I think you should send my sister a bill for counselling services rendered.’
He laughed at that as he popped his head round the kitchen door. ‘Good idea. Nice salad. I’ll do the pasta.’
‘It’s all ready. Look, why don’t you go and get changed out of your horsey clothes and I’ll stir the sauce into the pasta. Ready in five minutes?’
‘Great.’
I watched him fondly as he went into the bedroom, then automatically, I picked up his phone to charge it. But when I looked at it, I realised it was almost fully charged already.
Not ‘dead’ at all, as Rory had said.
But then I’d smiled to myself. Poor Rory had been having his ear chewed off by Lois for the best part of three hours! That was enough to deplete anyone’s brain function and make them confused...
Now, I listened to Lois singing as she went into the bathroom for her shower. I’d been pleased but surprised when she’d offered to help me over at the dance centre this morning. She must really be in a good mood!
Maybe Mark had been in touch, wanting them to get back together. I decided I’d probe a little as we drove over to Brambleberry Manor later...
*****
‘What? Get back with that useless waste of space? Er, I don’t think so.’ Lois laughed. ‘What on earth made you think that?’
I was driving us both over to Magic of Dance and I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask her about Mark. But by the sound of her reaction to the idea of a reunion, I’d clearly been completely wrong.
I shrugged. ‘You just seem happier these days.’
‘Do I?’ She smiled. ‘Well, that’s good, isn’t it?’
‘Of course it is. So listen, I’m trying out a Dancing in the Dark session this morning at eleven – just with a few people I’ve roped in to be guinea pigs – so do you want to join in?’
‘Erm... not sure I feel like dancing at that time of the morning to be honest. Isn’t there anything in the office you’d like me to do? Spreadsheet work? Finances? I’m good at all that stuff.’
I nodded. ‘You could have a look at my accounts if you like?’ I grimaced. ‘I hate doing all that stuff.’
‘Right. Yes, I’ll do that. No problem.’
I smiled at her. ‘Great. Hey, I like this new Lois. All chirpy and helpful.’
She shrugged lightly. ‘Glad to be of service. I like having a project to get my teeth into.’
When we arrived, I took Lois into the office and logged her onto my laptop so she could look at my rather quirky system for registering invoices and payments.
‘It’s all a little haphazard,’ I apologised, leaning over her shoulder rather anxiously.
‘I suppose the main thing is I understand it! But just shout if there’s anything that seems wrong or you don’t understand, okay? ’
‘Fine. No problem.’
‘I’ve put all the invoices for work completed into a folder marked... well, invoices?’
Lois chuckled. ‘Clara, I think a ten-year-old could work that out. Just go to your class and leave me to it, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Relieved, I slipped out. Then I realised I’d left my phone in the office, so I nipped back.
Lois was standing by the filing cabinet and she turned, holding up the mobile. ‘Is this what you came back for? You left it on here.’
‘Yes!’ Surprised, I took it. ‘Thanks. I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached.’
‘No problem.’
‘Hey, maybe you should be my assistant. You seem to be able to anticipate what I need before I even know I need it.’
‘Crikey, I can’t imagine that working. Can you?’
I chuckled. ‘Definitely not. Sisterly love can stretch only so far before it snaps.’
I pocketed the phone and hurried along to Studio One where a few guinea pigs were already gathered in anticipation.
The Dancing in the Dark session went even better than I was expecting.
There were only five volunteers taking part but they seemed to have a brilliant time, letting their hair down and busting moves to the beat.
Flushed and smiling afterwards, they all gave it a big thumbs up, which was a big relief.
Maybe everything was going to be fine, after all, I was thinking with a smile as I showered quickly then went to join Lois in the office.
‘The internal phone rang when you were out,’ she reported. ‘I took down a message.’ She indicated the yellow sticky note on the desk.
‘Great. Thanks.’ I looked at the note and phoned the workman back straight away. I had people in today finishing off the special sprung flooring in Studio 2, and a modern chandelier was being hung in the reception area.
After I’d sorted that out (there was always so much to sort out these days), my mobile rang.
It was a friend of mine from college days, Roz, and she didn’t sound happy.
She’d met a guy online the year before and eventually decided to move up to Lancashire to live with him.
But it seemed that things weren’t going well.
‘We seem to be arguing all the time these days,’ she confessed, ‘and honestly, Clara, I’m missing my family and friends so much.’
We chatted for a while, with me perched on the edge of the desk and Lois earwigging nosily (I’d told her all about Roz moving to Lancashire). When Lois got up and mouthed to me that she was nipping out to the loo, I nodded and carried on sympathising with Roz.
Then suddenly, without warning, there was a deafening clanging in my ears which drowned out everything, including Roz.
The fire alarm?
Seized with panic, I rushed for the door and bumped into Lois who was coming back in.
‘What the hell?’ she gasped. ‘Thank goodness I’d finished and wasn’t caught with my knickers down! It’s not a real fire, is it?’
I shook my head, although I was sniffing the air all the same. ‘I doubt it.’ A fire at this stage, a few days before opening, would be a total disaster. ‘But we need to exit the building anyway. I’m still on the phone to Roz.’
Lois scanned around the office. ‘I’ll grab your laptop, just in case. You don’t want to lose that. And I’ll take your phone to keep it safe.’ She grabbed it from my hand and spoke into it. ‘Sorry, Roz. Lois here. Fire alarm. She’ll call you later, okay?’
We assembled outside the building, along with the workmen who’d been working in the building.
I’d been trained in fire safety so I knew that I had to check we were all present then investigate the fire alarm panel which showed where the alarm had gone off.
Dashing inside, I found that the break-glass sensor in the entrance area had been smashed, although there was no sign of a fire anywhere.
One of the workmen, carrying ladders, must have set it off accidentally without realising it.
In any case, there was no harm done thankfully, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I went back outside. Lois was studying her phone intently and didn’t see me for a moment. Then she looked up.
‘Everything okay?’ she asked, sliding the phone back into her pocket.
I nodded at everyone. ‘No fire. Not sure how it happened, but it’s safe to go back inside,’ I said, and we all trouped back into the building.
‘Thanks for thinking of the laptop.’ I grinned at Lois. ‘You’re not supposed to take things out with you, just in case it’s a real fire emergency, but I’d have lost all my records if that had gone up in flames.’ I gave a shudder just thinking about that. ‘Oh, where’s my phone?’
‘Here.’ Lois took it out of her pocket and thrust it into my hand.
‘Thanks. I must remember to phone Roz later.’
‘And I need to phone Mum and tell her I’m making a lasagne for dinner tonight so she doesn’t have to bother.’ Lois dug in her bag for her own phone.
I chuckled. ‘Wow, you’re so domesticated these days, Lois.’
Her face fell a little. ‘It was Mark’s favourite so I used to make lasagne all the time for him, the bastard!’
We exchanged a glum look and Lois got herself settled at the desk again and opened the laptop. And I went off to inspect the little café area which had been given a total refit the day before.
Something was nagging at me... something to do with the fire alarm.
I still had no idea who’d set it off accidentally. It could have been anyone and I guessed these things happened sometimes. But something else was bothering me, although I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was...
It was only later, when I was driving Lois home mid-afternoon that I realised what had been bugging me.
When I’d come out after inspecting the building following the alarm, Lois had been glued to her phone.
At the time I’d assumed it was her mobile.
But then she’d slipped it into her pocket and later, when I’d asked for my mobile, that was the one she’d handed to me.
Her own phone had been in her bag all the time.
It made no sense at all.
Why would Lois have been looking at the contents of my phone...?