Chapter 5 #2
‘I can’t,’ Zack responded. ‘Willowell has always been such a special place for you, me and Dad, and now you get to stay there for longer than a holiday.’
‘It’s a dream come true.’
‘What’s the apartment like?’
‘I have no idea,’ I confessed as I glanced at the time. ‘I haven’t seen it yet. I rushed out to call you as soon as Constance mentioned it. She’ll be thinking I’ve abandoned her!’
‘You’d better get back to her then,’ Zack laughed. ‘And good luck.’
He was gone before I could say the same to him, and I realised we’d been talking for ages. I still had to pack my things at Rose Cottage and have something to eat, but first, I wanted to see my new home.
‘So?’ Constance asked, as she stiffly stood up when I went back into the kitchen. ‘What did your brother have to say?’
‘Plenty,’ I smiled. ‘But most importantly, that he’s happy for me to stay put.’
I was thrilled that Zack had been so understanding, but I wasn’t so caught up in my own fresh start that I had forgotten that something was amiss with him.
Going forward I would try, even though it wasn’t easy with the internet issues, to keep in touch more.
There were only two of us in our family now and we needed to support one another more than ever.
‘Well, that’s marvellous news.’ Constance nodded as she rubbed her hip with the hand that wasn’t holding her walking stick.
‘Grab that set of keys with the oak leaf keyring and we’ll go and look at the apartment.
I haven’t been in for a while, so I don’t know what sort of state it’s going to be in. I hope I haven’t offered you a dud.’
I held my breath as I turned the key in the apartment door, but I needn’t have worried. Constance’s concerns were completely unfounded and, aside from needing an airing, the place seemed to be in a better state than the house.
‘It’s called the garden apartment because it overlooks the garden,’ said Constance, who I had helped down the three steps to reach the door, which had a small, sunken patio leading up to it.
The door opened straight into a little lobby with coat pegs and shoe storage and then a compact cream and sage green kitchen.
‘Which I suppose is stating the obvious.’
‘And it’s perfect,’ I told her, as I flicked on a couple of table lamps and looked around. ‘Ideally proportioned.’
It was bigger than Rose Cottage, but not by much and the soft glow from the lamps made it look and feel so cosy.
‘Don’t say that until you’ve seen the rest of it,’ Constance insisted.
There were French doors in the sitting room, and they opened out onto the patio which was filled with pots of hostas and ferns and, joy of joys, I could hear the river from there, too.
‘I can hear the river,’ I smiled at Constance.
‘Lucky you,’ she smiled back. ‘I think I need to get my hearing aids adjusted.’
I didn’t point out that she wasn’t wearing any.
‘There’s one bedroom,’ she explained as we continued the tour, ‘and no shower in the bathroom, I’m afraid, just a bath. I suppose the decoration is a bit old-fashioned for a young woman like you.’
‘Not at all,’ I was quick to say, because I loved it. The dark woodwork and practical jute carpets made it feel snug. It would doubtless be a comfortable den in the winter with a fire blazing in the grate. ‘Are these Sanderson curtains?’
The floral fabric was beautiful and the cushions on the sofa and two armchairs were made from the same material.
‘Could be,’ Constance said vaguely. ‘The bedroom is all Laura Ashley, I think. The whole place hasn’t been touched for years.
You’ll have to have a look through the kitchen and see if there’s enough crockery and cutlery.
You can always nab things from the house, and I won’t mind you using my washing machine because there isn’t one of those here, either.
We might as well turn the fridge on while we’re here.
It should be all right. It looks like the door has been left ajar since it was last turned off. ’
I felt a wave of emotion wash over me as I looked around again.
‘This is extremely generous of you, Constance,’ I struggled to say, because of the way I was feeling. ‘Opening up your home to me like this, even if it is with a view to working out if you want me to buy your woods.’
I had been about to carry on and ask if she was all alone in the house, but she fixed me with a look, and I stopped.
‘It’s not just about the woods,’ she said. ‘The larger part of my offer is, but there’s the other thing, too.’
‘The other thing?’ I assumed she was going to say she was lonely.
‘I can tell…’
‘Tell what?’
‘That you need a rest,’ she said, taking me completely by surprise.
‘It seems to me that you’ve been through quite a time of it.
And even though some of it, such as giving up the job that you said was grinding you down, has been exciting, it’s all been a challenge as well as a risk and that takes a toll on a person, doesn’t it? ’
I was determined not to cry, but it was a struggle to keep the tears trapped behind my eyes, rather than rolling down my cheeks. I don’t know why, but I hadn’t expected her to be so empathetic and keyed in.
‘It would have been selfish of me to notice this in you and then withhold an offer to help,’ she said, as if offering such assistance was the most natural thing in the world and something she’d do for every stranger who crossed her path. ‘I recognised in you what I experienced in myself when…’
‘When?’ I croaked.
‘You can rest here for a while,’ she carried on, putting the spotlight firmly back on me. ‘Then decide what you want to do about the woods. Consider your time here as a bit of a holiday, to start with, at least. I’m truly in no rush.’
I looked around at the heavy old-fashioned furniture, which looked solid and safe.
The apartment already felt like a cosy hidey hole from the world with the beautiful garden in front and the sound of the gently flowing river beyond, and I knew that spending some time here to get myself more together and keep moving forward on my new path was going to be a wonderful thing.
‘Does that sound all right with you?’ Constance asked softly.
‘That sounds absolutely perfect.’ I swallowed, as one traitorous tear made its slow way down my cheek and I quickly brushed it away. ‘But on one condition.’
‘What’s that?’ she asked, sounding suspicious.
‘That you let me pay you rent.’
She looked appalled. ‘I didn’t offer you the apartment with a view to—’
‘I know you didn’t,’ I cut in. ‘You offered me the apartment with the very kindest of motives, as your caring words have just proved, but these are my terms. Rent, I’ll stay. No rent, I’m off to Bali.’
Constance wasn’t happy, but she eventually relented.
‘You can keep the key,’ she said, once I’d checked the fridge was working, turned off the lights, locked the door, and helped her back up the steps. ‘That way you can let yourself in in the morning, or whenever you’re ready to move in.’
‘If it wasn’t for having to pack up Rose Cottage,’ I told her, ‘I’d stay longer tonight.’
‘You think you’ll be happy here then?’ she asked, her gaze fixed on mine.
‘Ever so,’ I told her. ‘This is literally a long-held dream come true, but with the addition of wonderful Willowell Woods thrown in for good measure.’
Constance looked as thrilled about that as I was.