Chapter 45
After kissing Noah goodbye, Bella had decided on an early night. It had been lovely to share the cottage with Noah all weekend, but she felt as though she needed to get her head down. The fact that he wasn’t on the other side of the bedroom wall took some pressure off, as well.
As she got ready for bed, she suddenly heard the melody and lyrics from earlier in the day singing through her head once again.
Padding downstairs quickly, she pulled her acoustic guitar out from where she’d stored it behind the door of the living room and sat on the edge of one of Jack’s armchairs.
Tuning it briskly, she started to pick out the melody, adding in some chords as she went, and tinkering about with the progressions until they sounded more logical.
Humming under her breath, she remembered snatches of the lyrics she’d written and filled in some gaps as she played.
It wasn’t long before she’d worked out four verses and a chorus, and refining and tweaking as she went, she soon had a draft that she felt was passable.
Monty, who’d made a sharp exit at the sound of the guitar, had slunk back into the room and was lying under the other armchair, regarding her with a mildly interested expression.
Giving the guitar a final strum, she nodded at him.
‘Well, what do you think, old fella? Not bad for a first attempt, after all these years!’
Monty blinked.
‘I do love an appreciative audience!’
Because she was alone, and because her phone was plugged in by the table lamp, Bella decided to do a brief recording.
It wouldn’t do any harm, and it would remind her that, despite the failure of her commercial music career, she had talent.
It was only about two minutes of music so far, but it was a very good start.
‘Well, it’s something,’ she said.
Monty blinked again.
That night, she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
* * *
Waking up late the next morning, Bella stretched luxuriously.
She hadn’t bothered closing the curtains, and she’d left the bedroom window open for a breeze, and now the light wrapped warmly around her, speaking of another lovely summer’s day.
She remembered how calm writing songs used to make her and felt as though she’d recaptured something she’d been missing by leaning into her creativity the night before.
Monty had no such perspective, though. It took her a moment to realise that the old cat was staring at her from the bedroom’s doorway, silently reproaching her for sleeping late and forgetting his breakfast.
‘Bugger, sorry, old chap.’ Bella pulled on a vest top and a pair of joggers and bunched up her hair into a messy bun. ‘Let’s get you sorted, shall we?’
There didn’t seem to be much point in showering after she’d fed Monty. In fact, a day chilling at home with nowhere to go felt like bliss. Maybe she’d work on the song for a bit.
The morning passed in a flurry of creativity, and by the end of it she’d recorded a second, tighter version of the song.
Smiling as she listened back to it on her phone, she felt a flare of pride.
She was good when she put her mind to it.
Soon it would be time for lunch, and then she’d think about getting ready for work.
The shrill of the old-fashioned doorbell broke into her relaxed mood. She wasn’t expecting a delivery. Padding to the living room window, she was frustrated to see that she couldn’t see the doorstep because of the squat walls of Jack’s open porch. Should she just ignore it?
The doorbell rang again. Sighing, she thought it was better to answer.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Can I help you?’
The man on the other side looked at her, aghast. ‘What the hell are you doing here? This place is supposed to be empty.’
‘Then why did you ring the bell?’
‘I saw someone moving around from the road. Who the hell are you?’
‘I’m, er, Bella West. I’m living here.’
‘Since when?’ The man had a bossy, demanding tone, but he seemed vaguely familiar. There was something about the shape of his eyes and his jawline that made something click in her mind.
‘Since about a month ago,’ Bella replied. ‘Why? What’s it to you?’
The guy looked her up and down. ‘Are you a squatter or something? This isn’t your house.’
Bella’s irritation began to rise. Did she look like a squatter? All right, so her red hair dye was growing out, and she was scruffily dressed, but she wasn’t going out anywhere, and she certainly hadn’t been expecting visitors.
‘I’m not a squatter,’ Bella replied. ‘And I have every right to be here.’
‘Says who?’ The man was sneering at her now, and made to enter the cottage, but Bella barred the way with an arm. ‘Get out of my way.’
‘No. I’m meant to be here, and I don’t know who the hell you are, so unless you can give me a good reason why I should let you in, I’m closing this door.
’ Her words sounded more assertive than she felt, but she was buggered if she was going to let this wanker over the threshold.
She didn’t like feeling as though she was being threatened, and this guy definitely had the air that he could turn even nastier if he chose to.
‘Meant to be here? I don’t think you are.
This place has been empty for months.’ His eyes were flashing now, and Bella began to feel nervous.
She’d dealt with aggressive guys in the past – when she’d been on tour, there had been plenty of men who’d wanted to get too friendly with her stage persona – but having this happening on her own doorstep felt horribly intimidating.
‘Look,’ she tried again. ‘I don’t know who you are, or what you want, but I promise you, I’m supposed to be here.’
‘Well, where’s your rental agreement, then? Surely you must have one if you’re meant to be here.’
Bella paused, and that pause was enough for the guy to seize his advantage.
‘You don’t have one, do you? You’ve moved in here because you’re a bloody little opportunist who saw a vacant property and decided to get in and wreck it.
Your type are all the same. Bloody work-shy scroungers.
Why don’t you bugger off, like a good little waster, and find somewhere else to live?
’ He took another step towards her and that was when Bella finally let him have it as she saw as red as her hair.
‘Listen, you stupid wanker, I’m here because Noah Hathaway gave me permission to move in here while work is being done on the cottage.
If you don’t believe me, I can call him right now and you can speak to him, and then maybe you can leave me the hell alone and stop harassing me on my own doorstep. ’
The man’s brow wrinkled, and suddenly, for Bella, the penny dropped. ‘Which one are you?’ She sighed.
‘Which one?’
‘Which one of his bloody brothers that Noah was meant to have told that I was living in your granddad’s cottage are you?’
The man put up his hands but took a step back from Bella. She felt glad of the space. Brother of Noah’s or not, she was two seconds away from decking the bloke.
‘I’m Joel,’ he said wearily. ‘And you are?’
‘Monty’s guardian. Unofficially. Noah’s tenant, informally. But apparently, to you, I’m just some hippy squatter.’ She tried to calm down, but the adrenaline was still running through her. ‘And now we’ve established that, what exactly are you doing here?’
Joel gave her an icy smile. ‘I’m back on business in the UK – I work in the Emirates, and I wasn’t supposed to be in the West Country at all, but my flight got diverted to Bristol.
Since I was in the area, I thought I’d pop down and check out Grandpa’s old cottage.
I had no idea that there would be someone living in it.
The last I heard, Noah was getting some work done before it went on the market.
And he certainly didn’t mention anything about having a tenant. ’
And I thought I had a family with communication problems, Bella mused as she finally started to relax a bit. ‘So, Noah never told you about the new arrangement, then?’
Joel shook his head. ‘I guess it must have slipped his mind.’
‘Well,’ Bella replied, ‘so long as you promise not to try to throw me out again once you get through the door, I suppose you’d better come in.’ She opened the front door wider and Joel, without another word, followed her through to the kitchen, where she made them both a cup of tea.
‘I see Monty’s still with us,’ Joel said as the cat came slinking into the kitchen.
‘Very much so.’ Bella wasn’t going to give him too much information. That was a conversation that Noah needed to have, and should have had by now, with his brother. He’d implied it was all sorted when she’d agreed to come and live here: from the looks of it, it was a long way from being so.
‘Look.’ Joel’s voice was softer now and had lost the aggression from the doorstep. ‘I’m sorry for the confusion. Noah’s never been a great communicator. He hadn’t let me know about this living arrangement at all.’
‘Funny,’ Bella observed, ‘when Noah’s business is all about persuasion. I’d have thought he’d have known exactly what to say to keep you up to speed.’
‘Well, he might be good at his job, but he’s not great when it comes to talking to me and his other brother.
Noah stalling about putting this house on the market doesn’t help anyone.
’ Joel gave her a brief smile. ‘I realise it’s not ideal for you if we decide to bring that forward, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m sure you can see it’s for the best.’
‘So, are you planning on speaking to Noah?’ she said, realising Joel was expecting her to reply.
‘I’m going to ring him in a minute,’ Joel said, a grim note in his voice. ‘He had no right to act unilaterally. We’re all joint beneficiaries: we should all have had a say on its future.’
‘And in the meantime?’ Bella had to ask. ‘What happens to Monty and me?’
‘You can stay for now,’ Joel said. ‘But I think it’s only fair to warn you that once Marc gets wind of this, the shit’s really going to hit the fan.’ Joel’s face clouded over. ‘Marc’s wife is ill, and he doesn’t need any extra complications.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Bella replied. She could see Joel’s concern for his other brother’s situation plainly in his expression, and despite her earlier antagonism, she felt a sliver of sympathy for him.
‘Thanks. We all need this house sold and Noah farting around making it more presentable is just window dressing. As an estate agent, he should know that. I’m amazed he’s spent so much time stalling as it is.’
‘He told me it wouldn’t sell without the work that was needed,’ Bella objected. ‘There’s a problem with the insulation foam in the roof, and the electrics were pretty out of date, too. Why would he bother to go to all that expense if it wasn’t worth it in the long run?’
Joel shrugged. ‘He never could let go of things very easily. My best guess is that he wanted to hold onto the cottage a bit longer, until he was ready to sell it on his own terms.’ He gave a laugh that sounded more bitter than merry.
‘He always got on the best with Grandpa. Marc and I weren’t here as much as we should have been in the later years. ’
‘So all this stuff with Monty… it was an excuse not to get rid of the place?’
‘I’m pretty sure, yes.’
Bella’s head started to spin. She’d walked in, wide-eyed, to what she’d thought would be a good temporary solution to her housing problem.
She’d trusted that Noah had squared it with his brothers, and that, for a little while at least, she’d have a roof over her head and a bit of stability.
Now it seemed that her living arrangements were becoming decidedly unstable.
Whilst she was used to moving on when she needed to, she’d got comfortable here in Jack’s cottage, and happy with the routine.
With a rising sense of unease, she wondered if she’d be looking for somewhere else to live before the week was out.
And, she thought with another lurch that made her feel sick, what would happen to poor Monty?