Chapter 4
Mab tried to match Leo stride for giant stride as he loped down the road, with Jess hurrying along behind them. ‘So… come on, Leo,’ Mab gasped, ‘be honest with me. What’s the catch? You don’t know me at all. How can you ask me to do something as important as this?’
‘No catch; I trusted Annie’s judgement. She never once let me down.’
‘Yes, but hasn’t this sort of thing happened before? I’m sure there’s a coffee place in the biggest bookshop in the city.’
‘Oh yeah, it’s been done, but not like this and not in this town.
We won’t be part of a chain, we’ll be able to make our own rules, there’s even enough space in the flat if you want to come and live above the shop, I’ll pay you a proper wage, we’ll sort all the finances out together because I’ve got to tell you, I’m not brilliant at accounts, and it’ll be fun. What do you say?’
Mab looked down at the ground and swallowed her disappointment. ‘Look, Leo, I can’t be a partner, because honestly, I haven’t got any money at all.’
‘I’ve already told you that it’s not your money I need. What Annie thought you could bring to the business was your imagination and your talents and your support. I’ve set the company up in my name; we’ll worry about money later.’
‘But it all seems too good to be true.’ Mab shivered. ‘For one thing I can’t do a crèche. Small children always scream when they see me.’ Her hand strayed to her stomach and rested there. Leo patted Mab’s shoulder.
‘We’ll find a nice, motherly type to run the crèche eventually, love. I’m a pretty good judge of character, I reckon you’ll be great, and together, we’ll be…’
‘Awesome!’ they chorused.
‘And anyway, I don’t know anyone else in the town. Beggars can’t be choosers, as Mam used to say.’ Mab gave him a shove towards the road as they neared the empty shop premises. Could she do it? What if she and Maurice ended up living in a slum, with no running water and rising damp?
‘Well, it does sound great, but…’ Mab stopped, alarmed. ‘Leo… you do like cats, don’t you? You see, there’s Maurice. He’s really important to me.’
‘Love ’em. We had eight at one time when I was a little lad.
Maurice is welcome. I’ll even put him a cat flap in.
I only wish I could offer you a job and a place to stay too, Jess, because the café is definitely going to want someone experienced to run it eventually, but the flat needs lots of TLC and I’m going to have to see how the business goes first.’
Jess finally caught up with Mab and Leo, and pushed between them, taking an arm of each to stop them leaving her behind again. ‘Oh, that’s a great idea, Leo, but my life’s got a lot more complications in it than Mab’s, cats are easy to find homes for; I’ve got a small boy.’
‘Well, as soon as I’m settled, bring him round. We could do with a real-live child to test some of our new books on.’
‘It’s really kind of you, but George isn’t… well, he’s not the usual type of eight-year-old. I wish we could move in with you, though, especially after this morning.’
‘How is he different? And what happened this morning?’
‘You’d have to meet him. But I really want to see the shop too. I’ve got an hour before I have to fetch George – that is unless…’ Jess tailed off looking panicky, and dug her mobile out of her bag.
‘Phew, that’s a relief. No messages. He must be having a good day. So, can we go in?’
They had reached the empty shop now, and Mab looked up at it, trying not to see the dirty windows and the pile of junk mail on the mat behind the glass door. ‘I haven’t got very long before work,’ she said, ‘we’ll have to get a move on.’
‘Right, just give me a minute to go and switch the gas heater on. The electricity isn’t connected yet. But don’t let old grumpy guts from the café see you, I’m not quite ready to break the news about being his new neighbour yet.’
As Leo fumbled with the creaky old lock and pushed the door open, Mab pulled Jess into the doorway. ‘So, what went wrong at your house this morning?’
‘Oh, Mab, I really wish George and me could move in here too, and Mum would probably be glad to see the back of us. George poured all her posh bubble bath into the toilet cistern before he went to school. There’s a great frothy effect now when you go the loo.’
‘Hmm. I hope he doesn’t try that again.’
‘Oh, no, he never does the same thing twice, that’d be boring. He said he was doing a science experiment, investigating changing materials; Mum wasn’t impressed. Shhhh – Leo’s coming back. Don’t mention the bubbles. I don’t want to put him off George before he meets him.’
With a graceful gesture, Leo motioned Mab and Jess to enter the shop.
It was a good-sized place, double fronted with ancient, sagging bow windows, identical to the ones in Beattie’s Bakehouse next door.
The tiny panes of glass seemed to be mostly sound, although one in the door had been inexpertly boarded up.
Jess shuddered as she brushed a spider from her shoulder. Everywhere was filthy.
‘Are you sure the upstairs isn’t in this state too?’ she said.
‘No, Jess, I told you, Annie lived there. It’s pretty old-fashioned, but it won’t be too bad.
’ Leo looked round, frowning. ‘This part is a tip though. It’s a while since I was here the last time, and I thought it might be quite grim.
That was why I called in at the café for sustenance before I started work properly.
I wanted to get on with my hunt for Mab, because Angelica didn’t supply Mab’s address.
I never thought I’d hit the jackpot straight away. ’
Mab looked around, noticing the musty smell, the chill in the air and the heaps of old fixtures and fittings piled up everywhere.
An old-fashioned shop counter ran the length of one wall and in the centre of the room stood a floor-to-ceiling circular glass display case, still stocked with mannequins wearing faded suits and boaters.
Dust lay everywhere, and a heavy coating of mould and cobwebs loitered around all the corners.
At least there was plenty of space, but what a huge job it would be to make this cold, dirty place into the luxurious, book-filled haven that she had imagined earlier.
Could it be done? She shivered, and Leo turned to her.
‘Don’t give up before we start, pet. It’s manageable, honestly. I’ve got the address of a good builder who was a mate of Annie’s and I’m going to get stuck in myself. It’s going to be great. Just imagine…’
For the next ten minutes, Leo spun his vision for them again, this time pointing out where everything would be and how it would all work. By the end even Mab’s eyes were shining.
‘Let’s go upstairs right now!’ she said.
‘I dream of having beautiful women say that to me, Mabel,’ said Leo, leading the way.
Mab blushed scarlet. She had never been any good at flirting.
If Leo had made that comment to Jess, she would have snapped straight back with a wisecrack.
She eyed Leo’s long legs and very touchable denim-clad bottom as he led the way up the staircase.
Hmm. Not bad at all. Mab shook herself and averted her gaze.
It was no good looking, or flirting for that matter, even if she was able.
She would be out of that game for some time now.
As they reached the top of the stairs and emerged into the large, sunlit living area, Mab and Jess both stopped in their tracks and stared.
‘It’s enormous! I’ve never seen anything like it!’ Mab gasped.
‘There you go again,’ said Leo, ‘making dreams come true.’
He looked straight into Mab’s eyes, raising his eyebrows and smiling.
Dimples appeared in his stubble and a strange feeling of anticipation flooded Mab’s body, leaving her tingling all over.
This was no good, she must try to concentrate on the job in hand.
Taking a deep breath, Mab walked into the middle of the room.
Although specks of dust hung in the air and the decoration was pre-war, the space was breathtaking.
The main part of the flat stretched the full length of the shop, with French windows looking out onto a tiny balcony and tall sash windows letting in the spring sunshine, making a constant moving picture as the clouds raced by.
Mab went over to open the doors onto the balcony and saw a tiny round wrought-iron table, and two chairs with faded chintz cushions out there.
The table still held an empty coffee cup and a rusty biscuit barrel.
Brushing away sudden tears, Mab was captivated by an unfamiliar view of the marketplace from above, picture-postcard pretty, with the surrounding plane trees shading the striped awnings of the stalls.
The nearby church clock struck the half hour as Mab turned to face the room again.
Unable to resist lifting up a corner of the ancient carpet to investigate, she found the most beautiful oak floorboards, just crying out to be stripped and polished.
Jess spun around in the middle of the room, laughing. ‘Leo, you never said it was a palace! Let’s look at the bedrooms.’
The rest of the flat was rather gloomy, and Leo quickly lit the huge chunky candles that Angelica seemed to have collected in all of the rooms leading off the main living space; Mab could see that Jess was looking around the smallest bedroom covetously, probably visualising George in there, snug in his cabin bed amongst his vast collection of stuffed pigs.
The window even had bars on it, so it must have been used as a nursery years before.
Bars were always good where George was involved.
With a sharp pang of sympathy for her friend, Mab wondered if Jess and George would ever live here.
‘Now for the best bit. The bathroom,’ said Leo, ushering Mab and Jess into a vast space with a deep claw-footed bath on a wooden podium in the middle. The floor was polished oak, and dark red velvet curtains hung from the high window.
‘Oh, wow,’ said Jess. Mab was speechless.