‘I’ve organized for Josie to be in all day today, and over the weekend,’ Valerie said. ‘You must have so much to do, so don’t worry about the gallery, I will manage it. The summer holidays don’t start for a couple of weeks yet. You get yourself sorted.’
‘Thanks, Val.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to stay here?’
‘I’ll see what Harry says. Thank you so much for the offer.’
‘I’m here if you need me, Maddy. Please don’t forget that,’ Valerie said. The sincerity in her voice choked Maddy. She really didn’t want to blub down the phone, though, otherwise Valerie really would worry. ‘But you can do this, my dear. This is only another of those obstacles that life likes to throw in your way.’
‘Just when I thought everything was going along smoothly.’
‘I’m afraid, as you get older, you soon learn life was never meant to be easy. I’m sure these things are sent to test us. To weed out the weak from the strong.’
‘Which am I?’ Maddy asked.
‘You’ll come out the stronger – if you’re anything like your mother.’ Valerie laughed, and Maddy found it contagious and giggled with her. Valerie always had a positive influence on her. ‘Let’s face it; life would be dull if it was all plain sailing.’
Next, notepad and pen in hand with her insurance documents in front of her, Maddy took a deep breath and called her home insurance company. She tried not to get frustrated with the automated messages directing her to the right department. ‘All I want to do is talk to a human being!’ she said to the automated voice, tapping the end of her pen against the pad.
When she finally spoke to someone, some ten minutes later due to the high volume of calls – how many other people had had house fires, for God’s sake? – she found them extremely helpful, putting her mind at rest. They asked a lot of questions, possibly more because she’d confessed the police were involved, providing their details. They couldn’t arrange for a Loss Adjuster to inspect the damage until they’d received the reports from CID. Maddy put the phone down feeling a little less stressed – but it still meant she couldn’t really do anything with the house until sometime next week. Today was Friday.
They’d asked her if she had somewhere to stay or if she would need rented accommodation. However, because of the situation, and the company needing to ensure she wasn’t the one who’d caused the house fire, she was made aware they would have to recover payments from the policyholder – i.e. her – if found negligent for starting the fire or allowing someone else to start it.
The insurance company offered to put her up in Bodmin, and although it wasn’t far away, Maddy thought it too far for her. ‘I think I’m okay, I can stay with a friend, but I’ll call back if I need further assistance,’ she said. Worst case scenario, she could sleep at the gallery. The insurance company had said they paid a daily accommodation rate, so even if she stayed with a friend, she could give them compensation.
Once the insurance company received the police and fire reports, they would be able to send out a Loss Adjuster, and the ball could get rolling in getting her back into her house. But this all depended on the police reports. Clearly, if they believed she’d set fire to her own house, the insurance company wouldn’t pay out.
Harry was still out, so Maddy busied herself with the dishes in his kitchen, clearing away the breakfast things. She was generally a tidy person, and it appeared Harry was meticulous, too – which wasn’t a bad trait in a man – so she liked to keep everything straight, as if she wasn’t even here. She decided to let Sookie out who had been sitting by the front door and meowing noisily. She’d been looking very unimpressed at being stuck in Harry’s house yesterday. Maddy knew she liked to be outside if the sun was shining. She had a favourite place in the garden underneath a rose bush, where she would pretty much sleep all day. With her backdoor firmly sealed, Sookie couldn’t get into Maddy’s house and she would soon find her by the front or back door of her house when it was feeding time.
***
When he returned, Harry found Maddy in her back garden, her strawberry-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, swishing as her head moved. She stood in the sunshine, an easel before her, with a metal plate in one hand covered with blobs of different shades of blue paints, staring at a canvas.
‘Everything okay?’ he said, standing beside her and admiring her preliminary sketch for a new painting – the ocean and waves crashing against rocks. He recognised the beach as Tinners Bay.
Maddy nodded, chewing on the end of the paintbrush. Once she’d removed it, she said, ‘As I wasn’t allowed in the house this morning, I thought I’d come out here and start on this painting. I don’t feel so bad not being at the gallery and at least I feel like I’m doing some work.’
‘It looks like they’ve gone now.’ There were no more vehicles parked in Annadale Close outside Maddy’s house.
‘Yes, yes, they handed my keys back about half an hour ago and said I’m allowed back in now. The first thing I did was grab some more washing.’ Maddy laughed. ‘Sad, aren’t I?’
‘Not at all, more like practical. What did the insurance company say?’
‘They can’t send a Loss Adjuster out until they’ve received the reports, but they can put me up in rented accommodation in Bodmin.’
‘Nonsense, you can still stay at mine,’ Harry said, before thinking through the implications. It would mean a few more nights on the sofa. But he knew it made sense. Maddy could keep an eye on her house this way. The sofa wouldn’t kill him.
And he could keep an eye on Maddy.
Where did that thought come from?
‘Are you sure?’ She looked up at him, squinting as the sun shone behind him. She raised her hand holding the brush to block the sun, but it didn’t stop the light brightening her green eyes, drawing Harry to her gaze. Their eyes locked briefly until suddenly, a scratching sound came from the fence and they both looked in the direction of the scrambling noise. Sookie’s head appeared, then she swiftly jumped over the garden fence and trotted over, weaving around their legs, purring. Maddy stroked her. ‘It would make it easier for Sookie, too. Less of an upheaval.’
Harry hadn’t thought about the cat. But however much he didn’t like cats, it did make sense. This was about making life easier for his neighbour – who he’d developed a soft spot for. Nonsense. He was even, ever so slightly, becoming fond of the cat, too. I’ll never admit that. ‘Yes, I’m sure. This way you can pop back and forth, and when the insurance guy comes you can tell him to call for you at my house.’
‘The insurance company said something about paying for my accommodation, so I could always pay you.’
‘I don’t need paying.’
While Harry waited for Maddy to finish up and put her easel back in the garage, he took a closer look at her back gate to see if he would need any extra materials to repair it. Maddy stepped out of her garage laden down with a laundry basket piled high with damp clothes and a peg bag. He went to her aid, taking the basket off her, and helped peg out her washing. He grabbed the larger items like T-shirts and let Maddy hang out her underwear. Because that would just be weird.
‘I’ll fix the back gate tomorrow for you,’ he said, focussing back on the job. He would pick up some hinges and better locks in Truro.
‘Thank you. I can definitely pay you for replacing the back gate. It will come out of the insurance payment, so tell me what I owe you. I don’t expect you to do it for free.’
‘I’ll keep the receipts.’ Anything to keep the woman happy.
***
While Harry drove, Maddy enjoyed the views of the Cornish countryside and tried to forget about her scorched kitchen. Once the police had left her house, and she’d gone in to retrieve some washing, she couldn’t help taking another look at her devastated kitchen. Tears had fallen but, giving herself a pep talk, she’d wiped her eyes and ran upstairs. Valerie was right, she couldn’t change the situation, she couldn’t go back in time – time machines hadn’t been invented! –
so she needed to get on with life and everything it threw at her. She could do nothing about her kitchen until her insurance company contacted her, but she could at least tidy and clean the upstairs.
Sitting up higher than she was used to in the cab of Harry’s pickup truck, and not having to concentrate on the road as a driver, Maddy was able to see so much more of the lush Cornish landscape. She watched the wind farms on the horizon, how some turned faster than others – what was all the fuss about those things? Surely people would prefer a windmill outside their house rather than a nuclear power station.
‘Your phone’s ringing,’ Harry said, pointing towards Maddy’s handbag where a muffled Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk could be heard.
‘Oh, yes.’ Maddy scrabbled for her phone. Would she get to it in time? When she saw the caller, she wished she’d let the call go to voicemail. I must designate her a different ring tone.
‘Hi, Mum,’ she said as cheerily as she could. Maddy had avoided calling her mother until she had everything organized her end. Plus, she didn’t need Harry seeing her turn into another blubbering mess. She’d hoped to call her mother as soon as she believed she wouldn’t break down.
‘Are you all right? Gosh, I phoned the gallery, and Val told me everything … why didn’t you call me?’ Sandra Hart said with exasperation. She’d spoken so fast she sounded out of breath. Her mother was possibly more put out that Val knew more than she did. Although Valerie and Sandra were the best of friends, Maddy always wondered if there was a hint of jealousy in her mum over Maddy and Valerie’s closeness.
‘Mum, calm down. I’m fine. I haven’t had a chance to call you.’
‘Not a chance to call your own mother!’ Sandra shrieked. Maddy winced, taking the phone away from her ear briefly. ‘Where are you now?’
‘I’m heading into Truro.’
‘Are you driving? Should I call you back? You know you shouldn’t answer the phone while you’re driving.’
‘No, I’m not driving.’
‘Who is then?’
‘Oh, Mum, enough with the questions.’ She stared at the roof lining of the cab, biting her tongue and trying to remain cool, especially with Harry right beside her. He glanced at her but then returned his attention to the road.
‘Maddison, dear, why don’t you come home for a bit?’ This was another of the reasons why Maddy had postponed calling her mother. She knew her dad would worry unnecessarily and Sandra would urge her to come home. ‘It must be awfully scary there. And with so much work needing to be done to the house.’
‘Mum, it’s not scary, and there’s not that much work,’ lie mode cancelled, ‘but what work there is will need to be overseen.’
‘The insurance company will sort that—’
‘And then there’s the gallery.’
‘Valerie can manage there—’
‘And besides,’ Maddy wasn’t going to let her mother bully her into anything if she could help it, ‘Harry has said I can stay with him.’
‘Who’s Harry?’
‘My neighbour.’
‘Not the one you moan about all the time?’
Maddy gulped. She hoped Harry couldn’t hear her mother on the other end of the phone. She switched the phone to her left ear, just in case.
‘Yes, him,’ she hissed.
‘Pardon? I can’t hear you … You said you disliked the man.’ Is it me or is she shouting down the phone?
Maddy’s cheeks flushed. The cab was getting hotter. Had Harry turned off the air-con? ‘Mum, I can’t talk about this right now,’ she glanced at Harry, who appeared to be concentrating on driving and not listening to Maddy’s conversation – Thank God – ‘but Harry has been a tremendous help.’
‘Nothing any neighbour wouldn’t do.’ Harry winked at Maddy. The creases around his eyes, the dimple in his cheek sent heat rushing to Maddy’s inner thighs. What with Sandra’s embarrassing nagging combined with Harry’s good looks — Maddy’s body was suddenly on fire!
‘Connor would take you back.’ As Sandra blurted out the words, a chill coursed through Maddy, as if she’d had a bucket of icy water thrown over her. Her hackles rose.
‘Mum!’
‘Don’t bite my head off,’ Sandra said. ‘Only I saw him this morning, and he asked how you were, and said how sorry he was it hadn’t worked out with you, how much you meant to him. So I called the gallery, and here we are talking about him.’
‘I would not go back to Connor if my life depended on it,’ Maddy muttered, cupping her mouth over the mouthpiece as if it would help keep her conversation private. Fat chance. She knew Harry had heard what she’d said, but her mother needed putting straight. Connor did not bring out the best in Maddy, and now, having realised this, the better off she was without him. Until her kitchen fire, her single lifestyle had been treating her well. Yes, deep down she really wished she had someone to share this burden with, give her a hug, but she had to deal with it – on her own. Harry was helping, actually, keeping her strong, but she had to stand on her own two feet.
‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry I mentioned Connor. I thought he was a nice enough chap.’ Maddy bit her tongue. He was a control freak. And was her mother forgetting how he called her Sandy and she hated being called Sandy? ‘Please be careful, though, darling, you don’t know this Harry. He’s only a neighbour and you hear terrible things in the news. You don’t know what your neighbours get up to behind closed doors. You said you two didn’t see eye to eye, so for all you know he could have started the fire.’
‘Don’t be silly.’ Maddy glanced at Harry as a momentary coldness ran down her spine. He was an ex-fireman. He would know how to make a fire look like an accident. Even the firemen had hinted it was suspicious.
It was suspicious! The police were looking into it as arson.
Maddy had seen the evidence with her own eyes – it had to be arson.
But then he was the one who had alerted the fire service.
He could have started it and then felt guilty.
And why would he let you stay at his house?
Maddy’s mother continued to warble on while Maddy had this ridiculous internal argument.
‘Well, I’d best let you go. You know where I am. Let me know how you get on, and if you need to escape, then there is still plenty of room for you here. Maybe Dad and I will pop down to see you.’
‘No. Don’t.’ Maddy snapped back to the reality of the conversation.
‘Why not? We’re worried about you.’
‘I can’t put you up.’
‘We can stay in a hotel.’
‘It’ll be very expensive this time of year.’ Maddy tried to think of a million excuses why her mum shouldn’t visit.
‘Nonsense, that doesn’t matter—’
‘And probably everywhere will be booked up already.’
‘I’m sure somewhere will have availability. Think about it, dear.’
‘I will.’ Maddy winced. ‘Bye, Mum.’
‘Love you, dear.’
‘Love you, too.’ Maddy returned her phone to her handbag and looked at Harry, who smiled. Did she look flushed scarlet, riled by her mother? Probably. Oh, the joys of having a pale complexion that gives you away immediately. She could never play poker.
‘All okay?’ he asked.
Maddy sighed. ‘What do you think?’
He chuckled, emitting such a calming warmth. The side she’d never seen because she’d been too busy arguing with him about his monstrosity of a truck – which she was currently comfortably sitting in. Oh, the irony …
Of course Harry hadn’t started the fire. Had he?
Chapter 7
Maddy waited for Harry at the place where they’d agreed, on a bench in the cobbled area at the front of the cathedral. Sunglasses perched over her eyes, she relaxed in the sunshine, soaking up the warmth and the busy atmosphere, listening and watching. They’d arrived in Truro soon after midday, and although she’d only been shopping for a couple of hours, her feet were sore and her legs ache
d. Knowing there were seats, she’d decided to head to their meeting place early. To fill the time, she took a photo of the cathedral, the cloudless blue sky as a backdrop and posted it to her Instagram account.
Truro reminded Maddy a little of Bath, only smaller, with the Georgian architecture and mellow stone buildings. Cobbled streets ran through most of the original parts of the city. The cathedral, grand and impressive, stood tall, prominent on Truro’s skyline. The cathedral could be seen from most of the streets, and heard as well when the bells chimed, as if to ensure you hadn’t forgotten its presence. The seagulls gave occasional cries, a reminder you were in Cornwall, albeit inland, and the coast wasn’t too far away. She wondered if they were as cheeky and aggressive here as in Padstow or Tinners Bay, and would have the audacity to steal a pasty right out of your hand. Probably. Maddy wasn’t prepared to find out.
She spotted Harry approaching before he saw her – over six foot and with broad shoulders, the man stood out from the crowd. She gathered up her shopping and walked towards him.
‘Get everything you need?’ he asked.
‘I think so, I lost interest after a while,’ Maddy said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘I’m not really in the mood.’
She wasn’t a huge shopper at the best of times. It was always when you fancied a spending spree you could never find anything, and when you didn’t have the money, all sorts of lovely things jumped off the rails at you. This apparently was true for everyone, not just Maddy, so her friends assured her.
Today, she’d strolled around her usual favourites, Next, Topshop, and even TK Maxx hoping for some inspiration. She’d bought some essentials, like underwear and toiletries, to tide her over and a couple of pairs of shorts and some summery vest tops on offer – good job the weather was holding. But to be honest, her heart wasn’t in it. She was stressed at the mound of things to sort out at home, and although it had taken her mind off it for a while, she now needed to return and get things in motion. At least do the chores she could be getting on with before the Loss Adjuster arrived, like stripping the beds. Oh, the high life. Whether the insurance paid out or not, these things would need doing.
Meet Me at Wisteria Cottage Page 6