‘Oh, okay …’ Maddy said. ‘Would Roy want that?’
‘Like I said, this place needs the woman’s touch.’
‘And I’ll get a path cleared for you so that you can use the footpath below the garden,’ Harry said. He shouldn’t be jealous of Maddy’s attention to Simon, but he was.
‘Oh, that would be really great.’ Maddy smiled at Harry. Simon’s expression darkened.
‘Going to be here all day today, then? Or just part-time?’ Simon said, his eyes narrowing onto Harry.
‘Yes.’ He would be now. He would put off the other jobs he’d intended to do until tomorrow. ‘I’ve told you, I can’t do much until I get the mini-excavator, plus I need to keep on top of the other gardens I maintain. They actually pay me.’ Harry glared back.
‘Right, well, I’d better head off to the gallery.’ Maddy placed her mug in the sink and eased out of the way of the two men. ‘Catch you both later.’
Maddy grabbed her handbag, keys and hurried out the front door.
Simon exhaled loudly, then said, ‘She’s one hot chick.’ He finished making the coffee.
‘Don’t even think about it.’ Harry’s fists clenched, so he shoved them into his pockets.
‘Why, are you soft on her?’
‘No, but she’s a friend, and she doesn’t deserve to be mucked about.’
‘Who said I’d muck her about?’ Simon shrugged. ‘If she comes onto me, I’m hardly going to turn her down. Would you? Anyway, the girl probably needs some fun.’
Harry’s jaw clenched, his teeth grinding. Would Maddy go for a guy like Simon? And why did that thought fill him with jealousy? Why did this guy rub him up the wrong way? Since taking this job on, Harry had felt a dislike for the man. It wasn’t as if Simon had done anything wrong, except failing to stump up some cash up front, which Harry had said he’d need for the hire of the excavator. But Harry didn’t like his cockiness and the arrogant way he carried himself. He would have to keep an eye on him.
As Harry worked cutting away at the brambles and weeds that had grown ferociously in the garden, he wondered if he should have said anything at all. He’d given too much away to Simon. He had shown his weakness for Maddy, his concern. Simon was the kind of guy who’d want to get one up on another man, one up on him … And would he use Maddy to do so?
Harry chided himself for his childish thoughts. Maddy would soon see through Simon’s smooth facade.
***
Shattered and dying to try out the huge bath, Maddy returned to the cottage after six. It was nice to leave the car behind and walk to the gallery. She plonked her bag down on the kitchen worktop and her phone pinged to tell her she’d received a text message.
It was from Harry.
Have you eaten?
No, she texted back.
I’ll meet you at the cottage in half an hour. I’ll bring dinner. H x
She frowned but sent back, OK. To be honest, there was a brand new oven in the kitchen, but because it wasn’t hers and the house was likely to be sold, she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to use it – and get it dirty. That would mean cleaning it.
She hoped it wouldn’t be long before she was back in her own house.
To busy herself, Maddy did the washing up. The builders weren’t very good at cleaning. They clearly just swilled the mugs under the tap, because the insides still had tea stains. Maddy screwed up her face at the thought.
The kitchen had a space for a washing machine and a dishwasher, but those gaps were still empty.
She put the plates and cutlery on the counter and poured herself a glass of wine from the bottle Val had left. She only had one wine glass, though. Harry probably wouldn’t want any if he were driving, she decided, taking a sip guilt free.
The knock at the door startled her. She opened it to find Harry holding two carrier bags, one smelling of fish and chips.
‘Hey,’ he said, grinning at her. It made her insides skip seeing him.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
‘Hey,’ she replied, hoping her face wasn’t giving her away. In the kitchen, she gathered the plates and cutlery.
‘Don’t worry about that; we’ll eat outside.’
‘Outside?’ Although it was July, it still got chilly in the evening with the breeze coming off the sea.
‘I thought I’d have a bonfire to get rid of some of the rubbish I cleared today, and we could sit by it.’
‘I haven’t got any garden chairs.’
‘I have.’ He handed Maddy the carrier bags and went back out the front door to his pickup. He was soon back carrying two folding chairs and took them out to the back garden where, unnoticed previously by Maddy, stood a pile of bramble and wood ready to be burnt. It was a fair way down, away from the cottage. Maddy donned her pink and grey Animal jumper that zipped up at the front and followed him out.
Harry appeared mesmerised by the flames, staring into the orange blaze that crackled and spat and smoked. He turned upon hearing Maddy’s approach. For a moment she thought she’d glimpsed fear on his face, but he beamed his smile at her, and whatever he’d been thinking vanished from his expression.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Yes, yes … I forgot about the smell …’ Harry shuddered. ‘Not exactly environmentally friendly, but I used to love a good bonfire,’ he said as the flames roared.
‘Used to?’
‘Yeah, it’s a long story …’
‘As an ex-firefighter, I’d have thought you’d frown upon garden fires.’ She nudged him to show she was teasing and made her way forward towards the heat.
‘Not too close, Maddy,’ he said, blocking her with his arm to stop her from getting closer. ‘As a fireman, I know to respect fire, like a surfer would respect the ocean.’ He pointed out towards the tide, and the black dots of keen surfers still in the water. A whole new level of bonkers those surfers were. The area around the fire was clear and safely situated well away from the cottage. Yes, the safest person to start a fire was probably a fireman. Then Maddy thought of her mother’s words as they’d driven to Truro. A fireman would know how to start a fire too, and not make it look like arson. Which her house clearly did look like, she chided herself. Harry was the last person to have set fire to her house.
Maddy and Harry huddled by the fire, eating fish and chips still in their paper. Once the fire had died down, Harry seemed more relaxed. He stuck two foil packages into the heat of the ashes at the edge of the fire.
‘Today, I cleared a path, so you’ll be able to come and go via the footpath more easily. And I fixed the gate.’
‘Thanks, Harry, you didn’t need to.’
He winked at her. ‘Yes, I did.’
They watched the last of the surfers exit the water as the sun set, and the lights of the houses on the opposite side of the bay lit up as it got dark. Tinners Bay Hotel, looking as if ready for its maiden voyage, was the most prominent and brightest building. Maddy wondered if some candles out here would add to the ambience, then worried it might look too romantic, so ditched the idea – plus she remembered that she didn’t actually have any candles at the cottage. Luckily, the fire gave off enough heat and light.
Harry added more wood and fetched the foil packages out of the fire with a gloved hand. He placed one on the pile of paper still in Maddy’s lap and handed her a teaspoon.
She opened the package to find a cooked banana in its skin, with chocolate buttons pushed into it. All now melted and cooked. It was delicious.
Maddy let the banana and chocolate slide down her throat. ‘So, why did you come tonight?’
‘Thought you might like the company.’ Harry tucked into his own banana.
The company was nice. Maddy couldn’t argue with that. But was this Harry’s way of making sure she was okay?
‘How’s Sookie? You fed her today?’
‘Yes, of course, I fed her before I came here tonight,’ Harry said. From a carrier bag by his chair, Harry brought out a flask, pouring its contents into two mel
amine mugs. He handed one to Maddy.
‘What’s this?’ she said, which was a stupid question because the aroma gave it away.
‘Hot chocolate.’
‘You have come prepared.’
‘I know. A proper boy scout.’ Harry grinned. ‘Now do you want your marshmallows on top or toasted?’ He presented a skewer with a marshmallow on the end.
‘Toasted!’ Maddy hadn’t toasted marshmallows over a fire in she didn’t know how long. Probably the last time was one bonfire night when she and Ed were kids. She leant forward with her skewer, closer to the fire. ‘Ah, thanks for this, Harry.’
Harry made to reply, but his smile dropped and he turned round. Maddy heard it too and looked over her shoulder. Someone was approaching them, but in the failing light, it was hard to make out who it was.
‘Oh, it’s you two. I saw the smoke and thought I’d better check it out.’
Simon.
‘You were in the area, were you?’ Harry spoke before Maddy could, and his tone was cold.
‘Thought I’d call round, check on Maddy—’
‘It’s a little late to be checking on Maddy, don’t you think?’
Maddy shivered. All of a sudden it was cold sitting by the fire, yet it was giving off plenty of heat. You would have to be blind not to see the animosity between these two. It was so unlike Harry. She zipped up her jumper.
‘Well, you’re here,’ Simon said.
‘I got here hours ago.’
Maddy didn’t know the time, but the sun had fully disappeared and they were in complete darkness. The evening had flown by, relaxing with Harry. It had to be well past ten now.
‘Anyway, I was going to ask Maddy if she fancied going for a drink down in the village,’ Simon said, ignoring Harry and looking at Maddy.
Maddy had no make-up on and hadn’t even showered yet – and she’d been so looking forward to that bath. Not showering wasn’t a bad thing, considering she was sat by a fire and now stank of smoke. The last thing she wanted to do was go for a drink, especially with Simon. It was too late.
‘Maddy?’ Harry turned towards her now. The flames of the fire flickered in his eyes, his face an orange glow, probably like hers.
‘Oh, um, thanks for thinking of me, Simon, but I’m happy here. Maybe another night?’ Oh, God, why did she say that? Now he’d try and drag her out another night.
‘Okay, well, I’ll catch you in the morning, Maddy,’ Simon said.
‘Yes, bye.’ Maddy waved, watching Simon retreat. ‘You really don’t like him, do you?’ she said more quietly to Harry once Simon was out of earshot.
‘There’s just something off about him.’ Harry started to put marshmallows onto a skewer and handed it to Maddy. He wouldn’t look her in the eye.
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she said, smiling. ‘Otherwise I may have got dragged out to a bar.’
‘Yeah, that’s what worries me. You sure you don’t want to move back to mine?’
‘Oh, Harry, this is only my second night here. It’ll be fine.’
When finally Maddy couldn’t eat any more marshmallows, and Harry had let the fire die right down so that he was happy it wouldn’t be a hazard – the fireman in him – they retired from the garden into the kitchen. Maddy sniffed her clothes.
‘I’d better jump in the shower before bed.’
‘Yeah, I’d better leave you to it.’ Harry gathered up his things. ‘I’ll leave the chairs here. You could do with some seats in the lounge by the looks of things.’ For a moment, she saw his disapproval of her staying here flicker in his expression, then it was gone again.
‘Okay, thank you.’
She showed him to the front door, where they stood awkwardly for a moment. Should she hug him, kiss him? She’d had such a lovely evening, she didn’t know how to show her gratitude.
She rose on tiptoes and kissed Harry on the cheek. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Tonight was fun.’
Swiftly, he dipped his head, and kissed her back, his lips lightly brushing hers, sending her heart racing for a second. ‘Goodnight, Maddy.’
She wanted to ask him to text her when he got home so that she knew he’d arrived safely, knowing he had narrow country lanes to navigate but thought better of it. He’d think she was ridiculous. So she waved, closed the front door, locking it, and after switching all the downstairs lights off, headed upstairs to the bathroom, desperate for a shower. All the time, she tried deciphering her feelings for Harry.
Chapter 17
So much for escaping Harry – Maddy now saw him every day, usually in the morning, as she passed him in the garden on her way to the gallery. Or she would bring him out a cup of coffee. She always asked how Sookie was and felt bad she hadn’t called home to check on her herself, but the schools were breaking up soon, and she needed to get as much painted as possible, in preparation for the busy period. She spent nearly all her waking hours in the gallery, only sleeping at the cottage.
She did wonder if Harry showed up more often at the cottage now she was here. She’d heard Simon mutter something along those lines.
As far as she could tell, the builders were working hard. Maddy wasn’t sure what she would report to Roy if he asked. Maybe this had been Roy’s intention: install a house sitter to get the builders working faster. Simon (or his men) had finished painting the main bedroom, and had hung a curtain pole, so now she had curtains, and didn’t wake so early in the morning. She noticed the tiles on the roof had been fixed too. With each day, the cottage was coming back to life. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the same for the shrub climbing over the front porch. Yet, she still watered it.
‘It’s dead, Maddy,’ Harry said, arriving armed with some garden tools. She knew this, of course, the fact it had no leaves on it was a bit of a giveaway. But still, she wanted to persevere. She emptied the old galvanised watering can complete with dents that she’d found abandoned in the back garden.
Simon followed behind him. ‘And it’s coming out, too, isn’t it, Harry? It’ll make it easier to paint the outside of the cottage.’ Harry gave Simon a curt nod. Simon smiled at Maddy and entered the house. Harry lingered behind.
‘What was it?’ Maddy asked him. Harry rubbed a thick part of the trunk, twisted up the wall.
‘Wisteria,’ Harry said, then mumbled, ‘It’s going to be a bugger to dig out.’
‘Oh!’ Maddy found the broken nameplate hanging by the front door, near to the dead trunk of the shrub, with only the W remaining loosely fixed to the wall. ‘I wonder if the W stood for Wisteria. Wisteria Cottage …’
Harry moved dead leaves and debris about. ‘Can’t see the rest of the plaque. It’s a good name for a cottage.’
‘Yes, if it were my cottage, I would call it that … and plant another wisteria,’ Maddy said, pensively.
‘I’ll consider a wisteria plant in the garden design,’ Harry said, giving her a wink.
Her heart lighter, Maddy headed towards the gallery, unable to get the cottage out of her head. She grabbed a sketchpad and started to draw a picture of it from memory, with the wisteria twisting up and over the porch and resting under the top windows. She knew what the flowers of wisteria looked like, as once she’d been commissioned to paint a house in Devon during late May when the creeper had been in flower. It looked beautiful with pendants of lilac-mauve flowers, heavily scenting the air.
‘That’s not your usual subject matter. I thought you were moving away from painting cottages.’ Val stood next to Maddy watching her work.
‘I know. It’s Roy’s cottage, the one I’m staying at. I’m imagining it finished and with wisteria climbing up the outside.’
‘I’ll have to come up and see how the work is coming along.’
‘Yes, you must. It’s a shame it’ll probably be sold as a holiday home as it would make a great home for a family.’
‘You don’t know that. Someone might buy it to live in.’
‘I doubt it in this area. They’re usually second properties bought
to let out. The locals can’t afford to buy them.’
Maddy returned with Valerie that evening, to show her around. The builders had left, and so had Harry by the looks of things, as they strolled up the garden from the coastal path. It was a quicker route, and Harry had freed up the gate so that it opened with ease for her.
More brambles had been cleared and piled up, making Maddy wonder if Harry would be back to light another fire.
‘Has Harry told you the plans he’s got for the garden?’
‘I haven’t really asked. I think Roy just wants him to tidy it up for the sale.’
The small extension at the back of the house was starting to take shape.
‘Apparently, the doors will be positioned so they can be open even on the windiest of days,’ Maddy said, taking Valerie around to the front of the cottage to the shabby lilac front door.
‘Oh,’ Maddy said, as she slid the key into the lock, noticing the branches that had twisted up over the porch had now gone. ‘Harry must have dug the wisteria out today.’
‘You did say it was dead.’
‘Yes … but …’ Oh, Maddy, be sensible, it was a dead shrub.
Maddy showed Valerie around, leading her through the lounge, then into the kitchen-diner.
On the counter stood a couple of pink roses in a half-pint glass that had probably been pinched from a pub. There was a note tucked underneath.
‘That’s nice of Harry. I think he’s sweet on you,’ Val said, admiring the flowers.
Maddy read the note. ‘It’s not from Harry.’
‘Then who’s it from?’
‘Simon.’
‘The project manager?’
‘Yes.’
The note read; Let me know when you’d like that drink, Si x p.s. There’s a surprise for you in the bedroom.
‘Doesn’t hurt Harry to have a bit of competition,’ Val said, nudging Maddy. ‘Let’s check out his surprise.’
Curious about Simon’s note, Maddy climbed the stairs, Val following, heading straight to her bedroom. The camp bed had been stripped and packed away to make room for a double bed. It was a pine bed, which had a few knocks and chips, so clearly wasn’t brand new. It had been made up with the bedding from the camp bed. Before Maddy could, Val checked the mattress, sitting on it and giving it a bounce.
Meet Me at Wisteria Cottage Page 15