Homes and Hearths in Little Woodford

by Catherine Jones

  Also by Catherine Jones

  Little Woodford: The Secrets of a Small Town

  The Bells of Little Woodford

  Secrets and Scandals in Little Woodford

  Trouble and Temptation in Little Woodford

  HOMES AND HEARTHS IN LITTLE WOODFORD

  Catherine Jones

  AN IMPRINT OF HEAD OF ZEUS

  www.ariafiction.com

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Aria, an imprint of Head of Zeus Ltd

  Copyright © Catherine Jones, 2020

  The moral right of Catherine Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781838938093

  Cover design © Cherie Chapman

  Aria

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  www.ariafiction.com

  Contents

  Welcome Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Become an Aria Addict

  For my grandson, Finlay

  1

  One Saturday morning in April, Maxine and Gordon, happily married for over forty years and now both equally happily retired, were making the best use of having an empty nest by enjoying a post-coitus lie-in. It was a large ‘empty nest’ now it was just the two of them but, shortly after they had fallen in love with each other and married, they had fallen in love with Little Woodford and the big Edwardian villa they had found there and where they had lived ever since. It was a place they had bought to house the large family they’d planned but, despite their best efforts, they’d only managed to produce the one child – their daughter Abi. Sometimes Max did think that it was a tad ridiculous for the pair of them to be rattling around in the five-bedroomed house. They turned off the heating in the unused bedrooms and shut their doors but they both knew that one day they might have to think about downsizing. Maxine was thinking vaguely about that future prospect as she lay snuggled under the duvet but she also knew that the counter-argument was that if Abi and her partner ever got around to producing grandchildren, it would be nice to have the space to allow everyone to come and stay for big celebrations – like Christmas or significant birthdays. But it promised to be too nice a day to worry about the long-term future so Maxine pushed such thoughts to the back of her mind, stretched luxuriously, yawned and sat up in bed.

  ‘Tea?’ she offered.

  ‘Mmm,’ murmured Gordon. ‘That’d be nice.’

  Maxine slipped out from under the duvet and pottered, stark naked, down the stairs to the kitchen. As she waited for the kettle to boil, she had a surreptitious swig out of the milk container. Through the big bi-fold doors at the far end of the room, she could see her garden, bathed in spring sunshine and the tops of the trees in the town’s nature reserve beyond. Closer to hand was the bird-feeder on the patio where the starlings squabbled over the suet pellets. The garden was looking rather nice as lots of the spring bedding plants were still at their best although the grass could do with a cut. At the bottom of the big lawn, which sloped gently towards the boundary with the reserve she could just see the roof of the summer house that she used as her studio, dappled by the shadow of their ancient copper beech – the pride of their garden – which was just starting to come into leaf. Her ‘studio’ was a recent addition and she absolutely loved having a space where she could leave out her current painting and her materials and not feel the least bit guilty about the mess. Really, she thought, life couldn’t get much better than it was right now; lovely husband, gorgeous house, great life-style, no money worries, daughter settled… all-in-all everything was pretty bloody perfect. It was hard not to feel a little smug, she thought, but she couldn’t help it. She really did have it all.

  She moved her thoughts to contemplating the day ahead; a quick swish with a hoover and duster round the house to bring it up to snuff while Gordon had a go at the lawn. Later, they’d walk to the pub to read the paper or chat with mates from the town, maybe have a bit of lunch and then drift home to snooze on the sofa for an hour before watching sport or tosh, then supper and bed. Sundays were much the same but weekdays started with the alarm as, invariably, one or other of them had something planned. Despite being retired, weekdays were go-go-go.

  Maxine’s eyes refocused from the garden beyond the window to her reflection in the glass. God, she was putting on weight. She really ought to do something about her tum. She sucked it in. That was better but she couldn’t hold it. She let it sag again. Maybe she ought to do more exercise…

  She was miles away and so jumped out of her skin, nearly dropping the milk container, when a horrified voice behind her said,

  ‘Mum!’

  Cold milk trickled down her chest. She grabbed the dishcloth to mop it up before she turned to face her daughter, cloth in one hand, carton in the other, her heart hammering with the shock of the unexpected interruption.

  ‘For God’s sake, Mum, what do you think you’re doing? And supposing I had Marcus with me?’ Her daughter’s short blonde curls bobbed with indignation and her blue eyes were narrowed. She was a pretty girl, or she was when she smiled, with a classic peaches-and-cream complexion, a slightly retroussé nose and beautifully shaped eyebrows which were currently almost meeting in the middle in a frown.

  ‘Well, if you’d rung the bell…’ Maxine still felt a bit wobbly from being so startled but it was mixed with irritation that her daughter still thought it was acceptable to barge into her parents’ house unannounced. For the umpteenth time, Maxine wondered how Abi would take it if she did it to her?

  Abi gave her mother a withering look and stamped out of the kitchen. She returned a few moments later with Maxine’s mackintosh which had been hung on the newel post at the bottom of the stairs. She thrust it at her mother.

  ‘Do you and Dad often walk about with no clothes on? I mean, I’d have expected you to have been up and dressed ages ago.’ She looked pointedly at the clock which read nine forty-five.

  Maxine shrugged it on, grabbed anot
her mug from the cupboard and returned to making the tea while she tried to regain her composure. ‘No, dear,’ she fibbed. As she and Gordon both slept in the nude, they quite often made their early morning tea in the all-together when the weather was nice or if the heating had been running long enough to have made the house warm. Why shouldn’t they?

  ‘Good, I’m glad to hear it. I mean… at your age too.’

  Well, she might be sixty-five but she didn’t feel like it. In her head she was still only twenty-six, which meant it always came as a shock when she caught sight of an unexpected reflection of herself. Besides, wasn’t sixty the new forty? She decided to move away from the subject of her age. ‘Anyway, why have you come over? You must have set out really early to be here now. What’s so urgent?’

  ‘I’ve got something to tell you. Go and get showered and dressed and I’ll talk to you when you’re decent.’

  Maxine took the two mugs and returned to the bedroom thinking, as she tramped up the stairs, that she couldn’t make up her mind whether Abi’s tone sounded ominous or good. Twenty minutes later she and her husband sat in the sitting room waiting for Abi’s news. In the privacy of their bedroom they’d speculated on what it might be: pregnancy; promotion; Marcus leaving her…

  ‘And that’s not outside the realms of possibility,’ Maxine had said, gloomily. ‘Let’s face it, Abi can be quite tricky. And it’s not as if they’re married.’

  ‘She just gets easily stressed. And she’s a perfectionist. She’s always set herself high standards,’ said Gordon defending his daughter as he ran his fingers through his sparse hair, but his normally smiley mouth was in a thin line as he took on board Maxine’s supposition.

  ‘Standards which she expects from all and sundry,’ said Maxine as she’d brushed her pepper-and-salt, shoulder-length hair before she gathered up the front section and clipped it neatly at the back of her head, a hairstyle she hadn’t changed for forty years. Expecting perfection was a commendable trait, unless you couldn’t meet Abi’s requirements in which case, she could become quite tough. Still, thought Maxine, her bosses must reap the benefit of Abi keeping her subordinates in check. She wasn’t quite sure what Abi did – apart from the fact it had something to do with HR. Marcus, a qualified accountant, worked for the same company but in the finance department.

  Now, in the sitting room they sat opposite Abi, who was munching her way through a couple of croissants that Max had bought for her and Gordon’s breakfast.

  ‘You don’t mind, do you? Only I found them in the fridge and they’re on their sell-by date.’ She was also drinking the last of the fresh orange juice.

  Maxine did mind, rather a lot, but she supposed she and Gordon could make do with tea and toast. And it was too early in the day for an altercation so she let it go. ‘It’s fine,’ she said as brightly as she could. ‘So, what’s the big news?’

  ‘Marcus is being moved.’

  Abi sounded up-beat about the prospect so Gordon ventured to say, ‘And is that a good thing?’

  Abi nodded. ‘He applied for a job at the head office at Cattebury and got it.’ She smiled at her parents. ‘So, we’re going to be moving nearer to you. Much nearer.’

  ‘That’s great, darling,’ enthused Gordon.

  ‘And…’ Abi left a dramatic pause as if she was about to produce a rabbit from a hat. There was almost a drum roll. She smiled at both her parents. ‘And, they’ve promised to relocate me too, although, given what Marcus will be earning, it’s the ideal opportunity for us to think about starting a family. Just think, it’ll be perfect and you’ll be able to see much more of us than you would if we were in London.’

  ‘Oh, darling, you’re right, it is perfect. Isn’t it, Max?’

  Maxine took on board the news and its implications. Gordon was obviously chuffed to bits but Maxine was finding it hard to share his enthusiasm.

  ‘Isn’t it, Maxine?’ he repeated, firmly.

  ‘Lovely,’ she said, weakly. ‘That’ll be… nice. Wonderful, even,’ she added hastily.

  ‘I knew you’d be pleased.’ Abi beamed at her parents. Max was relieved she hadn’t picked up on her misgivings. ‘So, I’m here to go to all the estate agents in the area and see what’s on offer.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be as easy to look on Rightmove?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘We’re doing that too, but I want to persuade the local guys to alert me to things as early as possible – you know, as soon as they go on the market, not when they make it onto the website. It’s cut-throat out there and, if you want to get something that perfectly matches your requirements, you need to be proactive not reactive. If you’re not ahead of the pack you’ll miss out on the best properties.’

  And ‘missing out’ wasn’t something Abi liked doing.

  ‘And your flat is already up for sale, is it?’ asked Maxine.

  ‘Yup.’ Abi nodded vigorously and then brushed the crumbs off the front of her sweater oblivious that they fell directly onto the carpet. ‘The estate agents think it’ll get snapped up and, with the stupid prices of houses round us, we should be able to get something much bigger and nicer here. We think we’ll have about four hundred thou to play with. Of course, it may take a while to find exactly the right house…’

  ‘Well, obviously,’ said Gordon. Abi wasn’t good at compromising.

  ‘So, when does Marcus move?’ asked Max.

  ‘In a few months.’

  ‘OK,’ said Maxine. ‘And if you haven’t found somewhere…?’ She had an idea of what the answer might be, but judging by the happy smile on Gordon’s face he wasn’t looking at anything other than a big fat silver lining on the cloud that was lowering over Maxine’s vision of the future which, she feared, might involve being an unpaid, full-time childminder. Abi popped the last remaining piece of croissant in her mouth and said, ‘That’s not going to happen. We’re bound to find something suitable.’

  Maxine didn’t doubt it – what Abi wanted, Abi got. But she hadn’t mentioned anything about moving in with her parents while they house-hunted so maybe that wasn’t on the cards. Maxine began to relax. She wouldn’t mind Abi and Marcus living with them for a bit, a week or so, but anything longer might be disastrous. Her relationship with Abi had been a bit edgy since Abi had seamlessly segued from terrible twos to teenaged raging hormones without drawing a single breath. Someone had once said to Maxine that kids were like fine wines – they got better as they got older. But how much older? While Abi didn’t throw monumental strops any more if she got thwarted, she had a knack of making life difficult if she didn’t get her way. Not that Gordon saw this side of her, because he adored his only child unequivocally and indulged her shamelessly. Since Abi had moved up to London Maxine’s relationship with her had, mostly, improved massively but all that rapprochement might evaporate in a moment if she moved back. Which would be regrettable, thought Maxine.

  ‘Yes,’ continued Abi, ‘all we want is a normal family home and with our budget I really can’t see it being a problem.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Best I get moving if I’m going to get round all of the estate agents.’ She leaned forward and dumped her plate on the table, next to the half-drunk glass of orange. ‘Thanks for the breakfast,’ she said as she stood up scattering a few more pastry crumbs off her trousers. She eyed the carpet. ‘And I hope you’re going to clean the house today, Mum. I mean, do you ever get the hoover out?’

  Maxine regarded her carpet; it might need more than a swish around with the hoover. Thanks Abi.

  ‘Good luck with the house hunting. Let us know how you get on. Will you be dropping by before you go back to London?’ asked her father.

  ‘I might. What’s for lunch?’

  ‘We were thinking of grabbing a bite at the pub.’

  ‘Ooh, that’d be nice, I might join you.’

  ‘That’ll be lovely,’ said Gordon.

  ‘Yes,’ interrupted Maxine swiftly. ‘We’re probably going to walk there at about one, one thirty.’

  Gordon look
ed at her questioningly as they usually went to the Talbot at around twelve on a Saturday. Maxine shook her head at him to shut him up.

  ‘Oh,’ said Abi. ‘I don’t want to hang around all morning. Seeing estate agents is only going to take a couple of hours… maybe another time.’

  ‘When you move here there’ll be lots of other opportunities,’ said Gordon.

  Abi left and Maxine leaned against the door after she shut it and shook her head, despondently.

  ‘I know I should be pleased…’ she said.

  ‘It’ll be fine. Truly. And if she does have kids, won’t it be wonderful to be able to watch them grow up?’

  Which Maxine had already taken on board. ‘I know. That’ll be lovely. But you know she’ll expect us to be unpaid childminders, don’t you?’

  ‘Don’t be silly, darling. She’ll respect that we have our own busy lives.’

  Maxine raised her eyebrows. ‘Good luck with that,’ she muttered knowing full well that Gordon wouldn’t take issue with Abi if she didn’t.

  *

  Across the town, Olivia Laithwaite left her home and shut the front door behind her. She had over an hour before her shift started at the local hotel, Woodford Priors, and she had a few errands to complete in the town of Little Woodford before she went on duty behind the reception desk. For a start she wanted to go to the Oxfam shop to buy another black skirt. The ones she wore to work had seen better days and, since she’d been told by the hotel manager the previous day that she was being promoted, she thought the time had come to invest in some newer and smarter ones. If the Oxfam shop couldn’t oblige, she’d buy skirts off the internet but, after several years of having to be careful with money, she would rather not spend more than was absolutely necessary. She could, of course, go into the next town of Cattebury, which was much bigger, and had several fashion outlets, but that would necessitate an entire morning being set aside and Olivia, frankly, had more than enough to do each day without spending forty minutes on a bus each way in order to buy such basic items of clothing.