A Change for the Better?

by Stephanie Drury

  Katie arrived at Cheadle House at three o’clock that afternoon, the sun was still shining through the clouds and had still enough warmth in it to let Katie leave her jacket in the car, she scrunched over the gravel and opened the huge front door and turned down the corridor towards Mo’s room. Mo was definitely about as Katie could hear her mischievous laughter echoing down the corridor, interspersed with Bert’s deeper guffaw. That was no surprise to Katie either as, these days, where one of them was the other was never far behind.

  “And what are you two up too?” Katie affected a stern voice as she appeared around the corner of Mo’s bedroom. Mo and Bert sprang apart guiltily like two teenagers caught by their parents, Katie couldn’t be sure but she thought they were holding hands and just for a minute she was lost for words, feeling like she had intruded on something private. With forced bravado she carried on, “up to no good. I’ll bet, so spill the beans”

  Mo had recovered her equilibrium quickly and told Bert to push off so she could talk to Katie, Bert was a little hesitant until Mo gave him a swift slap on the bum and pointed him to the door. “It’s all fine” she added cryptically, “I’ll give you a shout when we’re done” Bert gave her a reassuring pat on the arm and smiled, almost apologetically, as he passed Katie.

  “Well, Katie, my love, how are you? Are you eating?” Mo started with her usual interrogation but Katie decided not to play along today, she could tell by the way Mo was fiddling with the fringe of her cardigan that something was amiss and she wasn’t about to be fobbed off on pleasantries instead. “I’m fine and I had a tuna sandwich for lunch. Spill the beans Mo, something’s up and I’m not leaving until I know what it is. Are you ill? Is there something else wrong with you?” she questioned, rather harshly, as she was worried and didn’t want to show it. Mo burst out laughing, which, although somewhat reassuring , was also a little irritating, “ Oh Katie K, don’t look so worried , there’s nothing wrong at all – in fact quite the opposite, I’ve got some news for you.” Mo stopped and seemed to be searching for the right words, taking a deep breath she continued, “ you know how much I loved your Granddad don’t you Katie,” Katie nodded, wondering where this was going but seeing Mo needed some reassurance she held Mo’s hand and waited for her continue. “When he passed away a bit of me went with him, I thought that life would never be fun again. But you have to keep going – he told me I had to keep going and then all my guests, they had to be looked after too. So time passed on and gradually you start living again, but I always expected to be on my own – oh I know I’ll have you” she added as she saw Katie start, “I mean as a woman, I thought that was all behind me now. Until I fell down those pesky stairs, I thought it was the beginning of the end for me, not been able to cope at Tolpuddle anymore, shuffling about like an old person in case I fell over again. But then a miracle happened, Katie, instead of being the beginning of the end it turned out to be the beginning of the beginning. I met Bert. We clicked from day one like we’d known each other for ages and we laugh together, I can’t tell you how special that is Katie”

  “You don’t have to Mo, I know how good Bert is to you and what great friends you’ve become.” Katie interrupted. Mo smiled and continued “Well, that’s the thing Katie, he’s become more than a friend, he’s come to mean a great deal to me and amazingly he feels the same way about me and he’s asked me to marry him and I said yes” Mo finished in a rush and looked up at Katie, holding her breath as she waited for a reaction, but nothing came. Katie’s face looked like a slightly more lifelike waxwork from Madam Tussauds. “He’ll never take the place of your Granddad, Katie, you know that, he was the love of my life but I care about him, love him in a different way and I ….” Katie held up her hand to stop Mo, she could hear the distress in her voice. “Mo, stop, I’m thrilled for you, of course I am – how could I be anything else?” Katie’s grin spread across her face to show the truth of her words, “I’m just a bit gob-smacked too” Katie enveloped Mo in a hug and as she let go asked

  “So, Mo, when’s the big day then?” Katie began her interrogation but Mo cut her off, clearly dying to tell Katie all the details without further prompting.

  “Well, pretty soon we thought – Spring Bank Holiday perhaps and well, it’s so beautiful here, we thought we’d get married in the gardens here at Cheadle” Mo gathered pace, they had clearly talked this all through in detail.

  “Spring Bank” Katie exclaimed, “That’s only six or seven weeks away, it’s only a month after the Spring Fayre!”

  “I know, sweetie” Mo reassured her, “but really, it’s not going to be a big thing, just close friends and family, all informal, that’s what we both want.”

  Katie took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, “It’ll be lovely Mo, and I’ll do whatever you want me to – you know that don’t you?” she squeezed Mo’s arm and then enveloped her in another bear hug until Mo had to extricate herself to breathe.

  “I’m so happy for you Mo” Katie sighed, wiping a surreptitious tear away, “So will you and Bert move back into Tolpuddle straight after the wedding?” she asked, thinking it would be a whirlwind for her what with the fayre and then the wedding to organise and now in-between all that a new job and a new home to find, but she couldn’t stay at Tolpuddle – Mo and Bert needed to start married life without her hanging about. As these thoughts raced through Katie’s mind, she missed Mo’s slightly furrowed brow.

  “Ah well, funny you should say that Katie” Mo started, “the thing is, Bert and I are going to stay here, one of the bungalows is available and we can move in there straight away. It’ll be our own little place but with plenty of friends and help on hand when we need it. I’m not getting any younger – and I realise that now, so this way we get the best of all worlds” Mo came to a hurried end and waited for Katie’s reaction.

  Katie realised she was holding her breath again and felt she was stuck in some sort of slow motion film as she slowly exhaled.

  “You’re not coming back to Tolpuddle?” Katie realised she was opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and started again.

  “So you’re not going back to Tolpuddle” she stated the fact this time, “So what are you going to do with the house? Sell it or get a housekeeper in, or something like that?” she asked.

  “Well, that’s what I needed to speak to you about specifically” Mo started mysteriously, she patted the seat next to her for Katie to sit down, which she duly did. Five minutes later Katie was extremely glad she had sat down before Mo had got started, as she almost certainly would have fallen down without a seat to support her! Mo had just explained that she wanted to sign over Tolpuddle House to Katie, so she could stay there and do whatever she wanted with it. It turned out that Mo and Grandpa had made a lot of wise investments in the past and so Mo had a comfortable income that would more than cover her requirements, and, as Mo put it, Tolpuddle was always going to be Katie’s one day so it may as well be now.

  “And if I keep going for another seven years you won’t have to pay any tax on it either” Mo chuckled, with that mischievous glint in her eye again.

  Katie couldn’t respond though, she was absolutely floored. She had never seriously thought about staying at Tolpuddle, she had always assumed she would eventually go back to London and pick up in another job where she had left off when she had come running back to Laxley Heath, but now there was another option – and much to her surprise Katie didn’t dismiss the idea out of hand. In fact, she could see a lot of appeal about it. Since she had been back in Laxley Heath she had slotted into life here and felt more content than she had for some time if she was honest. But was it the sort of contentment that would last for years or was it just a safe haven after her troubled recent past?

  This was the dilemma she was discussing with Cliona over a glass of Pinot Grigio at Tolpuddle’s kitchen table at the emergency summit, as Cliona called it, which she had called for as soon as she had left Cheadle House that afternoon, o
nly stopping to give her sincere congratulations to Bert and Mo and to share a celebratory glass of champagne with them.

  Cliona was currently finding the whole thing highly amusing, mainly due to Katie’s stunned confusion about it.

  “Come on Katie,” she giggled, “it’s not a bad thing – Mo’s giving you a house, in fact a small mansion really, with recently restored gardens too! You’re going to be a woman of substance!” she added mischievously.

  Katie smiled, she realised she was coming over as ungrateful and she really wasn’t at all, but it had come so suddenly, so out of the blue, she knew she needed time to digest it all.

  “I know it’s a wonderful gesture but I just don’t know what to do. If I’m back in London I’ll have to employ someone to look after the house and all the ‘guests’ or I’ll be tripping up and down the M1 every time Poppy has a new idea or Guy hasn’t surfaced for a week! Oh I know! You could look after it for me.” Katie exclaimed.

  “Oh no,” Cliona shook her head vigorously until all her curls had taken on a life of their own, “I’m bad enough at looking after one little terraced cottage – ask Declan! I’m not looking after anything else! Anyway there is another solution ….” She added cryptically.

  “I know, I can sell it” Katie suggested, but she really didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to break her bond with Tolpuddle and Laxley just yet and she knew it would break Mo’s heart, she’d never say so, but it would all the same.

  “I don’t mean sell it” Cliona cut into Katie’s thoughts, “I meant you could stay here and develop Tolpuddle House, you could make a healthy living out of it. There are all sorts of possibilities” she added enticingly.

  “Such as?” Katie demanded “being a housekeeper and gardener? I mean I’ve enjoyed it for a few months but I don’t think it’s my long term ambition.”

  “No, no – not that” Cliona scoffed, “I can’t see you as Mrs Bridges! But it could be a boutique restaurant, or a chic coffee shop with stalls of local crafts people, like we talked about before. I know a good potter if you want one. And you could certainly run a coffee shop – look at all the catering you’ve been doing since you got here.”

  Katie looked thoughtful; the idea had obviously hit a nerve,

  “But who would come?” Katie pondered out loud, “I mean, to make it pay you’d need a good throughput of customers.”

  “Well, that’s easy” Cliona answered, “we see them all every morning – coachloads of them walking past Tolpuddle House twice, everyday!” she ended triumphantly.

  Katie laughed and raised her glass, it was a surprise to her but it was actually a possibility. She had always thought about running her own business, she had always assumed it would be some sort of agency in recruitment or office services but actually, running her own coffee shop, that could be fun and strangely the thought of staying around Laxley didn’t seem such a bad idea really, in fact it was becoming more appealing every day, somehow it had snuck back into her heart. Katie knew she had a lot to think about over the next few weeks, but for now there Pinot Grigio!

  CHAPTER 23

  “LUCY!” Ben bellowed from the kitchen, once again his sister was refusing to surface from her room, “don’t make me come in there – I will drag you out of bed – again!” he added with menace. He had no time for Lucy’s feet dragging today. He, Charlie and John were due down in Southampton for a couple of days and they wanted to be off no later than 9 o’clock. It was already 7.30am and he still had to make sure Lucy had packed her bag ready to go to Jean’s that evening and then drop her off at school.

  “LU!” he started again, and broke off somewhat startled as a fully dressed Lucy with overnight bag in hand emerged from her room, nonchalantly pulling her school blazer on.

  “Yes?” she asked with her best shot at supercilious.

  “Bloody Hell Luce – I didn’t realise today was the blue moon!” Ben laughed, “Better keep an eye out for those flying pigs too – they can leave a nasty bruise!”

  “Funny – NOT!” she replied and added in response to Ben’s quizzical look, “I know today’s important so I had a shower last night when you were still at the office so I could be ready quickly this morning.”

  “Thanks sis” Ben said with feeling, touched by her thoughtfulness – all the more special as it was unusual, “come on then, let’s get this show on the road” he added, grabbing his keys and heading out, with Lucy right behind him. Five minutes later he was back, having managed to get Lucy out of the flat on time and to remember her overnight bag, he could be forgiven for forgetting his own! Lucy didn’t quite see it that way and tormented him for the entire thirty minute drive to her school.

  Ben was at the office ten minutes after that and, once settled with a mug of hot, black coffee, he handed Lucy’s bag to Jean and tried, once again, to give her some money.

  “Look, just take this, get everyone a pizza tonight, save yourself a bit of work,” he explained

  “A pizza!” Jean answered, in horror, “I’ll do no such thing. I have a shepherd’s pie sitting in the fridge and that’s every bit as good as any pizza. If Lucy doesn’t like it then she can lump it – and the apple crumble for afters as well” she added for good measure.

  Ben grinned, he knew Jean wouldn’t take the money, but he liked to offer, if only to see Jean’s reaction. He knew Lucy secretly loved going to Jean’s home and sitting round the dining room table with her rowdy family and tucking into hearty, tasty meals from her childhood. And, despite appearances to the contrary, Jean loved having her to stay too, she loved Lucy’s liveliness and spirit, and not having a girl of her own it made a pleasant change for her to have some female support at home. Not that either of them would ever admit it, it was all part of the fun to pretend they were putting up with each other!

  Five long hours later, and many road works, traffic jams and motorway middle lane hoggers, Ben, Charlie and John had reached Southampton, booked into their cheap, and not entirely cheerful, hotel and had arrived on the site to meet Stewart who had been there a couple of days already finishing all the plans. And a brilliant job he had done too Ben had to say. They were soon all wandering around the site bringing the plans to life in their minds, adding a window here, removing a wall there, but it was clear the whole site had great potential, a whole row of terraced houses that had been allowed to reach such a derelict state it was why BW could afford to buy the whole site, but they were all fixable and would be a lovely little mews terrace when finished with open plan fronts and courtyards to the back and Stewart had been right their potential was evident as was the whole area’s which had been very down at heel but already a new housing estate was starting to be built down the opposite end of the main road and the row of shops across from the houses that had been half empty on Ben’s last visit now only had one unit vacant, having added a Tesco Express and a coffee shop to their repertoire. All of which would help attract more buyers to the area.

  After much wandering of the site they decided to adjourn to the aforementioned coffee shop, as despite their enthusiasm, the day was not the best and the drizzle was starting to seep in through their clothes and settle in their joints! Once they were ensconced in the two large leather sofa in the steamed up bay window of the café, with their own steaming mugs of coffee in front of them, they were soon talking ten to the dozen about the project and even the next one!

  “Still, let’s not get carried away,” John started to add a note of caution, “this is a great job but we need to get this right, the better we do on this with deadlines and sticking to budgets the more seriously we’ll be taken next time. We need someone on site the whole time for this one, to make sure it all runs smoothly and to make decisions as they’re needed.” He looked expectantly at the others.

  “I’ll be here obviously,” Stewart answered, “But I can’t manage the building work and the architectural work too – it doesn’t work well.” They all nodded, it was well known that architects needed reigning in every now and aga
in, not all their bright ideas were feasible, even a brilliant Architect such as Stewart.

  “Still, it’s quite a commitment to be down here, all week, every week,” John continued, “I’ve done it before so I know – But Claire probably won’t mind being rid of me for a bit!”

  Ben laughed, “It’s our first big project and both you and Charlie have family so it’s probably better if I’m the one that comes down,” he offered.

  “Or maybe, we could take it in turns?” John looked at Ben then Charlie, “Look we all want to be involved and, yes, Charlie and I have family, but so do you now Ben.”

  Charlie nodded, “Yes, I like the sound of that; I know it’ll be hard but I think we should all chip in.”

  “ Well, we don’t have to decide just now – we’ll start first week in May so let’s think about it and make a final decision in a couple of weeks, when you’ve had time to talk to Claire and Anna” Ben suggested and they all agreed that sounded like the best idea for now. However, as Ben lay down on his rather squashy hotel bed and surveyed the bland wallpaper on the walls of the room that could be in any town in the country, he realised it was time for him to sort out his home situation. He had, he grudgingly admitted to himself, loved having Lucy to stay, despite all the drama’s that came with her, she livened up his evenings (and gave him plenty of excuses to pop round to Katie’s house, a little voice inside his head added). But it wasn’t just his money riding on this project and he had to make it a priority. Ben felt the dread gather in the pit of his stomach. It was time to talk to his mother again!