The House of Hopes and Dreams

by Trisha Ashley

  ‘Come on, then. The rest will keep for tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, to be honest, I’m starting to wilt. It’s been a long and eventful day.’

  ‘Of course it has. Just have a quick look in here at the bathroom, and then I’ll take you home.’

  Through the open door I glimpsed a large, chilly Victorian bath and loo, the white tiling making it look even colder. I shivered.

  ‘Does it come with hot and cold running polar bears?’

  ‘There is central heating,’ he said indignantly. ‘I’ve got it turned low, to save money, because it runs on oil and costs a fortune. And at least the kitchen is always warm,’ he added as we headed back down there.

  I shivered and followed him, glancing back only once along the long corridor, half expecting a ghostly figure to emerge from the heavy shadows …

  Then I shook myself free of tiredness-induced fancies, for any ghostly apparitions would surely haunt only the old wing, and scurried after Carey through the swinging baize door.

  The porch led into the half-glazed inner hallway where my designs, if they found favour with Mr Revell, would replace the plain opaque panes currently installed.

  By now it was almost dark outside, but the white-painted walls and panelling, together with several gas lamps of interesting design, made everything seem quite light and airy.

  Father was much interested in the lights and Mr Revell explained that he had his own gas plant adjacent to the stables.

  A housekeeper showed me up to my room, which looked out over the courtyard – I could just make out the black and white of the Elizabethan wing – and was furnished beautifully. Lily would have loved the tapestry with its scene taken from the story of King Arthur, the colours and theme of which were echoed in the bed furnishings and the tiles of the fireplace, in which bright coals burned.

  I washed in the warm water provided, unpacked and changed into my best dress, though I feared I would look very unfashionable next to Miss Revell, who though in no way modish, at least showed that she had more interest in her clothes than I had. In any case, I don’t suit the fuss and frills that so become Lily, so my plain amber evening dress would have to do.

  My eye fell on the small enamel clock that ticked away on the mantelpiece and I snatched up my shawl and hastened downstairs. I didn’t feel at all nervous, but was instead enjoying all these new experiences to the full, for they might not again come my way.

  15

  Sudden Appearances

  When we came back from inspecting the bedroom, Fang was still curled up in his basket by the stove, though his snores came to an abrupt halt as we went into the kitchen and he eyed us balefully.

  ‘He’s not daft – this must be the only warm room in the house,’ I said. ‘If you want anyone to come and help you renovate Mossby, you might have to offer them free thermal underwear as an incentive.’

  ‘It’s not that bad, Angelique! And I promise to turn the heating up a bit when you move in, though I expect we’ll be so busy most of the time that we’ll be warm enough anyway,’ Carey said optimistically.

  I gave him a look. ‘I’m not prepared to freeze to death in order to save you money and if I spend all my savings on setting the workshop up, I won’t be able to afford to rent somewhere else to live for ages. So, if you want another free pair of hands to help you, that’s the deal.’

  ‘You know you’re more than just a free pair of hands, Shrimp – and it’ll be hard work but fun!’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Remember how great it was when we spent all our time together, the last two terms at uni, when I gave up leggy blondes and your only passion was dead female glass artists?’

  ‘I suppose we did have fun,’ I admitted.

  ‘Every weekend and the hols I drove you round all the places with windows you wanted to see, not to mention glass museums I never knew existed.’

  ‘And you made me go on that weekend course in stone carving,’ I said. ‘My lump of stone looked much the same as it did before I gave myself a blister chiselling at it, but you came back with a gargoyle.’

  ‘I’m naturally talented at these things,’ he said modestly. ‘Nick’s coming up next week with the gang to do a bit of filming and he’ll probably want you to pretend to see the workshop for the first time.’

  ‘I’m not very good at acting, but I’ll do my best.’

  ‘Whenever you’ve appeared in the series before, Nick’s always said the camera loves you and you’re a natural.’

  ‘I think what he means is that after a few minutes I just naturally forget I’m on camera, because I’m looking at interesting windows or making one.’

  ‘It works, whatever it is,’ he said. ‘I’ll get a spare set of the main house and workshop keys cut for you, so you can make yourself at home and come and go as you like.’

  Until my workshop was ready to vanish into, I was more likely to come and go as Carey pleased, probably loaded with tools of one kind or another. But we’d be company for each other while he literally got back on his feet again and I built up my own business.

  ‘My workshop – we’ll have to have a long discussion about that,’ I said, then stifled a yawn.

  ‘Yes, but that can wait until after you’ve moved in tomorrow.’

  ‘Tomorrow?’ I echoed, slightly startled out of impending stupor.

  ‘Yes, why not? There’s nothing to prevent you, is there?’

  ‘I suppose not. Everything I’ve taken to Molly and Grant’s will fit in my car, but I’ve got lots of things in storage.’

  ‘Then we’ll get it out again, because you don’t want to be paying for storage when there’s all this space here,’ he said practically. ‘I’ll hire a van and bring it over—’

  He stopped dead as the realization hit him that hefting boxes and furniture about right now wasn’t a good idea.

  ‘It’s OK, I can sort that out,’ I said quickly. ‘I hired a couple of local men with a Transit van to take everything to the unit, so I’ll get them to move it here. There are several pieces of furniture – my gran’s Welsh dresser, for a start.’

  ‘There’s certainly enough room for that in here. I had my things from the flat put in storage too, and it’s being sent up in a day or two.’

  He looked around the kitchen. ‘Things tend to find their own space eventually and soon it will all look a lot more homely.’

  It suddenly occurred to me that I shouldn’t feel too much at home here, because one day he’d marry another Daisy and I’d have to move out, if I hadn’t done that already. Really, before I got too settled in, I ought to go and look at that chauffeur’s flat over the garages behind the workshop that he’d mentioned, to see if it could be made habitable again fairly easily. Then if my business flourished, I’d be able to rent it and I’d be living right near the workshop, but not in Carey’s pocket.

  Meanwhile, I’d stay here with Carey while he needed me – while we needed each other – enlivened by the sporadic invasion of friends and acquaintances roped in for a few hours or days to help with various parts of the project.

  ‘I’ll pack up and drive over first thing tomorrow, then,’ I said.

  ‘Great! Then I can give you the whole guided house tour. I bet you can hardly wait to start planning out the alterations to the workshop. I know I’ve already begun to prioritize what wants doing in the house even though I’ve only been here five minutes and—’

  He broke off as the door creaked open like something out of a horror film, and there stood a tall, dark-haired, lugubrious woman. She was handsome, in a slightly reptilian way – I mean, if you liked lizards, you’d be really taken with her – and she looked vaguely familiar, though of course I knew who it was before Carey introduced us.

  ‘Ah, Mrs Dan— Ella,’ he corrected himself hastily. ‘I wasn’t expecting you till Friday!’

  ‘I’m used to popping in and out, but say so if you want me to stop, and maybe give you back my keys?’ she said belligerently.

  ‘Not at all … I mean, we’ll talk abou
t all that in a few days, when I’ve had time to work out what I’m doing,’ he said, though it was obvious to me, at least, that he didn’t want someone with the charisma of a female version of the Grim Reaper appearing at unexpected intervals.

  ‘This is my friend Angelique Arrowsmith. She’ll be moving in tomorrow for a long stay, so while you are here, could you make up the bed in the big room with the bay window and the cabbage-rose wallpaper, while I’m driving her home?’ he asked.

  There was an ominous silence, broken only by a low rumbling growl from Fang. As he arose from his basket and lifted his lip at the new arrival, I scooped him up.

  Ella Parry gave the dog a dirty look before transferring it to Carey.

  ‘I suppose I could, though it’s not part of my job. The cleaning service changes the beds Fridays, when the laundry calls. I only came up to give you the list of things you’re short of in the house, since you said you’d do your own shopping over the internet.’ She pronounced the word ‘internet’ as if it was grossly improper.

  I thought she’d just made that up as an excuse, having been consumed by curiosity after spotting us through the Lodge window.

  She plonked down a folded list and then unearthed a winter cabbage and some carrots from a wicker basket.

  ‘Clem sent you these.’

  ‘Oh – thanks,’ Carey said. ‘Clem’s got a vegetable patch at the back of the Lodge,’ he explained to me.

  ‘If you’re going out now, I hope you’re taking that creature with you,’ she said, giving Fang the evil eye, and then stomped off towards the backstairs.

  ‘Friendly,’ I commented.

  ‘Yes, and she seems to haunt the house at random – I never know when I’ll open a door and find her on the other side.’

  ‘Not a cheery thought, though I suppose she’s used to having the run of the place, as she said.’

  He was frowning. ‘I think she listens at doors. I’m pretty sure she hadn’t just arrived when we saw her. And when Mr Wilmslow was here the day I arrived she was waiting to meet me and offered to make coffee and bring it through into the sitting room. I suspect she hung about outside afterwards, while we were discussing a codicil to my will I’d asked Mr Wilmslow to draw up, making her the residuary legatee to the house if anything happened to me. But by then I’d decided I needed a bit more time to think about it.’

  ‘Do you really think she was listening then, too?’

  ‘Yes, because I heard a noise in the drawing room and when I went out into the hall, the baize door was swinging.’

  ‘If she overheard you say that about leaving Mossby to her, she’ll probably be slipping weedkiller into your coffee from now on. You’d better write another one quickly, leaving everything to a dog’s home and then leave it lying around where she can see it.’

  ‘I’ll discuss it with Mr Wilmslow again on Wednesday. He’s pretty keen I make a whole new will, because the one I’ve got is just something I drew up myself after the accident,’ Carey said. ‘I’m hoping to survive till then.’

  ‘I don’t see that there’s such a huge hurry. He might let you settle in first.’

  Carey shrugged. ‘I think we’ve both learned recently that you never know what might happen. For instance, I must have had my accident just a week after my uncle signed his will, so if that hit-and-run driver had made a better job of it, Ella would have copped the lot when he died not long afterwards. Come to think of it, I’d already had a near miss only a couple of days before. London’s getting dangerous for cyclists, even in the suburbs. All I was doing was heading for my usual lunch at Gino’s Café.’

  I shivered. ‘Oh, don’t! I’m just grateful you got out of it more or less in one piece. And speaking of which,’ I said firmly, ‘you’re going to have to pace yourself more. I’m sure you’ve already been doing way too much.’

  ‘Yes, but from tomorrow I’ll have my very own personal assistant to run about for me,’ he teased.

  ‘In your dreams, buster!’ I said. ‘Now, take me back to Molly and Grant’s house, so you can rest up for a bit. I wish I’d thought to follow you in my own car, so you didn’t have to go out again.’

  ‘Oh, I’m OK,’ he assured me, though I could tell he wasn’t really from the way he limped and leaned heavily on his stick as we headed for the back door.

  ‘Come on, Fang,’ he called to the little dog, who I’d put down when Ella Parry vanished upstairs, and we went out into the chilly, dark late afternoon.

  When we got there, Grant had just arrived home from the workshop and invited Carey in, though I’d wanted him to get straight back and have a rest.

  It worked out OK, though, because Molly, who had a strong maternal streak, took one look at him and instantly went into feed-and-cosset mode.

  While we ate, I told them that I was moving into Mossby next day and would be renovating an old stained-glass workshop on the estate. Grant was keenly interested.

  ‘And Carey wants you to restock his freezer, Molly, because it’s currently full of all the bland stodge his uncle was eating. That will all need getting rid of first.’

  Molly asked Carey what sort of things he liked to eat and started jotting down a few ideas, though he said I should have some input too, since I’d also be eating them.

  ‘Well, I don’t eat meat any more,’ I told him. ‘I eat fish and eggs, though.’

  ‘You’ve gone semi-vegetarian?’

  ‘Yes. It was odd. One day I just felt I couldn’t eat another living creature … not even a hen. Julian said he didn’t mind going meat free with me, though neither of us had quite the same cuddly feeling about fish, or eggs, so long as they’re from happy, free-range hens.’

  ‘Which mine are,’ said Grant, since he kept leghorns on the patch of land he owned at the end of his garden.

  ‘I can give meat up, too; I don’t eat much these days myself,’ Carey said. ‘That’ll make it easier for Molly to cater for us both. And often I’ll have a few people staying in the house, Molly, helping out with things, so some meals that will feed several people would be useful. I enjoy cooking, but I’ll be too busy or tired to do it all the time.’

  ‘I’ll get some ideas together and maybe come up and discuss them one day soon?’ she suggested.

  ‘I’d love to see this old workshop some time,’ Grant said. ‘Ivan will probably want to come with me. I don’t know what he’s going to do with himself now Nat’s told him not to turn up any more. And Julian was going to take Louis on over the summer, when he left college.’

  ‘Louis is Ivan’s grandson and keen on a career in stained glass,’ I explained to Carey. ‘You probably saw him earlier, in the workshop. It’s such a shame Nat doesn’t want him, because he’s a nice boy.’

  ‘When he helped out in the holidays, he was starting to get useful, too,’ Grant agreed.

  ‘Now there’s only you and Nat to do all the work, Grant,’ I said.

  ‘Well, if he expects me to do three people’s jobs for one wage, he can think again,’ Grant said. ‘I left on the dot of five thirty tonight and that’s how it’s going to be from now on.’

  ‘I suppose there might not be as much work without Julian to draw in the big commissions,’ I suggested. ‘Are you still thinking of finding another job, or setting yourself up to repair stained glass?’

  ‘I’m tending more to the idea of setting myself up, because working on your own doorstep’s convenient. I’ve got a big outbuilding I could convert, and if I got a little van I could do small repairs on the spot.’

  ‘There’s always a call for leaded light repairs,’ I agreed.

  ‘Ivan might come and help you out, once your workshop gets going?’ he suggested.

  ‘I think it’s going to be a long time before I can pay myself, let alone anyone else,’ I said ruefully.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. If the basic workshop’s there it won’t take you that long to get it up and running. And the commissions will come in, all right. You entered that competition to design a glass installation
for a shopping mall in Brisbane, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, and another to design a transom window for a children’s library, though I’m not holding my breath about either of them. But I must set myself up a website quickly, so people can find me.’

  ‘Nat remembered to look at Julian’s website this afternoon,’ Grant said, ‘and saw you’d taken all your details off it. He was mad.’

  ‘I don’t know why he should have been: he wanted me to leave. He can replace me with Willow and make any other changes he wants – the password’s in the top desk drawer in the office.’

  ‘I’ll tell him. I expect he’ll keep the studio name and trade on his dad’s reputation, so the work will still come in, though he’s not going to get any major commissions without someone of your or Julian’s calibre to design them.’

  ‘Unless Willow turns out to be amazingly good at it – though it takes time to make a name for yourself,’ I said. ‘Or perhaps he will see sense and employ someone else.’

  ‘Well, it’s not your problem any more,’ Molly said. ‘You never did anything to harm him, he just couldn’t stand you and his dad being happy together.’

  ‘Got it in a nutshell, from what I’ve seen and heard,’ agreed Carey. ‘And he’s likely to be even madder when he finds he’s going to be competing for work with the Angelique Arrowsmith Art Glass Studio.’

  ‘Too much alliteration,’ I said with a grin.

  ‘I like it,’ Grant said. ‘Rolls off the tongue.’

  ‘Maybe miss off the “Studio” bit: Angelique Arrowsmith Art Glass,’ Carey said.

  ‘What do you think, Molly?’ I asked.

  ‘I think it’s just perfect!’

  ‘Then – it looks like I have the name before I have the workshop!’ I said.

  It was late when Carey finally set off back to Mossby, though he looked much better, and Molly had given him a box of home-baked pastries, in case he could squeeze another bite in later.

  The evening had been only slightly marred earlier by Fang’s waking from a stupor induced by consuming a large bowl of leftovers, and fixing his teeth into Grant’s ankle, like a small, furry piranha. He’d been banished to the car after that, in disgrace.