A House to Mend a Broken Heart

by Sherlock, Alison

  Megan looked horrified. ‘Oh God! Don’t let him sack me! You’re the only people I see during daylight hours that don’t cry when Peppa Pig isn’t on the TV. I know I’m a rubbish cleaner, but please don’t send me home. These two mornings are so precious to me. I swear I’ll batter myself to death with Barnaby’s Captain America shield if I have to be at home every day of the week.’

  Annie gave her friend’s arm a reassuring squeeze. ‘It’s OK. Breathe. I know I owe you for getting me this job in the first place. Or rather lying to get me this job.’

  Megan shrugged her shoulders. ‘What are friends for. Anyway, they needed someone to step in at short notice and you’d just rung me to say that you were fed up with sailing around the world.’

  ‘Maybe I should have just stayed away,’ said Annie, feeling gloomy as she stared around the large room.

  ‘Rubbish,’ Megan told her, sitting on the edge of a threadbare sofa. ‘You hated those cruise ships in the last few years. I could hear it in your voice. It was time to stop running and come home.’

  Annie glanced around to make sure that Sam, in particular, wasn’t there before leaning in to whisper, ‘Perhaps I should just own up.’

  ‘No way,’ said Megan, with a firm shake of her head. ‘That won’t do any good. Rose and Arthur want you here and that’s the end of it. So what if you haven’t got any qualifications?’

  Annie wasn’t convinced, especially as it was the exact same reason that Megan had given her almost a year ago when she had persuaded her to apply for the vacant housekeeper position.

  ‘But I was only a chambermaid on the ships,’ Annie reminded her.

  ‘I do miss getting all those photos from you,’ sighed Megan. ‘Sydney. New York. Those islands in the Caribbean. So glamorous!’

  Annie rolled her eyes, knowing that the life of a staff member working on a cruise ship was vastly different to the luxurious time that the paying customers enjoyed. But she could still remember sending each picture message to Megan from wherever she was in the world. After all, she had been one of only two friends that Annie had allowed herself to keep in latter years. Only Megan and Eleanor had been any support during her teenage years when her home life had been a nightmare.

  ‘Have you heard from Eleanor recently?’ she asked.

  Megan shook her head. ‘Only a few texts since the summer. Living the high life in London, I should think. Glad one of us made it.’

  ’’Well, she was always the one most likely to succeed at her job,’ said Annie. ‘She was the hard-working swot whilst we gossiped about Take That at the back of the class.’

  ‘I never did get to marry Robbie Williams,’ said Megan with a sigh.

  ‘It’ll be nice to catch up with her properly at Christmas when she comes back for the holidays. Right,’ declared Annie, straightening her shoulders. ‘Time to stop procrastinating. Let’s get this place looking better.’

  Normally, Megan just swept the hallway and stairs . There just wasn’t time to keep up with all the dust in a massive house like Willow Tree Hall. Especially when Rose needed dropping off at various lunch appointments and Arthur required help with some of the tenants. But Annie knew that standards had slipped and she was determined to prove that she was the best housekeeper for the job.

  Because it had been left so long, it took them all morning to dust and clean the drawing room and entrance hall.

  Just as Megan had left, Beryl arrived to take Rose out to lunch before they went onto the hospital to see Arthur at visiting time. They had become close friends since Rose had moved back into the Hall a few years previously. Although Beryl’s quiet life as a cook in their tiny village was in marked contrast to Rose’s fabulous life of travel, fashion, four husbands and endless suitors.

  Annie invited Beryl in for a cup of tea in the kitchen and had just poured one out when Beryl looked over her shoulder with a start before breaking into a wide smile. ‘Mr Samuel!’ she said, clutching her chest in shock. ‘Goodness me! It’s been a while.’

  Sam walked across the kitchen to give Beryl a brief hug. Annie was surprised at his show of affection, but then Beryl had probably known him since he was a baby.

  ‘Bless my soul!’ carried on Beryl. ‘You look just like your father and, of course, the Earl. Not so much Mr William, of course. He has your mother’s features.’

  Sam shuffled awkwardly under her scrutiny. Annie wondered how long it had been since anyone had mentioned his parents to him.

  ‘And how is Arthur doing?’ asked Beryl, still sizing Sam up and down.

  ‘Tired. He’s on a drip for the pain but that should begin to ease at some point,’ said Sam. ‘But he’s got quite a few weeks yet until he’s able to come home.’

  ‘But you’re staying on in the meantime, aren’t you?’ said Beryl in a hopeful tone.

  Sam shook his head. ‘I’ve got to head off in the next couple of days. I’ve an important couple of meetings in New York.’

  ‘So good they named it twice,’ cooed Rose, entering the kitchen. ‘Of course, it’s nothing like it was in the seventies. Darlings, the tales I could tell would make your hair curl! I remember there was one night in Studio 24 when Hugh Hefner cornered me in the ladies’ washroom and brought out his…’

  ‘We should probably get going,’ said Beryl, quickly cutting off her friend’s story for the benefit of everyone else in the kitchen.

  ‘Send Arthur my love,’ said Annie. ‘I’ll visit him tomorrow.’

  ‘Of course.’ Rose nodded before turning to face Sam. ‘Oh and by the way, I’ve been thinking about our little money problem. How about I give you one of my rings, dear?’ She held out her hand where a large emerald glinted in the light of the single bulb hanging overhead.

  Sam’s shoulders fell as he sighed heavily. ‘Aunty, you can’t sell your jewellery.’

  ‘What else is one to do with it all?’ said Rose with a shrug. ‘Oh, it’s not that sentimental, if that’s what you’re thinking. The gentleman in question broke off our engagement once word got out that his maid was pregnant. The scandal! Well, it was the 1950s. Not that those kind of things matter anymore.’ She glanced from Sam to Annie. ‘Take you two, for instance. There’d be no prejudice these days in a future earl and housekeeper getting together.’

  Annie blushed bright red at the unexpected thought of her and Sam having any kind of romance. From his startled expression, he was thinking the same thing.

  ‘Just keep the ring for now,’ carried on Rose, slipping it off her finger and placing it on the table. ‘And there are plenty more in the jewellery box where that came from. Toodle-oo, my darlings.’

  Sam sighed and slipped the ring into his trouser pocket.

  Annie used the excuse to see them off, if only for the fresh air at the front door to cool down her still glowing cheeks.

  Rose and her extravagant ways had completely missed the mark. There was no way she would ever think of Sam in a romantic kind of way. She had rarely thought of anyone like that. Romance had been discouraged between staff and guests on the high seas. She had managed to sneak in the odd, brief love affair, but there had been no one significant until him. But it had been two years since she had seen him. She had followed him around the world on the internet, of course. Praying that by some miracle he would somehow track her down, but he never had.

  But she hadn’t given up hope. She was certain that sometime, somewhere, she would see him again.

  Chapter 9

  Later that day, Annie glanced out of the entrance hall window as a grubby, battered van with the faded lettering KFC Jacobs bounced down the long driveway. It squealed to a stop in a puff of acrid smoke.

  She watched as Sam walked outside to meet the builder. Apparently Kevin Jacobs had given him quite a low quote over the phone for the repair work so that appeared to have made his mind up to hire him.

  Going to stand at the open front door, she shivered in the cold air. The temperature had dropped sharply now that the rain had stopped.

  �
�You must be Mr Jacobs,’ said Sam, holding out his hand.

  ‘Call me Kevin,’ said the builder, flicking the end of his cigarette butt onto the gravel driveway.

  Annie frowned at his casual littering. Kevin was older than she had expected him to be, as well as appearing unfit with his huge beer belly and bad complexion. Perhaps he didn’t do any of the manual labour himself, she thought.

  The builder swaggered straight past her and into the hallway. ‘Well, this is in a bit of mess, ain’t it?’ he declared.

  He then went around the house, nodding thoughtfully to himself but making no notes. Annie automatically followed behind him and Sam as they went from room to room.

  They finished their tour back in the entrance hall.

  ‘So? What do you think?’ asked Sam.

  ‘Well,’ said Kevin, scratching his belly with nicotine-stained fingernails. ‘It’s in a pretty bad way, innit? You’ve got dry rot, cracked pipes, dodgy plumbing and that’s not even starting on the roof which needs totally replacing. Your windows are shot and the whole thing needs rewiring. Look, it might be better to knock it down and rebuild the whole thing.’

  Annie was aghast. ‘Over my dead body!’ she spluttered.

  Sam shot her a stern look before turning back to face the builder. ‘That’s not an option. Unfortunately,’ he added under his breath.

  Kevin shrugged his shoulders. ‘Just a suggestion.’

  ‘As you can see, it’s a rush job which you said you were able to take on at short notice,’ said Sam.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Kevin. ‘No worries. My men’ll get it all sorted in no time,’ Kevin announced, glancing back across the front lawn. ‘What about that old tree? We could always chop that down and put in a swimming pool?’

  ‘You can’t get rid of the willow tree,’ snapped Annie. ‘It’s been here as long as the Hall.’

  She would be prepared to chain herself to its trunk if that’s what it took.

  Sam sighed. ‘For once, we actually agree about something.’ He looked back at Kevin. ‘OK, so nobody touches the willow tree. But when can you start on the house?’

  ‘Monday, guvnor. If that’s OK with your good self?’

  Annie thought it an odd sign that the builder had no jobs at the present time and could start right away. He was worryingly vacant in both mind and work.

  But Sam didn’t appear to be concerned, merely relieved. ‘That’s great. Annie is the housekeeper here. She’ll be available to answer any questions as I’m going to be out of the country for a while.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Kevin, giving Annie a leering once-over.

  She gave an internal shudder, all of her intuition on high alert.

  ‘On the phone we discussed a ballpark figure for the total cost of restoration,’ said Sam.

  Kevin scratched his protruding stomach once more. ‘Yeah, I know but it’s gonna be impossible to give you an exact figure at this stage now that I’ve seen the place. I mean, how many rooms are we talking about?’

  Sam frowned. ‘All of them.’

  ‘Ten bedrooms and five bathrooms upstairs,’ added Annie, counting up on her fingers. ‘Then there’s the kitchen, dining room, sitting room, study, drawing room, music room, library, ballroom and main entrance hall.’

  Kevin sniffed. ‘Tell you what, let’s see how we get on and I can bill you week by week, if you like.’

  ‘How long do you think the work will take?’ asked Annie, dreading the answer.

  Christmas was only just over three months away and her plan was for everything to be mended and absolutely perfect. After all, her job and future depended on it.

  ‘Hard to say,’ said Kevin, giving her a wide beam of crooked teeth. ‘But we’ll be here first thing on Monday morning. Why don’t you give me 10k to be starting with? That should get us through the first week.’

  Annie frowned, although she wasn’t sure of the correct procedure when dealing with workmen. Did you really pay money up front before knowing what the work exactly entailed?

  Kevin the builder left with the first cheque in his jacket pocket although he had stated that he preferred cash normally.

  Annie turned to look at Sam. ‘Don’t you think that perhaps we should get some references from Mr Jacobs’ other clients before the building work commences?’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said Sam, flicking through the emails on his mobile. ‘It needs to be sorted as soon as possible. Besides, what can possibly go wrong?’

  Annie sighed and tried not to make a mental list as to how everything could actually go very wrong indeed.

  ‘Look, have you checked that all of this is OK with Arthur?’ she prompted, desperate for Sam to pay attention to her concerns.

  Only then did he raise his head to look at her. ‘We can’t worry Grandad about this now. I think he’s got enough on his plate, don’t you? He needs to recover in peace and quiet. Anyway, I’m quite capable of hiring a builder without anyone else’s help.’ He brought a business card out of his wallet and handed it to her. ‘Whilst I remember, here’s my mobile number. You can update me on the building progress when it starts.’

  As Annie took the card, her phone bleeped with a text message to say that Beryl had found Arthur in relatively good spirits and that she and Rose were having dinner together at the cottage.

  She glanced out of the entrance hall window and realised that it was now early evening. The sky was growing darker, streaked with pink as the fading sun lay low on the horizon.

  As she went to switch on the main light in the darkening entrance hall, it came on briefly but then switched off almost immediately. That was followed by the other light, which she had already switched on in the east wing, also going out. Concerned, she headed towards the kitchen. Thankfully, even in the semi-darkness she could find her way down the steps. Frowning, she flicked both light switches up and down. But the lights remained resolutely off. And the ancient fridge in the corner had rattled to a halt leaving only the sound of Sam’s footsteps following behind her.

  ‘Any ideas where the fuse box is?’ he asked.

  Annie showed him into the dark pantry which was just behind the kitchen. It housed the ancient boiler and various fuse boxes. Sam studied each fuse by holding up the torch on his iPhone, but his fiddling came to no avail.

  ‘I don’t understand it,’ he said. ‘Does the electricity trip often?’

  Annie shook her head. ‘It’s never done so before,’ she told him and then had a horrid thought. ‘Oh no,’ she muttered.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Do you think your grandad forgot to pay the bill?’ she stammered. ‘I think I saw a red bill arrive a few weeks ago.’

  She braced herself for Sam’s disapproval as a long silence stretched out between them. Eventually he said, ‘That probably would help.’

  A quick phone call from Sam’s mobile to the electricity company confirmed that they had indeed been cut off. He paid the bill over the telephone and apparently it would be switched back on within the following twenty-four hours but for now they had to cope without electricity.

  Annie had managed to find a double candlestick on the entrance hall table. It had only ever been ornamental, but at least it meant the candles could be lit and used.

  Sam came into the drawing room as Annie lit a few more candles.

  ‘Well, I’ve always like camping, he said.

  To her surprise, a smile played at the corners of his mouth. It made him look younger than his normal grumpy expression.

  ‘The final bill must have been amongst all those brown envelopes in the study,’ Annie told him.

  ‘You don’t deal with them?’

  She shook her head. ‘Arthur likes to be in charge of paperwork.’ She hesitated before adding, ‘Although he’s been getting a bit more muddled with it all recently.’

  Sam nodded sadly. ‘Well, at least we can get the fire going and keep warm in here. How about ordering a takeaway for dinner?’

  They ate their pizzas in front of a roaring fire, st
raight out of the delivery boxes. Annie was surprised that Sam was so relaxed about not wanting a proper dinner.

  He shrugged his shoulders when she mentioned it. ‘I get sick of fancy dinners in hotels and restaurants,’ he told her. ‘Sometimes I just want beans on toast in front of the TV.’

  ‘I can buy you some when I do the next food shop, if you want,’ she replied.

  ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘By the way, is there a housekeeping account that you can dip into whilst I’m away? From what I’ve seen, we need all manner of things.’

  She closed the pizza box and avoided his steady gaze. ‘Like what?’

  ‘Firelighters and matches, for a start. Diet Coke. Some towels that aren’t completely threadbare would be nice.’ He stopped recounting his list and studied her. ‘What?’

  Annie hung her head. ‘There is an account.’

  He caught her hesitation. ‘But?’

  ‘There’s nothing in it.’

  ‘Shall I phone the police and get you charged with embezzlement?’ he asked.

  She looked up quickly; ready to give him a sharp retort, when she saw the smile on his face.

  ‘It’s OK,’ he told her. ‘Only kidding. I’ll make sure the account is topped up.’

  For a second Annie relaxed in his company. Then she remembered that he wanted her out of a job and out of the hall and placed her mental barriers back up once more.

  *

  Sam found it strange that he was having trouble tearing himself away from Willow Tree Hall when he had been so reluctant to come back in the first place.

  Sitting in front of the fire with Annie, he watched the flames lick up the side of the fireplace. Yes, it was cosy by the hearth. But once the builder had been, he could have easily ordered a taxi to London that night. Then he would have been in his flat with all the modern necessities, such as heating and electricity. To say that his ancestral home was lacking in such things was a severe understatement. He was still trying to take in the poor state of the house. It was draughty, cold and felt damp. There was no broadband. No Netflix. No modern luxuries at all.

  Sam realised that the worst thing was probably the silence. Where was the background music? The TV? Even the hum of traffic? He didn’t remember it being this quiet when he was younger. Of course back then, there had been far more servants around the place.