by T A Williams
‘Still, if he had gone off to war, you probably wouldn’t be here now.’ Mrs Tinker shot her a weak smile, pulled herself together and stood up.
‘If you’ve got a moment, there’s something through here that might interest you.’ She led Alice into the sitting room, where there was a bookcase along one wall. Mrs Tinker pointed to the bottom shelf. It was filled with volumes about the Great War. ‘Those belonged to my father. He read all of them. It’s a shame he’s no longer with us. He would have been able to answer all your questions about that time.’
Alice stared, wide-eyed, at the hoard of books, then looked up at Mrs Tinker. ‘Do you think I could read some of these? It’s an amazing collection.’
‘Of course you can. Take as many as you like. He would be pleased to know that you young ones are still interested after all these years.’
They returned to the warmth of the kitchen. It had been chilly in the other room. With clear skies, the nights were still cold, although spring was bursting out all over.
Alice went down to the King’s Arms for dinner. She told herself sternly that once she had got her own house, she would have to stop eating out. What was it she had said to Danny about slobbing out?
She brought her iPad with her to the pub, anxious to carry on with her research. She ordered a mineral water and a salad. Just because I’m in a pub, it doesn’t mean I can’t still have good, healthy food, she told herself. She checked her e-mails, but there was just the invoice for the clean-up at number 23 Lyndhurst Avenue. As the surveyor had said, it was more than expected, but she had no regrets.
The pub was crowded and she recognised a few of the faces around her from the previous times she had been there. There was no sign of the vicar or Daniel Tremayne, but a couple of young men gave her welcoming smiles. She began to feel a bit more cheerful. The fact that they were all ten or fifteen years younger than her gave her a lift. Maybe there was life in the old dog yet. Thought of the old dog made her think of Danny the Labrador. He really was a good dog. She was smiling at his memory when her iPad bleeped. It was an e-mail from Sally.
Hi Alice
I hope you don’t get this email until tomorrow because you are out with your handsome vicar tonight. Make sure you don’t tire him out too much. Tomorrow is his busiest day of the week, after all.
If you do get this tonight, you have my sympathy. The man must be gay or an idiot to ignore you. Mind you, life on a vicar’s stipend isn’t going to be easy, so cast your net wider. Remember what they say about fish in the sea.
XXX
Sal
Alice smiled as she read the message. She ordered a herbal tea and decided she had better set the record straight.
Thanks for thinking of me, Sal, and, no, I’m not out with the vicar. Which is probably just as well as she is a very nice lady called Megan. My mystery man isn’t the vicar after all. He’s the local landowner and he’s very handsome. You never know, I might get a ride on his tractor yet.
XXX
Alice
She debated for a minute whether to remove the tractor remark but, in the end, left it. Sally would only come out with it or something similar or smuttier otherwise. She pressed Send and found herself wondering how Daisy the cow was getting on.
Chapter 14
Alice met the surveyor on Monday afternoon. She was greatly relieved upon entering the house to find the chemical smell almost gone. More importantly, the smell upstairs was far less noticeable than before. Nevertheless, Peter picked it up immediately.
‘I’m going to draw up a list of action I feel needs to be taken to render this place habitable. I think it would be wise to rip up the floorboards in both bedrooms and the bathroom and replace them. It won’t be a major expense and it will get rid of any lingering memories of the former owner.’ He caught her eye and they both grimaced.
‘And the ceilings down below?’ Alice knew the answer before he said it.
‘They’ll have to come down. The plaster in the dining room looks as if it’s only being held in place by the donkey’s breakfast.’
‘Donkey’s breakfast?’ This was a new one to Alice. He gave her a smile.
‘Sorry, the proper name is woodchip wallpaper. Builders always refer to it as donkey’s breakfast because it’s made up of wheat and chaff between two layers of paper. It’s gone out of fashion these days so if you replace the ceilings you won’t have to worry about stripping it off.’
They walked around the house and decided to remove the back wall of the dining room and open it into the kitchen, making a good-sized kitchen diner. Upstairs Peter came up with the idea of splitting the big bedroom and creating a new, smaller bathroom. By so doing, the former bathroom became bedroom number three. He brought in a ladder and climbed into the roof space. Alice left him to get on with it. His parting words were that he would e-mail her his surveyor’s report before the end of the week.
It was another fine, dry day so, after he’d gone, Alice decided to leave her car outside the house and walk into town along the river. The footpath snaked down through the trees until the river widened and ran out into the sea. At this point she turned off onto the promenade and walked along, parallel to the beach. There were a few hardy souls sitting out in the chilly April sunshine. A host of dogs more or less supervised by their owners were having a wonderful time running and playing. Alice wondered whether Danny the dog ever came down here. A few windsurfers were out, but the gentle breeze was not really enough to power them. She paused to read a poster attached to a lamp post.
UK Windsurfing Competition Weekend
Beauchamp-by-the-Sea
14th to 17th June 2013
She looked back out to sea. The few hesitant learners out there were definitely not going to be taking part in that competition.
‘Hello again, Alice. Are you having your afternoon constitutional?’
She wheeled round. It was Megan, the vicar of Woodcombe.
Alice noticed that the vicar was dressed in sailing boots and a waterproof jacket. She had a bit of colour in her face and looked all the better for it. ‘Hello, Megan, have you been sailing? Is that your hobby?’
‘Well, I do enjoy messing about in boats, when I get the chance, but this afternoon I’ve been working.’ Alice gave her a quizzical look, so Megan explained. ‘One of my parishioners died a couple of weeks back. He asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea, so we’ve been out doing that this afternoon.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘It’s pretty chilly out there on the water.’
‘Would a cup of tea and a cake warm you up?’ Alice pointed across the road to the Sea View Café. ‘My treat.’
‘I like the sound of that. Thank you, Alice, I would love to.’
They crossed the road and managed to get a table by the window. The view along the beach to the red cliffs beyond was delightful.
‘So, how are things?’ Megan sat back and enjoyed the warmth in there.
‘Good. Very good, in fact.’ Alice went on to tell her what the surveyor had said. ‘All in all, it doesn’t look like there’s anything too wrong with the house structurally. But he says it is definitely dry rot. He’ll get a firm in to give an estimate for treating it. It sounds like we’ll have to do quite a bit of replastering, but he says it’s not terminal.’
‘Where’s the house?’
‘Lyndhurst Avenue. Do you know it?’
Megan looked up and nodded. ‘I know it quite well, actually.’
‘It’s a really nice quiet road. I really think I might move in there once it’s finished.’
‘Well, we’ll miss you in Woodcombe if you do. Of course, you could always sell it and buy somewhere in the village.’
Alice had been thinking about that for a few days now. Everybody in Woodcombe was so nice and friendly, but then, so were the neighbours she had met in Lyndhurst Avenue. ‘I know one thing for definite. London has had it, as far as I’m concerned. Wherever I end up, I reckon Devon is the place.’
‘Nobody waiting for you
in the big city?’
Alice shook her head. ‘That part of my life is all over now.’
‘What, nobody at all? I thought a lovely girl like you would be fighting them off.’
‘Not that young, Megan. I’m thirty-eight, you know.’
‘You look younger. But, have you really been buried in your job to the exclusion of all else? When’s the last time you went out on a date?’
Alice was momentarily nonplussed. The waitress arrived with their tea and a triple-decker cake tray. They chose a cake each and by the time she had left, Alice had had time to think about her answer. ‘I suppose it depends what you mean by “date”. I was taken out for dinner last Saturday by a friend from work.’ She hesitated. ‘But he’s not that sort of friend.’ Seeing something in the vicar’s eyes, she hastened to clarify. ‘No, I don’t mean he’s gay or anything. He’s going to rent my London flat while I am down here.’ She looked across the crockery to the vicar, whose expression was unconvinced.
‘Still, it sort of qualified as a date, didn’t it?’
Alice smiled. ‘That’s what Mrs Tinker said, but even if it was, he’s got a girlfriend. In fact she spent this weekend with him.’
‘You seem to know a lot about him.’ She was teasing now. ‘Anyway, apart from this sort-of-date, when was the last time you went out on a proper one?’
This took some calculating. ‘Do you know, Megan? I can’t really remember. Probably a couple of years ago…’ Her voice tailed off. Megan was quick to leap in and help out.
‘Still beats me. I tell you this, Alice, if you think you’ve got problems, try swapping places with me. The old dog collar is a real passion killer. One whiff of what I do for a living and members of the opposite sex are reaching for their car keys. Still,’ she took a bite of the cream éclair on her plate, ‘there’s more to life than men.’
Chapter 15
Alice returned to London in time for her car buying appointment with Danny. He arrived at her flat at ten o’clock on Thursday morning, bringing with him a briefcase full of car magazines, and a laptop. She waved him in and went off to fill the kettle. ‘Tea or coffee?’
‘Tea, please, Alice.’ He came through to the kitchen and watched as she made the tea. He enjoyed watching her and was close enough to smell her perfume. She looked as good as ever, and he was pleased to see some of the worry lines around her eyes had softened.
‘You know, Alice, you’re looking a lot more relaxed since the last time I saw you. Is that all down to fresh Devon air and manual work on your new house?’
‘Sort of.’ She put a tea bag in the pot and added the hot water. ‘I got the surveyor’s report last night. He reckons it isn’t going to cost as much as I feared to get it back into shape. Considering I paid so little for it in the first place, I might do all right after all.’
‘And you’ll move in there yourself when it’s done?’
‘That’s a tricky one.’ She went on to tell him how kind and welcoming she had found people down in Devon. She mentioned Danny the baby and Danny the dog, but still didn’t mention Daniel Tremayne.
‘So your next step will be to get a big black dog, I suppose?’ She noted that he made no mention of babies.
‘Your namesake is a very handsome dog, and he’s got a longer pedigree than I’ll ever have. As I’ll be living next door to him for the next six months, I’ll be able to borrow him when I get lonely.’
‘I can’t imagine you being lonely for long.’ She made no comment but poured the tea and carried the mugs through to the sitting room on a tray, along with a packet of biscuits.
He nodded towards them. ‘Not so worried about slobbing out on the couch after all?’
She gave him a smile and pushed them across. ‘I seem to be running around a lot these days. I may even have lost weight since leaving G&B.’ She glanced across at him. ‘You’re looking fit and well. Something or somebody doing you good?’
He ignored the reference to “somebody” and groaned. ‘I’m in training. I’ve been in the gym almost every day for the last God knows how long. When you phoned last Saturday, it was my first lie-in for weeks.’
She cut in before he could supply any more details about what he and the girl might or might not have been doing. ‘What’s all the training for?’
‘I was going to tell you. I’m going to be coming down to your neck of the woods in a few weeks’ time. There’s a big windsurfing event in Devon in June, in Beauchamp itself as it happens. There’s going to be a race for old-timers like me, and I’ve let myself get talked into competing.’
‘I saw the poster.’ As she said it, she had an image of a windsurfer, stripped to the waist, his perfect abs shiny with sweat, as the huge breakers pounded the beach behind him. She shook the picture out of her head and concentrated on Danny’s face. She was pleased to see that, unlike the baby and the dog, his eyes did not follow the movement of her hand as she nibbled at the biscuit. ‘Well, let me know when you are going to be there. I’ll come along and cheer. Come to think of it, I should have a spare room by then. It’s a bit small, but it would do you for a day or two.’
‘Thanks, Alice, that’s really kind. But I’ve booked a hotel for the two nights. Janie said she might come down, although somehow I doubt it.’
Alice decided to change the subject. She nodded towards his briefcase. ‘So, are you ready to give me a seminar on cars?’
He reached for the laptop. ‘Well, I’ve been doing a bit of research and I think I’ve come up with a solution to your problem.’ He pointed to the pile of magazines. ‘I’ve brought you some bedtime reading if you feel up to it.’ Something in her expression made it clear what she thought of car magazines. ‘No need for that. I suggest we take a trip to north London. The best place to go is a car supermarket.’
‘They really have those?’
‘They certainly do. Here, take a look at this.’ He showed her the website of a big car supermarket. ‘Just to give you an idea, if you want, say, a Volkswagen, they have…yes, seventy-five different cars. And that’s just one make. Unless you are dead set on a 1975 Ferrari with red leather interior, I think this is the way to go. They will have hundreds of nearly new cars there at discount prices. They’ll give you a guarantee, too. So, fancy a little trip to the suburbs?’
The trip to the suburbs was a great success. By one o’clock she had chosen a car and paid for it. Amazingly, they even arranged the insurance and told her it would be ready for collection at two o’clock. As they completed the paperwork, she turned to Danny.
‘Have you got time for lunch?’ Girlfriend in his flat or no girlfriend in his flat, she owed him a meal to say thank you.
‘I took the whole day off, so I’m at your disposal.’ He looked over at the salesman who had been dealing with them. ‘Anywhere close by we can get a bit of lunch?’
‘The King’s Arms is pretty good. It’s only a few hundred metres down that way.’ Alice reflected on yet another coincidence. She would be going to the King’s Arms with a man called Danny. Less than a week ago she had been in a pub of the same name with a different man of a similar name. All I need now is a baby and a Labrador.
The pub, which was more of a restaurant, was crowded, presumably with people who had come out from central London to the huge retail park behind the car supermarket. Alice bought drinks and ordered food, while Danny hunted round for somewhere to sit. All he could find was a small table in one corner where they were squeezed in side by side. He could feel her thigh against his as she sat down. He didn’t mind.
Alice tried to move her leg away from his, but it was such a tiny table that she had little choice. She gave up trying, admitting to herself that it was not an unpleasant sensation. While they waited for their food to be brought to them, she told him about the house and in more detail what the surveyor had said. He listened attentively.
‘So, what’s the next step? I suppose you’ve got to find yourself some builders. Any leads?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, Peter th
e Surveyor has recommended someone, a small family firm. He says he’s worked with them on various projects over the years. I’ll arrange a meeting next week.’ She suddenly realised she had left out the most important bit of news. ‘I’m sorry, Danny, with all this car business, I totally forgot to say: I phoned the removal people yesterday and, miraculously, they have got a spare slot next Tuesday. So, the flat is yours whenever you want it after that. I’ll get it cleaned for you on Thursday or Friday, so let’s say any time from next weekend. Of course, I suppose you have to give notice to your landlord. There’s no rush.’
He gave her a broad smile. ‘That’s fantastic. My landlord was delighted to hear that I was leaving.’ He glanced sideways at her. ‘It’s all right, future landlady, it’s not because I’m a terrible tenant. He is going through a divorce and he badly needs somewhere to stay. I know how that feels. So, if it’s OK with you, I reckon Saturday week would be great for all concerned.’
At that moment, the food arrived. An uncommunicative waiter laid two enormous plates of steak pie and chips in front of them and disappeared.
‘Sorry, Danny, there wasn’t a lot of choice. I know you aren’t veggie after what we ate the other night at the Tate Modern. Will this do?’
‘Excellent choice, though we’ll be doing well to get through all these chips. You might need to reinforce the couch if you plan on making this a regular feature of your diet.’
‘There’s a pub in the village where I’m living that does really good food. I’ll have to be strong-willed if I’m to avoid the feared slobbing out.’
‘I’ll be able to check you out when I come down for the windsurfing thing in June.’
‘Won’t you be tied up all weekend?’
‘No, as far as I know, my discipline will all take place on the Saturday. There’s a big dinner on the Saturday night, but apart from that, I should be free as a bird.’
