by Abbie Walton
“Here you go. It will be far too big for you of course – it’ll probably be more like a dress to you, but this is the only size I have.
“This will be fine. I’ll wash it and drop it back to you tomorrow, of course.”
“Oh good heavens! Don’t bother going to all that trouble. I hardly ever wear white shirts these days, so you may as well keep it.
For some reason, it struck Kate that there hadn’t been any white towels in the cupboard either, now that she thought it about. Mustn’t be a fan of white then, she thought – and then immediately remembered the new white tiling in one of the rooms. Hmm, this was very confusing. There was no time to dwell on it though, as the less time she spent out in the hallway with only a towel to cover her top half the better. Given the luck she seemed to be having that evening, there would be a sudden wardrobe malfunction and the next thing she knew her girls would be venturing out on an unauthorized escapade.
“Oh, right. Well, if you don’t mind – thanks very much.” Kate returned to the safety of the bathroom and put the shirt on. It was, of course, too big. But it was clean and dry and that was all that mattered. She noticed it had a faint but noticeable smell about it, some type of aftershave in all probability. It was a bit strange to be wearing a man’s shirt, but it felt sexy somehow, as if there was some kind of connection between them because of it.
Kate headed downstairs to find Colin sitting quietly on the couch in the living room. With a chivalry that Kate wasn’t at all used to, but quite enjoyed, he stood up politely as she entered the room. Kate had to make a quick decision where to sit and decided not to sit next to him on the couch, but instead opted for the rocking chair that was next to the fireplace. This would have been fine, except that Kate was a little eager to sit down, perhaps because she was still slightly nervous. True to its name, the rocking chair rocked and with such violence that the whole thing almost toppled backwards, leaving Kate clutching the arms of the chair as though she was on a roller-coaster ride.
The astonished look on her face caused Colin to burst into gales of laughter, and that caused Kate to laugh as well. It was a good ice-breaker.
“Sorry, I should have warned you about that chair. It’s a little enthusiastic.”
“A little? You should get a bloody seatbelt installed on it.”
“I promise I will look into that very thing as soon as I can tomorrow morning.”
“Bugger you will. I’m sure health and safety isn’t at the top of your to-do list tomorrow.”
“True, true.”
“So…what are you doing tomorrow, then? I don’t think you ever got around to telling me what you do for a living.”
“Well…I actually work in food commodities…”
“Commodities?”
“Yes…coffee, beans, milk products, sugars, oats…stuff like that.”
“Buying and selling?”
“Well…I suppose that there’s more buying involved than selling, really…?”
Kate found that a bit of a puzzling statement. If there was more buying than selling, then what happened to it? But the topic of conversation had reminded her of something she had seen earlier.
“Oh, I see you’ve applied to keep pigs and poultry in your back yard. What’s that all about? Moving into production rather than sourcing, are you?”
Colin seemed too surprised to speak to be able to provide an instant answer. “How on earth did you know that?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out. Actually, it’s not rocket science. Your planning application was posted on the parish noticeboard, as per the regulations. I just happened to notice it as I walked by.”
“Right…of course…I suppose it would be. Looks like it’s going to be hard to keep a secret around here. There’s no secret about it actually, I just thought it would be fun to have a go at doing.”
“Really? You don’t look the type, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Oh, yeah! It’s not the sort of thing you could ever do in the middle of London. There’s barely enough room for a pet rabbit, never mind anything else. You remember that sitcom from the Seventies – ‘The Good Life’?
“Oh that one with Richard Briers in it…and Penelope Keith? Bit before my time that one, but I’ve seen a couple of repeats.
“Hang on! It’s a bit before my time too – how bloody old do you think I am? Wait, don’t answer that question! Anyway, I’ve always fancied giving it a try, being self-sufficient - or at least partly self-sufficient anyway. Now I’ve got a big back yard, I thought now was the time to try it.
“Well, good luck to you. It’ll be like the bloody Archers around here by the time you’re done. Rather you than me though. Pigs? Ugh! Smelly, ugly creatures…
“But there is one word that makes all the difference…”
“Bacon?”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll get my bacon from the Spa, if you don’t mind. Much less mud and muck involved.”
“Where there’s muck there’s brass. Isn’t that what they say around these parts? It makes perfect sense to me. People will be queuing up for my bangers this time next year!”
Kate did not get an opportunity to reply to that bold prediction, as the phone rang loudly right next to her, making her jump slightly. Colin looked at his watch and jumped to his feet in alarm. “So sorry, I completely lost track of the time. I just have to take this call from an important customer of mine. I’ll need to take it in my office. I’ll only be five minutes.” With that, Colin hurried off upstairs, making a tremendous noise as he bounded up the stairs in a bid to reach the phone before the customer hung up. He was obviously successful as Kate could soon hear the low murmur of Colin having a conversation with whoever was on the other end of the line. It was a strange time to be conducting a business call, Kate thought.
She also realised that there was now an opportunity to do a bit of exploring downstairs, as she had been able to do upstairs. Holding her breath, she started to make her way towards the kitchen. She picked up her empty mug, just in case she needed an excuse as to why she had gone into the kitchen. What other strange things did Ashton House contain?
CHAPTER FIVE: A DATE FOR THE DIARY
If there was anything else strange in the house, then it did not appear to be in the kitchen. It looked, at first glance, exactly like a bachelor’s kitchen normally does. None of those little touches that you find in a cook’s kitchen, just the basic necessities. A microwave, a stove and a fridge. A bloody huge fridge though, it had to be said. You could store enough food to feed half an army in that. Kate could not resist opening the fridge door to see what was inside. The answer was eggs. Not just a dozen eggs, not even a couple of dozen, there must have been a dozen dozen in there. Kate’s mind instantly went to a piece of trivia that had secretly lodged in her brain as trivia often dozen – a dozen dozen’s was actually called a gross. No wonder he wanted to keep hens if that was how many eggs he ate. But surely, one man could never eat so many eggs? Perhaps they were for a dinner party?
Kate closed the door and moved as quietly as possible towards the back of the kitchen. There was a doorway there, but instead of a door, there was one of those ugly hanging bead things that Kate had assumed had become extinct in people’s houses a very long time ago. Surely Colin had not brought this with him when he moved in? It was hideous. It was also, thought Kate, bound to be very noisy to get through if she wasn’t very careful. But she simply had to know what was behind the curtain. At first, she simply peeked inside. However, it was too dark to see much at all. It seemed to be a storage area with no windows in it, so Kate felt brave enough to take the plunge and sidle through it as best she could. She flicked on the light switch for no more than a second to take a quick glance at what was inside.
Her eyes and brain could only take in so much in such a short space of time, but she registered that the room was full of large, mainly white, containers, and there were also trays of tins, although she couldn’t quite see what they we
re tins of. Throwing all caution to the wind, she lifted the lid of the nearest container. With the light off again, she could not see what the substance was, but the smell gave it away. It was tomato sauce, or something very like it. There was a lifetime’s supply in there. Why on earth did Colin have this here? Kate assumed that it had some connection with the food commodities that he had talked about – but was ketchup a commodity?
With that thought in her head, Kate could hear Colin coming down the stairs. Thankfully, he was still on the phone, wrapping up the conversation, so he descended relatively slowly. It gave her the chance to deposit the mug noisily in the sink and walk back into the living room just as Colin did.
“I thought I would be a good guest and put my mug in the sink for you”, said Kate, keen to make sure that Colin understood what she had been doing.
“It will probably stay there for the next week, I’m afraid. I hate doing the washing up. Sorry about having to leave you just then. It was a call I had to take. That customer isn’t easy to get hold of and I needed to finalise some arrangements.”
“Don’t worry about it…it must be something important if it needs sorting out at this time of night.”
“Well, it’s more to do with the fact that the customer is Japanese, so there’s a time difference of course. Plus he does a lot of travelling – he seems to spend half his life on a plane.”
“Rather him than me. I don’t know how people do it, being away from their home and their families all the time, especially if they have kids.”
“I quite agree, Kate. If I ever had kids, then I’d try and be home as much as possible, that’s definite.”
“So you don’t have any kids yet, then?”
“Good grief, no! I’d have to find a woman crazy enough to have them with me first, and that’s proving to be quite a challenge in itself!”
“Oh, give over, a handsome man like you? I bet you have candidates falling over themselves.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Falling over themselves to get out of the door, is more like it. Maybe I will have more luck up here than I did in London. Most of the women there are a bit too up themselves in my opinion. I prefer someone a bit more down-to-earth, someone that doesn’t mind if they have a hair out of place or doesn’t have a nervous breakdown if they get caught out in the rain.”
“Well, you’re in the right neck of the woods! Lots of down-to-earth everywhere you look around here.”
“Not quite everywhere, not where I am looking at the moment, for example.” This was the second time that evening that Colin had made a comment like that. These were no obscure hints, these were full-on chat-up lines. Once again, Kate decided to play it straight.
“You’re joking aren’t you? I bet I look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards.”
“Well beauty is much more than skin deep as they say. But enough of my feeble flattery for one night; I’ve kept you from your warm bath for long enough! Can I give you a lift home and you can pick the bike up tomorrow morning?”
“Well, thanks for the offer, but you’ve forgotten one very important thing.”
“Have I? What?”
“Your car’s broken down, remember? That’s why I am here in the first place.” Colin smiled sheepishly at his brain fart.
“Of course! How could I have forgotten that already? I’m always forgetting stuff – brain like a sieve. You wouldn’t like to come and work for me, would you? I need someone to keep me organized.”
“Oh, I doubt you’d be able to afford my rates. Plus, how could I afford to sacrifice my promising career at the Red Lion? That’s a lot to ask you know.”
Colin could tell that Kate was taking the mick out of herself, but he didn’t feel quite confident enough to join in the joke at that point and make some similarly disparaging remark about her job. It was the kind of think that could spectacularly backfire. Instead he used the reference as an opportunity to make a proposal.
“Speaking of the Red Lion…I’ve been thinking a little bit about that, actually. Can’t you call in sick tomorrow? You have had an accident, after all, and surely someone who has been through something like that deserves some time to recuperate? I was thinking we could go out for a leisurely lunch - take it as something of an apology on my part. What do you think?
Kate thought two things - that it sounded very much like a date invite and that it was an excellent idea. No disrespect to the patrons of the Red Lion, but lunch with Colin Love was always going to be a more appealing prospect. However, as she quickly considered the idea, she reluctantly had to deal with reality. It was all well and good taking a day off, but that meant that she would lose a day’s pay. There was no such thing as sickness benefits at the Red Lion, of course. Heck, she always got paid in cash under the table. Even though she was only paid buttons, as her dad described it, that was only going make her ends even more difficult to meet. She was already, as she recalled with a stab of both guilt and embarassment, two months in arrears on her student loan and she was absolutely determined that this would not turn into three. With a huge amount of reluctance, she knew what the right thing to do was.
“Well, that sounds a great idea…”
“I can hear a ‘but’ coming…”
“Yes…well…” Kate paused as she wrestled with deciding whether to come clean and admit that she simply couldn’t afford to take a day off. “The thing is that I’ve already agreed to go out with my best friend for lunch tomorrow, and it wouldn’t be fair to let her down at short notice.”
“No, absolutely! I quite understand.” Colin may have understood but it was clear from the look on his face that he was disappointed and also possibly slightly skeptical that Kate was being completely upfront with him.
“But…”
“I told you there was a ‘but’ coming…!”
“It’s a good ‘but’, not a bad ‘but’ though. I was wondering if you’d be willing to exchange that invitation for another one, but for dinner this time, say the day after tomorrow? I’m working the early shift, so I will be free.”
“I would be delighted! Time and place?”
“Err…God, my mind’s gone a complete blank.”
“Afraid I can’t help you here. I have no idea what restaurants there are around here. I can’t imagine you’re spoiled for choice, though.”
“No, not exactly….do you like Indian?”
“Love it…”
“OK, then. There’s a pretty decent Indian restaurant in Warpeth. It’s only about 10 minutes’ drive away.
“Sounds perfect to me. And what time? About 7.30 O.K.?
“Yeah, that would be fine. Would you be able to pick me up?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t expect you to come here on your bike! I’m going to call the RAC first thing tomorrow and I am sure they will have the car fixed by mid-afternoon at the latest. You’ll need to give me your address though, if you don’t mind. I promise I won’t stalk you in the middle of the night.”
“Fair enough. Have you got a pen and paper? I’ll write it down for you. I’ll give you my mobile number as well, just in case.”
“Super, thanks…”
“Oh! By the way, there was something I meant to ask you.”
“Yes?”
“Have you got any plans for a housewarming party? It’s just that there’s a rumour in the village that you are.”
“Oh, there is, is there? How in the world did that rumour start?”
Kate did not want to drop her best friend in it by effectively telling Colin that the Spa was gossiping about one of its customers.
“Oh, you know what small places like this are like. Everyone is always talking and poking their noses into other people’s business.”
“Hmm…that was one of the reasons why I moved up here, to get away from annoying people. Not that any of the people around here are annoying, of course!” he hastily corrected. “Anyway, I hereby confirm that there is absolutely no substance to that particular rumour. The thought never eve
n entered my head, although I can see why it would be a nice idea in theory. Still, sounds like far too much work as far as I’m concerned.”
Kate was absolutely dying to ask Colin why he had bought all the custard and why he had so many eggs in his fridge, not to mention a vat of ketchup. But she just couldn’t bring herself to ask – she vowed that she would get to the bottom of this over dinner though.
“That’s a shame. I bet there will be a few people who will be disappointed there isn’t a chance of a free feed.”
“I’m dreadfully sorry about that, but I never gave any indication that it was on the cards, did I? Anyway, I would have thought the locals wouldn’t want to set foot inside this place. As a matter of fact, I was surprised that you have.”
“Well, my psychology training has taught me the value over mind over matter. I must admit I did think about it but I have the mental strength to put what happened here to the back of my mind. As for everybody else…well, it all happened a fair while ago now and, besides, there is probably a bit of a macabre fascination about the place that people are drawn to…especially when they can get some food out of going…”
“I suppose you’re right. So you’re a psychologist are you? I’ll have to be careful then, or else you will have me on the coach and analysing me to death before I know what hits me. I’m not sure you really want to find out what makes me tick!
“And that’s where you’re dead wrong, Mr Love!” thought Kate to herself. There was something very mysterious about him that she was determined to discover. She didn’t think it was anything particularly sinister, although she could be wrong. But there was something strange and different about Colin Love.
Kate had a lot to chew on as she cycled home that evening. It was fortunate that her parents had gone to bed by the time she arrived home, as that meant she avoided any awkward questions about her bedraggled appearance and unusual attire. Not that there was anything particular to hide, it was just something she would rather not talk about as it was bound to lead to a motherly interrogation as to who this Love fellow was, and whether he could be trusted. At this point, Kate, even though she had signed up to a dinner date in less than 48 hours couldn’t give a totally definite answer on that point.
