A Change for the Better? (19 page)

Continuing up the drive Katie got the chance to see the main house that had previously been obscured by the bend in the drive and the planting of a row of beech trees. Gasping as she saw it, Katie realised this was nothing like the type of home she had been expecting. In her head she had pictured some Victorian style house, all dark soot stained stone, with dark heavy curtains and an unwelcoming air. Instead there was a beautiful Georgian mansion painted ivory and looking like it had been dropped there straight out of a Jane Austen novel. Katie could almost hear the horse and carriage crunching over the gravel and fully expected a bobbing maid in a floppy mop cap to open the door as she pulled the bell as indicated by a polite notice next to it. In fact a very smartly dressed lady in a tweed skirt and pale yellow twinset opened the door and, disappointingly, she showed no sign that she was likely to bob a curtsey at any time, but she did greet Katie with a smile that
reached her pale grey eyes and illuminated her face and softened the edges of her angular jawline.

“Good morning, how can I help you?” she enquired in a deep velvet voice. Katie paused, she hadn’t thought through how to introduce herself and suddenly thought, rather belatedly she had to admit, that maybe you didn’t just tip up on the doorstep of a place like this, you probably had to make an appointment.

“Erm, well, I was wondering if I might be able to, erm, visit, to take a look at your home. My gran is in hospital and looking for a place to convalesce and she was particularly taken with Cheadle House, so I promised I’d come and take a look. But, of course, I should have made an appointment. It seems obvious now, but I was passing, if you could give me your number I’ll ring you and …….” Katie babbled.

The smartly dressed, and now highly amused, lady held up her hand to break up Katie’s stream of chatter.

“Of course you’re welcome to come and take a look round. We have an open door policy for visits here. I’m Violet McCarthy, I’m the manager of Cheadle House – do come in” she added as she ushered Katie off the doorstep into the hallway.

“Now if you’d like to give me a few details about your grandmother and her requirements, I’ll give you a tour round our little place and you can see if you think it would suit her.” As Violet spoke Katie followed her through the hallway corridor painted in a beautiful pale primrose, almost an exact match for the twinset Violet was wearing. It gave the place a light and calm feeling, again very similar to Violet herself. As they walked, Katie filled Violet in on Mo’s history and why she was looking for a place to stay.

“Obviously she’ll be back at home once she’s recovered” Katie continued, “but we just need to make sure she doesn’t take on more than she can manage – not that that ever stopped her before.” Violet smiled and replied in her deep soothing tones

“Well, of course, these sorts of accidents can be very frightening for all of us, especially when they make us realise we’re not as young as we used to be.” Katie nodded but added

“Oh Mo’s as strong as an ox and she’ll be back up and running in no time.
I’m just looking after her place for her until she’s back on her
feet.” Violet raised a quizzical, perfectly shaped eyebrow and just said “Absolutely” in a non-committal tone.

“Here we are” she added “this is one of our convalescence bedrooms, as you can see it should have everything you, or should I say Mo, would need.” Katie stood open mouthed , indeed it had everything a five star hotel room would have, large bed covered in a sumptuous duvet, TV, telephone – was that a network point?. As Violet showed Katie round the rest of the home it was clear it was all up to the same standard. Spotless kitchens with shining stainless steel units, TV lounges,
activity
rooms and from every window a different view of the wonderful gardens, hedges trimmed to perfection, gravel walks under vine strewn pergolas and even a small fountain in the centre of a circular patio, it could have been designed by ‘Capability Brown’ himself. Katie thought she could just imagine herself bumping into Mr Darcy with a fluttering in her breast.

“And this” Violet announced, breaking into Katie’s thoughts, “is the dining room – as you can see we’re having some work done at the moment to add a conservatory style extension onto the back so we have a bit more room. We’re thinking about having tea dances once it’s finished.” She added. Katie looked across the room and it certainly
looked big enough to host a fully blown ball let alone a tea dance. She was just imagining herself in the middle of a cotillion when a familiar face popped up beside her.

“Katie, how nice to see you.”

“Bert” Katie answered warmly, “How are you? I didn’t realise you were out of the hospital.”

“Oh I’m fit as a fiddle now, but I’m missing Mo – things seem a bit dull without her around if you know what I mean,” He winked mischievously at Katie. She smiled nervously at Violet McCarthy, she really didn’t want Mo’s reputation to
precede
her, they might not let Mo stay here and Katie wanted Mo’s recuperation to be as painless and as quick as possible.

“Bert and Mo got on rather well in hospital, kept each other entertained” Katie explained as vaguely as possible. Bert guffawed at this understatement and Violet answered, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Ah, so your grandmother’s Bert’s Mo is she? Well, I’ve heard all about her, Bert’s spoken about nothing else since his return. Poker tournaments, practical jokes and even a protest organised about the food wasn’t
there?” she
asked Bert.

“Oh aye” he answered, smiling at the memory. Katie’s heart sank; trust Mo to be branded a troublemaker before she’d even set foot in the place. Katie thought she ought to try and minimise the damage if there was to be any chance of Mo staying here.

“Oh it was just high spirits really. Mo didn’t like being confined to a bed; once she’s up and about she’ll be as good as gold.” Katie assured Violet, ignoring Bert as he rolled his eyes in a manner that suggested he didn’t fully agree with Katie’s assessment.

“Oh I do hope not” Violet replied

“Erm, sorry” Katie answered, assuming she had misheard

“I said, I do hope not – it’s about time we had someone to liven things up a bit. I am really looking forward to meeting Mo. We like to have people here with a bit of life about them,” Violet grinned, “after all
this is a place where people come to live – not wait to die!” she added emphatically.

“Oh my goodness is that the time? I’m terribly sorry I have to place the fresh food order. Please feel free to look around the gardens. You can get there through here” Violet pointed to a new door in the conservatory and with a quick shake of the hand and an assurance there was a room for Mo if she wanted it, Violet disappeared, clicking quickly over the laminated floor in her stylish black shoes. Katie said her goodbyes to Bert who was disappearing to watch a poker tournament on the internet and decided she may as well walk back through the garden. The heavy grey clouds of earlier had started to lift a little and a few piercing shafts of sunlight were striking through, giving the garden a look of a photograph negative with bright points dazzling and darker areas almost invisible.

Passing through the door to the garden Katie noticed the van of the builders who were busily working at the far side of the conservatory. ‘BW Building’ it proclaimed along its side. “Oh no” Katie thought, she really didn’t want to bump into Ben again and have round two of the fight, when she didn’t really know why they were fighting, but her curiosity got the better of her and as she couldn’t hear any workmanlike sounds of rustling newspapers, burping or scratching
emanating from the van, she decided to take a closer look at the plans she could see strewn on the front passenger seat. Poking her head through the open window Katie squinted at the plans as she tried to make sense of what they depicted, realising that they could well be upside down for all she knew Katie was about to remove her head from the van when she became aware of another head that popped in from the driver’s side window.

“Hello” it said “Can I help?”

“Oh my God” Katie tried to stand up straight, forgetting her head was through the window of a Ford van and promptly banged her head on the roof of it. “Ow – oh bugger, sorry, ow!” she cried as she did it again as she finally managed to extricate her head, generally in one piece, from the window.

“Um, hello, “she started “I was just taking a look at the plans for this place. My grandmother is coming here shortly and I wanted to make sure the development was suitable.” She added in a haughty tone, somewhat offset by the wild sprig of hair stuck out from the top of her head from her tussle to get out of the window.

“I see” said the man, who had also removed himself from the driver’s window and was staring at Katie over the cab with much amusement in his eyes, “and were they satisfactory?” he added in lilting Geordie tones and the hint of a smile.

“Oh, absolutely,” Katie said “it looks like a very sound development. I’m sure it will add great value to the house.” She finished with her best efforts to sound knowledgeable.

“Aye pet, you might be right, but I don’t think they’ll be much call for a bar area and nightclub here – although they are a lively bunch so you never know.” He added calmly, looking her directly in the eye.

“Oh” Katie said as she couldn’t think of anything else to say, and then laughing added “Busted – I was just being nosy, those plans could’ve been in double Dutch for all I know. In fact they probably are aren’t they?”

“Not quite, but they’re not for here. I’m costing up another job in my breaks as we’ve got a tight deadline. I’m John Buddle, by the way, the site manager and I can tell you this is a good home. I’m sure your grandmother will be okay here – and our work will be first rate!”

“Katie Collins” Katie said offering her hand to John over the top of the van, “actually I know someone who works for your company, Ben Wilson, do you know him?” she added, still a little worried that he might appear at any moment and start randomly shouting at her again.

“Oh yes” grinned John “I work with Ben quite a lot, it’s not such a big firm at the moment but we aim to be. He’s not on this job at the moment though.”

“Oh” Katie responded, partly relieved and, strangely, partly disappointed too, though she couldn’t really decide why. “Well I won’t keep you, sorry for being nosy, but as Mo, my grandmother, always said I couldn’t leave a box unopened even when it quite clearly said what was in it. I guess I haven’t grown out of it!” John smiled and gave a quick wave and a wink as she set off round the gardens and back to her car. Really, she thought to herself, why had she babbled on like that? He must think she was a complete nutter.

Katie asked Cliona much the same question the following evening when she went round, ostensibly to discuss the plan for the refreshments
tent
for the spring fayre. However so far they had drunk a large glass of chardonnay each and Katie had regaled Cliona with her adventures of the previous couple of days and they had as yet failed to even touch on the fayre.

“So you haven’t heard from Ben yet? Cliona asked

“No, I don’t expect I will” Katie snorted, “and even if I do, I won’t be speaking to him” she added huffily.

“Well, maybe it’s just as well, I mean, if you’re pilfering blue prints for jobs, he’ll probably accuse you of being a spy. I think
its
best you keep out of each other’s way.” Cliona said, keeping half an eye on Katie as she did so. Katie’s face fell slightly and then she put on a nonchalant air.

“Yes, well, it won’t make any difference to me either way. I don’t care what Ben Wilson gets up to.”

Cliona kept her own counsel!

“So
let’s
get down to planning these refreshments then” Cliona said, changing the subject, “now I think we should break it down into morning, lunch, afternoon teas and evening. If we do menus for each day and then we can work out the staffing rota and the equipment hire. How does that sound?” Cliona asked, “Katie, are you okay?” she added in concern as she saw the horror in Katie’s mahogany eyes.

“What is it Katie?” Cliona asked again

“Morning, lunch, tea and evening – for THREE days!”
Katie spoke very slowly.

“Yes” Cliona confirmed “plus drinks and snacks all day. Why?”