Bob of Small End (94 page)

“
Of
course.”

They sat by
the fire until Arthur’s call came then moved nearer Ken’s desk to
hear what he said. “There’s nothing I can see to worry about.
Provided they can find the down payment. All you have to do is sign
the sale agreement. It’ll be ready to sign by ten. When do you want
to come in?”

“
I’d
have to check with Lori and Craig about that. I’ll call you
tomorrow and set a time. All right?”

“
Yes,
that will be fine.”

“
Then,
thanks, Arthur.”

Ken went to a
cupboard door and pulled out a bottle of cognac. “Let’s have some
of this with our coffee. To celebrate. Some for you Mary?”

Bob was
already a little woozy from the scotch and wine but he accepted and
they sat for a while, each thinking about the future while enjoying
the fire that Ken brightened by adding another log. Then Mary told
Bob she’d show him the upstairs part of the house.

“
There
are four bedrooms and an extra room that we use for storage,” she
said as they climbed the stairs. “All the doors are open. Go into
any of them.” Bob looked in each but didn’t need to more than stand
at the door and look. They were good-sized rooms, nicely furnished
with pretty curtains.

“
There’s
one bathroom here,” and Mary opened the door. Bob walked in and saw
that it had a big bath and a large storage cabinet.

“
And the
master bedroom’s en suite. I’ll show you that now.”

It was the en
suite that decided Bob; he’d buy the house. To have his own
bathroom, with a bath and a separate shower. It would be like
living in a luxury hotel.

“
It’s
lovely Mary. I love the whole place, the upstairs, downstairs, the
garden and the river. You must be very sad to be leaving
here.”

“
I am a
bit. We’ve put a lot into it. The garden, of course, but also the
rooms, decorating them and buying suitable furniture. You know, if
you buy it, you can have the curtains. They were made for these
rooms and I don’t suppose they’d fit another house.”

“
Then
that decides it. I’ll buy it.” Bob said.

“
Ken,
did you hear that? Bob said he must buy the place!”

“
You
did? Wonderful. You’ve worked out that you can afford
it?”

“
No, but
everything is so nice. I love the place. And Mary says the curtains
are included.”

“
Didn’t
know curtains made such a difference,” Ken said, smiling as he
climbed the stairs.

“
Well,
it’s not really them, it’s the whole place. I’d love to live
here.”

“
Then
let’s have another drink to celebrate that!”

“
No. I
daren’t. I’ve got to drive home.”

“
You can
stay here if you like,” said Mary.

“
That
would be nice but I’d rather go home. You know, I’d like to save
sleeping here until I’d bought it.”

He drove home
very carefully, parked the car, undressed and was falling asleep
when he realised he’d left the paper with the cost of running the
house in Ken’s study. ‘I’m sure he’ll bring it in tomorrow,’ was
his last thought.

Lori and Craig
were sitting in the office and they jumped up immediately when Bob
walked in the room Thursday morning.

“
We
caught an early bus. Couldn’t wait any longer. What did the lawyer
say? Will you sell to us?” asked Lori.

“
Wow,
yes,” said Bob, “yes, we will.”

“
Oh!
That’s marvellous. Can I give you a hug?”

“
Sure.”
They hugged then Bob shook hands with Craig.

“
Oh, so
you’ve told them!” said Ken, as he walked in and saw everybody
smiling. “Hi Lori, Craig. Yes, we’ll sell the company to you. Did I
see you giving Bob a hug, Lori? Are you going to give me one
too?”

“
Yes,”
and Lori ran to him and gave him a big hug. Ken and Craig then
shook hands.

“
Now
it’s not legal until we sign the contract,” said Bob, “so we
shouldn’t say anything to the others until that’s done.”

“
I’ve
thought about when we should do that,” said Ken. “Tomorrow’s our
reward lunch and half day. I’ve two suggestions. The first is, we
could book one of the rooms at The
Windlass Tree
in Warmly. We could go there, tell
everybody what we had decided, then go to the lawyers and sign the
contract afterwards. And it would also be the treat we talked about
having at Christmas because we won’t be here for that.”

“
That
would work, “said Bob, “if they have room for us.”

“
Well we
can phone and ask. And the other idea is to tell everybody today
and turn tomorrow into a holiday. We could go to the lawyer anytime
on Friday then.”

“
They’d
like the idea of a holiday but wouldn’t like not having a lunch,”
said Craig.

“
That’s
what I guessed. How about giving everybody a cheque for twenty five
pounds instead of having a lunch this time.”

“
Oh, I’m
pretty sure they’d like that the best!” said Lori.

“
Then
let’s do that,” Bob said. “We’ll tell everybody about the sale
during the tea break. Is that okay with you Lori,
Craig?”

“
Oh yes.
I’d like everybody to know as soon as possible, although it’ll be
strange getting used to the idea!”

“
Then
I’ll call Arthur and ask him if we can meet tomorrow at nine to
sign the contract. We’ll have to do it early because Dave might
want more sets. Can you catch an earlier bus and be here at eight?
I’ll drive us to Southampton.

“
Yes, we
can do that,” said Lori. “I must phone Dad. I told him I’d call as
soon as I knew what you had decided.”

“
Sure,
call him as soon as I’ve talked to Arthur.”

Everyone was
surprised with the news. No one had thought that Lori and Craig
would want or be able to buy the company.

“
It’s
not really us buying it,” explained Lori. “My Dad and my uncles are
putting up the money. Craig and I will be the formal owners but
they’ll have shares in it.”

“
What
are you going to do when the company is sold Bob?” asked
Diane.

“
I’m
going to retire again. Like I did four years ago, and have some
holidays. I’m going to live in Ken’s house too, for I’m buying
it.”

“
That’ll
be very nice,” Diane said. “It’s a lovely home.”

“
And you
can fish in the river there,” added Craig. “Let me know if you want
some tackle or want to know what baits to use.”

“
I will
Craig.”

“
To
celebrate everything we’re going to change what we do this end of
the month,” said Ken. “We’re making tomorrow a full-day holiday
and, because we won’t have a celebratory lunch we’re giving
everybody a cheque for twenty five pounds. You can have an extra
good lunch with that, if you like. We’ll have our Christmas
celebratory lunch at the end of October because Craig and Lori will
own the company from the first of November and because we won’t be
here at Christmas.”

“
Would
you come if we invited you?” asked Lori.

“
Oh yes,
I would,” said Ken.

“
I would
too, but I might not be here over Christmas. I might be in
Paris.”

“
With
Maria?” asked Diane.

“
You
know about her?”

“
Yes. We
all do. Will you be there with her?”

“
If I
go, yes, I will.”

“
Then we
forgive you if you don’t come.”

There were
lots to talk about as everyone went back to work. Most of it was
about what they would do on Friday and how they would spend the
extra money, but Jean said how nice it’d be that Craig and Lori
would be running things.

Bob thought
about telling Joe about the sale as he walked home that evening but
decided to wait until the contract was signed just in case
something went wrong.

There
was a letter from Maria on the door mat. She wrote about Paris,
saying she had done some research. ‘The agency can get a good price
at the
Hôtel de Ville
between
Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It is a central hotel and there are
many places we could walk to from there. And it is near the bus and
metro so we could easily explore the whole city. Have you decided
what to do? Have you talked to the children about this?’ She ended
by saying ‘I hope you say yes. Please tell me what you decide in
your next letter so I can book the room. With much love,
Maria.’

He couldn’t
decide what to do about Christmas without first talking to Regina
and Sam. ‘I’ll tell them everything on Sunday, about selling the
company and then discuss Christmas. He’d have to tell them about
Maria when he explained the reason for the holiday, but it was time
they knew he had a lady friend. He hoped they wouldn’t mind.

Chapter 41 Mortgages

“
Where
is the money coming from to buy the company Lori?” asked
Arthur.

“
My Dad
and my uncles will get mortgages on their houses and they are going
to lend it to me.”

“
Have
their mortgages been approved?”

“
No. Not
yet. All this has been so sudden. They only decided to do it
Tuesday night.”

“
Do they
already have mortgages?”

“
My Dad
doesn’t. I don’t know about the others.”

“
Then I
don’t think you should sign the contract until you know they can
get the money,” Arthur told Ken and Bob. “You could be making a big
mistake if you do that.”

“
Oh, no.
This is terrible,” cried Lori. “What can we do?”

“
First,
ask your Dad and your uncles to find out if they can get mortgages.
Tell me, what is each one hoping to get?”

“
My
uncles and my Dad each said they’d ask for seventy five thousand
pounds when we talked about shares in the company. My Dad said he’d
ask for more if he could get it.”

“
Do you
think each of their houses are worth a hundred thousand pounds or
more?”

“
I
suppose so but I don’t know. They’re all doing rather well and have
big houses in nice districts.”

“
Well
you may be all right. Provided they don’t already have big
mortgages on their houses.”

“
I don’t
think they could have otherwise they wouldn’t have offered to loan
that amount of money.”

“
Why did
they decide to offer so much money to you Lori?”

“
Well,”
and she looked at Bob and Ken, “I told them how much money the
company was making each month. I had to do that to make them
interested. They were eager to lend us, Craig and myself, the money
after I told them that. We told them for seventy five thousand we’d
give them five percent of the company. They all said they’d try and
get more money for me if they could own more of the company but I
said we won’t sell more than twenty percent of it to anyone unless
we have to. That’s right, isn’t it Craig?”

“
I hope
we don’t ever sell more than twenty percent,” said Craig, “but we
might have to if sales drop badly.”

“
Then
what I suggest is that they all go to their banks and apply for a
mortgage,” said Arthur. “Once you know how much you can get from
everybody discuss it with Ken and Bob. If they think you have
enough money then you can sign the contract.”

“
That’ll
take a week,” said Bob, “at least that’s how long it took for my
bank to approve my mortgage. Well, I guess that’s what we should
do. We’ll call and let you know what’s happening
Arthur.”

They didn’t
have much to say to each other on the way back to Small End. Each
was busy thinking what they’d do if the sale didn’t materialise.
They stopped at the workshop to find out how many sets Dave wanted.
Bob pressed the answering machine button and they all heard Dave’s
voice say, “Hello. I hope you’re all right. This is my second call.
Can you deliver 1,500 farms, 1,500 villages and 500 trains today?
But they must be here before one o’clock otherwise you can bring
them in next week. Phone me and let me know what’s happening.”

Bob phoned and
told Dave he was sorry they weren’t there to take his call and that
he’d get the sets there on time. He didn’t say what they had been
doing. Everyone helped him load the van and before he left Lori
showed him another cheque.

“
It’s
for £18,750. I’ll put it in the safe with the others.”

“
Okay,
I’ll take them to the bank tomorrow. I hope your Dad and uncles can
get their mortgages.”

“
I can
put the cheques in the bank Bob,” said Ken, “I’m driving Lori and
Craig home.”

“
Okay,
thanks.”

“
I’ll
take the overalls as well. It’s our turn to wash them.”

“
Thanks.
See you Monday then. ‘Bye everyone.”

The weekend
was a miserable one as far as Bob was concerned. It drizzled both
days and the forecast for the next week was more rain. The thought
that they hadn’t sold the company depressed him. On Saturday he did
his house work, trudged down to the grocery and shopped. He fell
asleep after lunch and almost decided not to go to the Crown for
supper but guessed that talking to Joe and his friends might cheer
him somewhat, not that he was going to say anything about the sale
of the company. He wouldn’t say anything to anybody until the
contract had been signed. Too many people already knew about it and
he hoped the employees didn’t spread the word. He had a bath and
put on a thick sweater as it was cold as well as rainy.