Practically Perfect (4 page)

‘Would you call this a property ladder, then?’ Chloe asked with a grin as she got to the top, aware that her information about listed buildings consent had not been welcome.

Anna regarded her for a few seconds and then smiled.
‘I
suppose so. The floors are fine up here. Come and look at the view.’

‘It is wonderful, isn’t it? Is that what made you come to Amberford?’

‘Partly. It’s such a lovely area, and I wanted to buy something that was within reasonably easy reach of London.’

Chloe nodded. ‘People do commute from here, although it must cost a fortune. So is this an investment? Or do you want to live here?’

Anna sighed deeply. ‘I can’t afford to live here, not really. I’ll have to sell to pay back the mortgage and my sister. I borrowed some of the money from her.’

‘Shame,’ said Chloe quietly. ‘I was looking forward to having you as a neighbour.’

‘Well,’ Anna smiled, ‘you’re having me for a neighbour for quite a long time. Besides, you may not stay here for ever, either.’

‘No. If Mike was promoted, he wouldn’t have to travel so much, but he couldn’t commute from here.’

‘Shall we go on up to the attic? I think I’ll sleep up there once I’ve got the wiring done.’

Chloe started up the stairs. ‘Do you know good people to do things like that? I can give you some names, if you like.’

‘I hope to do as much as I can myself,’ Anna replied. ‘I’ll have to have it checked, of course.’

‘I’m very impressed. I can hardly change a lightbulb,’ Chloe admitted rather ruefully. ‘No, actually, I can change one, perfectly well, but Mike always says I’ve used the wrong wattage or something, so I leave it to him, mostly, to save the argument. I think it means I’ve been de-skilled. When he’s away I get a bit more self-sufficient.’

Anna nodded in understanding. ‘My mother was a
widow
when my sister and I were growing up. She certainly couldn’t change a lightbulb. She was always getting neighbours’ husbands to come and fix things for her. It made me determined to learn to do things for myself. My sister and I did loads in the Spitalfields flat.’

‘But your sister’s got children! How did she manage?’

‘This was a few years ago. She didn’t have them then.’

Chloe nodded. ‘So what have you been doing in the meantime? Sorry! That sounded dreadfully rude. I’m awfully nosy. Lonely, I expect.’

Anna laughed. ‘It’s a perfectly valid question. I’ll tell you my CV. I trained as an interior designer, couldn’t get a job—’

‘Is that like they have on
Changing Rooms
?’

Anna frowned. ‘Not really, I’m not an interior decorator. I’m an interior
designer
. Another four years, plus some more time working in an architect’s practice, and I could have been an architect.’

‘So why didn’t you, then?’

‘Money,’ said Anna bluntly. ‘My mother couldn’t support me and I got fed up working in bars and things while I studied. I wanted to earn real money.’

‘And did you?’

Anna laughed. ‘For a bit, before I got made redundant. Interior designers are the first to go, before architects, when there’s any sort of slump in the building market.’

‘So then what did you do?’

‘I had various jobs and then my sister and I were left some money. Quite a lot of money. We decided to buy a flat together, and we did really well. We were really lucky with the timing, of course – buying at the bottom of the market and selling at the top. That makes such a difference. It’s why my sister is so worried about me losing all
my
money with this place. It was such a golden time for property then, and now it’s not.’

Chloe nodded again. ‘So your sister got married and had babies. And did you go back to doing interior design?’

‘Sort of, but I was working for other people, on their projects, in between having other jobs. I was saving and looking for the right property all the time, but eventually I realised if I wanted a project, I’d have to move out of London. Too expensive otherwise.’

‘You didn’t feel all weak and feeble when you saw how much work needed doing?’

Anna shrugged. ‘I did, a bit, but it was such a bargain. I couldn’t
not
buy it, in spite of what my sister said.’

‘Which was?’

‘That it would have been better to have bought near her, so she could help me. She lives up in Yorkshire now, so I could have afforded something bigger than this.’

‘But you chose Amberford?’

Anna couldn’t decide if Chloe was digging for more information or if it was just her own guilty conscience that made her think that. Either way, it was a bit early in their friendship to confess about the good omen she felt that finding a property in Amberford was. It was such a ridiculous secret. Like her feelings for Max, which, however deep and lasting, were definitely ridiculous.

‘It’s such a heavenly spot,’ she answered evasively.

‘It is.’ Chloe seemed content with that, and she moved on. ‘So what else are you going to do here? How many bedrooms?’

‘It’s difficult to make space for more than two, however you look at it. But would you like to see the plans?’

Anna had set up her drawing board and other equipment in a corner of the attic. Next to her drawing board was a pasting table that served as a desk. There was a pile
of
plans laid neatly next to her pens, geometrical aids, tracing paper: all the sundry bits and pieces of her trade. Now, she pulled off the dust sheet and revealed the plan that was on the drawing board.

Chloe came close and looked admiringly. ‘Goodness, you have worked out every detail.’

‘Not every detail, but the broad plan. You have to know where all your soil pipes are now, and where you want them to be. Better not to move them if you can avoid it.’

‘What I don’t understand,’ said Chloe after staring at the plans for a while, ‘is how you seem to have room for an en suite on the attic floor. Our houses must be almost identical. Have you just drawn a tiny loo?’

Anna laughed, refusing to be offended. ‘No! I measured it all out on graph paper. A mistake in the plans could cause hell in a bucket later, when you come to the actual installation.’

‘Where have you got the space from?’

‘I’ve just stolen it from here and there. It’s easier if you look at the space without anything in it, only on paper, of course. But it’s only a shower room and loo and a space for a walk-in wardrobe. It’s tiny really, though I hope it will be lovely.’

‘What I wouldn’t do for a shower room and loo! I hate having to go down those steep stairs in the night. I would have resorted to a potty when I was pregnant if squatting had been an option.’

‘I thought people had their babies squatting these days.’

‘Only when supported by lusty helpers.’ Chloe shuddered at the memory. ‘It’s been so nice seeing it all,’ she said, ‘but I’d better get to the shops before it’s time to pick up the boys. Do you want anything?’

‘I think I’m all right at the moment. I’ll have to go to town myself a bit later.’

‘Oh,’ Chloe paused on her way down the ladder. ‘I was going to ask you: where have you parked your car? I didn’t see one up at the top.’

‘I haven’t got a car,’ said Anna a little defensively. ‘I’ve got a bicycle.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Chloe, reaching the bottom of the ladder. ‘You really are mad!’

Anna understood a little of Chloe’s horror a couple of hours later as she pushed her bike up the long hill from town, but she’d been managing by bike for so long, she felt she could get round the worst of the disadvantages. After all, she had explained to her sister, while fending off another barrage of objections to her project, you can pay for an awful lot of taxis with the money you’d spend on a car.

Now, all her purchases fitted neatly into her panniers. At other times, when she was buying materials, she could get them delivered. She was jolly hot by the time she finally got home, though.

As she got off her bicycle at the top of the lane, a van whizzed by and hooted. She realised it was the man from the shop and smiled. It was nice to be recognised.

A few days later, Anna had finally replaced the joists, which turned out to be a much bigger job than she’d anticipated, but had still not got her floorboards back in place. Sheets of plasterboard would have to suffice until she had time to do it. She recognised Chloe’s knock on the door. She was by now a regular visitor and Anna was always glad to see her.

‘Come in,’ she yelled. ‘I’m upstairs. Down in a minute!’

It seemed to take Chloe longer than usual to get in, but it had become her habit to bring coffee from home, and
perhaps
she’d brought biscuits, too. Anna knocked a pin delicately into the bit of skirting she was fixing to the wall, looking forward to a break and a caffeine hit.

Then there were more strange noises, voices and, eventually, a strange scrabbling sound. Anna wrinkled her brow. What was going on down there? Reluctant to leave her task unfinished, she carried on.

When she did finally negotiate the ladder, and emerged backwards into the downstairs space, as yet undefined by room names, she got a shock. Cowering in the corner, terrified, was the most beautiful dog Anna had ever seen – or at least so it seemed to her, possibly because the fear in its eyes made them huge, dark pools, standing out against the cream and brown stripes and velvet ears. It had very long legs that were waving helplessly as the dog lay on its back.

‘Oh, you poor thing!’ Anna moved towards it and then stopped. ‘You’re petrified! What are you doing here?’ She turned towards Chloe and a woman dressed in layers of purple muslin and partially spun wool.

‘I brought Caroline to meet you,’ said Chloe, tentatively.

‘Hello, Caroline,’ said Anna to the woman, hoping she didn’t sound as confused and unwelcoming as she felt. Why had this woman brought her extremely nervous dog with her?

‘I’m not Caroline, I’m Star. Caroline’s the dog. She’s an ex-racing greyhound.’

Thinking that she must have got her wires crossed somehow – the woman seemed to have a dog’s name, and the dog a woman’s – Anna said, ‘But why have you brought her? She’s scared witless.’

‘We were, er, hoping you’d like her,’ said Star hesitantly. And then added, ‘I’m going travelling.’ She looked down at her hands nervously and Anna noticed that the fingernails were bitten to the quick.

‘She’s lovely, I’m sure. But you can’t go travelling if you’ve got a dog.’ Anna felt rather uncomfortably as if she was missing something.

‘You can’t put your life on hold for a dog,’ said Star, sounding as if the words may not originally have come from her. ‘And she’s never really settled with me. If you could have her … until she can be rehomed of course … I’d be really grateful.’ She picked up the tiny bells that were attached to a piece of braid hanging from her dress and started winding them round and round her finger.

Finally, Anna realised exactly what Star meant. ‘But I can’t have a dog! I told you that, Chloe. Look at the place! Besides, I’ve never had a dog in my life before!’ Giving Star a good chance to see the fact that her house wasn’t fit for a human to live in, let alone a nervous dog, Anna turned to Chloe, who was now looking agonised.

‘I only mentioned you in passing to Star,’ Chloe said guiltily. ‘She told me she was going abroad and asked – well, begged, really – if you’d have Caroline. I said it was unlikely but there doesn’t seem to be any alternative.’

Not satisfied with this explanation, Anna said, ‘But, Chloe, the house isn’t fit for a dog! Let alone one with legs as long as that!’ She couldn’t quite believe that Chloe had put her in such an awkward position.

Caroline was no longer lying on her back, but was now trying to make herself as small as possible. Although she hadn’t been shouting, Anna lowered her voice, feeling a bit desperate. ‘You must see that I can’t have her, although she is beautiful.’

She knew this last remark was a grave mistake before she’d uttered it. She sighed, and went over to the frightened dog. She crouched down, keeping well out of snapping range, in case Caroline’s fear got the better of her. ‘Hello, Caroline. How are you?’ she said in a low voice.

She realised she was talking to the dog in exactly the same way that she talked to children, and as she talked to them in more or less the same way that she talked to adults, she felt this probably wasn’t right. But not knowing any other way, she continued.

‘You don’t need to be frightened, you know. No one here’s going to hurt you.’ Anna cast a resentful glance at Star who might not have hurt Caroline, but was prepared to abandon her, and another at Chloe, for good measure.

‘She is very nervous,’ said Star apologetically. ‘She’s terrified of my partner. He does shout rather, but he says dogs have to know their place.’ The braid and bells were showing signs of serious wear as Star continued to wind and unwind them. ‘He did kick her once.’

Anna stifled a gasp of horror, put out her hand and very gently stroked Caroline under the chin with her finger. Caroline looked frightened, but didn’t say anything. ‘Darling, it’s lovely to meet you, but I’m afraid I can’t have you to live with me. I haven’t got stairs, or a bathroom, or anything.’

‘She won’t care about the bathroom,’ said Chloe, gaining in confidence. ‘And if she did, she could always come over to our house to have baths, like you do.’

Aware she was being teased into making a bad decision, Anna ignored this. ‘She
would
mind about the stairs. A dog like this would want to be near you all the time.’

‘She is very clingy,’ said Star. ‘It’s one of the things about her that annoyed my partner.’

‘I would have thought that the rehoming people would check out that both partners liked the dog before they let you have it,’ said Anna sniffily.

‘Usually they’re very strict,’ explained Chloe, still somewhat abashed, ‘but the person in charge of rehoming had left the area and no one else wanted to take it on.’

‘Can I look round your house?’ asked Star, changing the subject. ‘I love what you’ve done to it so far!’

Taken aback, but suppressing her irritation, Anna said, ‘Help yourself. Be careful going on the ladder though, there are no stairs.’