Practically Perfect (42 page)

In a way, she realised, getting rid of the extension, which had blocked part of the light from the kitchen, had improved the property. Inspired, she got out her notebook and began making rough sketches. If she could tell Rob that all was not lost, it might cheer him up when she went to visit him. He’d be getting enough grapes and Marmite sandwiches from his sister. From her he would want news of his house.

It would cost a fortune to do, of course, but as she counted paces and jotted things down, ideas began to crowd into her head and excitement began to replace her shock at the devastation. This would be a much bigger project than her own little cottage, something she could really get her teeth into. Of course it wasn’t her house, and she wouldn’t dream of suggesting Rob used her plans unless he wanted to, but doing the drawings would be a really interesting exercise.

A two-storey extension, to replace the one that had burnt
down
, could be put on to the west side of the building, where the remains of a conservatory now smouldered, broken glass glinting in the rubble.

Another conservatory, or sunroom, could go on the other side of the house, the cool side, so it wouldn’t get too hot in summer. You’d have to get rid of the shed, of course, so the view was better, but already in her imagination the room was full of climbing plants that liked it cooler: plumbago, passion flowers possibly – she’d have to ask Laura.

When she’d done all the measuring and drawings she could without a drawing board, or even a table, she got back into her car, which was now feeling familiar and friendly, and set off in what she hoped was the direction of the farm and the dogs.

Once there, via a few minor deviations, it took Anna a while to track down the farmer, who was doing something in a barn far away from the house.

‘Hello,’ she said. He was a youngish man of medium height, dressed in muddy jeans, an old and cracked waxed jacket and a tweed cap pulled down low. ‘I’m Anna. I’ve come to take Rob’s dogs for a run, if that’s all right.’

The man regarded Anna contemplatively for a few moments and then said, ‘Eh, you’re all right. You can take them up into that field if you like. There’s no stock in there at present, and the hedges are good. You a friend of Rob’s then?’ His curiousity was evident. Perhaps Rob didn’t have many friends.

‘Sort of. He’s been looking after my dog for me. She’s one of the ones you’ve got. I’ve just been to see him in hospital. He told me where the dogs were.’

‘Oh aye.’ He didn’t comment, but she could feel him speculating about whether there was more to their relationship than just dogs.

‘So – the dogs?’ Anna realised he probably thought she was too young for Rob, and she did look young in jeans, a hoody and trainers. I should have put on some makeup, she thought. Then I wouldn’t look quite so much like someone’s kid sister. There was also the faint but pressing concern that she might have soot on her face.

Anna knew it was going to be difficult seeing Caroline when she couldn’t take her home, but she braced herself, and although Caroline was ecstatic to be reunited with her, it didn’t seem as if she’d been too miserable. Anna clung to her for a few moments trying not to think of her dying in a fire. Then, because Rob’s friend was looking, she said hello to the other dogs, who greeted her politely, but with none of Caroline’s rapturous enthusiasm.

‘They’ve been fine there together,’ said Geoff, who had warmed up sufficiently to introduce himself. ‘But they’ll be glad to be back with their master.’

Anna didn’t add ‘or mistress’. Laura and Chloe would have been ashamed of her.

‘Do you know the way to the field?’ he asked. ‘You’ll need leads to take them up there.’

‘I’ve been to it from the other end, with Rob, but I don’t know it from this way.’

‘I’ll find the leads for you.’

Anna felt a bit as if she was behind a team of huskies, crossing the Arctic wastes as she took hold of four leads attached to four huge dogs. They behaved perfectly, however, being accustomed to walking on the lead from their days as racing greyhounds, and she had no trouble. She had taken the precaution of buying some dog treats on her way, and she had two packets of ham slices for when they’d had their run in the field and needed to go back on their leads. Caroline was very good about this,
seeming
to like being back in contact with her mistress, but she didn’t know if Rob’s dogs would feel the same about it, particularly when she wasn’t truly their pack leader.

As Geoff was present when she returned the dogs to their stable, Anna managed to hold herself together when she closed the door on Caroline. She missed her but she was excited about the prospect of putting together her plans for Rob’s house.

‘Rob rang me as soon as he’d got the dogs out of the house and rung the fire brigade,’ Geoff said. ‘And asked me to take the dogs out of the way. I reckon he’s a bit of a hero, kicking down the door to get them out. I heard he’d broken his ankle doing it.’

‘I think it’s only sprained,’ Anna said. ‘As I said, I went to see him in hospital just after it had happened. I saw the fire from a distance, you see.’

‘Ah.’

‘Also, he had my dog. Naturally I was worried.’

‘Ah, right.’ He paused. ‘I reckon it was the wiring.’

‘Apparently it usually is.’

‘Cost a fortune to repair the house. He’ll have to sell it as a building plot, I reckon.’

Anna smiled as if in agreement. Over her dead body.

Chapter Twenty-Five

FOR THE NEXT
few days Anna first took the dogs out and then went on to Rob’s house every afternoon. She was waiting for a call from Rob’s sister, inviting her to visit, but none came. She tried not to feel downhearted, telling herself it gave her more time to get on with the job. She almost wished she knew exactly which house in that pretty village his sister lived at, then she might have just gone over without being invited. But she didn’t fancy knocking on doors looking for her, so not knowing the address made this seem impossible.

Perhaps if she’d done it immediately it would have been all right. Now too much time seemed to have elapsed for her to do this. It would look as if she was desperate to see Rob. She was desperate, but she didn’t want either him or his sister to know.

She put her caring into his house. It became her passion, more important to her than anything. She hadn’t ever felt this fired up before, even over her own little cottage. Her drawing board now had layer upon layer of ground plans, roughs, different elevations, sketches of details he may or may not want. She’d carefully copied all remaining sections of architrave so they could be used as a template if necessary. She’d even drawn the remaining floor tiles so they could be reproduced in exactly the same, complicated pattern. She would have preferred something a bit plainer herself, but it was his house, she wanted to offer him all the options. Reference books with period details
piled
up around her desk, which she hadn’t stored away – she must have instinctively known she’d need it. She couldn’t guess which of the several periods the house sprang from he would want to take up, so she did designs for all three.

She worked until late at night, barely noticing the time and falling back into her old habit of eating chocolate and snatched meals. She’d hardly seen Chloe, who was luckily preoccupied with various school and playgroup summer events.

On the fourth day she forced herself to do a rough costing. Without a builder to look at the site and the plans it could only be very rough, but even at the most optimistic estimate it seemed likely it would cost about the same as a small housing estate.

It would be very much cheaper to knock down the ruins and build a house from scratch. It seemed deeply depressing but these days a house that looked as if it was period could be built from scratch. Rob would need a fully qualified architect, as her training had only covered the first part, but anything was possible. Especially as she was perfectly willing to stop the purchase of her new house and put all her money into Rob’s. Then she realised he probably wouldn’t let her do that, and he would probably be right.

There was nothing else for it, she had to consult a builder. Rob had given her the name of one, when he thought she’d need more help than she’d had from Eric. She would ring him up and arrange to meet him on site. She’d need a structural engineer, too. And maybe Eric, whom she now knew and trusted, for extra support. She hoped they’d do it out of the kindness of their hearts.

Although she was totally committed to Rob’s house, she couldn’t help feeling hurt that he hadn’t invited her over to visit him. She couldn’t really blame it on his sister
because
she’d definitely said she wanted her to come. Maybe Rob didn’t want her to see him when he wasn’t at his best.

But perhaps he just didn’t want to see her. Maybe she’d imagined all that electricity between them. Or maybe it had it all been on her side? Had he just kissed her because it was a lovely summer’s day and she was a woman, wearing, she realised now, only a very skimpy dress? Maybe all those fireworks had only exploded for her?

Determinedly she pushed aside these negative feelings. She had been wrong about Max, but she wasn’t wrong about Rob, she was sure of it. She buried herself in her plans and made telephone calls. It took a little fiddling and negotiation, but eventually she found a time when everyone could be on site.

It was a truly beautiful summer’s morning when Anna set off for the site meeting. Eleven frantic days had passed since she had seen Rob in hospital. She had put aside the hurt that neither Rob nor his sister had got round to inviting her to visit, and used every second of the time.

She had deliberately taken a bit of trouble with her appearance, to give her confidence and to stop her looking like the college student she sometimes felt she still was. It was important to make a good, professional impression on these people. Even now many men were wary of taking orders from a woman. Not that she’d be giving orders today, of course. Today was all about consultation. She had several copies of her plans in her drawings tube, so they could take them away and think about them. She was full of optimism and hope.

It was a lovely site for a house, she thought, as she’d thought every time she’d seen it. She parked her Volvo sedately beside the two other cars that were there already,
although
, checking her watch, she saw that she was early herself.

She greeted Eric cheerfully. The two other men, who had come together, were strangers, but seemed nice enough. She’d had quite a long chat with them both before setting up the appointment so she felt she knew them both a little.

‘I’m Arthur Baynes,’ said one. This was the builder. ‘I know Rob Hunter a bit. Terrible what’s happened to his house. You must be Anna, the interior designer?’

Anna nodded and allowed her hand to be crushed in his.

‘This is Phil Meadows, the structural engineer. You spoke on the phone.’ Although he wasn’t the same man who had given her own cottage a clean bill of health, he looked friendly as well as suitably professional.

And to Anna’s relief neither of them made remarks about interior designers and scatter cushions. They seemed prepared to treat her as a fellow professional. She was sufficiently accustomed to being treated like a glorified window dresser to be able to swiftly disabuse people of their misconceptions, but it was nice not to have to.

Introductions made, they trooped over the site together, discussing the damage and Anna’s potential plans. She was on her knees, unrolling a set of them on to a flat stone when she heard a car. A Land Rover towing a caravan rumbled slowly on to the parking area.

She felt she was watching everything happen in slow motion. The Land-Rover stopped and Rob got out, obviously annoyed to find his way obstructed by the three cars already there. She started to get to her feet, to explain, but the plans rolled up and threatened to blow away. Arthur, the builder, got to Rob before she did and as she panted up, the plans under her arm, she heard him say, ‘She’s got some great plans for your house, Rob. Phil’s had a good look round too, and Eric.’

‘What?’ Rob looked confused and then spotted Anna. ‘Hello, Anna!’ Although he was pale and rather gaunt, he seemed pleased to see her.

She was ecstatic. She hadn’t expected to see him but now he was here, they could all go over the site together. She could tell him about her plans as well as the others.

‘It’s so exciting!’ she said. ‘I’ve done lots of plans and Arthur and Phil Meadows – he’s the structural engineer, but of course you know that …’ She stopped, aware that Rob was no longer smiling.

‘What’s going on, Anna?’ he said, ignoring the three men, who were all looking rather puzzled.

She suddenly felt unaccountably guilty. ‘Nothing’s going on, I just …’

‘Just what?’ he demanded softly.

‘I just thought it would be a good idea to have a site meeting.’ She licked her lips, trying not to show how upset she was.

‘A site meeting? At my house? Why? Is that a developer? Are you involved with them?’

Anna was distraught that he could so misunderstand the situation. ‘No, there’s no one else involved except me. I got them over here because there’s no point in making plans—’