She whisked a tea towel decorated with royal wedding portraits off the tray that Rick was still holding and revealed two large mugs of tea, some sachets of sugar and a plate of hefty bacon sandwiches. ‘You’re not one of themvegetarians, are you?’ she asked Vee, giving the word the same kind of connotation as if she’d saidaxe murderers.
Vee shook her head. ‘Not me,’ she said. ‘Oh, this is really good of you, Beryl. We were just about to keel over from lack of food and hot drinks, weren’t we, Rick?’
Beryl folded her arms and sniffed. ‘I’m not going to be making a habit of waiting on you, so don’t get any ideas. I just thought for today, you’d need a bit of sustenance. I’m off now. I’ve got the girls coming round later for film night and I’m still not straight after my holiday.’
‘Girls?’ said Vee, reaching for a mug of tea. ‘Do you have grandchildren then?’
Beryl snorted. ‘Not me. No, it’s my gang. The Saga Louts, they call us, in the village. We like our holidays. Anyway, I’ll see you around. You can bring the things back later.’ This remark was directed at Rick, who had put the tray down on a somewhat cleaner part of the floor for want of a table.
He saw Beryl to the door. ‘I’d hug you for doing this, but I don’t think you’d thank me for transferring all my muck onto your dress,’ he said as he held the door open.
‘Absolutely correct, you disgusting man,’ she said, but patted his arm affectionately before heading back into her own house with what looked like relief.
After this impromptu picnic, Vee and Rick got on with the job with renewed gusto. By the time Jed arrived with the skip, most of the rooms were clear of rubbish and the pile of bin bags on the front path and snaking their way all down the hall was in danger of collapsing under the strain. Jed, a burly individual with a Mediterranean tan and a beer belly that must have been the result of years of propping up a range of bars, had helped Rick to load the skip while Vee did a last trawl around the cottage to see if anything had been missed. The floors were swept, fresh air had been pouring in through all the open windows and the back door for hours, and it was possible to see that one day this would be a cosy, friendly place to live.
‘I’ll drop the rest of the stuff at the nearest charity shop tomorrow,’ said Rick as they climbed wearily into the van. ‘We’ve done plenty for today. Bagsy first shower.’
‘Well, it’s your house after all,’ said Vee.
He glanced across at her as she leaned on the passenger window. Exhaustion screamed from every part of her body. The baseball cap had long been discarded, and her hair was wildly curly, but even in an orange boiler suit liberally streaked with dirt, Rick couldn’t help noticing that this was a beautiful woman who didn’t need fine clothes to be stunning. He forced himself to think about something else. The last thing he needed was to get ideas about his lodger. That would be a disaster.
‘Shall we ring for a takeaway when we’re clean?’ he said. ‘I told you that was what I was intending to do and I don’t think either of us is going to feel like cooking up a storm tonight. Or… have you made other plans?’
Vee laughed. ‘Well, I was going to get my best frock on, call for a cab and go out for some fine dining,’ she said. ‘But as you’re asking, a pizza would be a good second best.’
They regrouped an hour later, both with hair still damp from the shower. Rick had changed into joggers and a sweatshirt and was padding around barefoot in the kitchen trying to find the paper leaflet that had been pushed through the door a few days before.
He turned as Vee came into the room, dressed in a floor-length silky caftan in shades of emerald green and gold. His mouth dropped open. ‘Oh…’ was all he managed to say.
‘Too much for a night in?’ she asked, doing a twirl. ‘Sorry to outshine your evening gear, but I threw away all my tattiest sweatpants and t-shirts when I moved, and I haven’t had chance to go shopping again. I can’t afford posh clothes now, but this was left over from the theatre days.’
‘It’s… it’s very pretty,’ Rick said, swallowing hard. ‘Hey, I found a menu. There’s a new pizza place opened in Meadowthorpe, and they deliver out here. What do you fancy?’
‘Anything and everything. I’m starving. And before you say anything about paying, I’ll get this. It’s the least I can do after today. Let’s get two small ones and share, with some dough balls and wedges and things? It’s more fun than just choosing one each, unless you’re a fussy eater.’
Rick reached for his phone and tapped in an order. A fussy eater he definitely was not. He got two bottles of beer out of the fridge, opened them both and passed one to Vee. She nodded her thanks and tilted the bottle to drink.
‘Oh, my life, that’s perfection,’ she said. ‘I can’t believe how lucky I was to meet you at the shop and for you to let me have the room for now and then to take on the horrible job of making the cottage right again.’
Rick was just about to fall down the dangerous rabbit hole of saying how wonderful it was to have Vee here when he realised that she hadn’t finished talking.
‘When I came back to Willowbrook, I wasn’t sure if I could get over the bad memories from when I was fifteen,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t believe the cruelty of some of the kids at the school where I went. There was one group… they called themselves the Vipers, although goodness knows why.’
‘Really?’ said Rick. His voice came out as a croak, but Vee didn’t seem to notice.
‘Yes, ridiculous name. There were three girls who nobody else wanted to hang out with, and two horrible sleazy boys, ditto. They used to roam around the village trying to look cool. I always thought they had something to do with…’
‘With what?’ prompted Rick, although the last thing he wanted was to hear the rest of the sentence.
‘Oh, nothing. I just hope I never, ever meet them again. Hey, that was the doorbell. The food’s here.’
She jumped to her feet and was at the front door in seconds, while Rick still sat at the kitchen table. He heard Vee chatting to the delivery man and put his head in his hands. How was he going to make sure that Vee never found out the identity of one of those unlikeable boys? He should have listened to his instincts when they met in the shop, but he’d fooled himself that the past wouldn’t rear its ugly head if he played his cards right. It was going to be an uphill struggle from now on.
8
To Beryl’s amazement, Winnie and Anthea turned up for film night in a taxi after all, and came staggering in under the weight of various pots and pans containing Caribbean food of the highest quality.
‘What’s all this, Anthea?’ Beryl asked, exchanging glances with Winnie. ‘Couldn’t you get your car to start?’
