‘April is the coldest month,’ he misquoted, handing her a very large glass of red wine. ‘And I always have lots of wood that needs burning. You start on that’ – he indicated the wine – ‘I’ll bring in some bread and cheese. You don’t have to join me but I’m starving.’
‘I’m hungry too. And I’ve got shortbread we can have for pudding.’
‘Shortbread?’
‘My mother makes it as a reflex action. She has a B & B and puts it in the guest rooms. She gives any that are left over to any passing person and it’s often me. I’ll get it later.’ For now all she wanted was to sink into the extremely shabby, exquisitely comfortable armchair, sip her wine and look into the flames.
When they had both eaten quite a lot of the sourdough loaf and selection of cheeses with strange-sounding names that he produced, along with another glass of wine, Jago said, ‘So tell me.’
Helena sighed the sigh of the replete person who never stayed angry for long. ‘It’s my sister-in-law.’
‘Yes?’
‘She seems to want my mother to sell her house so she and my brother can buy a mansion with seven bedrooms and a horrid granny flat. My mother would live in the granny flat and look after their child.’ She paused. ‘Mind you, me and Mum both feel that Issi – short for Ismene, but we’re not allowed to shorten it – is a bit thin and could benefit from Mum’s cooking.’
Jago considered. ‘People who call their child Ismene could be capable of anything.’
Helena checked to see if he was teasing and while he was twinkling a bit, his look was basically sympathetic. ‘My worry is that Mum will actually do it. She says she won’t but she’s a bit soft; I can’t totally rely on her to stand firm.’
‘When you say soft, you mean stupid?’
‘No! I mean soft-hearted, too kind. I promise you, she can’t pass a homeless person without giving them money and she never comes back from London without at least ten copies of theBig Issue.’ She paused. ‘If she gets lost, which she does all the time, she asks aBig Issueseller and gives them a tenner for their trouble.’
‘Oh, that is kind-hearted.’
‘And I don’t mind that, or the fact that she cries at almost anything she sees on telly – I can’t even go with her to the cinema – but it’s the worry that when Cressida suggests she’s being selfish, keeping her big house when they could do with most of its value, guilt will make her say: “Yes, that’s true, here you go, darling.”’
‘Did your sister-in-law suggest that?’
‘No, but she will, and Mum will cave in. And she had to work so hard to keep the house after the divorce.’
Explaining what happened – her mother selling the orchard and land for a building plot, something that caused such heartache at the time when no one knew who might buy it and what kind of a property her mother might find next to hers – Helena took another glass of wine, and she knew she would probably wake with a hangover.
‘So what did happen?’ asked Jago, putting down the bottle. ‘Who bought it?’
‘Actually a lovely couple who built a kit house but it looks really nice and they get on well so it all worked out. But poor Mum was beside herself. She had to have hypnotherapy to get through it.’
‘And did that work?’
‘Brilliantly.’ Helena paused and started to get up out of her chair. ‘Thank you so much for the wine and the moan, not to mention the bread and cheese, but I should get back. I have so much work to get through while I still have a space to do it in.’
‘You promised me shortbread. You know builders live on biscuits.’
‘Oh! I’d forgotten. I’ll pop back and get it. It’s still in the car. I usually have to give it away because if I ate all Mum gives me I’d be fat as a pig.’ She laughed. ‘I’ll tell Amy I gave it to you and she’ll be pleased. Mum too.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Because they’ll think I’m flirting with you, showing normal human behaviour in the presence of a single male. Mind you, we never found out if you are or not.’
‘I am,’ he said quickly. ‘Very single.’
Helena looked at him with a narrow gaze, suddenly aware of how attractive he was.
‘I’m just a man who has no time for romance.’ He said it as if he had no wish to elaborate.
‘Well, there’s something we have in common! Why is it people find it so difficult to accept thatone can be perfectly normal but not want to spend time looking for a life partner!’ Helena realised she was just a little bit drunk and her filters were down but she didn’t stop. ‘I don’t want to spend my time on dating apps! I want to be weaving, not swiping left or right, saying yes or no to someone I’ve never met who is bound to be boring. My friends seem to think that I should see every man under seventy as a potential partner.’
He seemed amused. ‘Under seventy? Your friends are tough. I wouldn’t have thought you should look at anyone over about forty myself. Because – how old are you?’
