Thirteen
It was no good. Lara had to get out of the cottage.
The drilling, banging, sawing, and hammering, were bad enough. Add to that the crashing sounds of metal poles, the ripping up of floorboards, and the chiselling of walls, together with all the dust those things created, and the situation became close to unbearable. Colin’s radio blaring out at full pelt made matters worse, even if everyone but Lara seemed to be enjoying it. But when Bob and Colin, who happened to be in the kitchen at the same time as Lara had dashed in to make more coffee, gave their somewhat out of tune rendition of the song,I Will Survive, Lara wasn’t sure she would, and it was the final straw.
‘I need to get some fresh air,’ she yelled to them, over the din.
Colin broke off mid-flow for a second to say, ‘Okey dokey,’ and then he continued the caterwauling.
‘Can I leave you to let your son and Bob’s nephew in when they arrive? I may be some time.’ Colin nodded and gave Lara a thumbs up, this time not stopping to speak.
Lara abandoned the coffee she had been making and dashed into the hall where she spotted Nicodemus going about hisbusiness in the make-shift, cardboard cat tray. He looked almost as fed up with the noise and general chaos as she was.
‘I’m going out,’ she said, opening the front door, and for a second she thought he might follow her. But a scaffold pole landed on top of one of the weed-entangled bushes just to the right of the path, and Nicodemus fled back upstairs.
‘Is it safe for me to come out?’ she called out.
‘Yep,’ Roger shouted in reply from somewhere above her head.
Lara grabbed a jacket from the hooks beside the front door and peeped her head outside. Roger was standing on the first level of one section of scaffold to the right.
‘I’m going out,’ she repeated, this time looking up at Roger. ‘I’ll leave the front door unlocked, so help yourself to tea and coffee. Bob and Colin are expecting their … colleagues, so you can tell them to go inside when they arrive. I’ll be back before lunch.’
‘Right you are,’ Roger said.
The front garden was a jungle of overgrown trees, shrubs and plants, all being strangled and overshadowed by giant weeds and long grass when Lara had first arrived. The torrential rain yesterday had battered down some of this jungle, making it look even more untidy and unkempt somehow. Now most of it had been flattened by rows of scaffold boards, poles, and heavy boots. Lara wasn’t sure if this was a help or a hindrance but right now she didn’t really care.
She hurried down the path, dodging various bits of scaffolding paraphernalia and noticed the front gate was missing. It had only been hanging on by one hinge, so she wasn’t that surprised. It might have fallen off during the dreadful weather yesterday. When she stepped out on to the lane, she spotted it leaning up against the front hedge.
As if reading her mind, one of the men, who had come to the back of the flatbed lorry to get more scaffold poles, said, ‘Thatfell off in my mate’s hands. Don’t worry. We’ll fix it back on when we leave.’
‘It was only hanging on by a thread,’ she said, ‘so don’t worry.’
‘It’s not a problem.’ He threw her a smile. ‘It’ll only take a few minutes.’
‘It would’ve come off anyway. It’s not your … friend’s fault.’
‘I didn’t say it was. I just said we’d fix it.’
‘There’s really no need. It’s on my list of things to do.’
‘Well you can take it off your list, because we’ll do it for you.’
‘I don’t want to be a nuisance. I can do it.’
He furrowed his brows. ‘You’re one of those women who like to do everything yourself, are you?’
‘No. I’m simply saying that it’s not your job, and I can’t ask you to fix my gate.’
‘You didn’t ask. I offered. I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t. Look. If you really want to fix it, that’s fine by me. But we’ve got the tools right here on this lorry and it’ll take one of us less time to fix the thing than it has for us to have this conversation. I’m not being rude, love, but when someone offers to do you a favour, it might be an idea for you to just say thanks and accept the help. By the looks of this place, you won’t be short of things to add to that list of yours.’
Lara was about to say she would do it. But the man was right. It would be far quicker for him to fix it than it would be for her, and despite his words, his tone had been friendly and he was clearly well-meaning.
She gave him a smile. ‘Well … if you’re sure you don’t mind. That would be lovely. Thank you.’
He smiled back and threw her a wink. ‘You’re welcome.’
Lara was still smiling as she set off down Old Oak Lane. She was so used to fending for herself that she had almost had an argument about fixing a gate. How silly was that? Why hadn’tshe simply thanked him the minute he had made the offer? He had even told her that was precisely what she should have done.
