Kate’s face fell.
‘But,’ he continued, ‘if the estimate is acceptable and you wouldn’t mind a lot of noise pretty early in the morning, we could start tomorrow. Thing is, I’d booked a couple of extra chaps for a big landscaping contract over Wainfleet way, but there’s a two-week hold-up on it, so rather than put them off—’
‘Excellent. We don’t mind at all, do we, darling?’ She left no room for Will to reply. Kate was in full flow. ‘That’s perfect. Well, we’ll let you get on with the estimate. Will you need to send it to us? Could you just tell us, so as to save time?’
Will took her gently by the arm and led her towards the house. ‘Barry will want to check the price of materials, sweetheart. Let’s leave him to it, and not rush him, shall we?’
The young man nodded and began taking measurements.
Back in the house Kate was buzzing with excitement. ‘Wow! What luck that they have a cancellation!’
‘Babe,’ Will said, ‘they probably always have a cancellation. It’s how they work.’
‘Cynic. I’m just pleased that they can start so soon.’
‘You haven’t even seen the quote yet. Perhaps we should get more than one. Don’t get ahead of yourself.’
He had hardly got the words out when Kate turned on him. ‘I want that work done, and I want it done soon. If the estimate is even halfway fair, I’m going to let them start tomorrow morning.’
‘What the hell has got into you, Kate? We used to discuss things. Now all the decisions seem to be made between you and the bloody house. What about me? What on earth is all the hurry for?’
‘Because it needs doing, and if I wait for you, we’ll still be dithering around at Christmas.’
‘Kate! We are arguing again. We never argued before we came here.’ His voice trembled and tears welled up in his eyes.
‘Oh right! You’re going to blame the house for everything that goes wrong, are you?’
‘If I think it’s to blame, then yes,’ he said.
‘Well, I suggest you don’t.’ She spat the words at him. ‘It has nothing to do with the house.’
‘Then what is it?’
She stuttered, searching for words. ‘It’s, it’s . . . oh!’ She ran from the room. He heard her steps on the stairs, and a door slammed. Once again, she was in her studio.
He pictured her sitting on the window seat looking out over Whisper Fen. He desperately wanted to go to her, to hold her close. He wanted to bury his face in her sweet-smelling hair and breathe her fresh, clean scent. He wanted things to be as they had been before they came to this beautiful, lonely place.
He held his head in his hands.
A voice from the back garden called his name. He swallowed hard and went out to Barry.
‘Thank you for giving me a bit of breathing space, sir. I do need to price this up properly back at the office. Your wife is really keen to get it done yesterday, isn’t she?’
Will managed a forced laugh. ‘You do what you have to. Don’t let her rush you.’
‘I’ll get it done by four and give you a ring, if I may? These chaps I’ve got on ’old, they’ll be wantin’ to know. Must be pretty grim, not knowing if you’ve got money coming in or not.’
Will nodded. The guy actually seemed honest. ‘I know I sound like my wife, but any rough idea on a price? I promise not to hold you to it.’
The man rubbed his chin. ‘Off the top of my ’ead? Somewhere in the region of a grand, say one thousand two hundred tops. I get the materials at trade price, and I’ll pass that on to you.’
Will remembered one of his mates at the station paying far more than that for a patio area the year before. A skip alone cost over a hundred pounds.
‘Look, if the estimate comes out near that figure, you can go ahead. My wife seems to have set her heart on getting this done. If it’s a lot more, perhaps we may have to think again, but—’
‘It shouldn’t be more, Mr Stonebridge. That was my outside cost, but I’ll ring you later.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Gawd! I ’ave to go! The lorry is my uncle’s. My own truck is in dock and I’ve pinched his vehicle for the morning. ’E’ll kill me if he don’t ’ave it back by dinner time. Thank you for the possible business. I’ll ring you later.’
Watching the old lorry disappear in a cloud of dust, Will stood wondering what to do. He looked up at Kate’s window but there was no one there.
He went inside, climbed the stairs, and stood outside her room. He called her name softly, hesitantly.
She bade him come in. Her back was to him, and she was frantically sketching. As he approached her, she closed her pad and turned to him, wearing a strange smile.
‘Hello, Bear. What do you fancy for dinner tonight? I’ll cook.’
* * *
Liz threw down her pen and looked at Matt. ‘Gerald Grove does have a skeleton in his cupboard! I knew it!’
When they weren’t watching over Emilia Swain, they had spent the past week making covert enquiries into the man that Will had found so troubling. Now, after exchanging countless emails with the West Country, Liz had finally found what she’d been looking for. ‘He was involved in an investigation regarding a boy of nine who was abducted.’ She read from the printout that was just coming through. ‘Grove lived in a village on Exmoor, and he fell under suspicion because he’d been in a spot of trouble a while before this case. It was peeping-Tom activities, nothing he could be nicked for, but because of it, he was questioned on suspicion of abducting the lad.’
Matt whistled. ‘So, our Will’s copper’s nose was spot on.’
‘Well, even if he was innocent, and no one seems to think he was, as a peeping Tom he’s certainly not Snow White.’ She referred to the printout. ‘The boy turned up alive and unharmed. He said he’d got lost on the moor, spent a couple of days in an old barn. He also swore that Grove had nothing to do with it, but a badge that the kid always wore was found in Grove’s cottage. Grove said children were always calling in so he could identify butterflies and moths they found, and he could have dropped it on one of those visits. As the boy denied having been abducted, there was nothing to hold Grove for, and there was no charge to answer. But the detectives on the case were certain that the kid had not been holed up in any barn. They also thought Grove was lying through his teeth.’
‘How did you get hold of all this?’ Matt asked.
‘I found a journalist who had been following the police inquiry into the missing boy. Nice bloke, very helpful. He coughed it all up on the understanding that if Grove steps out of line down here, I give him the lowdown.’ Liz grinned. ‘And I’d be very pleased to do that, should Grove turn naughty on us.’
‘But so far he hasn’t done anything on this patch, or as far as we can ascertain,’ Matt said thoughtfully.
‘Apart from be rude to everyone, nothing.’
‘Everyone except for Kate Stonebridge, according to Will.’ Matt sat down and crossed his legs. ‘Will said she met him while she was walking up on the sea bank. She said he was perfectly fine with her and told her about the wildlife and the birds.’
Liz wrinkled her brow. ‘That’s worrying. I hope Will told her to steer well clear.’