Helena’s best friend Amy called on her the following evening. Helena had sent her a text – Met our new landlord Jago Pengelly – but hadn’t gone into detail. She knew she couldn’t cheat Amy by being brief. While Helena wasn’t interested in him as a possible date, Amy probably would be.
‘So?’ said Amy, putting the wine down on Helena’s tiny worktop and finding a couple of glasses, knowing exactly which cupboard to look in. ‘What’s he like?’
‘He’s a gentleman-builder,’ said Helena. She liked to be able to categorise people. A snappy two-word ‘type’ and they were filed away into a part of her mind she didn’t often visit.
‘So, good-looking?’ Amy handed Helena a glass of wine and came to sit next to her on the sofa bed.
Helena thought. ‘Not amazingly so, but quite attractive, I suppose.’ She paused. ‘I’m trying to think how you’d see him.’
‘And you’re not going after him yourself?’ It was obvious Amy knew what the answer was but she could never resist trying to bring Helena round to her way of thinking.
‘No, I’m focusing on my career, finding somewhere to relocate to, and getting enough stuff for Woolly World,’ said Helena carefully, as if to a small child who hadn’t heard this many times before. ‘Those are my priorities.’
‘And you can’t multitask? I care about my career too, but I can manage to run a few dating apps.’
‘Come on, Ames! I’m willing to share everything I know about someone you may well fancy. Just get off my case!’ She took a sip from the glass Amy handed to her.
‘You need to sort out your trust issues. Just because your father was a snake, it doesn’t mean all men are,’ said Amy, sitting down next to Helena.
‘I’m sure I’ll know the right man when I’ve got time to focus on it but just now I’m concentrating on my work. I have explained this about a million times, but having met a new man, I thought I’d pass him on to someone who might be interested. You.’
‘OK,’ said Amy, pulling one of Helena’s handwoven throws over herself. The mezzanine of Helena’s studio had been made into a tiny flat, but although it was now April and not actually that cold outside, it wasn’t ever very cosy. ‘About how tall is he?’
‘Tall, big, bigger than me, anyway. Which is why he needed me to rescue the kitten.’
‘You are quite small, Hels,’ said Amy, sizing her up. ‘He wouldn’t need to be huge to be bigger than you.’
‘All right, he looks as if he could play rugby.’
‘What? He has a cauliflower ear?’ Amy appeared put off by this thought.
‘No.’ Helena pictured Jago’s ears. ‘Nothing odd about them.’
‘You should be able to tell me all about him, with your spooky superpowers,’ said Amy.
Helena was a super-recogniser, which meant she had a photographic memory for people even if she’d only glimpsed them. While Amy knew about this, she was a bit sceptical.
‘I could pick him out in a crowd but it’s my powers of description that are failing me now.’ She thought about him. ‘He has a small scar above his eyebrow and his hair has a sort of straw-like quality. Not that it’s like straw exactly, but it’s the colour really.’ Thinking about him, Helena realised she felt a bit warm towards him. While she was perfectly capable of having men as friends and liking them, with Jago she felt the stirrings of attraction which was rare.
‘Voice?’ prompted Amy as Helena had stopped trying to describe him.
‘A nice voice. No noticeable accent.’
‘Eyes?’
‘Yes, he definitely has eyes.’
‘Agh! Colour?’
‘Not easy to define. Bluey-greeny, or maybe greeny-bluey.’
‘Nothing else you can tell me about him?’
Helena shrugged. ‘To be honest I was mostly dealing with my claustrophobia.’
Amy looked at her. ‘Helena! What on earth have you been doing?’
‘Earth does come into it, as it happens.’ And Helena related the story of how she’d had to rescue the kitten. ‘So we know he’s definitely an animal lover.’
Amy was less impressed. ‘Yes, but does he want kids? Some people prefer animals to children.’
‘Strangely, we didn’t get on to whether or not he wanted children. He does know I don’t take sugar in my tea, though,’ said Helena, not bothering to hide her sarcasm. ‘Nor does he.’
‘Ah!’ said Amy triumphantly. ‘Something in common!’
Helena sighed. ‘But seriously, I think he is a nice guy. He’s making our space into affordable housing and says that’s what he’s most interested in. You should definitely get to know him.’
‘I will,’ said Amy. ‘If you’re leaving this diamond on the beach.’
‘He’s all yours. Now tell me about the workshop. Was it OK doing it on your own? I am sorry I couldn’t come and do it with you.’
‘It’s fine. I know you had to work. And it was OK although it is better doing it as a couple. People aren’t left waiting for help for so long.’ She twiddled the fringe on the throw. ‘Tell me more about this Jago Pengelly. Is that Welsh, do you think?’
‘Cornish, I imagine, though I’m not sure. Amy, why don’t you pop over and ask him?’
‘He won’t be there now,’ said Amy. ‘It’s nearly nine o’clock in the evening. Builders don’t work that late.’
‘He’s living on site! Which is why he was able to look after his sister’s cat and her kitten. Though I think they’ve gone back now. I saw him putting a loaded cat basket into his pickup.’
Amy had lost interest in the cats. ‘But is the house fit to live in? It doesn’t look like it.’
‘He’s tough. Pop over and borrow a cup of sugar or something, although maybe make it quinoa as we know he doesn’t take sugar.’ Her friend looked doubtful. ‘Or take him some of Mum’s shortbread. Everyone loves that.’
Now Amy frowned at Helena with her head on one side. ‘You know, I’m beginning to get why you don’t go in for dating. You have no idea about normal behaviour.’
Helena shrugged, feeling vindicated but hiding it.
‘But tomorrow,’ Amy went on. ‘I’m going over as soon as I decently can. So, how’s your mum?’
Everyone loved Gilly because she was always baking and had been fairly relaxed when they were growing up. ‘She’s OK, I think,’ said Helena. ‘We’ve had a summons to Sunday lunch with stick-woman and my brother.’
‘You’re very unkind about Cressida,’ said Amy, who’d met her. ‘She’s perfectly nice.’
‘I know there’s nothing major wrong with her but I’d like her better if she wasn’t quite so obsessed with running and healthy eating. She’s aggressively skinny’ – Helena held up her hand – ‘which is fine! But she wants everyone else to be too.’
‘I don’t think you can be aggressively skinny.’
Helena raised her eyebrows. ‘Spend a little time with her and you’ll know that isn’t true.’
‘But Gilly gets on OK with her?’
‘You know Mum, she gets on with everyone even though Mum is definitely a feeder and Cressida thinks everyone should live on green-sludge smoothies.’
‘I stayed in a B & B when I was away,’ said Amy. ‘It was so not up to Gilly’s standards!’
Helena laughed. ‘She is obsessed. She has Four in a Bed on series record and is always looking for obscure places to dust. I keep telling her she should go on that programme.’
‘She takes such pride in Fairacres, doesn’t she? And when you stay with someone who doesn’t, you do notice.’ Amy had been an early guinea pig for Gilly when she was testing her bedrooms for comfort.
‘She’s lucky she loves baking,’ said Helena, ‘so the home-made biscuits she puts in every room are a pleasure for her to make.’
‘And the top-quality bed linen makes such a difference!’ said Amy. ‘So luxurious.’
Helena grew serious for a moment. ‘She had all that before she opened. She told me it was how she comforted herself when Dad was being so horrible. She bought bed linen.’
‘That was a truly awful time for you all,’ said Amy.
‘But you and your mum were so supportive.’
Amy smiled. ‘I remember my mother panicking after she’d invited you over to stay. Gilly’s such a brilliant cook and she thought Gilly would hate everything my mum cooked.’
‘She wouldn’t have cared!’ said Helena. ‘And your parents have a very deft hand with the corkscrew and that really helped.’
‘She’s done so well since the divorce,’ said Amy. ‘You must be proud of her.’
‘I am! And I’m going to make sure my brother and his wife don’t take advantage of all her hard work.’
‘You don’t think they’re going to try, do you?’ Amy was horrified.
Helena shrugged. ‘Why else invite us both to Sunday lunch? I think Mum knows more than she’s telling me because she’s afraid I’ll go ballistic at the thought.’
Amy shook her head. ‘Well, keep me informed. I’d love to think badly of a green-smoothie addict.’
