It was still light when Helena dropped her home and Gilly had noticed that the signs outside the house were a little mud-spattered so she decided to go out and wash them, as well as tidying up a bit in the garden. First impressions were so important. Helena might tease her about being obsessed with Four in a Bed with its critical bed and breakfast owners, staying in each other’s businesses and peeling back every layer of bedding and standing on chairs to find dirt on the chandelier, but attention to detail was very important. Besides, she wanted to think, and she thought better if physically occupied.
But half an hour later the light was seriously beginning to fade and Gilly was about to go inside when she heard a car pull up in the road behind her.
‘Excuse me!’ said a voice.
She turned round and saw a large, smart car and a man with silver hair and a nice smile leaning across so he could speak to her through the passenger window.
‘Can I help?’ she asked, glad she had make-up on from having been out for lunch and that her hair was reasonably OK for the same reason.
‘I wonder if you can,’ said the man, whose voice was as pleasant as the rest of him. ‘I’m looking for this address.’ He stopped the engine, got out of the car and came round so he could talk to Gilly properly. He was holding a bit of paper.
Gilly took the offered paper and considered it for a moment. ‘Well, you’re not far but you’ve come up the wrong way from the crossroads at the bottom of the hill.’
She gave him instructions about how to find his destination and he smiled again. ‘Thank you so much. The satnav wasn’t co-operating today. I’m only going to the house to do a valuation.’
‘Valuation?’ said Gilly, her attention caught.
He nodded. ‘Yes. I’m doing a valuation for a friend.’ He didn’t seem in any particular hurry to get going. ‘Here’s my card.’
Gilly took it and read it. There was his name, Leo Simmons, and a string of letters afterwards, none of which meant anything to Gilly. ‘So do you do valuations as your job?’
‘Not exclusively but it’s part of what I do.’ He paused. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘It’s just … Oh, nothing.’ She stopped and realised he was waiting. ‘I think I ought to get my house valued,’ said Gilly quickly, before she could change her mind.
‘It’s never a bad thing,’ said Leo quietly, ‘although I can see you’re not quite happy about it. Knowledge is power, after all.’
‘It is! I’ll make an appointment,’ said Gilly, holding his card tightly and getting mud on it.
‘I tell you what, unless you’re busy later, why don’t I do this house up the road and then come back and do yours?’
‘Excellent idea,’ said Gilly. Then I can’t back out, she added to herself. Knowledge was indeed power and having her own valuation done meant Cressida couldn’t start telling her how much valuable real estate she was sitting on.
‘Brilliant. I’ll be round in about an hour.’
Which gave Gilly an hour to give the house another tidy in his honour.
Gilly kept everywhere open to the public immaculate, which included the kitchen. But her own bedroom would have put any teenage girl’s to shame – in fact, she thought, it could belong to very untidy teenage twins. But as with so many occupations, running a B & B had an element of smoke and mirrors about it and making a room, even her own, look good in a very short time wasn’t much of a challenge to Gilly.
The first thing she did was take the duvet off the bed. Then every item of clothing that wasn’t dirty (in which case it went in the capacious laundry basket) was laid on the bed. Floordrobe became bed-drobe. When she was satisfied there was nothing else lying about she laid the duvet carefully over the top. A few scatter cushions, artfully placed, and the room was instantly tidy.
The en-suite bathroom took a little longer but she had time to refresh her make-up before she hid it all away in the cupboard behind the mirror. Leo wouldn’t need to open the cupboard to value the house and if he looked like doing so, she’d stop him.
As she reapplied her foundation she wondered if it would look as if she fancied him if she appeared too made-up. But no, she decided, she always made sure she was looking her best when she knew guests were due – it was only professional. This was a professional visit and she should prepare for it. Although she couldn’t help reflecting that he was a very attractive man and while she had seen many attractive men since her divorce this was the first one that made her feel just a little bit fluttery.
The thought made her happy.
‘Well, this is a lovely house,’ said Leo Simmons, having arrived back an hour later, as arranged. He was in the large hall, looking around. ‘But I imagine running a bed and breakfast is very hard work.’
Gilly smiled warmly at him. Not everyone understood that there was work involved. Many people thought it was just showing people to their perfect rooms and frying up a few freshly laid eggs. They didn’t realise the effort making those rooms perfect required.
‘It is a labour of love but I do love it, so that’s OK. I’ll show you the B & B bit first and then the rest of it. I have six bedrooms, one of them wheelchair friendly. We’ll start there.’
‘This is a very good size,’ said Leo, writing down the measurements in his book as they went into the downstairs bedroom. ‘French doors on to the garden. Large en suite.’
‘It was the morning room in the old days, when I was a little girl living here with my parents,’ said Gilly. ‘But it makes a lovely bedroom.’
‘So this was your family home?’
She nodded. ‘It was. It was a struggle to keep it when my husband left.’
‘What, bills and things?’
‘That, but mostly because he wanted half of it, which would have meant selling.’
‘So how—’ Leo stopped, obviously not wanting to pry.
‘There was quite a bit of land which I could sell. There was an orchard which was a bit heartbreaking to lose, but the other bit went as a building plot so I could pay off my husband and turn the house into a bed and breakfast.’ She smiled at the memory of those early days. ‘At first it was something I had to do to keep my family home but I soon found out I loved it. I love the people – they’re all so interesting. Not even the boring ones are completely boring; they all have something about them that’s fascinating.’
They ended up in the kitchen, which was large – some would say cluttered – and Gilly’s favourite room. ‘And here we have the heart of the home,’ said Gilly. ‘And it really is.’
Ulysses got up from where he was sleeping in front of the range and walked over to them. He sniffed at Leo’s trousers. ‘You’re a fat chap, aren’t you?’ said Leo.
‘His name is Ulysses,’ said Gilly.
But Leo was still measuring. ‘It’s a good size, certainly,’ he said, referring to the kitchen, not the cat. ‘Range cookers are always popular.’
‘Helena – that’s my daughter – said that one cost the same as a small cottage. I’m not sure what part of the country you’d have to be in to get a cottage for that price, but it was very expensive.’ Gilly paused. ‘But it’s in use all the time. I do evening meals as well as bed and breakfast.’
‘No island?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I prefer a kitchen table that you can move if necessary. Once an island, always an island, and it would annoy me if I had to keep walking round it.’
‘To be honest, if you did sell, whoever bought it would probably rip out the kitchen and start again,’ said Leo, not unsympathetically. ‘I like the mix of free-standing and fitted units myself but people are very into sleek white cupboards with invisible catches.’
‘I’ve never been a fan of integral dishwashers and things. I like a fridge to look like a fridge!’
‘Some of the modern kitchens I see, it all looks like a fridge,’ said Leo.
‘I wouldn’t be without my dresser,’ said Gilly, looking at the huge old bit of furniture that her father had had built in when he and his wife first bought the house. It took up an entire wall and swallowed up a vast amount of crockery, dozens of mugs and jugs that hung on the hooks that edged each shelf and a fair amount of clutter that was stuffed into the cupboards. It was her work of art and she loved it as if it was a family pet. Just the thought of having to live without it made Gilly shudder. It would never fit in that granny annexe her daughter-in-law had been so keen for her to live in.
Gilly cleared her throat. The tour had taken quite a long time, there was a lot of house and it seemed natural, now, to add, ‘Would you like a glass of wine?’
Leo smiled and shook his head. ‘Driving. But I’d love a cup of tea and maybe a piece of the shortbread you put in every room.’
‘There’s always plenty of that,’ said Gilly. ‘Let’s go through to the conservatory and look at the view,’ she said, putting two mugs and a plate of biscuits on a tray.
He took the tray from her hands. ‘Lead the way,’ he said.
Gilly had the very short time it took them to go from one room to another to work out why she found these words so very sexy.
