Aunt Bessie Finds (An Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 6) (13 page)

Bessie stared at the phone after he’d hung up.
 
She felt very uncomfortable about the
whole arrangement.
 
With a sigh, she
dialed her advocate.
 
Doncan
always had good advice for her.

She was delighted that he had time to talk when she rang.
 
She quickly
summarised
the situation for him.

“So they’re going to let you move into the flat and stay as long as
you like?” he asked when she’d finished.

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” Bessie replied.

“How much rent will you
be
paying?”

“George didn’t say,” Bessie said.

“I’ve worked with George Quayle’s advocate, Richard Hart, many
times.
 
Let me give him a ring and
see what’s going on.”

It was nearly time for dinner before he called Bessie back.
 
“Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to
you,” he told Bessie.
 
“Richard had
to ring Grant Robertson’s advocate, Scott Meyers, and apparently neither of
them knew anything about the arrangement, so many calls to both Mr. Quayle and
Mr. Robertson were also needed.”

“Oh, dear,” Bessie said.
 
“I hope George isn’t upset with me for stirring up all this trouble.”

“I’m sure he understands that you need to know what’s happening.
 
So here’s what we’ve come up with.
 
We’re going to have you sign a standard
lease agreement that will be open-ended so you can move out whenever you
like.
 
Similarly, they can ask you
to leave with thirty days notice.”

“That seems reasonable,” Bessie said.
 
There was no way she intended to stay
for thirty days, anyway, even if she did try it out for a week or two so she
could look into
Bahey’s
concerns.
 
Really, a fortnight’s holiday in Douglas
might be just the thing to shake her out of her occasional blue mood.

“You’ll be charged ten pounds a month rent for the first three
months,”
Doncan
continued.
 
“If you decide to stay after that, the
rent will go up to a fair market rent that will be agreed on in advance.
 
At any point, if you do decide to
purchase the flat, everything you’ve paid in rent will be deducted from the
agreed purchase price.”

“That seems more than fair,” Bessie said.
 
“Have you any idea what the flat should
be renting for?”

Doncan
named a figure that had Bessie shocked speechless for a moment.
 
“House prices are going up all the
time,”
Doncan
told her.
 
“And so are rental rates.”

“I had no idea,” Bessie said.
 
“They should be charging me more than ten pounds a month, surely.”

“I gather Mr. Quayle is quite keen to help you out, or rather Mrs.
Quayle is quite keen and Mr. Quayle is willing.”

“Yes, but still, they should make me pay a fair amount,” Bessie
argued.

“Mr. Meyers would certainly agree with you,”
Doncan
said dryly.
 
“However, Mr. Quayle
wouldn’t hear of it.
 
You can argue
with him the next time you see him, I suppose.”

“I certainly will,” Bessie replied.

“Anyway, I have all of the paperwork here.
 
You just need to stop in and sign it at
your convenience.
  
The
building manager has the keys, so once you’ve signed the paperwork, you can
move in whenever you like.”

Bessie took a deep breath that seemed slightly
shakey
.
 
“Great,” she said without enthusiasm.

“Bessie, I think when you come in, we’d better have a nice long
chat,”
Doncan
told her.
 
“I want to make sure I understand
everything that’s going on.”

“We can chat,” Bessie replied.
 
“But really, there isn’t anything going on, other than my wanting a
small change.
 
Maybe, with all the
sad things that have been happening lately, I just need to do something
different for a bit.
 
I can’t really
imagine selling my cottage, but I do need a change.
 
It’s more like an extended holiday than
a move though, unless I truly do fall in love with Douglas.”

“I’ll transfer you to
Breesha
and she can
make an appointment for you to come in and see me early next week,” was
Doncan’s
reply.

Breesha
was strictly professional, but Bessie fancied that she could hear an
undercurrent of disapproval in the woman’s tone.
 
Bessie hung up on a sigh.
 
While she wasn’t exactly lying to
anyone, she was stretching the truth a great deal more than she was comfortable
with.
 
Bessie was beginning to
wonder if she were taking things rather too far in her efforts to help Bahey.
 

The next morning was rainy and cool and Bessie stomped up and down
the beach in her raincoat and Wellington boots, feeling cross with the whole
world.
 
Back in her small kitchen,
Bessie felt as if the walls were closing in on her.
 
For some reason, her little cottage felt
cramped and claustrophobic today.
 
She knew she was grumpy and out of sorts and she knew exactly why, but
that didn’t improve her mood.

Bessie usually spent Saturdays at home, often preparing and cooking
things like soups, some of which could be enjoyed at once, the rest frozen for
another day.
 
Today she didn’t feel
like cooking or cleaning, so she curled up with a book and tried to get lost in
it.
 
She was meeting with mixed
success when someone knocked on her door.

“Hugh?
 
But how nice to
see you,” Bessie said in surprise when she opened her door.

“It’s good to see you, too,” the young constable replied.

Bessie stepped back, opening the door wide to let the man in.
 
“It’s nearly time for lunch,” she said,
glancing at the kitchen clock.
 
“Would you like to join me?
 
I have some soup in the freezer.
 
It won’t take ten minutes to warm it up.”

“That would be great,” Hugh replied, his brown eyes lighting
up.
 

“You sit down,” Bessie told him.
 
“I’ll get the soup started and then you
can tell me why you’re here.”

Hugh took a seat at the small kitchen table while Bessie bustled
around pulling containers of soup from the freezer and getting them ready to
heat.
 

“It’s always so comfortable in here,” Hugh said, making Bessie
smile.

“You’ve heard I’m thinking of moving and you’ve come to talk me out
of it,” she guessed.

“Not at all,” Hugh said, flushing under Bessie’s gaze.
 

Bessie smiled.
 
The man
was in his mid-twenties, but he still looked no more than fifteen.
 
His brown hair always looked as if it
hadn’t been cut or even combed recently and he still didn’t seem to have become
entirely comfortable with his height or his broad shoulders.
 

“No, really,” he said insistently.
 
“I don’t reckon I have any right to be
giving you advice.
 
I just, well, I
just couldn’t help but comment on how nice your cottage is.
 
It’s always been a place to come to get
away from the rest of the world.
 
I’ll be sad to see you go, if you do move, that’s all.”

Bessie nodded.
 
“I know
what you mean,” she assured him.
 
“I’ve lived here for many more years than you’ve been alive, and leaving
isn’t going to be easy.
 
That’s why
I’m only planning on leasing in Douglas, so I can just give it a try and see
what it’s like.
 
Who knows, by the
end of the month I might be right back here with no intention of ever leaving
again.”

Hugh shrugged.
 
“After
everything that’s happened lately, I can certainly see you needing a
change.
 
Really, I want you to be
happy, even if that means you moving to Douglas.”

Bessie smiled.
 
“Thank
you,” she told him.
 
Hugh was really
turning out to be a nice young man.
 
“I must admit, I’m a little excited about the thought of something so
new and different,” she told him, feeling somewhat surprised when she
realised
that it was true.
 

“I can see that,” Hugh replied.
 
“Excited but scared as well, right?”

Bessie nodded.
 
“Exactly
right,” she agreed.

“That’s how I feel about Grace,” Hugh said with a sigh.
 

Bessie patted his back before pulling soup bowls from the
cupboard.
 
She carefully poured hot
soup into two bowls.
 
Hugh jumped up
and carried the bowls to the table, while Bessie sliced a loaf of bread and put
it and a plate of butter in between the bowls.
 

“What would you like to drink?” she asked Hugh.

“Oh, something cold would be great,” he said happily.

Bessie handed him a fizzy drink and then switched the kettle
on.
 
The last thing she wanted with
soup was something cold.
 
She sat
down across from Hugh and the pair ate for a few moments.

“Ah, Bessie, this is really good,” Hugh said after several
mouthfuls.

“I’m glad you like it,” Bessie said, patting his hand as she got up
to fix her tea.
 
“So how are things
with you and Grace?” she asked.

“Oh, things are good,”
Hugh
said, ducking
his head and staring at his bowl.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Bessie said, rejoining him at the
table.
 
“I hope she’ll stop by again
soon.
 
I like visiting with her.”

“Yeah, well, that’s one of the reasons I stopped by,” Hugh
said.
 
“See, Grace and I are going
away for a fortnight and I wanted to tell you so you wouldn’t think I was ignoring
you or something.”

Bessie smiled.
 
“You and
Grace are having a holiday together?” she asked.

“Yes, but it isn’t what you think,” Hugh said, blushing
brightly.
 
“I mean
,
it isn’t just me and Grace.
 
I’m
actually joining Grace’s whole family on holiday.
 
We’re going across to one of those
holiday park places where you can do sports and things for a week and then
we’re travelling down to Cornwall to visit with some of Grace’s extended
family.”

“Grace’s whole family?” Bessie asked.

“Yeah, her mum and dad and her younger brother and sister,” Hugh
explained.
 
“Gus is sixteen and
Pru
is thirteen.”

“That sounds exhausting,”
Bessie
said,
bluntly honest.

Hugh laughed.
 
“Yeah, it
will be interesting,” he agreed.
 
“I’m taking my car so Grace and I can travel together, but we’ll be
following Mr. Christian all around the country, which could be, um, well,
interesting.”

Bessie laughed.
 
“What
are the children like?” she asked.

“Gus is okay.
 
He’s a
good kid and he isn’t into drink and girls, at least not yet.
 
He’s really into football, which is why we’re
going to the holiday camp.
 
Apparently
there’s some sort of training camp that week that he’s been picked for, and
we’re all going to cheer him on, like.”

“And Grace’s sister?”

Hugh blushed again.
 
“Ah, she’s okay,” he said, taking a big drink from his can.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Bessie asked.

Hugh shook his head.
 
“
Pru
has a little bit of a crush on me, that’s all.
 
She sometimes follows
me
and Grace around
and keeps talking to me.
 
Grace gets really fed up, and I end up
feeling like I’m caught in the middle.
 
I can’t be horrible to Grace’s little sister, can I?”

Bessie laughed.
 
“No,
you can’t be horrible to her,” she agreed.
 
“Poor Grace, it must be very frustrating for her.”

“Yeah, and for me,” Hugh said grumpily.

“You must make sure to fill up the back of your car so that there
isn’t any room for passengers,” Bessie told him.
 
“Make sure there’s only room for you and
Grace and find a reason why you must take Grace and not
Pru
in your car.”