Moving On (14 page)

‘I’m going shopping soon. Don’t forget to take your keys.’

His mother greeted him with a strained smile.

‘How’s Dad?’

‘He had a bad night. I think we’ll have to ask for the pain medication to be increased.’ She looked at him in anguish. ‘Fifty-eight years we’ve been together. Oh, Stuart, I know it was bound to end sometime, but even the thought of losing him hurts.’

He pulled her to him and held her. The fact that she let him spoke volumes. She wasn’t one to dwell on problems. But this . . . Well, they were all struggling with it now that he knew how bad it was. His father was being incredibly brave. Stuart had seen a lot of men die in the army; good men, too. His own father, though. That was so much harder as to be almost unbearable. Except you had no choice except to bear it.

She pulled away. ‘No use giving in to it. What can’t be cured . . .’

Stuart was glad he’d decided to stay in England; would have changed his plans if he hadn’t, because she was going to need him. He suspected he’d find it helpful to be needed . . . afterwards, because for all their differences, he’d miss his father greatly, too.

Doing something, anything at all, always helped in times of trouble, he’d found.

While Molly was enjoying the view from her hotel window early on the Monday morning, she saw a four-wheel drive vehicle towing a caravan make its slow way past the hotel and down the slope to one end of the building site. Two men were waiting to help manoeuvre it into place, then they lifted a manhole cover and began work on some connection or other. Electricity, perhaps? She watched, fascinated.

One went off and came back towing a small trailer, which he set up at one end of the caravan. What was that?

The phone rang. She hesitated, hand over the receiver. She’d changed her mobile phone number, but still felt nervous when she picked it up, kept expecting Craig to find out her new one and start harassing her again. ‘Hello?’

‘Have you looked out of the window lately, Molly?’

‘I have, Euan. I’m standing there at the moment, actually, watching with great interest.’

‘Want to come down and inspect the inside of your new bijou residence?’

‘I’d love to.’ She was so excited she waved her hands in the air and shouted, ‘Hoorah!’ before grabbing her handbag. This room felt very cramped. She wasn’t made to live in hotels; wanted her own space; enjoyed preparing her own meals.

Euan was waiting for her outside the caravan and smiled as she ran the last few yards across to him. She stopped and looked at him uncertainly. Was he laughing at her? Was it ridiculous for a woman of her age to get excited about living in a caravan?

‘Come on! Let’s tour the stately home.’

He held out his hand and without thinking, she took it, then looked up at him uncertainly.

‘Don’t think, enjoy!’ he said quietly. ‘It took me a long time to learn that lesson.’

‘It’s taking me even longer.’

His expression grew sad. ‘Not much longer, I think. From the happy expression on your face today, you’re well on your way.’ As she opened her mouth to speak, he put one finger lightly on her lips. ‘Shh. No thinking or analysing, just enjoy.’

He pulled her forward without even waiting for her answer and she went with him willingly. This was the new Molly, wasn’t it? She was taking on the world, meeting new people. She was even managing to feel happy again. Was impulsive too much to ask for as well? She used to be impulsive. That trait might be a lot harder to slip back into, though.

The caravan had seen a lot of life. Its pale blue paint was faded, the white trims were missing here and there, and three or four small dents decorated it at knee level and below.

‘I had a few bumps,’ he said. ‘But the inside’s in much better condition.’ He unlocked the door and stood back to let her go first.

To her surprise, the inside was immaculate. She turned to see him standing in the doorway with a fond smile on his face. ‘You love this caravan, don’t you?’

‘Yes. It was the first home of my own; a place not shared with slobs, not filled with loud music that I didn’t enjoy, and kept clean and tidy most of the time. My grandmother bought the caravan for me when I was working in construction and moving around the country a lot. I’ve always been grateful for that. We lost her soon afterwards, and my father was furious that she’d spent so much money on me instead of leaving it all to him. He’s bitter now that I’ve made good, but if it wasn’t that, it’d be something else. He always finds something to complain about.’ He sucked in his breath. ‘Sorry. Don’t know where that came from.’

‘I’m honoured by your confidences and touched that you’re lending such a prize possession to me.’

He looked at her, head on one side. ‘It’s strange, that. I’ve never lent it to anyone before. Never. I usually keep it on a plot of land I have, and I go and sit in it sometimes, when I need to think.’

‘Why don’t you show me how everything works? I’ve never stayed in a caravan before. Craig would have died rather than take a holiday in one, even when the kids were small.’

It was a small space, only about fourteen foot long, and she was at first much too conscious of Euan’s lean body, bending and stretching as he showed her all the cupboards and other details. That reaction to him was disconcerting at her age. Then she got mad at herself. Her age! She wasn’t old. Why did she keep thinking about herself as past finding a man sexually attractive?

A double bed was formed by lowering the table and combining it with the seat benches, but there were two bunk beds one above the other at the rear end, so if she didn’t want to bother making up the double bed each night, she could use one of them. The cooker had two burners and a tiny oven/grill. Well, there would only be herself to cook for now, so that would be perfectly adequate. The fridge was bigger than she’d expected, thank goodness, with a small freezer next to it.

‘I put in a few modifications to make life easier,’ he said.

There was a knock and one of the men stuck his head in at the door.

‘Got her fixed up now, Euan lad. If you open up the bathroom, we’ll attach the module. How about a pot of tea? It’s thirsty work.’

‘Can do. I’ve just been showing my friend round. She’ll be living here, so will you keep an eye on her? Molly, this is Dan, the best foreman in the trade.’

Dan was frowning. ‘We can keep an eye on her in the daytime but what about at night? No one will be around then. It’ll be a bit lonely down here for a woman on her own. And since the new houses have just been fitted out with white goods, they’ll be especially attractive to thieves.’

‘I’ll be living in the end house of this row by Thursday or Friday.’ Euan chewed his thumb as he had a quick think. ‘But I may not always be here overnight, so I think we ought to put in a panic button or siren connected to the hotel’s security service.’

‘Surely there’s no need for that,’ Molly protested.

‘Probably not, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Apart from anything else, you might see people nosing around who shouldn’t be here and you could press the button to save me from vandalism and theft.’

‘Oh. I see.’ She smiled. ‘So I’m a night watchperson as well.’

‘Only incidentally. But I’d advise you to keep your door locked at all times after dark. As you can see, the door in the caravan’s bathroom now connects to the shower block, which comes in two halves. I had the van modified for that add-on. I do like my comforts, I’m afraid. We’ll make sure the outer door of the block is locked as well. I’m afraid the workmen will be using the other half of the shower block during the day. Will that bother you?’

‘Not at all. I’ll probably be out working for you, or exploring the area, or visiting my cousin.’

‘That’s all right, then. I’ve had insect screens put on the van’s windows and they’re stronger than they look, made of a special steel security mesh which can’t be poked through. You’ll be quite safe leaving a window open. I put them in because I didn’t want intruders when I was camping on building sites or out in the wild, but it’s good to keep out insects, too – unless you adore moths and midges.’

‘I don’t. You seem to have thought of everything.’

‘Well, I wanted to be comfortable when I was using the caravan and I hope you will be too.’

‘I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be so much better than a hotel room. Now, how about I make the guys’ tea under your tuition, as a practice run? I presume you have tea bags and milk here?’

‘I have everything I need for my sudden visits. Feel free to use anything you find – though I don’t think my spare clothes will be much use to you. I’m a trifle taller than you.’

‘Like about six inches!’

‘If you need the extra space, I’ll take them away.’

‘We’ll see how we go. I’ve not got a lot of stuff with me. And I’ll replace any of the food I use, of course.’

‘That’s not necessary.’

‘It is to me. I really value my independence.’ It was the only dream she had at the moment, and two lovely older women had encouraged her to pursue it more actively than she might have done on her own. She didn’t intend to let them down – or herself.

She set about making the tea, then stood outside to drink hers with them, listening to Euan chatting to the foreman and his sidekick. She didn’t say much but she learned a lot about the development – and saw how Euan treated his staff, which wasn’t like Craig, who talked scornfully about his base level staff, as if he considered them lesser beings.

Afterwards, as she washed the mugs and Euan dried, she had a sudden thought. ‘I wonder what I can do about getting on line? Do you think they’d let me go up to the hotel each day?’

‘I’ll give you access to my wireless network at the site office.’

‘That would be great but you must let me pay you for it.’

‘No need. It’ll not cost me a penny extra to have you on board. Just consider it a perk of the job.’

‘Oh. Well, thank you. You’re being very kind and you don’t even know what sort of employee I’ll make.’

He smiled at her. ‘I’ve had a lot of practice judging people and I’m not often wrong. I think you’ll be a treasure.’

Warmth flooded through her at this compliment. A treasure! What a lovely compliment.

He looked at his watch. ‘Have you had breakfast yet? I haven’t and they’ll be closing the hotel dining room soon.’

‘No. I forgot in the excitement.’

‘Then let’s go and eat.’

She was thoughtful as they walked briskly up the slope. Surely employers didn’t usually spend this much time with temporary staff or provide for them so generously? He was behaving as if they were old friends, and sometimes it felt as if they were. Did that mean he was hoping for . . . personal favours? No, surely not. She’d met a good few sleazy men during her years as executive wife and could usually recognize one on the prowl. Not that they’d prowled after Craig Taylor’s dowdy wife.

They went for a buffet breakfast and spent most of it talking about the leisure village. That was safe territory, at least.

But she was still disturbingly aware of him as a man and that was beginning to worry her.

When they got up to leave, she looked at the clock. ‘If you don’t need me right now, I can book out before ten o’clock and move into the caravan. That’ll save me another day’s hotel bill.’

‘Good idea. Do you want the whole day off to move into the caravan?’

‘Well, I do need to do quite a bit of shopping to set myself up for food and everything. Or do you need me this afternoon?’

‘No. The sales office isn’t open on Mondays so this is actually the best day for you to move in. You should report to Avril tomorrow morning, say at nine fifteen, to get the paperwork in order, then come down to the sales office.’

‘OK. And Euan . . . thank you.’

‘My pleasure.’

But she could see that he’d already moved on mentally to his next task. Good, so would she. She couldn’t help looking back at him as she walked away, though. And found he’d turned to watch her. Why was he frowning? Was he regretting how much he’d done to help her?

Oh, stop worrying, Molly Peel, she told herself. Just get on with it! If he doesn’t like what you do, he can sack you.

But she hoped he wouldn’t, hoped he’d continue to think her a ‘treasure’.

Craig arranged with the same young thugs to lob more rocks through the windows of the house in Lavengro Road, then settled down to enjoy an evening at home. He wished he could see that fellow’s face when a window shattered.

After Tasha had cleared away, she joined him in the sitting room and said abruptly, ‘Why are you looking so smug?’

‘Am I? Must be the excellent food.’

‘You were looking smug before I fed you.’

‘I was anticipating the meal.’

‘Stop lying to me, Craig. I’m not Molly.’

He looked at her cautiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, you’re not pulling the wool over my eyes about anything. I can always tell when you’re embroidering the truth, or lying outright. So, tell me why you’re looking smug tonight.’

He felt indignant at that. ‘How the hell can you tell when I’m ly— er, fudging the truth?’

‘I’m not revealing all my secrets. Come on, what are you plotting?’

He shrugged. ‘I told you Molly’s got a tenant in the house at the moment. I’m taking steps to make sure he’s not comfortable there.’

‘Oh.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Well, is it wise? I didn’t really like you doing that last time.’

‘It’s the same guys taking care of it. They do what they say they will. And
they
aren’t going to give me away, are they?’

‘Nonetheless, I don’t think I care enough about moving to Lavengro Road to put our good name at risk. You could lose your job for this.’

‘Did anyone suspect me last time?’

‘Molly must have. She can’t be as stupid as you say.’