Practically Perfect
Read Practically Perfect Online
Authors: Katie Fforde
Contents
About the Book
Will Anna’s grand designs prove just a pipe dream?
Anna, a newly qualified interior designer, has decided it’s time to put her money and her expertise where her mouth is. She’s risked everything on buying a tiny but adorable cottage so she can renovate it, sell it on, and prove to her family that she can earn her own living.
Outside, the chocolate-box cottage is perfect, but inside all is chaos: with a ladder for a staircase, no downstairs flooring, candles the only form of lighting and a sleeping bag and camping mat for a bed, Anna’s soon wondering whether she’s bitten off more than she can chew.
Her neighbour Chloe comes to the rescue, providing tea, wine and sympathy - and a recently rescued greyhound, Caroline. But just as Anna’s starting to believe she’s found the perfect idyll, the good-looking yet impossible Rob Hunter arrives on the scene, putting up more obstacles than the Grand National. Can Anna get over all of life’s hurdles?
About the Author
Katie Fforde lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and some of her three children. Recently her old hobbies of ironing and housework have given way to singing, Flamenco dancing and husky racing. She claims this keeps her fit.
Also by Katie Fforde
Living Dangerously
The Rose Revived
Wild Designs
Stately Pursuits
Life Skills
Thyme Out
Artistic Licence
Highland Fling
Paradise Fields
Restoring Grace
Flora’s Lot
Going Dutch
Wedding Season
Love Letters
A Perfect Proposal
Summer of Love
To Louise Ratcliffe, Interior Designer,
who was the original inspiration for this book.
Lots of love and many thanks
.
Acknowledgements
This book was inspired by the major re-working of my own house. As I never waste anything that happens in my own life, everyone mentioned below were extremely valuable research assistants.
Victoria Kingston and Hilary Johnson who first alerted me to the plight of ex-racing greyhounds.
Someone who works with rescue greyhounds but who wisely prefers to remain anonymous and was really helpful.
Melanie Foster, who was kind enough to share a lot of her knowledge about the listed buildings business.
Tim Poole and the Stroud Building Company and all their skilled craftsmen whose high standards, attention to detail and (mostly) cheery dispositions were exemplary.
To Bill Thorne and Olly from Abacus Removals who made a grisly process a lot more bearable.
Jonathan Early and later, Arthur Early, as colour consultants.
Briony Fforde who has to take her share of responsibility.
As usual, to my darling and long suffering husband, Desmond Fforde.
Also to my wonderful editors at Random House – Kate Elton and Georgina Hawtrey-Woore. The brilliant art department and the audacious and wonderful sales force who are in a class of their own. And not forgetting the stunning (in all senses) Charlotte Bush with whom I have such fun each year.
To Richenda Todd, as ever, meticulous but sympathetic.
To Sarah Molloy at A. M. Heath who has always been such a support to me over the past ten years or so. To Sara Fisher, who has a tough act to follow but who has my complete confidence.
You’ve all been brilliant, thank you so much.
Chapter One
THE CANDLE AT
her side flickered, and Anna shifted her position on the pair of steps where she was perched. She was beginning to regret having the telephone connected so promptly. There was very little mobile reception and without a conventional phone she’d have been almost unreachable. As it was, her ear was getting hot and her hand was getting cold, but her sister was still interrogating her. Anna didn’t bother to cut her short – it would only involve another telephone call later – she tucked her free hand into her sleeve and listened politely. The bib-and-braces dungarees she was wearing were fairly warm when she was moving around, but now she was getting chilly.
‘So why was it you moved there again?’ asked Laura for what felt like the hundredth time. ‘You know, property’s much cheaper up here in Yorkshire. We could have done the project together. Much more fun.’
Anna embarked on her explanation again – rather patiently, she thought. ‘I didn’t want to be so far from London, and Amberford is a much more desirable area. Commutable from London, just. We’ve been through this.’
Laura sighed. ‘I just don’t like you doing it all on your own, so far from us. And I really wish you hadn’t rushed into buying it, without me having a chance to see it first.’
In fact Anna did feel a bit guilty about this. ‘I’m sorry, but I had to decide very quickly. There were lots of other people after it. It was such a bargain.’
‘You were a cash buyer,’ Laura pointed out rather snappily.
Anna sighed. ‘I know, and that’s partly thanks to you. But so was the other guy. It would have gone to him if I hadn’t been in a position to write a cheque for a deposit on the spot.’ She paused. ‘I’m eternally grateful, Lo. Without that loan I couldn’t have done it.’
‘You know I was happy to lend you the money, and you’re paying me more interest than I’d have got from anywhere else, I just don’t trust you to buy—’
‘I know you don’t,’ said Anna, quite gently considering her frustration. ‘But it’s time you did. I know you’re my older sister, but I am an adult, you know.’
‘Twenty-seven is not—’
‘Yes it is.’
‘I don’t mean that, of course you’re an adult, but this is all your capital and a bit of mine. It’s your inheritance.’
‘I know the money didn’t come from the tooth fairy.’
Anna wished she’d supplied herself with pencil and paper and a space to sketch – she could have got on with some drawings while all this was going on. Not that it would have been possible in this light. She just hated wasting time.
‘What I’m saying is,’ Laura continued, ‘you won’t get that money from Granny again. And you could lose everything, you know.’
Anna shifted uncomfortably on the step. ‘I watch all the same television programmes you do. I’m just as aware that the property market goes down as well as up, all that stuff. I haven’t lived the last five years with my head in a sack.’
Laura sighed again. ‘I expect I’m just jealous. It was such fun doing up the flat in Spitalfields together.’
‘It
was
fun,’ Anna agreed, ‘but I’m a big girl now. I’m a qualified interior designer. It’s time for me to go it alone.’
There was a silence. Laura was obviously still not convinced. ‘So how much money have you got left to live on?’ she asked, setting off on a new tack. ‘You won’t be able to do everything yourself, however handy you are with your Black and Decker and your Workmate – and I admit you are quite handy. And you still need to pay the mortgage.’
‘I took out a slightly larger mortgage so I can use some of it to pay it—’
‘That doesn’t sound sensible—’
‘But I thought I might get a part-time job anyway,’ Anna said soothingly before Laura could get any further, ‘just to get to know people.’
‘Ah! So you’re already worried about being lonely and you haven’t even spent a night in the house! Sell it quickly, and do the same thing up here, where I can keep an eye on you. You might still make a bit of a profit. You could get in touch with the other man who was interested—’
‘No, Laura! I love this house! I’m not going to sell it.’
Laura pounced like a cat on a daydreaming mouse. ‘Ah! I knew it! You’ve fallen in love with an investment project. Fatal mistake.’
Anna cursed herself for letting slip this sign of weakness. ‘I didn’t say “in love”,’ she said, knowing she sounded pathetic. ‘“In love” is quite different from loving it.’ She bit her lip while she waited to see if her sister bought this rather specious argument.
‘OK.’ Laura seemed resigned at last. ‘Just promise me you’ll sell it when it’s done. Falling in love is always a mistake.’
‘I know.’
‘With men or with property,’ she continued menacingly.
‘Come on, Laura! You and Will are ecstatically happy.
You
and the boys could rent yourself to cornflakes ads as the perfect family!’
Laura laughed, trapped by her own argument. ‘I know, but—’
‘You’ve all got good teeth and shiny hair. You eat the right food—’
‘This conversation is not about Will and the boys,’ said Laura firmly.
‘I know,’ Anna admitted, ‘but I was hoping I could steer it in that direction. How is Edward’s spelling coming on?’
‘Anna!’
‘OK, but I really want to know if Jacob has got off that vile reading book.’
‘Oh yes.’ Her sister was momentarily diverted from sorting out Anna. ‘At last. But getting back to you, and falling in love—’
Anna accepted the inevitable. ‘You don’t trust me to fall in love as sensibly as you did?’ Will was the perfect husband: not only loving, good-looking and a good provider, he also did DIY.
Laura was silent for a moment, possibly realising that falling in love with the right person was about luck as much as anything else. Anna enjoyed the respite.
‘You make me sound terribly bossy.’
At the other end of the phone, Anna nodded agreement.
‘But I’m just looking out for you,’ persisted Laura. ‘Mum’s a bit taken up with Peter these days and doesn’t pay attention to what you’re getting up to.’
‘Mum’s entitled to be obsessed with her new husband. I am an adult.’ Although Anna was beginning to wonder if this was true, her sister seemed so unable to accept it.
‘And of course you’re just as capable of falling in love with the right man as I am. As long as I’ve checked him over first.’ But at least there was a smile in her voice now.
‘Fine. I promise I won’t marry anyone without consulting you. Oh, I can hear the boys. You’re needed, Laura.’ Never had her nephews’ shrieks sounded so endearing.
‘Oh yes, better go. Speak soon!’
‘Right.’ Anna uncrossed her fingers, and then replaced the receiver on the handset and tucked it back into the little niche in the wall. It was only a white lie, she told herself as she stepped down to the floor. And you have to fall in love with a project a little bit, to really throw your heart into it. As for falling in love with the right man, that ship had sailed, too. She’d fallen in love with the wrong one years ago, and even knowing he was the wrong one didn’t affect her feelings. One of the reasons she had come to look at the house in the first place was because she remembered Max saying that his mother lived near here. It had seemed like a good omen.