Practically Perfect (33 page)

‘Don’t worry. I have friends in high places.’ Chloe ticked off her fingers. ‘Playgroup, mother-and-toddler group, swimming club, Junior Gym. Believe me, these are high-powered women with creativity on their hands.’

‘Won’t it wash off?’ suggested Anna wickedly.

‘Silly. I mean they all used to have high-powered jobs but now mostly just look after children. It would be a treat for them.’

Anna sighed. ‘If you really think that you can get some of them to give me a hand—’

‘Trust me, Anna.’

Anna frowned, not at all sure that, in this instance, she did. ‘I’d have to go home and make a snagging list,’ she said.

‘When the kids are in bed I’ll come over and help you.’

‘Where are they now?’

‘Swimming again. It’s brilliant. It really tires them out and cleans them at the same time. I don’t usually take them at this time of day but Mike and a couple of his mates are all taking their kids swimming. Male bonding. It’s great.’

Anna went home still feeling rather doubtful. She had very high standards. She didn’t want unknown women slopping coats of emulsion about as if they were on reality TV.

Her worries weren’t laid to rest when the following day a now fully recovered Chloe brought with her two women, even though they were both looking very businesslike.

‘I worked in the theatre in my previous life,’ said one, called Maddy. ‘I can paint. And I don’t just mean so it looks good from the back of the stalls.’

‘I was in events management,’ said the other, who was called Betsy. ‘I can make a beside table out of an orange box quicker than you can say knife.’

‘And anyone with in-laws like mine,’ said Chloe, ‘can make a place look good very quickly.’

Anna was dubious but didn’t like to say so. ‘And who’s looking after your children?’

‘Mike, mostly, although he’s offered to come later to do any heavy stuff if we need him,’ said Chloe. ‘I’m the coordinator,’ she added. ‘The link woman, who runs between the two teams, seeing how you’re getting on. Don’t look so worried,’ she went on, ‘it’ll be fine.’

‘The finish is very important,’ said Anna. ‘It’s better to leave a room undecorated than done badly,’ she repeated, hoping she was getting her point across, without sounding too rude. She was the only qualified designer in the room, after all.

‘We know that,’ said Chloe. ‘We all watch those property programmes.’

‘OK then,’ said Anna meekly. ‘Who fancies their hand at tiling? That’ll be my job then.’

‘My brother’s a tiler,’ said Maddy. ‘He’s very good.’

‘Then he’ll want proper money,’ said Anna, ‘and I’m not sure—’

‘It’s all right, I’ll tell him Betsy’s here. He fancies her rotten.’

‘Oh my goodness! I thought all my fanciability went when I had babies!’ Betsy went into a minor swoon of happiness. Then she said, ‘Have I met your brother, Madds? Are you sure he hasn’t muddled me up with someone else?’

‘Well, it doesn’t matter,’ said Chloe brutally, ‘as long as he comes. They are lovely tiles,’ she went on, looking at them.

‘I’ve had them ages,’ said Anna. ‘I bought them from a friend who went to art school so they’re all individual.’

‘It would be a shame not to put them on properly,’ said Chloe.

‘I’m good at tiling, too,’ said Anna firmly, ‘but as I’m good at lots of things, I’d better delegate. Oh, I didn’t mean that quite how it sounded.’

‘It’s OK,’ said Betsy, still high on being fancied by a younger man now she was in her mid-thirties. ‘We know what you mean. Now get on the phone to that brother of yours, Maddy, I want a look at him.’

Obligingly he came. He was young, shy and very sweet. All the women except Anna wanted to mother him. He was soon happily applying the hand-made tiles in the bathroom and round the kitchen sink. To begin with, Anna hovered over him, but then realised that he knew what he was doing and left him to it.

The decorating went well too. It was a cottage and the walls were uneven so the glassy finish achieved in Max’s flat wasn’t necessary. Anna covered every inch of the floor with dust sheets and taped them in place. Then she sanded the walls. It was one of those jobs that no one could think of as fun but was so important. While she was doing this, Betsy and Maddy went to buy brushes,
rollers
and everything else they could think of from the local builders’ merchant where Anna had an account. When they got back, Anna was ready for them to start.

‘We’ll only do the walls,’ she said. ‘There just isn’t time to do the woodwork, but having the walls done will make a big impression.’

‘Hm,’ said Maddy. ‘I think we could get one coat on, if we tried. I do really understand about sanding the wood really well, and then filling,’ she insisted.

‘Let’s get the walls finished first,’ said Anna, not convinced.

As the sitting room was too small for more than two people to work in at once, Chloe took charge of the vacuum cleaner. She had a previously unsuspected eye for dust.

‘If we keep cleaning up behind us,’ she said, pointing her nozzle at where Maddy was drilling holes so that they could hang a small cupboard in the kitchen, ‘it means we can stop at any time. It won’t look finished, but it won’t look a shambles, either.’

‘Quite right,’ said Maddy. ‘It’ll keep the dust out of the paint, too. But would you like to go upstairs now?’ Chloe had become rather over-enthusiastic with the hoover.

Anna turned her specialist attention to filling the gaps in the skirtings and staircase. Some needed little fillets of wood, measured with infinite precision and slotted into place. Others just needed filler, applied with the delicacy of a make-up artist. It was exacting work and she loved it.

Chloe was an excellent motivator. If ever a tea break became too long, she chivvied them back to work like an over-zealous sheepdog. They might have all felt like small boys from time to time, but she meant well so they forgave her.

All the women worked long hours. Anna was now feeling guilty that she’d ever doubted their ability and,
bone-weary
herself, would have given up and gone to bed but they wouldn’t go home. ‘It’s because it’s time out from our real lives,’ explained Maddy. ‘If we go home, we’ll have to deal with nappy buckets and plates covered with baked-bean juice: all that domesticity.’

‘But you’d be slumped on the sofa with a glass of wine by now,’ protested Anna. ‘It’s ten o’clock!’

‘Yes, but if we went home now we’d have to do all that stuff before we could slump. Men don’t multi-task on the whole,’ Betsy added.

‘Talking of men, where’s Rob when you need him?’ asked Chloe, putting the kettle on, having decreed the area an alcohol-free zone until the house was done. ‘Why isn’t he here helping you?’

‘I really don’t think there’s much he can do,’ Anna said, ‘and let’s face it, the house isn’t big enough for any more helpers.’

Chloe harrumphed.

Chapter Twenty

ANNA HAD SATURDAY
to herself, her helpers having returned to their families. It had been enormous fun getting everything finished together but there were several things that Anna needed to do without the accompaniment of chat and laughter. The bath had to be boxed in and the tongue-and-groove panelling fitted, and then painted. She loved carpentry and knew she was good at it, although she’d never describe herself as a professional cabinetmaker. There was a lot more sanding to be done before the first coat of paint went on the door frame. She spent most of the day up there, calling down to Caroline from time to time and taking her out often. Chloe and Mike were visiting grandparents with the boys, and after the bustle of the previous week, Anna experienced a sense of peace that sometimes felt like loneliness.

At about six o’clock, when Anna had realised she was hungry and needed to eat, there was a knock at the door. It was Rob.

‘Hi,’ he said.

She found herself very pleased to see him, possibly because she’d been alone all day and had become accustomed to company. ‘Oh, hello! How nice to see you! Come in!’

‘Thank you.’ He smiled down at her but he seemed more serious than when they had gone to the novelty dog
show
together. ‘I shouldn’t have come really …’ He paused. ‘I just – I wanted to see how you’ve been getting on.’

Anna wondered why he appeared so reluctant, but didn’t ask. ‘It’s nearly finished. Chloe organised a team of women who helped. It was like
Changing Rooms
.’

He laughed and relaxed a bit. ‘Goodness, did they drive you mad?’

Anna laughed back at him. ‘Well, sometimes. They were rather inclined to go for the quick effect, and some things you can’t skimp on. But they were great fun.’

‘I wish I could have come and helped you.’ He sounded apologetic.

‘But why should you? You’ve got your own house to renovate.’

‘I would have come. Chloe told me you’ve got someone coming to see it tomorrow, but I was fantastically busy at work.’

‘That’s all right!’ Anna suddenly realised that she would have enjoyed having him as part of the team. She could have left him to do things without feeling the need to supervise him constantly. ‘Come and have a tour. Pretend you’re Julian.’

‘Julian?’

‘He’s the person coming to see the house. He’s an old schoolfriend of my boyf—, Max’s.’ Then she wondered why she’d changed ‘my boyfriend’ to ‘Max’. Did she feel ambivalent about giving him that title?

He paused. ‘Ah. Well, let me say hello to Caroline properly and then lead on, sell me this desirable property.’

Anna hoped Julian wouldn’t be quite so attentive to the fine details as he was. ‘I really didn’t have a lot of time,’ said Anna defensively. ‘And Maddy and Betsy aren’t professional decorators.’

‘It’s fine. You’ve done a great job. Who did your plumbing?’

‘I did my plumbing,’ she said, failing to sound modest. ‘Although it’s not hard these days with plastic fittings,’ she continued. ‘It’s not like I had to do brazing with lead and brass and what have you. The hard part was getting the bath up the stairs. It took Mike, Maddy’s brother, and us four women. The newel post got a bit knocked about, but I sanded it down and decided it was character.’

Rob laughed. ‘It is character. Your character. You’ve really put your stamp on this little house, Anna.’

Anna looked doubtful. ‘I don’t suppose that’s a good thing with an investment property. Those television programmes always tell you to think of what most people want and to try not to be too individual.’

‘Oh no, I didn’t mean to imply that your taste is eccentric, just that you can tell this has been designed round the house, to suit it, not a standard Cotswold stone cottage. It isn’t designed by numbers: magnolia paint, granite kitchen, top-of-the-range appliances.’

‘I couldn’t afford any of those things. I’m hoping Julian will appreciate the recycled iroko worktop and not yearn for granite.’ She was flattered by Rob’s appraisal, but still had her doubts. That might be what Julian preferred. After all, Max and Julian were friends. Could Julian possibly like anything so different to Max’s icily glossy apartment?

Rob rested his shoulders against the wall and folded his arms. ‘So, how do you feel about it, now it’s finished and might be sold quite soon?’

Anna leant against the arm of what used to be Caroline’s bed and now was an elegant piece of furniture – or at least, that was the idea. She took off the white cotton double bedspread that converted the elderly faded chintz-covered lump into a comfortable sofa. It wasn’t supposed
to
be sat on, it was to be tucked neatly round to look like a proper cover and not a throw. She had been given strict instructions to put it on only moments before Julian arrived, to preserve its whiteness, but she had forgotten and Caroline had spent a comfortable night on it.

‘Mm?’ Rob prompted her gently, having watched her shake and fold the bedspread, possibly guessing she was avoiding answering his question.

‘I am very pleased to think that I might be able to pay back Will and Laura. They’re not asking me for the money or anything, but I know they do need it. And I’m really pleased with how it’s all gone. There’ve been no major problems, once I’d accepted I had to put it back to how it was before it was all stripped out.’

Rob ignored this reference to their early association. ‘I’m sensing a “but”,’ he said.

‘I know it’s silly but I’ve grown attached to this house, it really feels like home,’ Anna said wistfully. ‘And I love Chloe, Mike and the boys, who’ve been so good to me. The thought of leaving it all is … well, it’s making me quite melancholy.’ She made a face to lighten her words but felt it hadn’t really worked.

Sympathy and understanding crinkled the corners of his eyes. ‘Well, we can’t have you melancholy. When did you last eat? You’re thin as a rail, I bet you don’t eat when you’re working.’

‘I do get a bit absent-minded about it and I tend to live on chocolate.’ But Max liked her thin, she remembered. He’d remarked on her slenderness in very flattering terms.

‘Then you need to eat,’ he repeated firmly but gently.

‘I was thinking of getting myself something, but I couldn’t bear to mess up the kitchen. The girls made it look so wonderful.’

‘It is a very nice kitchen, but if you won’t cook in it, you’ll have to eat out. Let’s go to the pub.’