A few minutes later, our tour was over. Lewis and Lauren went out to explore the garden, while Martin watched them nervously from the kitchen. Simon and I returned to the study where Thomas was parking cars along the edge of the hearth rug. Harold looked up as we entered.
‘Mrs Smith, do please sit down.’ He gestured to the chair opposite him, beside the fire. ‘We’ve been thinking. Are you serious about wanting to buy this house?’
I sat, and glanced at Simon standing beside me, wondering how we should reply. I loved the house and could think of nowhere I’d rather live, but it was out of our price range. How could we say we were serious about it when we knew we couldn’t possibly afford it? Simon looked lost for words too. Before either of us had chance to frame an answer, Harold continued.
‘Because if you are, I think we would be very happy to sell the house to you. Vera and I always hoped another family would buy the house, rather than a developer. We’d hate it to be mucked about with and turned into flats. We’ve had plenty of offers from developers, but have turned them all down, hoping a family would come and look at it. And we decided,’ here he looked at Vera who nodded encouragingly, ‘that if a family we liked came to see the house, we would reduce the price for them.’
I stared at him, and then at Simon. Was I hearing this right? They’d reduce the price if we wanted to buy? I blinked, and opened my mouth to speak, but again, Harold got in there first.
‘I think four hundred thousand would be plenty for us. The retirement flat we want to buy is much less than that. No sense in us being greedy. Would you like to discuss it?’
I nodded, dumbly. Simon looked stunned.
Harold smiled and reached across to pat my hand. ‘You mustn’t feel you’re cheating us, you know. We don’t need the full asking price. You’d be doing us a favour by keeping it out of the developers’ hands. Isn’t that right, Vera?’
Her eyes were bright as she answered. ‘Oh, yes. We’d love you to buy this house. Especially as –’ She stopped herself in time, and put a hand to her mouth.
‘Can we have a minute to talk about this?’ said Simon. He went out to the hallway and nodded at me to follow him.
Vera called to the estate agent. ‘Martin, could you come in here a moment, please, Harold would like a word. Leave Mr and Mrs Smith to have another poke around by themselves, perhaps.’
Simon pulled me into the kitchen and stared at me. ‘Four hundred? Wow! I was working out whether we could stretch to four twenty as a cheeky offer but if they’ll come down that much – we’d be stupid not to go for it! We could sell it straight on and make a profit if nothing else.’
I felt my heart sink. Is that all he was thinking about – making a quick buck? ‘We couldn’t sell it on – they want a family to live here. Anyway I want to live here, don’t you?’
‘It needs a lot of work…’
‘We could do it! I could project-manage it – Thomas will be starting reception class in school after Easter and I’ll have time. I know I was going to go back to work part time, but I could do up the house first… Oh, Simon, I adore this house, and would absolutely love to live here and do it up! The kids seem to like it too…’ Lewis and Lauren were investigating the beech tree. As we watched, Lauren gave her brother a leg up to the first branch.
Simon turned to me and put his hands on my shoulders. ‘Calm down, Katie! I love the house too. And we could add value to it by doing it up. Look at this kitchen – hasn’t been touched in thirty years! But we’d be living in a building site for ages bringing this place up to scratch. Have you any idea how stressful that would be?’
‘We can do it bit by bit. I don’t mind the mess. Anyway the house is big enough that we could live in some rooms while we do up others. There are six bedrooms, Simon! Oh, let’s go and tell them yes, please!’
He gazed into my eyes, then pulled me into a crushing hug. ‘All right, let’s do it. But remember, we still have to find a buyer for our place.’
I kissed him. At some stage I supposed I would have to tell him about the history of this house, but that could wait. If he’d known about my ancestors living here, he’d never even have come to see it. I’d come clean later. When it was too late to back out.
We called to the kids to come inside. Their cheeks were flushed from the crisp winter air, and Lewis had grass stains on both knees.
‘Awesome garden, Mum! I love that tree. Are we going to buy this house?’ He glanced at his filthy hands and wiped them on the back of his jeans.
‘When we move in, I want both of the rooms at the top. One for a bedroom and one for a playing room, Mum, can I?’ Lauren clung onto my arm, jumping up and down.
‘Steady on! There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before we move in. But, yes, I would think you can have one room at the top if that’s what you want. And share the other as a playroom.’
‘Yes!’ Lauren punched the air, as we all crowded into the little sitting room cum study.
Harold looked at me expectantly. ‘Well?’
‘We love it. We all love it.’ Thomas looked up from the hearth rug as I said this, and nodded his little blond head seriously.
‘Four hundred?’ asked Harold, raising his eyebrows.
‘Deal,’ said Simon, stepping across the room and shaking the old man’s hand. Vera smiled broadly at me, her eyes shining. Whether with excitement or unshed tears I wasn’t sure.
Martin coughed. ‘Um, by rights the offers should go through me, and may I say it’s a little on the low side…’
‘It’s all right,’ said Harold. ‘Remember we said we’d reduce for the right people? Mr and Mrs Smith, and young Thomas here and his brother and sister – they are the right people. And that’s all there is to it.’ He looked up at Simon. ‘How soon can you move?’
‘Two roast beef, one salmon and one roast chicken. And for the kids, two burger and chips, and one pasta bolognese. Have I got that right?’ Simon ticked off the orders on his fingers as he recited them.
‘Yes, that’s the lot,’ I said, watching him go to the bar to place the food order. Dad had already bought a round of drinks – insisting on paying, despite it being his birthday. I sipped my wine, and opened up the freebie bag of colouring pens and puzzles the barman had handed over for Thomas. Lauren and Lewis were on their Nintendos. I guessed they were on some kind of multi-player game, as every now and again one would cheer and the other look sulky.
Mum settled herself back into her chair. ‘Now then. What’s all this about you buying a new house? I know you could do with more space but it seems so sudden. You didn’t even tell us you were house-hunting!’
‘We’d only just started,’ I said. ‘But when the right house comes up straight away, well, you just have to go for it. We saw it yesterday, and have already agreed to buy it.’
‘Goodness, that was quick!’
‘They offered it to us at an amazing price,’ I said, grinning.
‘Well, that’s very exciting!’ said Mum. ‘Tell us about it, then, love. How many rooms does it have?’
‘Six bedrooms, two reception rooms, three if you count the study. And a large kitchen with separate utility room and pantry.’
‘Pantry!’
‘Well, a walk-in food cupboard, really.’
‘And what will you do with all those bedrooms?’
‘Convert one to an en-suite,’ said Simon, returning with a wooden spoon, painted with the number seventeen. ‘There’s