‘Once you get settled perhaps you and er … well perhaps you’d like to come round for dinner?’
He had reached the front door now, placed his hand on the handle, and she saw him bristle. ‘I doubt I’ll have time. I’m going to be pretty busy.’
‘So, um is it just you? I mean, there’s no one else?’ She cringed inwardly at how nosy she just sounded but couldn’t help herself.
‘No, it’s just me,’ he replied tersely, opening the door.
‘Right, of course,’ Eva said weakly, stepping outside. She suddenly remembered something and turned. ‘I still have a set of keys for this house. The people who lived here before you – we had a set of each other’s keys for emergencies.’ If she hoped he might say to keep the arrangement in place – after all it was a sensible neighbourly thing to do – then she was to be disappointed.
‘Just put them through the letterbox next time you’re passing.’ His tone suggested he was finding this conversation tedious now, making Eva feel as if she was being dismissed.
‘Of course.’
‘Thanks again,’ he said closing the front door behind her. Eva hurried back to her own house with the rain still falling, feeling suddenly miserable. What had she been thinking? That she could turn up and be welcomed with open arms? She was trying to be friendly but now had a horrible feeling he would just think her pushy and prying. Stupidly she thought she could re-create what she had with the MacKenzies. But of course, he was a stranger. And not a particularly friendly one by the looks of it.
Ben hadn’t worn a suit since his last day working in the city and wasn’t enjoying wearing one now. It reminded him too much of the life he wanted to forget. Sometimes he wondered how he had endured it for five years. A job he hated but that earned him a shedload of money, a luxury apartment overlooking the Thames that he was hardly ever in, and people he socialized with but wouldn’t count as real friends.
He’d got used to the crazy long hours, the cut and thrust of making deals. But during that time he’d never lost his passion for physics, the subject he’d studied at university. The only difference was that instead of using his mathematical skills to figure out how the universe began, he’d used them to predict how markets might react and make huge amounts of money. Well, he wasn’t living the nightmare any more – today was a new beginning.
He fiddled with his shirt collar, feeling surprisingly nervous. He knew working at the university wouldn’t normally require him to wear a suit but he wanted to make a good impression today. A good night’s sleep would have helped but finding the bedding had proved too much and he’d finally given in to exhaustion and fallen asleep on the sofa. After only a few hours sleep he had woken early this morning, his bones aching and his mind racing.
Of course the visit from his new neighbour hadn’t exactly helped. Images of her had kept flitting into his head as he tried to fall asleep. He might be dog-tired and sworn off women for life but he still recognized a beautiful woman when he saw one. With her honey-blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, not a scrap of make-up – unless you counted what looked like a smudge of blue paint on her face – she was stunning.
But this was definitely not the time to start noticing the colour of your neighbour’s hair. She’d just been so friendly, acting all neighbourly, but he hadn’t been in the mood for twenty questions and to be honest, he hadn’t known quite how to handle it. He knew he lived in a small community now and that’s probably what neighbours did – talk to each other, borrow things – or in her case fix heating systems.
Their conversation last night was longer than any he’d had with his old neighbours in London. He’d never known their stories and hadn’t wanted to; a nod in the hallway had sufficed. But he got the uncomfortable feeling it was going to be different with Eva Harris.
Was it just two of them living there? He’d noticed her hands were bare of rings and she’d only mentioned living with her son. If she was on her own running a business and bringing up a son, she’d have her hands full yet she had made time to bring him home-made soup. He’d found the gesture curiously quaint and he was well aware he hadn’t exactly been gracious accepting it but it hadn’t stopped him devouring the lot. It had tasted delicious.
He didn’t know why her visit had irked him so much but he’d felt wrong-footed in some way, her questions reinforcing his isolation. Having to say out loud that he was on his own felt like admitting his dream lay in tatters and that had hurt more than he cared to admit and had been enough to drive his manners away. Next time he saw her he would make a point of thanking her but that didn’t mean he wanted to get involved.
Giving himself a mental shake, he checked his tie in the mirror and headed downstairs. Today the house felt even bigger, his footsteps echoing on the polished wooden floorboards in the hall. He had no doubt it had been a well-loved and lived-in house, but it was crying out for some attention and updating. At least the shower had worked this morning even though it was rickety and had made a slightly alarming noise.
Wandering through to the dining room at the back of the house he could see the potential to make it a beautiful home if you knew how to go about it. He wouldn’t have a clue where to start. Clearly it was too big for him. He’d be rattling about here on his own. A door led him through to the kitchen. Most people would want this as one big space, he imagined as he walked over to the large window overlooking the garden.
‘What the – ?’
In dungarees on her knees at the bottom of his garden was his new neighbour, Eva Harris. She appeared to be chasing a chicken around his back garden. Other chickens were clucking around in her own garden and a small manic dog seemed to be getting in on the action also. Watching for a few moments Ben realized she seemed to be coaxing the chicken from his garden back into her own.
Unlike last night, her hair was loose, tumbling down her back in soft waves. He watched as she made a sudden lunge for the chicken and then hoisted it over the fence back into her own garden. Ben couldn’t help smiling. God, she looked mad. And utterly beautiful. He shook his head and forced himself away from events in the garden, as enticing as they were.
Ben started to get some papers ready for his meeting. Walking back through the hall, an envelope caught his eye lying on the mat by the front door. Opening it, he found a set of keys. Clearly Eva Harris was an early riser and had returned the keys to his house. He tossed them onto the sideboard, ignoring the inexplicable stab of guilt he felt, and went to get ready.
***
‘Come on, Betsy … this way!’ Eva used her best chicken voice but Betsy was choosing to ignore her and instead seemed intent on pecking something interesting on the ground. There were times when Eva questioned her decision to rescue six chickens especially when it came to the weekly cleanout and even more so when they decided to go on walkabouts into other people’s gardens.
She should have fixed that gap in the fence ages ago and hadn’t noticed it had got big enough for an escape party. She loved her girls and it was wonderful being able to provide her guests with fresh eggs. But there was no doubt it had been a labour of love and it had been hard work to get them from the sad-looking creatures they once were to the cheeky happy characters they were now.
Spotting her moment, she grabbed Betsy with two hands and lifted her back to the safety of her own garden. Hamish, happy to have Betsy home safely, barked in approval. Eva had very carefully introduced Hamish and the chickens but she needn’t have worried. They were all firm friends now and Eva