Teresa Morgan - Meet Me at Wisteria Cottage

‘Not a chance to call your own mother!’ Sandra shrieked. Maddy winced, taking the phone away from her ear briefly. ‘Where are you now?’

‘I’m heading into Truro.’

‘Are you driving? Should I call you back? You know you shouldn’t answer the phone while you’re driving.’

‘No, I’m not driving.’

‘Who is then?’

‘Oh, Mum, enough with the questions.’ She stared at the roof lining of the cab, biting her tongue and trying to remain cool, especially with Harry right beside her. He glanced at her but then returned his attention to the road.

‘Maddison, dear, why don’t you come home for a bit?’ This was another of the reasons why Maddy had postponed calling her mother. She knew her dad would worry unnecessarily and Sandra would urge her to come home. ‘It must be awfully scary there. And with so much work needing to be done to the house.’

‘Mum, it’s not scary, and there’s not that much work,’ lie mode cancelled, ‘but what work there is will need to be overseen.’

‘The insurance company will sort that—’

‘And then there’s the gallery.’

‘Valerie can manage there—’

‘And besides,’ Maddy wasn’t going to let her mother bully her into anything if she could help it, ‘Harry has said I can stay with him.’

‘Who’s Harry?’

‘My neighbour.’

‘Not the one you moan about all the time?’

Maddy gulped. She hoped Harry couldn’t hear her mother on the other end of the phone. She switched the phone to her left ear, just in case.

‘Yes, him,’ she hissed.

‘Pardon? I can’t hear you … You said you disliked the man.’ Is it me or is she shouting down the phone?

Maddy’s cheeks flushed. The cab was getting hotter. Had Harry turned off the air-con? ‘Mum, I can’t talk about this right now,’ she glanced at Harry, who appeared to be concentrating on driving and not listening to Maddy’s conversation – Thank God – ‘but Harry has been a tremendous help.’

‘Nothing any neighbour wouldn’t do.’ Harry winked at Maddy. The creases around his eyes, the dimple in his cheek sent heat rushing to Maddy’s inner thighs. What with Sandra’s embarrassing nagging combined with Harry’s good looks — Maddy’s body was suddenly on fire!

‘Connor would take you back.’ As Sandra blurted out the words, a chill coursed through Maddy, as if she’d had a bucket of icy water thrown over her. Her hackles rose.

‘Mum!’

‘Don’t bite my head off,’ Sandra said. ‘Only I saw him this morning, and he asked how you were, and said how sorry he was it hadn’t worked out with you, how much you meant to him. So I called the gallery, and here we are talking about him.’

‘I would not go back to Connor if my life depended on it,’ Maddy muttered, cupping her mouth over the mouthpiece as if it would help keep her conversation private. Fat chance. She knew Harry had heard what she’d said, but her mother needed putting straight. Connor did not bring out the best in Maddy, and now, having realised this, the better off she was without him. Until her kitchen fire, her single lifestyle had been treating her well. Yes, deep down she really wished she had someone to share this burden with, give her a hug, but she had to deal with it – on her own. Harry was helping, actually, keeping her strong, but she had to stand on her own two feet.

‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry I mentioned Connor. I thought he was a nice enough chap.’ Maddy bit her tongue. He was a control freak. And was her mother forgetting how he called her Sandy and she hated being called Sandy ? ‘Please be careful, though, darling, you don’t know this Harry. He’s only a neighbour and you hear terrible things in the news. You don’t know what your neighbours get up to behind closed doors. You said you two didn’t see eye to eye, so for all you know he could have started the fire.’

‘Don’t be silly.’ Maddy glanced at Harry as a momentary coldness ran down her spine. He was an ex-fireman. He would know how to make a fire look like an accident. Even the firemen had hinted it was suspicious.

It was suspicious! The police were looking into it as arson.

Maddy had seen the evidence with her own eyes – it had to be arson.

But then he was the one who had alerted the fire service.

He could have started it and then felt guilty.

And why would he let you stay at his house?

Maddy’s mother continued to warble on while Maddy had this ridiculous internal argument.

‘Well, I’d best let you go. You know where I am. Let me know how you get on, and if you need to escape, then there is still plenty of room for you here. Maybe Dad and I will pop down to see you.’

‘No. Don’t.’ Maddy snapped back to the reality of the conversation.

‘Why not? We’re worried about you.’

‘I can’t put you up.’

‘We can stay in a hotel.’

‘It’ll be very expensive this time of year.’ Maddy tried to think of a million excuses why her mum shouldn’t visit.

‘Nonsense, that doesn’t matter—’

‘And probably everywhere will be booked up already.’

‘I’m sure somewhere will have availability. Think about it, dear.’

‘I will.’ Maddy winced. ‘Bye, Mum.’

‘Love you, dear.’

‘Love you, too.’ Maddy returned her phone to her handbag and looked at Harry, who smiled. Did she look flushed scarlet, riled by her mother? Probably . Oh, the joys of having a pale complexion that gives you away immediately. She could never play poker.

‘All okay?’ he asked.

Maddy sighed. ‘What do you think?’

He chuckled, emitting such a calming warmth. The side she’d never seen because she’d been too busy arguing with him about his monstrosity of a truck – which she was currently comfortably sitting in. Oh, the irony …

Of course Harry hadn’t started the fire. Had he?

Maddy waited for Harry at the place where they’d agreed, on a bench in the cobbled area at the front of the cathedral. Sunglasses perched over her eyes, she relaxed in the sunshine, soaking up the warmth and the busy atmosphere, listening and watching. They’d arrived in Truro soon after midday, and although she’d only been shopping for a couple of hours, her feet were sore and her legs ached. Knowing there were seats, she’d decided to head to their meeting place early. To fill the time, she took a photo of the cathedral, the cloudless blue sky as a backdrop and posted it to her Instagram account.

Truro reminded Maddy a little of Bath, only smaller, with the Georgian architecture and mellow stone buildings. Cobbled streets ran through most of the original parts of the city. The cathedral, grand and impressive, stood tall, prominent on Truro’s skyline. The cathedral could be seen from most of the streets, and heard as well when the bells chimed, as if to ensure you hadn’t forgotten its presence. The seagulls gave occasional cries, a reminder you were in Cornwall, albeit inland, and the coast wasn’t too far away. She wondered if they were as cheeky and aggressive here as in Padstow or Tinners Bay, and would have the audacity to steal a pasty right out of your hand. Probably. Maddy wasn’t prepared to find out.

She spotted Harry approaching before he saw her – over six foot and with broad shoulders, the man stood out from the crowd. She gathered up her shopping and walked towards him.

‘Get everything you need?’ he asked.

‘I think so, I lost interest after a while,’ Maddy said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘I’m not really in the mood.’

She wasn’t a huge shopper at the best of times. It was always when you fancied a spending spree you could never find anything, and when you didn’t have the money, all sorts of lovely things jumped off the rails at you. This apparently was true for everyone, not just Maddy, so her friends assured her.