Freya North - Freya North 3-Book Collection - Secrets, Chances, Rumours

It wasn't that Tess actually minded Em touching or exploring; rather, she didn't want anything to jeopardize this job being hers. This job now seemed more than the answer to her present predicament; it seemed to be the embodiment of long-held dreams. This house was a haven, if a slightly unkempt one.

And if I look after it, it'll care for me.

‘Sorry?’ Joe was looking at her.

Tess, appalled that she might have spoken out loud, quickly turned to her child. ‘Em! Mummy said be care ful.’

‘This is the other sitting room,’ Joe was saying as he led them into a room whose walls were dark red, with two sofas of well-worn brown leather, curtains half drawn. Tess wondered, if you sat still enough, whether no one need know you were there at all.

‘When do you use this room?’ she asked.

‘TV,’ Joe said. ‘I know it's naff – but look.’ He opened a cabinet door to reveal a sizeable flat-screen set.

‘Do you have CBeebies ?’

‘What's that?’

‘It's a kids’ channel,’ Tess said, brushing the air as if her question was unimportant and an affirmative answer was no big deal.

‘Probably,’ said Joe and he zapped at the remote control. ‘Is this it?’

‘No.’

‘This?’

‘No.’

‘How about this?’

‘No. It doesn't matter. It's not a problem. I brought DVDs that Em likes. If that's OK, I mean. If you have a DVD player? Oh – and if it's OK for me to use it?’

‘Sure. Why not. See here – and you need this remote control. Now, come through. This is another loo. And this is a room that – well – I just keep stuff like this in. Quite a useful room, really – though it's become a bit of a dumping ground. Now – upstairs. This is my floor – I'm down there. But I keep the hoover in this room here. Slightly extravagant – and actually, there's another hoover downstairs. But I'd say life's too short to lug a lone vacuum cleaner up and down all these stairs.’

‘Or to use either of them much at all, really,’ Tess remarked, eyeing fluff and stuff on the floors. She caught Joe looking a little taken aback. ‘That's what I'm for,’ she said brightly, ‘that's why I'm here, it's part of the job, isn't it – and I quite like hoovering.’

Joe's expression was odd but he walked on ahead and up a flight of stairs before she could read too much into it.

On the second floor were three further bedrooms and a large bathroom, floored in shiny black-and-white chequered lino. There was a smaller bathroom on the landing going up to the top floor where another two bedrooms, without beds, were in the eaves. There was more attic space too, he told her.

‘Take which you like,’ Joe said, walking back down to the second floor, ‘I don't mind. Mostly the house-sitters squirrel themselves away right at the top.’

‘Is that where I should be?’

‘I said – take which you like.’

‘Sorry.’ She paused. ‘Really?’

He shrugged. ‘Of course.’

‘Could I take the front room on this floor?’

‘Sure.’

Tess returned to it. A bay window. A window seat. A double bed, stripped to the mattress, with a dark wood bedstead. Nearly but not quite matching chest of drawers and wardrobe, both almost fitting into the alcoves either side of the fireplace. Cherrywood perhaps. A similar colour to the design decorating the tiles of the fireplace.

‘Which one for Emmeline?’

And Joe had to repeat the question because Tess was looking into the wardrobe as if she could see right through to Narnia.

‘Which one for Emmeline?’

‘Em?’

‘A bedroom – for Emmeline,’ Joe said. ‘Which would be suitable for her?’

‘She can have her own bedroom?’ Tess said, flabbergasted. Joe looked flabbergasted to the contrary. ‘She can bunk up with me,’ Tess said, as if availing herself of anything more than Joe had already offered her would be obscene. ‘She has done so far. I have a travel cot. Well – it's her only cot.’

Joe shurgged. ‘Whatever suits you. But you're welcome to the other rooms. To house-sit successfully, you need to feel at home.’

At home , thought Tess when Joe had gone downstairs leaving her to gawp at her leisure.

This house is a home.

And she sat down and looked around her and thought, how did I come to be here?

How on earth did I come to be here ?

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