‘Well, it’s?—’
‘Dirty!’ Jack finished.
Her heart sank as she saw his lower lip tremble. Damn! She shouldn’t have brought him here before she’d done a recce and fixed the place up a bit, so she could present it to him as a fait accompli. She was already in love with the little cottage and the idea of living here, so she desperately needed him to buy into it too.
‘It’s nothing a little elbow grease won’t fix,’ she said brightly, peeling off the straps of her backpack. It was a relief to drop the weight of it to the floor. ‘And we’ve got plenty of that, don’t we?’
Jack nodded solemnly and her heart twisted when he summoned up a small smile.
‘Why is it dark in here?’ he asked glumly.
‘It’s just because the windows are so dirty,’ Lou said. She went over to one and gave it a swipe with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. ‘See?’ She was dismayed when she spotted what looked like a hairline crack in the other pane – but on closer inspection, it turned out to just be a very elaborate spider’s web.
‘Come on, let’s see the rest,’ she said brightly.
‘Okay.’
Lou led the way and Jack followed her through to the kitchen. It was a small room, but still about twice the size of her tiny galley in their flat in Dublin. There was even room for a little table. The units were old and worn and she’d guess dated from the fifties, but they looked solid enough. She went to the window over the sink and her spirits instantly lifted as she looked out.
‘Look, there’s a garden!’ She turned to Jack excitedly and this time his smile was spontaneous. She turned the key in the back door and stepped outside, Jack following behind.
‘We have a garden!’ She walked into the middle of the small patch of grass and looked around. It was overgrown, but beautiful, the grass high and sprinkled with weeds or wildflowers or both – Lou still wasn’t sure what the difference was. But she didn’t care about that. She’d never had an outside space before. She could dig beds and grow herbs and vegetables! There was a small, paved area where she could sit and have a morning coffee. And Jack could play outside. They’d have fresh air and home-grown vegetables, and space to breathe. She closed her eyes and turned her face to the sun, basking in the peace of the moment.
‘We could get a dog!’ Jack said eagerly. ‘Can we get a dog, Mum?’
She opened her eyes. ‘Maybe… Or a cat.’
Jack nodded eagerly.
Pets cost a lot of money – there was food and shots and vet bills. Could she manage to get a dog? Or a cat? Cats were much lower maintenance, but a dog would probably be more fun for Jack and he’d hankered after one for years, right back from since she’d read him his firstSpotbook. Not that he’d ever asked for one – even at his age he knew it wasn’t an option in their fourth-floor city centre flat. He was so excited about it now and she didn’t want to dampen his enthusiasm. Anything that would make him happy about moving here, she’d try to make it happen.
‘We’ll see,’ she said. She was never going to make her son promises she couldn’t keep.
Jack’s face fell. ‘“We’ll see” means no.’
‘No, it doesn’t. It means we’ll see.’ She put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ll try, Jack. Honestly. We’ll get a pet – just not right away. It might take a bit of time, okay?’
‘Okay.’
She ruffled his hair, feeling a rush of love. He was such a good kid. Where that had come from was anyone’s guess.
‘Look, there’s a secret door!’ Jack pointed to the bottom of the garden, where a blue wooden door was almost obscured by a tangle of overgrown bushes and tall weeds.
‘Oh wow! Let’s see where that leads.’
They walked across the long grass and Lou pushed branches aside to reach the rusted metal doorknob. The door was stiff, but she was able to open it with a sharp tug. Behind it a narrow grass-covered lane led in both directions.
‘I wonder where it goes.’ Jack peered along the path.
‘I think that way probably leads down to the sea.’ How amazing to have their own private path to the waterfront. Lou could hardly believe this was all real – a feeling that she was getting used to since she’d got the solicitor’s letter about six months ago explaining about the inheritance. ‘We’ll check it out later. Come on, let’s explore the rest of the house first.’
They went back inside and Jack led the way this time, running up the wooden staircase to the first floor. Upstairs there was a bathroom and two bedrooms, a larger one at the front that faced onto the street and a smaller one at the back.
‘Is this my room?’ Jack asked, standing in the small back room that looked out over the garden and the rolling fields beyond.
‘You can have whichever one you want.’
‘Really?’
