11
The next day, after she’d dropped Jack off at school, Lou returned to the cottage to get on with more clearing out. She wanted to get as much done as possible before starting at Coast next week. She worked steadily for the morning, tackling the box room first. It was full of junk, so it was the biggest job, but also the easiest as there were no decisions to be made about whether anything was worth keeping. By the time she had to pick Jack up from school, she’d almost cleared it completely, and the room was full of refuse sacks with stuff to bin, put in recycling or bring to the charity shop. There was too much to bring to the charity shop in one go, but she was impatient to get it out of the house so that she’d have the satisfaction of seeing the results of her labour, so she took one to drop off on the way to the school. She could take one every day until they were all gone.
She arrived at the school just as the doors opened and spotted Sheena waiting in the yard.
Bo and Jack came out together, just like yesterday. She was glad that Jack had made a friend so quickly. Bo headed straight for Sheena, with Jack in tow.
‘Hi, Sheena,’ Lou said, moving across to her.
She turned around. ‘Hi, Lou!’ She gave her a warm smile.
‘Mum, can Bo come to play at our house?’ Jack asked her.
‘Sure. If that’s okay with Sheena. They might have something else planned.’
‘It’s fine by me,’ Sheena said. ‘We were just going to spend the afternoon at Aidan’s.’
‘Well, you’re welcome to come back for a cup of tea or something. Or if you’d like, you can take the afternoon off and I’ll drop Bo back later.’
‘I’d love to come for a chat, thanks. And I wouldn’t mind having a look inside that cottage,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ve always admired it.’
‘Well, you’re welcome to look around, but there’s not much to see.’
They walked back to the cottage together, the children skipping ahead. Sheena waved to several people they passed and stopped to say hello to a couple, introducing them to Lou. She seemed to know everyone.
‘It’s pretty!’ Bo exclaimed when they got to the cottage.
Lou smiled. ‘It is. Though not so much inside,’ she added to Sheena as the children ran up the path.
Jack burst through the door, eager to show his house to his friend. ‘Come up and see my room,’ he said, thundering up the stairs with Bo hot on his heels.
‘You’ll have to ignore the mess,’ Lou said, leading Sheena into the living room which was crammed with black refuse sacks. ‘I’m trying to clear the place out and it gets worse before it gets better.’
‘That’s always the way.’
‘Cup of tea?’ Lou asked, waving Sheena to a seat at the table. ‘Or would you like the grand tour first?’
‘Tea, please. Let’s leave those two to it for now. I’m glad to have a chance to have a proper chat with you.’
Lou made a pot of tea and put out a plate of oat and raisin biscuits she’d baked last night.
‘So how are you finding life in Dingle?’ Sheena asked her when they were settled. ‘It must be a big change for you.’
‘It is,’ Lou said, sitting at the table opposite Sheena. ‘But I really like it.’
‘It’s a great spot all right. You didn’t consider selling this place and buying somewhere in Dublin?’
‘Not really. I couldn’t afford Dublin any more – actually, I could never afford it,’ she added with a wry smile. ‘And I wanted a change anyway. Being left the house was the perfect opportunity. I thought this would be a good place for Jack to grow up.’ She liked the idea of him spending his childhood somewhere with a real sense of community, where people looked out for each other. It was the kind of security and stability she’d always wanted to give him but had never been able to until now.
‘I still can’t believe this place is ours.’ She’d had to wait six months for the Grant of Probate to issue after she’d been informed of the inheritance, and she’d spent the entire time expecting it to fall through at some stage – for someone to come forward to challenge the will, or some mistake to come to light, or for a distant relative with a greater claim to be found, or a later will to be discovered. There were any number of things that could happen, and she hadn’t been able to truly believe the cottage would be hers until the solicitor had handed over the keys.
‘It’s the sort of thing you never hear of happening in real life,’ Sheena said, ‘getting an inheritance out of the blue like that, from someone you didn’t even know.’
‘I feel kind of bad about that. It doesn’t seem right that she left all this to someone she never even knew. I’d love to be able to thank her. I mean, she’s done this amazing, life-changing thingfor us. I just wish she could have known what it means to us and how much I appreciate it.’
‘That’s understandable.’ She sipped her tea. ‘But I’m sure she’d be delighted to know she’d given a home to such a lovely family.’
Lou smiled at her gratefully.
