Page 7 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

He wasn’t sure who he had been expecting to arrive for the ridiculous interview that his brother had set up, but it most certainly was not the stylish, attractive, dark-haired woman in front of him.

Katy Smith was a huge surprise. Standing there in an extremely smart business suit and high heels, she looked like an alien had just landed in sleepy Cranfield.

‘So, the hotel appears to be closed at present?’ she said, breaking into the awkward silence.

‘What hotel?’ he asked, not understanding what she was talking about. There had been no mention of a hotel on the advertisement, had there? ‘This is my father’s home.’

‘What’s all this about then, my boy?’ asked his grandad, looking thoroughly confused as he glanced from Ryan to the stranger.

‘Ethan posted a joke interview for someone to tidy up the station,’ Ryan told him, rolling his eyes.

‘Did he now?’ replied Eddie, nodding thoughtfully.

‘Excuse me, this is a practical joke?’ said Katy, her blue eyes glaring at him. She appeared to be about to explode with anger.

‘Well, look—’ began Ryan, about to apologise when he was quickly interrupted.

‘No, you look!’ snapped Katy, her voice getting higher with each irate word. ‘I’ve just travelled for three hours on various trains, plus a taxi journey to get here and now you’re telling me that the job doesn’t even exist! So the station isn’t a hotel and doesn’t need organising, is that what you’re saying?’

‘No,’ said Ryan, finally able to get a word in. ‘It might not be a hotel, but it most definitely needs organising.’

He brought out the front door key to the main part of the station that he rarely used these days. The separate door to the apartment upstairs where the family lived was actually at the far end of the building around the corner. But the mess of the station was surely bad enough to put anyone off even an imaginary tidy-up job.

The door opened with a hearty shove from Ryan, lack of use causing it to stick. Then he led Katy and his grandad inside.

His grandad was used to it, of course. It had been like that for so long. But Katy just looked around with wide eyes, obviously stunned speechless.

Ryan followed her shocked gaze and tried to imagine seeing it all for the first time.

They were standing in the old entrance hall to the station. It was a long room with high ceilings. There were the original two ticket office windows to the left and the doors to the large waiting room on the right. At the other end of the room was the original door to the platform, where the passengers used to head out to catch their train.

The trouble was that nearly everything was almost obscured by large piles of boxes and steam engine paraphernalia that his dad had collected over the years. Ryan sidled his way through the mess to the door to the waiting room and opened it to show that the clutter spilled into there as well. He felt overwhelmed by it all, as he always did whenever he saw the mess.

Ryan turned around to watch as Katy did a full 360-degree slow turn, taking in the chaos all around her.

He almost felt like laughing, even though there was nothing funny in the situation whatsoever, but seeing her look of utter horror was unexpectedly cheering him up. Especially as she was stood there in those ridiculous high heels, however long they made her fabulous legs look.

‘I don’t blame you if you think you’re not up to the task,’ Ryan told her. ‘I’m not sure anyone could sort this lot out.’

To his surprise, she turned to fix him with an icy stare. ‘I’m up to any task,’ she told him, her blue eyes glaring. ‘As my extensive résumé shows.’

‘So what is your current position?’ he asked, feeling irked by her lofty attitude. Yes, the station was a complete mess, but it was still his family home, after all!

‘I’m temporarily between posts right now,’ she told him in a steely tone.

‘Meaning that you’re unemployed?’ he replied, with a smile, glad to have regained the upper hand in the conversation.

She looked away, waving her arm around at the mess surrounding them. ‘So what is all this?’ she asked, sounding bewildered.

‘Some of it’s from when the station was still open,’ said Eddie, scratching the grey stubble on his chin. ‘That was years ago, of course. Some fifteen years it’s been shut. Some of the stuff is more recent, like that coupling over there. That’ll be put on the train in the next few months.’

She followed his nod to where a large and greasy-looking pile of metal sat. ‘You’re making a model railway?’ she asked in a polite tone.

Eddie burst out laughing. ‘Model railway?’ He shook his head, still smiling. ‘No, love. It’s a full-size steam engine in our workshop outside.’

Katy’s eyes widened further. ‘You’re building an actual steam train?’ she asked in amazement. ‘You mean like the Hogwarts Express?’

‘Better in every way, I reckon,’ replied Eddie, with a grin. ‘But more like that we’re getting it ready to return to its rightful place on the tracks. Fingers crossed anyway.’