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‘Yeah – since we moved here.’
‘What about?’ Thea had thought they were happy. That was always the impression her sister gave. Perhaps it was Mark, and he wasn’t happy moving out of London. Perhaps that was why he’d returned there to work.
Katie sighed heavily. ‘Money – what else? I hear them having rows about the cost of heating oil.’
‘Heating oil?’
‘Yeah. I mean, we don’t have gas here. But it’s a village in the middle of nowhere – what did they expect?’
The place wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. It might feel that way in the house, which was surrounded by countryside and one-track lanes meandering through the Suffolk countryside, but there was actually a lot to do – nearby Woodbridge had an independent cinema and a public pool, and there was even a private pool and gym at a hotel and spa just five minutes away by car. And the Suffolk Coast was just a twenty-minute drive away. What was not to like? Thea frowned.
‘There – you see?’ said Katie pointing at her. ‘You agree with me. This place is, like, really crap. I mean there is nothing, and I meannothingto do, unless you’re my brother and like old stuff. But even he has to be ferried around in the car. We can’t walk out of our front door and go anywhere. I’d rather live in a city any day.’
Katie had misread her thoughts. She wasn’t frowning because she agreed with her sentiments – far from it. She remembered her father saying when she was little that he was saving up to buy them a family home; he wanted to buy the cottage they were renting in the countryside. It had been an idyllic childhood until they’d moved to London with their mum.
Thea had only been back in Suffolk a short time, but unlike her other occasional trips to see her sister, this time she felt differently here; she felt happy. Perhaps it was the fond childhood memories. Thea tried to ignore her feelings. She thought of her job and her flat. Her whole life was in London. There was nothing for her here – apart from her sister, and her niece and nephew whom she rarely saw, apart from for fleeting visits.
She was surprised that Katie wanted to come and live with her, but perhaps she wasn’t surprised that she wanted to return to London. It was where she had been born and brought up. An outgoing young girl, Katie was finding it hard settling into her new circumstances.
It didn’t sound as though the rows over money were helping. Looking around their home, which still wasn’t finished after all these months, it made her wonder whether, given the escalating bills for running a house this size, they’d run out of money.
She looked at Katie. ‘So, you think your brother went through the boxes?’
Katie rolled her eyes. ‘Duh! Didn’t you listen to a word I just said?’
‘Don’t be rude, Katie.’
‘You’re not my mum. You can’t tell me what to do.’
Thea had been expecting that. She sighed and closed the door. She glanced up the stairs. Just then, she didn’t fancy confronting Toby over the boxes, even though she wanted to know what he’d been looking for. She’d had enough teenage cheek for one day. She looked at Winston. He was standing by her side, looking up at her. ‘What do you want?’ Thea said, annoyed that since she’d fed him, he seemed to be following her everywhere.
Thea returned to the kitchen and hunted through drawers and cupboards until she’d found what she was looking for; a pair of scissors and some sticky tape. On her way out of the kitchen, she tried to shut Winston in before she went out into the garden, but he wasn’t having any of it; he poked his head out of the patio door every time she tried to close it. ‘Oh, all right. Come on then, if you must. But you are not getting any more biscuits.’
Five minutes later, Thea found she wasn’t getting anywhere with sorting through the boxes because Winston insisted on putting his nose into everything. Thea had put a box on a work bench, and was trying to sort through the contents before repacking and taping it up. ‘For goodness’ sake! Why do people have dogs? You are beyond irritating!’
Winston nudged her hand for a stroke. Thea had no choice but to pat his head and stroke his smooth fur. ‘Now, are you satisfied you’ve got my attention?’
Winston barked in her face.
Thea looked at him. ‘You’re not going to leave me in peace, are you?’ She glanced over at the plastic container. A moment later, Winston was occupied, eating more dog biscuits outside.
Thea shut the door to the garage, leaving the dog eating his biscuits in the garden. She hoped she didn’t regret it. She imagined that in a few minutes she’d hear him howling outside, wanting to be let in.
As Thea started sorting through her mum’s possessions and taping up the boxes, she heard a whine outside. She rolled her eyes, expecting Winston to start barking. There was a window next to the door. Thea resisted walking over and glancing outside in case Winston spotted her.
The whining continued, but she ignored it as she took another box and started tidying up the contents. She was still wondering what Toby had been looking for. So far, she couldn’t tell if anything was missing. Although she’d helped her mum pack up her things, she hadn’t helped her with all the boxes, so she had no idea what was in some of them.
She had suggested to her mum that she let some of the stuff go to charity shops; there werelots of little ornaments she’d collected over time, old dog-eared paperback books, travel books, and a lot of other things that Thea recognised from her childhood. She had asked what the point was of keeping it all.She had thought perhaps that with her mum’s new life and her travelling, she would let some things go. She had been surprised when her mum had refused to even consider it; had said she didn’t want to hear another word on the matter. It had led to a row and to Thea walking out, because she knew what it was about. Despite appearances, her mum still hadn’t let go of the past – let go of her husband.
Thea had also suggested getting rid of her and her sister’s old schoolbooks and artwork, which her mum had religiously kept over the years, but she knew her mum wouldn’t. Thea taped up those boxes and moved on tothe last two boxes, which were full of old clothes, coats and handbags. Like the boxes containing the schoolbooks, the boxes had been opened, but she could tell the contents had been left untouched.
She stood back and surveyed the newly stacked boxes thinking that perhaps when her mum returned from Nepal and started her yoga practice, she would be ready to let all this stuff go.
Thea opened the door and was immediately confronted by Winston, who was furiously wagging his tail, barking, and jumping up at her as though she’d been gone for days. ‘Hey!’Thea thought that Winston really needed some doggy training classes. If she had been planning to be around a bit longer, she would have offered to take the dog to a class herself.
She went back to the house and looked at the two boxes of pizza that Mark must have ordered in before he left. She opened them. The twins had ordered one each, which was too much to eat, and both had several leftover slices. Thea chose a couple of slices of peperoni pizza and found a plate in one of the cupboards, along with an open bottle of white wine in the fridge. She poured herself a glass and sat on a stool at the kitchen island in the centre of the room, eating the pizza and admiring her surroundings. She remembered the small, cramped kitchen and original dining room. Now, the white, high-gloss kitchen with its wooden worktop complemented the light oak wooden flooring, and she loved the light and airy space they’d created by adding the dining area extension with its skylights.
She turned in her stool to look out at the garden through the patio doors. The large patio must have set them back a good amount of money, as must the landscaped back garden. Although the garden wasn’t very large, it was walled, and had lots of privacy from the road. She frowned at the thought that they hadn’t bothered to replace the old rickety gate between the wall and the garage, meaning that anyone could just walk into the back of the house. Getting a padlock would be no good. The gate was so low that anyone could just hop over it.
