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Theo pursed his lips.‘I believe so. From what Freya told me while you were up in the loft, it sounds as though a place has come on the market around Cambridge, smaller than this, but the estate agent rang to say if you were interested, to get in as quick as possible for a viewing before the place is advertised.’
Alice creased her brow. ‘Why didn’t he ask me to go with him?’ She noted those pursed lips again, as if Theo was hiding something.
Alice folded her arms, waiting for an explanation.
Theo avoided eye contact. ‘Well … er … the truth is, Jeffrey said that every house you viewed together, you had already made up your mind before you walked through the door.’
‘Made up my mind about what?’
Theo shuffled nervously from one foot to another. ‘Well, it was as if you’d decided that you wouldn’t like it. Because it wasn’t Melrose Place.’
Alice stared at him. ‘What’s wrong with Melrose Place?’
‘Well, nothing, but he thinks you are comparing every street and house to where you live.’
‘I like it here,’ said Alice indignantly. ‘What’s wrong with liking where you live?’
‘Nothing – unless you like it so much that unless something smaller comes up in the same street, you are just not going to find what you’re looking for.’
She stared at him. That sounded just like something Freya would say. Although she would not admit that he had a point. She did like her home so much that she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in Cambridge.Then look somewhere else,a little voice in her head said.
She brushed that thought aside. She had looked in Grantchester, where Theo and Freya were buying, but properties seemed to come up so rarely there. That was why Theo and Freya were so keen on Alice and Jeffrey’s sale not falling through – but the couple whose offer they had accepted had already sold up and gone into rented accommodation. Everyone knew that the only way the sale would fall through was if Alice and Jeffrey withdrew the house from the market.
Alice frowned. ‘So, Freya went with him?’
She knew by Theo’s expression that she had.
‘Um right, well, I’ve got some work to do,’ he muttered.
Alice watched him sidle out of the door.Her eyes dropped to the box in her hands. She walked over to her husband’s desk, put the box down and picked up a pen from his neatly arranged stationery organiser. She scribbled a quick note, looked around for an envelope, couldn’t find one, and so folded the paper over. She stalked out of the room but couldn’t decide where to leave it. What if it went missing – what if it was picked up and tossed in the bin? She shook her head; that wouldn’t do at all. She went upstairs and knocked on Theo’s door. She walked straight in, not waiting for a reply.
‘Ah, Mrs B – everything all right?’
All right? Alice glared at him. She’d nearly tripped over a box on her way along the hall. Her home was being dismantled around her.
‘Mrs B?’
Alice stared at the note, lost in thought. She looked up and frowned, remembering what she’d knocked on his door for. ‘Can you give this to Jeffrey?’
‘Er … sure.’
Alice guessed he was probably thinking,Why couldn’t she give it to him herself?Although he didn’t ask.
He took the note, and she watched him put it on his desk. ‘Good. Right. Well, I’ll see you later.’
‘You’re going out, Mrs B?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh, okay.’
Alice glanced at the note on his desk before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her. She paused in her bedroom for the novel on the bedside table before heading down the stairs. She put her coat on and phoned for a taxi before calling out, ‘Hester!’
Her dog trotted out from the kitchen. Alice smiled at her. ‘Good girl! Fancy going on a holiday to the coast? One woof for no, two woofs for yes.’
Woof, woof.
Alice grinned. ‘Well, aren’t you a dog after my own heart?’ She took the lead hanging from the row of coat hooks by the door and attached it to Hester’s collar. Her pets would need food, but she couldn’t take that with her too. She opened the front door, walked out into the porch and looked at Marley’s grumpy face. He was sitting in the cat carrier on top of the suitcases. ‘I know you don’t like it in there, but I’m not leaving you here.’
