Mr Dale apologised.
Laura gave him a quick look and didn’t tell him that it was exactly to her own taste. ‘Has it always been like this? Or did the present owner...what did you say her name was?’
‘Forest,’ he said. ‘Mrs Joanna Forest. Yes, she tells me she had the cottage modernised when she moved in twenty years ago. It had been a bit of a mess—it was a farm cottage since it was built, used by the head cowman. No money had ever been spent on it before. First thing she did was strip off all the old wallpaper, and then the plaster, laid the actual stone walls bare, the way they are now. Did it all herself, she said. Quite a job for a woman.’ His face was wryly knowing. ‘But then she didn’t have anything much else to do.’
‘She didn’t have a job?’ Laura was fascinated. She felt she would like Mrs Forest, judging by her taste. She wondered how old the woman was, and what she looked like? Why had she decided to sell the cottage?
‘Depends what you mean by a job,’ Mr Dale said, winking at her. ‘She was...let’s say...a friend...of old Jack Kern, Josh’s father, who died a year ago.’
‘Oh,’ Laura said, eyes widening. ‘Oh, I see.’ So that was why Josh Kern didn’t like her?
Lowering his voice, Mr Dale said, ‘Aye, I’m not one to gossip, but it’s common talk around here—you’d hear the tale in any pub for miles. Everyone knew what was going on. He visited her here every evening, they say. Never slept up at the farmhouse, if you get my meaning. What his wife thought of that, nobody ever found out. Nell Kern’s the grim and silent type...’
‘His wife was still living with him?’
‘Oh, aye. Nell’s still there now, running the house for Josh. There’s just the two of them living there now. A wonderful housekeeper, Nell—people swear by her cooking, too—but that marriage never worked. Not that she’s bad-looking. Even now she’s what I’d call a handsome woman. In fact, when we were young, Nell Bevan could have taken her pick of men around here. I didn’t have the brass to make her an offer, but I had my eye on her, I tell you! Jack Kern was thought a very lucky man to get her. What went wrong nobody’s sure, but...well, who knows what goes on inside a marriage? They just weren’t happy together, it seems.’
The other girls surged into the room. ‘Oh, the kitchen’s lovely, Laura—come and see!’ They caught her hands and pulled her after them.
‘My wife was taken by it too when she came round with me,’ said Mr Dale, following. ‘She likes to have a peer at places I’m selling. Very interested in houses is my Doris. And the kitchen was her favourite room in this house.’
Laura loved it, too. Like the sitting-room it had been stripped back to the stone walls, and the fittings were all of golden, polished pine which shone in the sunlight. It was surprisingly spacious and was obviously intended for use as a dining-room, too, judging by the large pine table and chairs set out by a long window at one end.
But even while she looked around, smiling, part of her mind was busy with what Mr Dale had told her about the family background, which explained Josh Kern’s hostility. No wonder he had resented his father’s gift of this cottage to the woman who had usurped his mother’s place.
‘Now upstairs,’ said the girls and stampeded off with Laura and Mr Dale in the rear.
‘I suppose there’s no doubt that the cottage does belong to this Mrs Forest?’ Laura asked him and he shook his head.
‘No, don’t you worry about that...you won’t have any legal problems.’
Laura gave him an uncertain look. ‘You’re sure about that?’
‘Certain. Don’t worry. Josh was just trying to scare you off; take no notice of his threats. He can’t legally deny you access to this place, and he knows it. I promise you, Mrs Forest’s title has been tested in court; there are no problems.’
He might be telling her the strict truth, but Laura still had doubts about the wisdom of going ahead with buying the cottage.
He saw her expression and grimaced. ‘Look, frankly, miss, it did look as if there might be a problem with it because when he gave the cottage to her old Jack Kern didn’t do it through his lawyer, daft old beezer. I suppose he didn’t want any talk. Not that he had a chance in hell of stopping talk! Not around here. Breath of life to them, a juicy scandal. Anyway, Jack just wrote her a letter—very private letter, too, a love letter—saying he was giving her this cottage so that she could either live here, or sell the cottage, to provide for her future.’
Laura frowned. ‘Just a letter? But surely that isn’t a legally binding document?’
‘Aye, it was, the way he phrased it. It was like a codicil to his will, you see. The lawyer had that, but Jack’s letter was dated later than the will, so it was a legal codicil, and Jack had left a sealed letter with his lawyer which said the same thing. Well, when Jack died, Josh Kern challenged her right to the place. She stayed on here until the court found in her favour, because she was afraid that, if she left, Josh Kern would take possession and she would never get it back. The court decided in her favour, and then she moved out and asked me to sell the place for her.’
‘She moved away out of the area?’ asked Laura, walking into the main bedroom at the front of the cottage.
‘She’s living in Salisbury with a widowed sister.’ Mr Dale looked around with more approval. ‘Now this is my favourite room—very pretty.’
Laura looked at the cream wallpaper sprigged with pink, the curtains in pale pink wool, the frilled pink lampshades on the small bedside tables on each side of the double bed, which had a cream coverlet. The deep-piled carpet was cream, too. It was a very soothing, ultra-feminine room.
‘When will she move her furniture out?’ asked Laura, as Mr Dale showed her the en suite bathroom leading out of the bedroom.
‘She’s taken what she wanted, all her personal things—letters, photographs, ornaments. But she didn’t want the furniture. I’m to sell it in auction, unless whoever buys the cottage wants it. I got the feeling she wanted to shut the door on it all, forget her years here.’
Suddenly Laura was moved, her green eyes filling with sympathy. ‘She may regret that later.’
‘She may, that’s what I told her,’ he said in his gruff voice, his weathered face blank. ‘But she didn’t change her mind.’
Laura looked around her, sighing. ‘Well, if I do eventually buy it, I’d like the furniture—and I’d always let her have it back if she did change her mind later. It seems terribly sad to turn her back on twenty years of her life!’
‘That’s very kind of you, miss. So, what do you think, then? Going to buy it?’
‘I like it, Mr Dale,’ Laura cautiously said, ‘but you’ll appreciate that my fiancé must see it before we make a decision. As soon as he is well enough we’ll come back to look at it again. I’ll ring you within the week, I expect.’
He nodded, not surprised. ‘Aye, well, remember I’ll be showing other clients around it in the meantime, and it is a bargain, especially fully furnished. Don’t wait too long, Miss Grainger.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll be in touch as soon as my fiancé is better.’ Then she had called the models, who had come trooping out from other
