It Started With A Tweet(62)

I feel my cheeks flushing as I try to block out what little I can remember of the note I left him.

‘No, I’m quite fine, thank you. We’ve got plenty.’

I give him a quick wave and I turn to walk away as I hear the sound of his chuckle over the engine noise.

How embarrassing.

I walk over to the house and open the door, the coldness of the kitchen hitting me immediately. What this room needs is a warming Aga like Rodney’s. Perhaps it wasn’t a wasted visit after all.

I pull the leaflets I picked up from the shop out of my bag and pop them on top of the mountain of paperwork on the table, ready for me to peruse at a later date. I’m just thinking I’ll make a cup of tea when I hear a car pull up. I know instantly that it doesn’t have the right roar to be Rosie’s Land Rover and my jaw drops in shock as I turn and see who’s stepping out of a shiny Audi.





Chapter Nineteen

Time since last Internet usage: 6 days, 48 minutes and 30 seconds

‘Rupert, hi,’ I say, opening the door and planting my most friendly smile on my face.

He does a double take as he clocks me.

‘Daisy! I can’t believe you’re actually here,’ he says, breaking out into a smile and warmly kissing me on both cheeks.

‘I could say the same. Rosie’s not here.’

‘Ah, well, I couldn’t reach her on her phone. Signal around here’s dreadful. How anyone copes with living here is beyond me,’ he says with a hint of a laugh and a shake of the head.

‘Her phone’s off. We’re on a digital detox. I thought she told you about it?’

I’m sure I remember her saying she had.

‘She said you were up here working on the house with her, but I don’t remember anything about a detox. Maybe I wasn’t listening properly.’

I’m pretty sure he’d remember that. It makes me wonder how much they’re actually speaking when she goes to the village phone box.

‘Come on in, anyway,’ I say ushering him in. ‘So you’ve been here before, right?’

‘Briefly. When Rosie ambushed me with the idea. But I’m sure that she told you all about that.’ He looks around the kitchen and winces. I get the impression that he wanted to like it more second time around, but it still doesn’t seem to be winning him over.

‘You know Rosie will be so glad you’re here. I think she’s really missed you,’ I say.

‘And I’ve missed her. I just wish she’d told me about this place before she bought it. I love your sister, but she can be so bloody headstrong at times. She really pushes my buttons. Not that I need to tell you about that,’ he says, giving me a knowing look.

Rupert’s spent enough Christmases with us to witness our sibling rivalry first-hand.

He walks around the kitchen, knocking at the plastered walls and pulling out old wires that I’ve avoided touching, fearing electrocution.

‘I actually thought she was joking that you were here. I knew she was meeting up with you for lunch in London.’

‘Well, it was only supposed to be lunch, but I was going through .?.?. well, I needed to get away and Rosie suggested .?.?. here.’

Talk about the edited highlights.

‘You voluntarily came, then?’ He raises an eyebrow of doubt. ‘And you haven’t yet killed each other? That’s progress. Bet your mum’s pleased.’

‘The night before we came, I rang her from your flat to tell her and she was pretty surprised.’

‘Well, I’m relieved that Rosie hasn’t been here on her own. I half imagined that she’d pretended you were with her to stop me worrying. Not that it has done. It’s still an isolated place for you two to be, especially with the house being in such a state.’

‘Oh, don’t worry about us, the two of us are coping just fine.’

I don’t tell him that we have our nice, big, burly Frenchman to look after us.

‘So, has she roped you into doing work on this place?’ he says, still evidently searching for something positive in the room.

‘Uh-huh. We’ve started upstairs in the bathroom. Want to see?’

He stops prodding a wall and looks at me. ‘Why not. You know, in the other places Rosie’s done up, the work in the bathroom’s been pretty good. Did she tell you she tiles them herself?’

‘She did. She’s full of surprises.’

‘Lead on, then.’

I give Rupert the full tour of the bathroom, pointing out where I’d painstakingly stripped all the wallpaper and where the old tiling’s been ripped off.

‘You two have been busy. How many days have you been here? Four? Five?’

‘Five,’ I say, feeling relieved as I hear the front door slam. ‘That’ll be Rosie back.’

We both go back down the rickety stairs, and I’m pleased I’m about to witness a great reunion.

‘Look who came to visit,’ I say, as I make it down to the kitchen, only to see Alexis standing over the sink and drinking a pint of water.

‘Oh, I had to go out for a walk to clear my ’ead,’ he says, filling up another glass of water and downing it. ‘You are a bad influence.’

I laugh a little coquettishly and I hear Rupert cough behind me. I’ve realised I’ve blocked his descent.