* * *
What was it that woke her? A sound, an instinct, a shadow? She let out a sudden piercing scream to see Nick there towering over her. “My God, what the hell….”
She jumped up off the bed to confront him, and being close to him again was so wonderful all the anger she’d felt just drained away.
“You’re three hours late, are you aware of that?”
“If you say so, I’m not good with time.”
“Well that’s the understatement of the century that is, and why didn’t you tell me the house had gone?”
“What d’you mean, gone?”
“I rang the office to ask where you were and they told me.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You’re the boss,” she said, stringing him along, “and you didn’t know.”
“But I want you to have the house.”
“So why did you sell it to someone else?”
“I didn’t, someone else has, obviously. Probably that obnoxious bloody banker, he came to see it at the weekend. Him and his horsey wife. Well they’d better watch out, that’s all I can say. You’re buying this house, not them, so we shouldn’t even worry ourselves about it.”
“Not if these other people have got anything to do with it.”
“It won’t go through, trust me.”
“You seem very confident of that.”
“I am.”
They stood gazing at each other in the half light.
“So how come they don’t know anything about you at your office?”
“What?”
“I called a little while ago, and they said no one by the name of Nick works there.”
Nick looked completely thrown and she could see him thinking of a way to cover, then she saw him give up.
“It was a lie.”
“Yes, I gathered that, but what for?”
“I didn’t want you to know, but I show the house myself sometimes… it’s mine you see.”
“Now I’m completely confused.”
“But we need to sell it to pay for my grandfather in his home, that’s all.”
“So it’s not your house as such, it’s his?”
“But it would have been mine; my grandfather wanted me to have it.”
“Can’t you buy it yourself, then?”
“No I can’t,” he said simply, “I’ll always be here though, in spirit, I’ll never leave this place. My childhood was pretty traumatic, but for one summer when I was here, I was actually happy, the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“So if you’re not an estate agent, what do you do?”
“I’m a painter, or I was, but never mind about that, I want to dance with you. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
Nick pulled out a very old transistor radio from under the bed and switched it on.
“Don’t tell me that old thing works?”
“Of course it does.”
A Strauss waltz blared out as he took Faith’s hand and led her to the centre of the floor. They held each other formally and started to dance, as though they were old hands, as though they had done this on countless occasions before. When the music stopped, they remained exactly as they were.
“Did you think I’d like this dress?” he asked.
A little embarrassed by the direct question, Faith shrugged. “Don’t you?”
“No, it reminds me too much of my youth, what youth I had. They were dark times, and I’d rather not be reminded.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Maybe you can wear it at a flower show some time…”
“Or a garden fete...”
They started to laugh, and the laughter continued as Faith pulled the dress off over her head and chucked it onto the floor.
“Is that better?” she said.
“Heaps better.”
Thinking back, much later, the thing she remembered most was his touch. When he threw her on the bed and started to run his hands from the top of her head to her feet she found herself shivering, then literally shaking in response to the sensation. It was sex alright but not as Faith knew it. True to form, this wonderful man engaged in sexual manoeuvres of Olympic standards, causing pleasure so intense Faith thought she might start convulsing if he didn’t stop. When they did stop, lying in each other’s arms, she’d never felt so protected. It was like she’d come home.
“We could go out somewhere,” she said. “I’m hungry, are you?”
“No, I don’t eat.”
“You must eat.”
“Not much.”
“You could watch me eat.”
“We could get a takeaway, well… you could, I can’t pay though, I’ve got no money.”
Faith smiled, noticing for the first time that Nick’s outfit strewn around the room was exactly the same as last time, even down to the two odd socks.
“I’ll be coming here on my own by the way, Dan and I are no more.”
“Yes, so I heard.”
She looked at him. “How? How did you hear?”
“Just sensed it, that’s all.”
“Don’t know how I’m going to afford this place to be honest. I was thinking of lodgers, do you think that’s a good idea?”
“Well I’ll be kicking around, but I won’t be able to pay you anything, it doesn’t work like that with me.” Faith laughed, but Nick looked deadly serious. “Don’t get too close to me, Faith.”
“And what does that mean?”
“I can’t be in any one place for very long.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it, that’s just the way I am. You’ll be expecting me at one and I might just about make it at seven. I’m an expect me when you see me kind of guy. Where I come from time doesn’t mean much, you see.”
“So where do you come from?”
“Andromeda, of course.”
And at that moment Faith couldn’t have cared less where he came from, but suddenly she was serious again, worried about the other buyers who seemed as keen on the house as she was.
“I’ve told you not to worry about all that,” he said out of the blue.
“Worry about what?”
“These people…”
“How do you know what I was thinking?”
After a comfortable silence Nick said: “Kirsten and I tried to have a child for 7 years. Nothing wrong with either of us, but it just didn’t happen. Probably just as well the way things turned out, but it was difficult at the time. I wanted a son and heir, I wanted someone to have the childhood I didn’t have and I wanted to be the one to give it to him.”
“Why was the summer you spent here so special?”
“Because my grandparents loved me of course. My parents didn’t and the monstrous couple that looked after me in their absence… they didn’t either.”
“Who were these people?”
“My mother’s sister and her husband, the ugly sisters, I called them, because she was butch and he was very camp. It sounds funny now, but at the time it was anything but funny. They took away my childhood, took it with two hands, screwed it up and chucked it away. I hated them then and I still hate them, but they got what they deserved.”
“Why, what happened?”
“They died in pretty dramatic circumstances,” said Nick with a smirk. “Murdered, actually, in their own beds. Boohoo…”
She looked at him when he said this and when he noticed he let out a tense laugh, but so bound up was she in this new man she didn’t even question it.
“Go to the shop for me, will you? I’m starved, get some crisps and some chocolate, I’ll give you the money.”
Nick didn’t look too sure, but got dressed and took the money. Turning at the door he said: “You’ll be happy here, Faith, I’ll make sure of that. This house has been waiting for you to come and live in it for such a long time.” And with that he was gone.
After half an hour, something told Faith that he wouldn’t come back again that night so she curled up on the little bed in th
e attic, waking up the following morning as a rousing dawn chorus invaded fractured sleep.
* * *
CHAPTER 4