‘You can have the king’s chair,’ Ava said to Ash, pointing to my desk chair, which had been dragged from my little office room because I only had four chairs.
‘Thank you.’ Amusement danced on his face.
‘Because you’ve got long hair and kings have long hair,’ observed Ava, paying his dark curls close attention. ‘You should get Auntie Claire to do plaits for you. She’s getting quite good now.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind, next time I need some plaits.’ Ash’s grave nod towards the little girl, along with the quick smile he shot me warmed something inside me. Of course he was good with kids too. Just crap at texting, it seemed.
‘Now, tea or coffee? I’d recommend tea because Claire only has instant rubbish.’
‘I never have time to make proper coffee,’ I protested.
‘Hmph,’ snorted Hilda. ‘But at least she does have Yorkshire Tea. Even if I can’t find hide nor hair of a teapot.’
‘I’ll have tea.’ Ash wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his smirk. I don’t know what he found so funny. How come he was suddenly so available when previously he’d managed to disappear from my life with magician-like ease?
The scones, when we all sat down, were delicious and with all the melted butter dripping down our fingers, additional pieces of kitchen towel were required.
‘Yummy.’ Ava beamed at Hilda.
‘You’ll have to give Auntie Claire the recipe,’ said Poppy. ‘They’re really good.’
‘Well they’re so easy, a grown-up girl like you can make them by yourself. You practically made these and you have a lovely light touch. I’ll give you the recipe, Poppy.’ Hilda’s eyes twinkled at Poppy, who beamed back, straightening with pride.
‘I can make them for Mummy. And teach her how. She’s not… she doesn’t like cooking.’
‘I’m growed up too,’ said Ava, waving a crumbling scone about and scattering crumbs everywhere.
‘You are but you mustn’t touch the oven without Mummy or Claire being with you. Next time I shall make you some homemade sausage rolls with my special flaky pastry.’
Next time. I hid my wince. Delicious as the scones were and as tantalising as the cake smelled, a washing-up fairy-godmother would have been quite welcome too. A cooking whirlwind had whipped through the kitchen leaving a sink full of dirty bowls, pools of congealing egg, and a fine dusting of flour all over the floor. I thought I was doing quite well adapting to the children’s mess, but having Hilda about was really stretching my neat-freak tendencies thin.
I looked around. Everyone was happy – even Ash had a contemplative smile on his face as he leaned out of range of Ava’s crumb storm. With the smell of cake and scones and a circle of people at my table, my kitchen felt positively cosy, and for some stupid unfathomable reason tears pricked at my eyes. It felt like a home. Hilda caught my eye with a warm, knowing smile before turning to answer another one of Ava’s busy, random questions. I could get used to having a house full of people. I liked the warm glow it left around my heart. Today I’d been so busy that all those lurking, unwelcome feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and failure had been firmly displaced.
I checked my watch. It was five o’clock. Still enough time to make the girls’ bedrooms their own. With sudden determination, I stood up. Those rooms would be ready by bedtime. It was time this house was turned into a home.
‘Are you guys okay for time?’ I asked Hilda and Ash.
Ash didn’t respond, just shrugged his shoulders, and in that second I knew as well as he did that he had nothing better to do with his Saturday night.
‘I’ve got all the time in the world for these two cuties,’ announced Hilda, putting an arm each around Poppy and Ava. She was perfect grandmother-material and I wondered if she had any grandchildren of her own; she’d only ever mentioned her son and that was in passing.
‘Okay, how about we do another couple of hours and then as a thank you for your help, I’ll order in takeaway pizza for dinner?’ There were a couple of flyers on top of the fridge that had come through the letterbox earlier in the week which I’d kept, never thinking I’d actually get around to using them.
‘Yes,’ said Ava with predictable enthusiasm. ‘I love pizza.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever had takeaway pizza.’ Hilda clapped her hands together. ‘A new adventure for me.’
‘I’ll need to get back for the dog unless you wouldn’t mind me bringing him here. Poor bugger would enjoy the change of company.’
‘Dog!’ Poppy’s ears pricked up.
I laughed. ‘Remember the dog from the park, and I told you—’
‘Hairy carpet dog?’ Poppy’s mouth twitched. Oh, she remembered all right. I’d told her that Hilda had bullied a man in the park into keeping him. She nodded and her eyes shone with pleasure when I said to Ash, ‘Of course you can bring Bill.’
‘Bill? That’s what he’s called?’ Poppy tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowing with sharp assessment. ‘Why did you call him that?’
Ash lifted his shoulders. ‘He seemed like a Bill to me. No nonsense. Ordinary, good bloke. He seemed like a bloke-ish sort of dog. Although I completely agree with you, he does resemble a hairy carpet, but it would be a bit of a mouthful, I think.’
Poppy bestowed one of her rare smiles on him. ‘Yes. He is bloke-ish. Bill. That’s just right for him.’
‘I thought so.’ Ash nodded at her and he shared one of his rare smiles with her. I had to turn away; he was a lot kinder than I would ever have imagined.
‘Well, that’s all sorted,’ I said briskly. ‘You go and collect the dog when we’ve ordered the pizzas.’ I put the flyers on the table. ‘Hilda, why don’t you, Poppy, and Ava choose what you fancy. Ash, do you have any preferences?’
‘As long as there’s no tuna or pineapple on mine, I’m good.’
‘Me too,’ I said. ‘They just aren’t pizza.’
‘We’re agreed on something?’ Ash raised that flaming eyebrow again.
‘It would appear so.’ I shot him a cool smile and then turned to Team Hilda. ‘If you guys can decide on pizzas then, if you don’t mind, Hilda, if you could be in charge of making up beds, putting on duvet covers and titivating, that would be great.’
‘I’m a marvellous titivater,’ said Hilda. ‘When we had the antiques business I once helped Dame Judi buy a couple of Tiffany lamps for her house in London. And, of course, dear Diana was always asking for our best pieces for Kensington Palace, although you’d have thought the place would be chock-full of fabulous things already. Now girls, let’s go and work some magic.’
She flounced ahead of me. In today’s tracksuit of orange with two narrow stripes down each leg, she looked like a cross between a hockey mistress and a tangerine. Scooping up Poppy and Ava with her, she trotted up the stairs, leaving Ash and me staring bemusedly after her.
There were a lot of giggles and bumps coming from the room next door and every now and then Poppy would appear to rummage in the blue bags to retrieve another item. When I stopped for a quick loo break, the blue towels had been neatly arranged on the rail in the bathroom, the new toothbrush holder had replaced the old pint glass I’d used before and the handwash had been transferred into the pretty dark blue glass dispenser I’d picked up on a sudden whim.