‘That’s it,’ said Ash, patting the top of the final chest of drawers, an hour and a half and two wardrobes later. Practice had made us much quicker. ‘Where do you want it?’
‘Next to the bed for the time being. I can put her bedside lamp on it. I’ll get some more furniture in here later, but this was all I could carry today and even that was a performance.’
‘Are we done?’
‘On furniture building yes. I never want to see another Allen key again.’
‘Me neither, although it’s pretty good in here. I’ll go and get Bill.’
‘Have you finished?’ Ava ran into the room, skipping through the abandoned cardboard, plastic, and polystyrene. I’d heard the three of them go downstairs a while ago, although Hilda had slipped back up to make up Poppy’s bed. They’d been in charge of pizza ordering and I was hoping that Hilda had kept a rein on things. If left to her own devices, Ava would have ordered one of everything on the menu.
‘Come see my room. Come see.’
Ash gathered up the rubbish and went downstairs while I went into the room and immediately began to smile. ‘Well doesn’t this look fabulous.’ It was a proper little girl’s room.
‘Fab-u-lous,’ said Ava, running over to switch on the string of fairy lights interwoven in and around the wooden struts of her headboard. ‘And see,’ she turned the little bedside light off and on a couple of times.
I slid open a drawer, amazed to see that Hilda had done sterling work and had transferred Ava’s clothes – although I couldn’t imagine they’d stay this neat and tidy for very long.
‘And all my babies like the new bed. Hilda says they like staying at the bottom better; they feel more settled because they can’t fall off.’ I’d thank Hilda for that later, I thought as I spotted Ava’s soft toys had been retrieved and had been arranged at the end of the bed. That would make bedtimes a lot more manageable.
‘Do you like it?’ I asked.
‘I lova, lova, lova it.’ And she threw her arms around my waist. ‘Thank you, Auntie Claire.’
‘That’s all right. I’m glad you like it so much.’ I crouched down and gave her a squeeze; she smelled of cake and baking and I buried my nose in her fine curls, surprised by the sudden surge of protectiveness tightening my chest. I wanted to squidge her to me, hold her fast and not let go. For the second time that day, it occurred to me, I could get used to this.
Chapter Thirteen
‘Well, that was very nice.’ Hilda patted the roll of her tummy contained in the orange tracksuit like a neon sausage. ‘A rare treat. And this is very nice wine. I do like a Malbec.’
I picked up my glass and toasted her and Ash, the girls having abandoned the table for Dr Who on the TV in the other room and insisted on taking Bill with them, who seemed to be lapping up the attention as well as Ava’s greasy fingers. ‘Thank you so much for all your help today. There’s no way I could have done any of it without you. I really appreciate it.’ I paused and gave a self-deprecating laugh. ‘I’m not normally very good at asking for help.’
Ash rolled his eyes. ‘Tell me about it.’
‘Don’t fret, dear, it’s been our pleasure.’ She gave Ash a reproving stare. ‘I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun. Those girls are a delight. I’d forgotten what it’s like to be in a family home.’
‘Noisy and chaotic,’ I said, although to be honest today had been a lot of fun. Even Ash had chanced his arm and risked a few smiles; he may well have used up his quota.
‘It’s wonderful. Makes me feel alive again.’ She rested her hand on her chin with a happy smile and with her other hand reached over and patted mine. There was a sharp contrast between my pale, smooth skin and hers, paper thin, stretched over a tracery of thick blue-green veins. It was difficult to tell how old Hilda was; you certainly wouldn’t guess from the green sparkly gel nails she sported, but looking at her hands I wondered if she might be a lot older than she appeared.
I sneaked a peek at Ash; he wasn’t smiling, but then again he wasn’t frowning.
‘More wine?’
‘Yes, dear, that would be lovely and then when we’ve cleared these plates we can get down to business. Ash, would you mind stacking the dishwasher?’
I refilled our glasses and by the time I sat back down at the table, Hilda had cleared the decks, wiped the surfaces and produced a foolscap lined pad and a handful of pencils.
‘I thought we could have a planning meeting.’
Ash’s blank expression must have mirrored mine at first before we exchanged bemused frowns.
‘What, dear Hilda, are we planning?’ Ash’s regal tone of long suffering had me pinching my lips together.
‘Our parkrun, of course. Don’t say you’d forgotten.’
Again, Ash and I exchanged a quick glance and he rolled his eyes.
Hilda sighed. ‘And stop doing that, the pair of you.’ She leaned over and clipped Ash behind the ear. ‘I am neither dotty nor senile. It’s a perfectly good idea and it will do both of you the world of good to get involved and do something. And after today, I’m even more convinced we’re the people to do it.
‘Claire, you’re super organised; I can tell from the way you approached the shopping and how you lined up and arranged all the screws before you started building the furniture. Ash, you’re clearly a completer-finisher. Given a task, you keep going and you get the job done. And I’m the ideas person. Together we make a perfect team. Churchstone needs a parkrun. I thought someone could talk to Sascha in the coffee place; I’m sure she’ll think it’s a good idea as we’ll be encouraging more people to use the park.’
‘Well, she’ll certainly sell more coffee that way,’ observed Ash dryly.
Hilda turned her head and lifted her chin, giving him a steely glare. He held his hands up in surrender.
‘Claire?’
‘I… well…’ But actually, the idea was starting to sink in. Why not? She was right. Decorating the house wasn’t going to take up all my time and I rather liked the idea of a brand-new challenge. Something I’d never done before. And it might be quite nice, when I was back at work, to have something outside the office to focus on. ‘Like I said before, it can’t hurt to find out what’s involved.’
‘Ash? You need something to occupy yourself.’
‘Thank you, Hilda. But I don’t need you interfering in my life.’
‘Yes, you do.’ She folded her arms with implacable certainty and I had to hide my face.
Ash rolled his eyes again. ‘I’ll help in the short term but as soon as…’ He shrugged and Hilda nodded.
‘Fine. Now, I think the first job is to do a parkrun and ask some questions.’
‘I’ve got a better idea,’ said Ash. ‘I mentioned the parkrun idea to my brother and it turns out I have a cousin – no surprise really; I have dozens – anyway, Darren is very involved. Apparently he’s a run director with the parkrun down in Tring. I spoke to him. We could go and do the run there.’
‘Run director?’ That sounded organised.