The Skeleton Tree by Diane Janes (reading women TXT) 📕

about the running costs of a house like that. It would be far more than we’re used to. Even with an efficient system, the heating alone would be prohibitive, and I hate to think what the council rates would be. To say nothing of maintenance. Even after you’ve done the place up, old houses are invariably money pits.’

‘But we’ll have no mortgage to pay,’ she reminded him. ‘And once this house is sold, we can invest the money we get from it.’

Bruce nodded, but without much enthusiasm. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in taking a look.’

Jamie, who had been ploughing through his mashed potatoes, now looked up and asked, ‘We’re not going to move house, are we? I don’t want to move unless we can live next door to Andrew Webster.’

‘Don’t worry, Jamie, you will still see Andrew at school every day.’

‘But I don’t want to move, except next to him.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said Tara. ‘You don’t live next door to him now, do you?’

‘Andrew Webster is my bestest friend and I only want to move if I can live in the house next door to his house.’

His voice had developed a whining note. Wendy decided that he was overtired. ‘I haven’t told you about the special presents yet, have I?’ she said brightly.

The younger children eagerly confirmed that she had not. In fact, she had not even thought of the scheme until that moment, but she improvised frantically. ‘We’ll each have a hundred pounds to buy something we’ve always really wanted.’

‘Except for your mother,’ muttered Bruce, ‘who will have twenty thousand pounds to buy herself something she’s always wanted.’

Wendy ignored him. ‘What will you choose, Tara?’

‘A stacking system. The one I really like is a bit more than that, but I can put the rest to it out of my building society account.’

‘Can I have a proper motorbike?’ enquired Jamie. ‘A real one, with an engine?’

‘Too much,’ said Bruce. ‘A hundred pounds will buy you an ordinary bike, but you only had a new one at Christmas. Think of something else.’

‘A digital watch then, like Andrew Webster’s.’

Bruce and Wendy exchanged glances. The digital watch question had come up before. They both knew that such a fragile article wouldn’t last two minutes strapped to Jamie’s wrist.

‘How about you, Katie?’

‘Is it enough to go to Disneyland?’

‘Not nearly enough, I’m afraid.’

‘Though if we are careful with the money,’ Bruce paused to give his wife a meaningful look, ‘we could use it to go to all sorts of interesting places.’

‘I suppose there’s no hope of a pocket money raise?’ asked Tara.

The appointment to view the house had been arranged for Saturday morning, so that the whole family could see it together. Wendy attempted to rush everyone into readiness with a haste that was completely alien to their normal weekend routine.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ Bruce complained. ‘The house isn’t going anywhere. It will still be there if we’re five minutes late.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Tara. ‘It’s always looked about ready to fall down to me. I bet it stinks too, if it’s been shut up for a long time.’

‘I’m not going to live in a house that smells nasty.’ Katie wrinkled her nose.

‘You mustn’t be put off by any funny smells,’ Wendy said. ‘It’s a bit damp and dirty now, but once it’s been done up, it will be wonderful.’

The young man from the estate agents was waiting for them at the gate. Wendy had pictured the younger children’s excitement as they all but ran up the drive, so she was disappointed by the way they hung back, following at a distance and waiting with resigned expressions while the young man stood on the front doorstep fumbling with a bunch of keys.

Jamie peered through one of the front windows, putting his face up close to the dirty glass. ‘The wallpaper’s coming off the walls,’ he said. ‘It looks horrible.’

Katie edged closer to Bruce and slotted her hand into his.

‘Here we are.’ The young man sounded relieved as the door swung open. ‘I understand you’ve been round once before, so I expect you know your way. I’ll just wait out here for you. Call me if you have any questions. Take as long as you like.’

In the hall Bruce paused to admire the panelling. ‘That’s a nice feature. You’d need some pictures to break it up a bit. Some old-fashioned hunting scenes would look just right.’

‘Not fox hunting!’ exclaimed Tara.

‘Only pictures, Tara. No one’s advocating that the Zetland pursues a fox through the back garden.’

‘It does smell a bit, doesn’t it?’ said Katie.

‘A bit is putting it mildly,’ said Tara.

‘It only needs the doors and windows to be left open for a while,’ Wendy said. ‘Fresh air makes a huge difference.’

‘I think it needs a bit more than that,’ said Bruce.

Wendy watched their faces anxiously as the little group moved from room to room.

‘You could turn this into a splendiferous kitchen,’ said Tara, when they reached the big room with the old-fashioned range at the back of the house. ‘It would be massive, like a house on the telly … But could you put all this right?’ She nudged a lump of fallen plaster with one foot.

‘It would take a hell of a lot to put it right,’ said Bruce. ‘Time and money. And you wouldn’t be able to live here until it was all done, either.’

‘But we wouldn’t need to,’ Wendy said. ‘That’s the beauty of having a house already and not needing to sell one in order to buy the other.’

‘Is there enough money to do it?’ asked Katie.

‘I honestly have no idea, my pet.’ Bruce sounded slightly exasperated. ‘You’d have to ask a builder – that is, if you were going to buy it.’

Wendy had taken the precaution of bringing a torch.

‘Mind how you go,’ Bruce cautioned, as she led the way into the cellar. ‘These stairs may be rotten.’

In fact, the stairs were remarkably sound. Even so, Katie hung back and declined to join the others as they followed Wendy down.

‘Wow,’