So why on earth now, when she should be safely past all this kind of nonsense, was she suffering these pangs of emotion and sensation, and for Oliver Tennant of all men?
It was a question she couldn’t answer.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘WELL, I think this shade would be perfect, especially with the wood you’ve chosen for the units.’
‘Mm. I like this brighter yellow,’ Sheila argued.
Sophy had started work with them on Monday morning, and now the three of them were sitting round the desk in the upper room studying paint-shade charts.
As good as her word, Sheila had produced the names and addresses of three painters and a couple of joiners. Choosing the wood for the kitchen units had been relatively easy. Charlotte had fallen immediately and heavily in love with the satin sheen of a pretty cherrywood, but choosing the paint for the walls was proving to be more of a problem.
Now, rather hesitantly, she produced a magazine and said quietly, ‘I was wondering about this wallpaper…but I’m not sure.’
When she showed them the photograph the other two women instantly approved.
‘It’s perfect,’ Sheila pronounced, ‘and fun too. What is it?’
‘It’s Kaffe Fassett-style,’ Charlotte told her. ‘I’ve read about his work, and I saw this article mentioning the wallpapers he’s designed. I thought this yellow one, with the pottery motifs.’
‘It will be perfect,’ Sophy agreed. ‘And with some of those lovely old terracotta floor tiles. You’ve got to have an Aga, of course.’
Charlotte laughed. ‘Well, as a matter of fact I am rather tempted. Vanessa has one, but she doesn’t use it for cooking.’
Sheila clucked disapprovingly. ‘What a waste. My mother had one years ago. She swore by it.’
‘Well, most of the local farms still have them.’
‘Have a dark green one,’ Sophy suggested temptingly. ‘It will look wonderful with your cherrywood.’
She had never realised that redecorating could be such fun, Charlotte admitted as she firm-mindedly tidied away her brochures and turned her attention to the post on her desk.
‘Fun, yes, but expensive too,’ Sheila said shrewdly, and then added, ‘Has all this work you’re having done mean you’ve decided to keep the house rather than sell it?’
Charlotte grimaced. ‘I’d like to keep it. I think in the past it’s been a case of the shoemaker’s child going unshod as far as home has been concerned, and I hadn’t honestly realised what potential the place had.’ She wrinkled her nose and admitted, ‘I think while Dad was alive I was too busy looking after him and running the business to notice our surroundings very much. Besides, he’d have had forty fits if I’d ever suggested changing anything. I thought when he died that the best thing I could do was to put the place on the market and have a fresh start somewhere else, somewhere that I felt was completely my own, but now…’ She gave a faint sigh. ‘I am tempted to keep it, but it’s far too large for one person, and too expensive to run, especially if we lose a lot of business to Oliver Tennant.’
‘Well, you know the answer to that one,’ Sheila told her promptly, grinning as she exclaimed, ‘You’ll either have to get married or find yourself a lodger!’
She ducked as Charlotte threateningly threw a heavy brochure at her.
‘Of the two,’ Charlotte said loftily, ‘I think your second suggestion was the more feasible.’
‘Well, I should think seriously about it if I were you,’ Sheila advised her. ‘I must admit I wouldn’t like living in that huge place all alone. It is rather remote.’
‘It’s two hundred yards off the main road,’ Charlotte scoffed.
‘Yes, down a narrow, rhododendron-lined drive that doesn’t have any kind of lighting. Now that is something you should think about while you’re having all this work done,’ Sheila advised her firmly. ‘If I were you, I’d see about getting some good security lights installed outside the house, and proper illuminations down the drive, plus a burglar alarm.’
‘Heavens, the place will look like the Blackpool illuminations,’ Charlotte complained, but Sophy shook her head.
‘I agree with Sheila, you can’t be too careful these days,’ she said quietly. ‘You read such dreadful things in the papers.’
For a moment all of them were quiet, soberly reflecting on the truth of what Sophy was saying, and then Charlotte said thoughtfully, ‘Well, maybe I should make enquiries about having some kind of lighting on the drive.’
‘And about looking round for a suitable tenant to share the running expenses of the house with you,’ Sheila told her firmly.