A Summer to Remember. Victoria Connelly
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in for a moment as she tugged on the gold bracelet. ‘We could even let you stay in your old room – if you wanted to – it has an en suite, if you remember?’
Nina nodded, remembering the numerous occasions she had slept over at the mill when Mr and Mrs Milton had had a particularly late night or if they’d invited her to stay so she could join them for lunch the next day.
‘We had it all replaced just last year. I’m sure you’d be very comfy. You will say yes, won’t you?’ Again, the vivid green eyes had set into an expression that made it hard for anyone to say no.
For a moment, Nina sat absolutely stunned. It wasn’t that she didn’t want the job; it was just that she hadn’t expected to be handed such a lovely one on a plate.
‘Do say yes!’ Olivia pleaded, leaning forward in her chair until she practically fell out of it.
Nina thought of the comfortable bedroom at the top of The Old Mill House. She thought of roaming around the fields and woods with the boys, collecting little branches of wood for the fire and making giant snowmen in the winter. She thought of the buttercup meadow in the summer and of the long hot days when they would dip their toes into the shallows of the river. She thought of how she’d always longed to be part of a family like the Miltons; how growing up as an only child had led to the belief that being part of a clan was better than being alone.
She took a deep breath. ‘I’d love to work here,’ she said, and laughed as Olivia flew across the room to embrace her.
‘I think it best if you see the study first, don’t you?’ Olivia asked, leading the way out of the living room. Nina turned to look at Dominic, whose face was now quite red.
‘Wish me luck!’ she whispered excitedly.
‘Good luck,’ he said with a tiny smile.
Olivia marched Nina along the corridor. The study was at the front of the house and, when Olivia opened the door, Nina had to stop herself from laughing out loud at the sight that greeted her.
Up until then, Nina had believed that Hilary Jackson was the most disorganised person to be put in charge of an office, but that was before she’d seen this room. In her four years of babysitting at the mill, she’d never ventured into this part of the house, and she could now understand why nobody had encouraged her to do so.
The room had one floor-skimming window overlooking the sweep of driveway, and patio doors on the other side that looked out over a lawn as immaculate as a billiard table. But it was what lay in between that made Nina nervous.
Two large wooden desks lay like felled oaks at right angles to one another, and a yellow sofa stretched alongside the biggest bookcase Nina had ever clapped eyes on. Every available surface, though, was completely covered with great mounds of paper and files that threatened to topple and cascade onto the carpet, which itself had its fair share of papers stacked in precarious piles. It was as if a whole army of Hilary Jacksons had been let loose in the room.
Nina’s eyes widened as she tried to take in the scene, desperately searching for some sort of filing cabinet or stack of in-trays: any sign that order could be restored to the room. She looked at Olivia who smiled a very tiny smile and shrugged her shoulders.
‘You see what I mean – chaos! Absolute chaos.’ She’d started up with the bracelet-twiddling again. ‘I know it’s a lot to ask, but you would get a good hourly rate and you could stay here if you want. I mean, I’m sure you’ve got your own place, but you’d be very welcome here. But I should mention that Dudley probably wouldn’t agree to more than a couple of months – to begin with. Just until you both find a routine with each other. He obviously needs help getting everything into some sort of order and keeping it that way. Then there’ll be the typing duties for the book he’s writing, and he’s been making noises about help with his research, too. I don’t think it’ll be anything too onerous – just a bit of reading and note-taking really,’ Olivia said, chewing her glossy lips anxiously.
Nina nodded. It sounded absolutely blissful to her. A bit of tidying, a bit of typing and a little light reading. She scoured the room again, noticing the coating of dust on the backs of the chairs and along the pictures that lined the walls. A sorry-looking Swiss cheese plant slouched in a dark corner, in dire need of a drink, and dozens of empty envelopes were scattered like dead leaves on the floor. A computer sat on the floor under the far window, its screen turned away from onlookers as though trying to avoid attention.
Then there was the paperwork: great mountains of the stuff, untouched by human hands for what looked like decades. This was more a job for a large team of archaeologists rather than a solitary secretary.
It was certainly different – but wasn’t that just what she was after, Nina reasoned?
‘I should warn you, though,’ Olivia said, ‘my husband can be—’ she paused, ‘erm, a little difficult to work with.’ Her face twisted into a strange expression.
‘Difficult?’ Nina said. ‘I’ve done difficult before – believe me.’
‘But I’m sure you’d be able to cope with Dudley’s little ways. It’s just part of the creative temperament, you see, and we’d all be so grateful. We’ve always felt so comfy with you, Nina,’ Olivia said warmly. ‘It would be lovely to have you here again.’
Nina smiled. She wasn’t used to such flattery. It would be hard work, but not impossible, and surely Dudley couldn’t possibly be worse to work with than Hilary Jackson. She remembered him from the days when she used to babysit. Sure, he had a bit of a temper, but she didn’t think it was anything she couldn’t handle and besides, she needed to be occupied at the moment; she needed to find an escape. After being with the wrong man and the wrong boss for an inexcusable length of time, she needed a change, and it looked as if she just might have found it.
‘I’d be happy to help in any way I can,’ Nina said. She held out her hand and Olivia beamed, taking it in hers and shaking it vigorously.
‘Oh, Nina! That is wonderful. Really wonderful!’ Olivia enthused.
‘I just have one question,’ Nina said.
‘Yes?’ Olivia sounded a little nervous.
‘When do I start?’
Dominic scratched his head as he looked down at Nina’s teacup. If the blue and white china hadn’t been sporting a smudge of pink lipstick, he might well have believed that he’d just invented an entire scene in which his mother had asked Nina to stay at the mill. But there it was. Pink lipstick; as bright as the Norfolk Broads’ daylight.
Dominic smiled as he remembered the tickle of her hair as she’d bent over him to help him with his homework that time. He’d been eleven years old and she’d spent twenty minutes reading through a comprehension and helping him to answer the questions, but he hadn’t heard a single word. Well, he’d heard her; the soft lilt in her voice, the way it rose so beautifully in the middle of a question and the melancholy tenderness with which she read the story; he just hadn’t heard any of the answers.
His teacher had given him two out of ten.
But, as with most childhood crushes, she’d been placed, very firmly, in the back of his mind as he’d grown up – the image of her fading over time, along with those intense boyhood feelings he’d had for her.
So why then did he now feel as if he’d swallowed a snake? His insides were wriggling about in a most disconcerting way. Ten long years separated him from those feelings – yet he could still recall them, and that made him uncomfortable. He couldn’t still harbour feelings for her, could he? He didn’t even know Nina. He had never really known her. But that, in its own way, had been part of her appeal. She’d always been rather elusive; like a movie star whom you can dream about, but whom you’ll never meet. It