Country Pleasures Read Free

Look.’
    They trooped into the smaller bedroom, which had abowed wooden floor and a vast Victorian brass bed covered in lace cushions.
    â€˜It’s cute: a real love nest. But who chose the décor, his mum?’
    They both looked round. The muslin curtains wafted gently in the draught. Outside was a tiny balcony.
    â€˜Very likely. Or his sister. I guess she still comes here sometimes. It’s not very masculine in here, I admit.’
    â€˜Perhaps he puts his girlfriends in here, and visits them for a shag late at night.’
    â€˜Do you ever stop thinking about sex?’ Janie asked.
    â€˜Nope. It’s twenty-four seven for me, girl. Are you sure you want to spend two whole weeks with me?’
    â€˜Well, I’m beginning to wonder,’ mocked Janie.
    â€˜Because I’m not sure I’d want to spend two weeks with me in the horny frustrated state I’ll be in by the end of it.’
    â€˜That’s not why you’re here, and you know it. You’re here to put the world to rights, and I’m here to help you.’
    â€˜I’ll try my best not to behave.’ Sally lunged at Janie to get past her. ‘Now, let me see the master’s chamber.’
    â€˜Later. I haven’t settled in yet. Now I’m the one who’s freezing,’ said Janie, turning to go back down the stairs. ‘We’ve got to get some heat going in this house.’
    â€˜Ooh, look up here! This is going to be my room!’
    Sally had vanished up a little spiral staircase in the corner of the landing. So Ben had been doing some work to the house. This was all new. Janie climbed up into what was once the attic, and found Sally clattering around under the eaves. The room had been transformed into a hideout. The walls were painted dark red, the timbers were all exposed, and an enormous dormer window had been set into the thatched roof tolook seawards. A telescope rested on a tripod, and was aimed at the sky.
    â€˜This used to be just full of clutter. I wonder when he converted it,’ said Janie.
    â€˜Think what larks you could have had hiding up here. Especially with that telescope.’ Sally peered through the lens, shook it a bit, then gave up. She threw her bag down on the patchwork quilt that covered the low bed, which looked like a raft made out of driftwood. ‘It’s very homely, all these little signs of cousin Ben everywhere. But I can’t get rid of the feeling that we’re trespassing.’
    â€˜He knows we’re here, silly.’
    â€˜Yes, but what does he do on his own here? Have orgies, do you think? Plenty of room, after all!’
    Janie took Sally’s arm and led her back down the spiral staircase. ‘He relaxes; chills out. Now stop asking questions.’
    The wind gave an extra loud howl through the front door as they came down, as if to reiterate its unseasonal violence. With much grunting and heaving, the two girls dragged a couple of electric heaters and some picnic rugs out of the cupboard, along with a dusty box of Trivial Pursuit and a chessboard.
    â€˜Phew, it’s like the mummy’s tomb in here now.’ Sally screwed up her nose as the warming heaters gave off the smell of scorched dust. ‘I take it our Ben doesn’t have a Mrs Mop, like my Mrs Mop in London. You can see your entire reflection in the shower door-handle when she’s finished at my flat.’
    â€˜Welcome to the good life, mademoiselle ,’ commented Janie, holding her hands over the heater for a moment and surveying the room, which at least looked cosy now that it was more cluttered. ‘No domestic help,no cook, no bottle washer. Just moi . Now, does the ambience, if not the temperature, meet with your approval?’
    Sally wrapped her arms around herself, her hands invisible beneath the long sweater-sleeves. She jogged up and down on the spot for a few seconds, then sat down on the sofa that she had now earmarked as her own.