Christmas at Sandcastle Cottage by Christina Jones

Author:Christina Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Accent Press
Published: 2018-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The idea that had been niggling away at Kitty for the last few days, was becoming an itch she simply had to scratch.

Yes, of course, it was total insanity… it couldn’t possibly work… Could it?

She fished out the leaflet that had been languishing at the bottom of her bag since the day of Miss B’s Firefly Common memorial, and sat on the edge of the bed. Zorro sat with her and stared. Kitty reached for her phone, then pushed it away. Zorro blinked. She picked it up again and Zorro thumped his tail.

Holding her breath, her hand shaking as she tried to read the figures on the leaflet, she punched out the number. It rang. She wanted to hang up. Then…

‘Lovell and Lowe. Connor Lowe speaking. How may I help you?’

‘Er…’ Kitty’s mouth was dry. ‘Um – good morning. I’m not sure if you remember me, but you showed me round Sandcastle Cottage a few weeks ago… My name is Kitty Appleby.’

Connor, to give him his due, was very professional. Even if he didn’t have a clue who she was, no-one would have ever guessed. ‘Sandcastle Cottage… Yes, of course – Miss – er – Appleby.’

‘Well – um – what I wanted to know was, are pets allowed? And how much deposit is required? And – oh! – is it still available? That’s it, really.’

‘Ah – right – let’s take a look… Sandcastle Cottage…’ Connor spoke really slowly. Kitty wanted to shake him. He was either scrolling through his screen, or looking at the hard copy details, or gelling his quiff, or maybe just counting to a hundred before he put her off. He spoke suddenly, making her jump. ‘Ah, yes – of course – now I remember – the lady from Reading. How are you?’

‘I’m fine, thank you.’ Another lie, but what the heck.

‘Good… good…’

Oh for pity’s sake, Kitty muttered to herself. Get a sodding move on!

‘Right – here we are – Sandcastle Cottage,’ Connor spoke again. ‘Well, Miss – um – yes… it’s still available. Um, let’s see – right, there are no problems with pets… Mrs Mulholland is an animal lover and well known locally as such, so I didn’t think there would be – although, obviously, there are the usual stipulations – any animal-caused damage must be paid for – that sort of thing… but no, no extra rental charges… And the deposit – two months in advance – but as I think we discussed, the rent is very low, so that shouldn’t be a problem.’

Kitty let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding. So far so good.

‘Miss – um – Appleby. Sorry – are you still there? Does this mean you – you and your partner – are going to rent Sandcastle Cottage?’

‘Not exactly. Me, yes – but certainly not with my partner. Turns out he’s a sodding rat and I’m well rid of him. So it’ll be me and a couple of friends – maybe – if I can just get it organised this end.

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