Lavender Lane (Larch Tree Lane #4)

Chapter Eighteen

When Sean went back to the big house, he explained the situation and asked the others’ help. ‘I need to find a team of cleaners to get the cottages ready for immediate occupation. Do any of you know where I can find enough help to do it quickly? I’ve not been living round here long enough yet to have made useful contacts in some areas.’

He saw Ilsa glance round and wait a moment to speak. She seemed to tread extremely carefully as to what she said and did, not just because she was settling in but all the time. She didn’t complain about anyone or anything, only he was rather good at reading between the lines and he’d guess that she hadn’t always been treated well by her employers, or by life in general. And yet she seemed to him to be a hard worker who performed any task she was given extremely efficiently.

‘I do know someone, actually, Sean,’ she said in her usual quiet way.

‘Great. Tell me about them.’

‘There are a couple of women in town who organise that sort of occasional cleaning job and they’re well respected. I’ve done casual shifts for them as a cleaner now and then while I was at the shop, especially in recent months when my main work wasn’t always full time and I was, well, a bit short of money. Some of the jobs were overnighters and others were on Sundays.’

‘They sound perfect. Thanks, Ilsa.’

She smiled reminiscently. ‘I’ve worked with them on some strangely timed and unusual jobs, such as clearing up after rowdy parties held by younger folk when their parents were away on Saturdays. Their stupid behaviour was their loss and our gain, we always said, because it meant overtime for us and double wages for us on Sundays, as well as extra charges for the organisers to pay for any repairs needed.’

‘Can you give me these organisers’ contact details or would it be better for you to make the arrangements with them? After all, you’ll be on site and be able to work out how best to start the task of cleaning out all the cottages. We’ll need three of the cottages ready for occupation within the day if that’s possible, and the others just want readying for use generally.’

She didn’t look worried at the prospect of organising this, but pulled out a little notebook and began scribbling in it.

‘I’ll go round all the cottages quickly as soon as it’s light tomorrow and jot down exactly what needs doing, then set the whole job up with my friends.’ She held the pen poised and asked, ‘Which three cottages do you want setting up first?’

‘The two closest to the house, the ones on either side of the central path between the trios of cottages. If those two can be occupied straight away, these particular patients and anyone acting as their carers can more easily keep watch for intruders coming in from the rear car park. Get the central cottages done next, and the bottom two when convenient. Will it be possible to get them all done quite quickly?’

‘Oh, yes. My friends are used to rush jobs and they have a list of people on standby for them. Do you have any idea how many people you’ll want her to employ in the cleaning team?’

‘No. I’m hoping you’ll be able to work out how many will be necessary to get it all done rapidly so your friend should bring in people accordingly.’

She smiled. ‘Well, that’ll be easy enough. I’m sure my friends will be able to work out how many cleaners will be needed to do that and find them quickly too because they’ve lived locally all their lives. What about cost? It won’t come cheaply. Is there some limit?’

‘Pay whatever is reasonable to do this quickly. If they can start by working till the first three cottages are ready, not sticking to certain hours of work, it’d be good.’

‘Wow!’ she said softly, surprised by this. ‘It’s going to be expensive, you know.’

‘It’s urgent.’

Ilsa stood silently for a moment, looking thoughtful. ‘Since it’s a rush job, the first lot of work will go better if you not only pay slightly above the usual overtime rates but also provide on-the-job meals and snacks for as long as it takes. I could sort out the food quite easily as well as keeping check on the work being done, but what about Ned? All the signs are that he’s getting steadily better but do you want me to leave him on his own and nip back occasionally for quick checks on how he’s going?’

Nina, who had been listening to their conversation, joined in abruptly. ‘I’ll be around in the big house for most of tomorrow, Ilsa, so I’ll be able to keep an eye on Ned. I can easily get him drinks and snacks as needed now we’ve got proper food supplies on hand.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Oh, yes. I’ll just be working on my computer, so I’ll be in the library anyway, right next to him, whether you need me or not.’

Ilsa looked at Sean to confirm that this would be all right and heard him heave a sigh of relief, then say, ‘That’ll be very useful.’ He also gave Nina a warm glance.

Ilsa couldn’t help wondering whether Sean and Nina were aware of how much even the rapid glances they shared betrayed about their growing feelings for one another. It must be wonderful to have someone to care about who felt just as deeply about you. She’d never had that.

She wondered suddenly whether Ned had anyone special but a few seconds’ thought made her realise that’d not have been possible in his line of work.

Sean seemed to be thinking about something else and looked as if he was about to speak, so they all waited for him to tell them whatever was on his mind. He was, she thought, very much a leader.

‘I think that arrangement is going to work well. In fact, it all seems to be falling into place nicely, doesn’t it? To sum up, firstly, we need to sort out the accommodation in the cottages, then to bring in our oldies who look like convalescent patients so that Ned can just be one person among several.’

‘Why did they come here previously?’ Ilsa couldn’t help asking.

‘To socialise and reminisce. I gather they shared a couple of drinks and simply enjoyed spending time with people their own age. And as they stayed one night, if not two, it gave their families a break from caring for them, too. Everyone needs a rest from time to time, don’t they?’

Ilsa nodded and saw the others do the same. She liked the capable way Sean was organising this and appreciated the clear way he shared information.

‘I’ve arranged for one elderly gentleman to come in late tomorrow afternoon and another will be arriving shortly after him. Finally, Prue will be coming to join them the following morning.’

Ilsa considered that. ‘Will there be someone here to settle them in or do I need to find helpers to do that?’

‘They’ll be arranging for their own helpers. They’re apparently looking forward greatly to starting to do this again.’ He grinned as if remembering something. ‘They’re amazing. Like no oldies I’ve ever worked with before. I want to be just like them when I too turn into a valuable antique.’

‘Valuable antique!’ She chuckled. ‘That sounds much nicer than a mere oldie.’

‘Yes. I’ve heard them call themselves that for fun. But they have been very valuable members of society in their time and I honour them for that.’

‘Anyone would. There’s a lot of money and effort going into this whole situation, isn’t there?’ Ilsa looked at him thoughtfully as if asking why.

‘Yes, there is. I’m semi-retired now and I was intending to take full retirement soon till I was asked to work with Nina and then stay on to manage Lavender Lane.’ He smiled. ‘It won’t be a hardship to spend time with her. As you’ve no doubt noticed, she and I are getting on rather well, so it’s all fitted together nicely as an ongoing project.’

‘And on top of that you’re trusting the rest of us,’ Ilsa said.

He gave her a quick smile and nod. ‘Yes. Now that I’ve met you in particular, I trust you completely. You’ve already shown that you’re very capable, and I’m a good judge.’

‘Oh. Well, thank you. That’s great to hear.’ This man that made her feel good and she was looking forward to working with him.

Ilsa watched him turn his head and glance across at his partner again and saw Nina give him a glowing smile for no visible reason. She sighed enviously.

‘To get back to the arrangements, Ilsa, are you all right with everything so far?’

She stared at him solemnly. ‘Yes, I am. Very much so. You’re trusting me with a lot of the organising yet you’ve never seen me running a project from scratch before.’

‘I hope you don’t mind but I checked your capabilities with someone I know in your old army unit. They were very sorry to lose you and the woman I was speaking to assured me that you’re not only a really hard worker but highly efficient and innovative in the details of what you do. She said how greatly she’d missed your organisational skills in the admin team when you insisted on leaving after your last term of service ended. How come you were doing such a lowly job as the one in the dress shop?’

Ilsa flushed again, hesitated, then met his eyes and told the blunt truth for once, without trying to gloss over her own stupidity. ‘When I wasn’t able to re-enlist, I felt really down in the dumps because the army had been my main focus as a younger adult, as near to a home and family as I’d ever got.’

She found it harder to tell even him the next bit, but he said, ‘Go on! I won’t think any the worse of you whatever you tell me,’ in such a gentle tone that she took a deep breath and did it.

‘I was seriously depressed for quite a while after being injured as well as damaged physically, and I couldn’t be bothered with anything very much outside work hours. I watched a lot of television to try to switch my feelings off. I felt that I’d outlived my useful life – useful for doing worthwhile things, that is – and in the beginning I was quite sure it’d have been better if I’d been killed rather than merely injured.’

‘That must have been hard to live through without any family support. I’m glad it didn’t drive you to try anything drastic, though. That’s a good sign.’

She shrugged. ‘I guess I don’t have the suicide gene, because I’ve never seriously considered killing myself even when life was at its worst. I just lived with it all as best I could.’

That made him stare at her sympathetically but he didn’t comment directly, only said gently, ‘Well, I’m glad you found us, Ilsa. You definitely haven’t outlived your usefulness as far as I’m concerned. As a group, we’re all benefitting greatly from having you around because you have superb organisational skills even in small things and you seem able to pull the detailed side of a job together with amazing rapidity once you start on it, and without things going wrong.’

She could only gape at that, then couldn’t hide her pleasure at such a lovely compliment. Her gratitude came out huskily. ‘Thank you.’

‘Your former commander speaks highly of you and was sorry she wasn’t able to persuade you to take further training to become an officer, only you refused to do it several times and in the end she felt that her insistence was one of the reasons you left the army. Apparently you’d resisted doing anything that involved that sort of studying previously as well.’

‘Oh. Yes. She did try very hard to persuade me to stay in the army but I, um, don’t like studying, and I’m just not good at it. In the end I decided that I needed to experience a full range of life situations after all those narrow, limited years in care as a teenager and then in the army as an adult. I felt that I’d been shut away from the real world for too long.’

She glanced down involuntarily at her bad leg. ‘I was wrong to leave, though. I should have stuck it out and I’ve certainly paid for my mistake.’

‘If it’s any comfort, Ilsa, it’s my belief that people can learn from everything they experience in this life, good or bad. If you would like, we could discuss your long-term future another time because I think I can help you to find a far more interesting focus for your life after this project is sorted out. However, we need to get on with preparations now because this job is very urgent indeed. Can you take over completely on organising the cleaning team?’

‘Sure. I’ll enjoy doing that.’ To her surprise she realised she was looking forward to being in charge of it and what’s more, she hadn’t felt at all low in spirits since she’d met these people, which felt like a minor miracle in itself after the dreariness of the past year or two.

When they were alone, Nina looked at Sean. ‘Poor lass.’

‘Yes. We’ll have to find her a better focus. Maybe she can stay on in charge of admin here. It’d give us some freedom to enjoy life and perhaps some travel together.’

‘Good idea. Apart from anything else, I really like her. She’s a decent person, and that may sound a strange thing to say, but it’s one of my highest compliments.’

He pulled her to him and plonked a kiss on the nearest cheek. ‘So are you, my darling.’

The endearment made her pause, then she hugged him before stepping back and looking him firmly in the eyes. ‘You haven’t told me everything about yourself and who sent you to help me with this project, have you? You clearly have some rather interesting connections and experiences.’

‘No, I haven’t told you everything. Forgive me for that, darling. My security branch background makes it impossible ever to explain fully about my past life. It’s not that I don’t trust you and I’d like to put it on record that I want to stay with you permanently on a personal level from now on. My feelings for you are not feigned. But I have an important job to finish first, after which I’ll be semi-retiring.’

‘Semi?’

‘You never retire fully from what I’ve been doing, I’m afraid, and the project here will be low key and only occasionally active but it will still need some form of management. Can you live with that edge of uncertainty, Nina?’

‘Yes, as long as it includes you.’ She eyed him again then said thoughtfully, ‘You must be quite an important person.’

‘Oh, not all that important.’ He reached out for her hand. ‘It’s mainly in the past, anyway, and once we’ve sorted everything out here, you’re going to be the most important part of my life, I promise you. You do want that, don’t you?’

‘Of course I do. I don’t know why but I’ve trusted you from the first time I met you.’ She took hold of his hand and raised it gently to her cheek in a brief caress.

He gave her one of those warm, loving smiles, the sort you couldn’t fake, and she couldn’t help adding, ‘I fell in love with you quickly too, Sean.’

They stood staring at one another and smiling for a moment or two longer before getting on with the things that needed doing at once.

Sean knew that he’d been doing a lot more smiling since the first day they met and was just as certain that she had too.

She’d lost her husband and had to cope with loneliness. He’d had to choose loneliness in order to do a rather important job. Now they were ready to choose to be together and enjoy their lives. Very ready.

As the rest of the day passed, Sean watched Ilsa more carefully than she probably realised and was impressed all over again by how thoroughly and efficiently she prepared for this task, sitting down later with a few scraps of paper and rapidly making a list of actions and the order in which they’d need doing.

He noticed, however, that she didn’t seem to work nearly as well when it came to making the final, neater summary notes to give him.

He’d sneaked a couple of glances at what she was doing as he passed by and didn’t think he was wrong when he figured out that she probably had the same problem as the son of one of his cousins. That lad had been diagnosed with dyslexia, which was nothing to do with a lack of intelligence but, if he remembered correctly, dyslexia was a learning disability that affected how people related to written content. Dyslexic people read using shapes and patterns rather than by individual letters so it took much more effort than ‘normal’ readers.

That might be why she’d avoided serious study because, sadly, dyslexia still seemed to have a stigma as far as some people were concerned, especially people of Ilsa’s generation, and those who had it often tried hard to hide their problem. Some people who had to deal with dyslexic employees or family members didn’t take the trouble to learn how best to help them.

No time to find out her full story now, but he would look into that aspect later and check out the latest approaches to helping her. After this project was resolved he would help her to find a better way to learn how to deal with whatever it was rather than by avoidance and keeping a low profile.

That decided, he turned his mind back to the matter in hand. For the moment they had to get Lavender Lane open again and people who looked like invalids settled into the cottages to pretend to ‘convalesce’ or to need ‘respite care’ till they had got the facilities properly sorted out to help people who genuinely needed to convalesce.

Thank goodness the first three invalids who were about to be installed came from a similar background to himself and could provide their own weapons for protection or else that’d mean more delays while he brought in protection for them!

He’d watched Ned struggle to move normally after being attacked so brutally and had seen the damage inflicted on other people injured in the course of their duties as well, so he wasn’t leaving anyone unprotected, not if he could help it. He was even going to sneak a gun to Ilsa. She’d have learnt to handle weapons when she was in the army.

He would move heaven and earth to protect his team here, he vowed grimly. He always had done his best to protect those handling difficult situations, sadly not with a hundred per cent success.

And he mustn’t forget the IT side of things. The computers were very old-fashioned and the security system stopped at the doors of the cottages. He and Nina were in agreement that they needed to bring in someone with the expertise to set up a modern, effective system for the whole place, only they’d not had time to sort that out yet.

The following day, Sean made sure that vehicles came in and out of the parking area at the rear of the big house at regular intervals, making bogus deliveries. He was hoping that any potential intruders would be deterred by the busy traffic.

His neighbour who ran the horticultural group that was going to tend the revamped gardens, and especially the lavender bushes, was particularly helpful after he had explained the situation and Elizabeth also enlisted the help of some of her friends.

He explained what he was doing to members of his own team and sent them out too for short drives to various shops or the main post office in town.

It had been his guess that regular traffic might help keep any intruders from coming onto the property itself, though of course he couldn’t stop them from hovering nearby. And this strategy seemed to work.

He watched carefully from various vantage points in the big house and though there were one or two people he didn’t like the looks of wandering past or loitering nearby there seemed to be no one coming close to the Lane and his staff said the same thing.

But the tension was there among his colleagues as their preparations continued; how could it not be?

And he was on edge, too.