it means that you’ve come, and I hope you’re going to stay for a while.’
‘I’ve brought a few things with me, in the hope that you could put up with me for a few days,’ Leo said, lifting her case a bit higher as evidence. ‘I couldn’t keep making excuses - at least not if I wanted to see you and Max more often. Not to mention the twins. Where are they all?’
‘I’ve only just put the twins to bed - but we can pop up in a minute and see if they’re still awake. They’ll be delighted to see you. Max is at his school’s end of term barbecue. Staff only. No partners allowed. It’s at the rugby club and it will go on forever, so God knows what state he’ll be in when he comes home. For a load of teachers, their behaviour can sometimes be pretty appalling. A good job the students don’t see them.’
Leo gazed around her, and was staggered by how beautiful the old house was looking. The wide hallway was no longer full of clutter, and instead of the dreary faded wallpaper that had adorned the walls when she had lived there, they were now painted a pale honey colour, and hung with a couple of large modern landscapes. A tall side table stood against one wall, made from a dark wood that seemed old, but was fashioned with clean straight lines. And the alcove that had previously housed a battered roll top desk, piled high with dusty old correspondence and torn envelopes, now had a new floor to ceiling window looking out over the garden, with a comfortable armchair and a low table displaying a huge vase of apricot and yellow roses, the source of the delicate fragrance she had noticed.
Leo glanced at Ellie, who was looking at her with a nervous expression. She probably wasn’t sure if Leo was going to turn tail and run.
‘It’s okay, Ellie. I’m all right. Really I am. This is quite stunning, and I would never guess that it was the same house. Relax.’
Ellie smiled with relief. She grabbed Leo’s hand and pulled her farther in.
‘This is only the start of it - if you like the hallway, wait until you see the dining room and the kitchen. I’m delighted with the whole place. I’m only just getting used to it, and it’s sometimes hard to remember that it’s our house. We nearly didn’t do it, you know. I think Max wanted to sell it, but I couldn’t - you know that. It had such huge potential, and we’ve exorcised the ghosts - and I mean that quite literally. Max danced around, demanding that all spiritual entities be evicted, in the name of a higher power - that higher power, of course, being him. You know what he’s like. He even found some Islamic verse that is supposed to repair the damage caused by witchcraft, and given that he always referred to my mother as The Old Witch it seemed very appropriate. I laughed so much I could never again think of there being a single spook left.’
Leo could well imagine this scene. Always the clown, Max could bring a smile to anybody’s face.
She dumped her bag at the bottom of the stairs as Ellie dragged her forward past open doorways through which she glimpsed rooms that she barely recognised. There was nothing here to remind her of the past, and although she hadn’t been here for such a long time, she could remember every inch of how it used to be.
‘It’s amazing. You’re right. You have transformed it.’ Never one for going over the top, Leo did her best to reassure her sister that she loved the place. But her words didn’t accurately convey her astonishment at the difference.
The room in which they were now standing was completely new in every way. If you could call it a ‘room’. They were in the atrium that Leo had noticed from the drive. She remembered the old barn, of course, but she didn’t recall it ever being used for much because in her lifetime this had never been a working farm. And now Ellie and Max had created this incredible atrium dining room, complete with old flagged floor, to connect the barn to the main house. Its pitched roof was constructed of aged oak beams, with huge panes of glass between. The dark and sombre clouds gave way to a burst of sunshine, which bounced the warm tones