Page 69

Chapter 69

August 2011

Tess looks down at the two years of accounts which have been downloaded and printed out by Georgia, and laid out on the kitchen table.

‘I thought I’d be embarrassed about you seeing all this, but it turns out I’m OK with it.

’

‘I didn’t look at what was on the screen.

’

‘It wouldn’t have mattered if you had, I don’t have anything to hide.

’

Georgia puts a box of giant lime-green paperclips on the table.

‘I bought you these. I thought they might be useful. You do know the library has computers if you need to use one?’ She points to the Ottolenghi book on the dresser.

‘I mean, even their reservations are online. I do miss my old tickets, though. There was always a thrill when I handed them over and got my books stamped by the librarian when I was a child.’ She pulls herself back to the present day.

Tess shrugs. ‘I’ve managed pretty well for the last six months without one.

’

‘Yes, but it’s useful.

Ordering food for Baxter, for example, instead of me doing it for you.

It’s so much easier and quicker online.

’

‘I know you’re right.

’ Tess studies her fingernails.

‘It’s just become like a big boulder I can’t seem to shift.

I suppose I could try using the computers at the library, but if I can manage without having one of my own, I’m fine with that.

’

Georgia taps the top of one of the piles of paper.

‘Maybe that’s a plan for another day.

All I’m saying is that although you can do your tax return on paper right now, I’m not sure how much longer that’ll be the case.

I don’t think any of us will be able to live our lives in a purely analogue fashion in the future, and that time may arrive sooner than we think.

I’ve even been thinking of getting rid of the house phone.

If mobile calls weren’t so expensive, I would do it in a heartbeat.

’

Tess seizes the moment.

‘I need to say something, Georgia. You mentioned that you had trouble with one of your lodgers before, and I just want to tell you again how sorry I am about all this mess. I completely understand if you want me to find somewhere else to live.’

‘Why on earth would you think I want you to do that? We manage alright, the two of us. It just brought back some memories, that’s all.

’

Tess waits, as Georgia had waited for her.

‘My last tenant was a perfectly nice young woman. Her name was Nicola. She had lived here for almost a year and I had no idea that there was a problem.’ Georgia rubs the moving band in the middle of Hazel’s ring.

‘She was ambitious. There’s nothing wrong with ambition but she was, shall we say, very confident.

I should have realised there was something wrong but all my other tenants had managed before her and never complained.

She earned a good wage and paid her rent as we agreed, the same twenty-five per cent that everyone pays.

But she liked to spend.

She always had nice clothes, and she would show me them, doing twirls in the hall in some new frock or a nice jacket.

Told me she got them in charity shops, but of course that wasn’t the case.

They were new. Everything was brand new.

She bought them all on credit, and took the labels off.

’

‘You told me you didn’t like credit.

’

‘I don’t. But I can’t roll back time.

I had the same rules for all my lodgers at the beginning; nothing on tick.

They were Annie’s rules and I never changed them.

Everything must be paid with cash.

’ She pauses. ‘But once we all had plastic instead of pound notes I had to accept that a cash economy wasn’t reasonable any more.

Everyone was on the electoral roll, because of the house rule about voting, and that meant they got letters offering them credit cards.

And by the time Nicola was here, you could opt for e-statements, with nothing coming through the post. I’ve never had a credit card so I didn’t realise that, and I think she knew that I didn’t know.

She moved out three months before her two years were up.

She was the only one who has ever done that.

’ Georgia picked up one of the outsized green paperclips and tapped it on the table, moving it from the long side to short, to long, to short.

‘And a little while afterwards, the letters started arriving. Letters from a credit card company. I saved them, thinking she would come back to collect her mail, but she never did. She just vanished. And by the time the letter arrived from the Sheriff Court, I hadn’t seen her for six months, so I opened it and that’s when I realised what she had done.

’

‘You must have been furious.’

Georgia frowned.

‘Furious? No, not furious at all. I was hurt. Very hurt. I had trusted her. In the end I asked Fiona to look into things for me and, after some checking, we realised that they were Nicola’s debts and nothing to do with the house or with me.

Fiona wrote to the credit people on my behalf and that was it.

No more letters. But I think, reading between the lines, that she must have been intercepting the postman for a while.

It was such a shame; she was a lovely girl.

’

‘And you’ve never heard from her since?

’

‘No. She’s the only one.

’

‘Was it a lot of money?’

‘Just over a thousand pounds. Not an enormous sum, but enough. The irony is, if she hadn’t just vanished, she would have been able to pay it off quite easily.

’

‘She would?’

Georgia stands up from the table and goes up the narrow stairs to her office.

After a couple of minutes she comes back down carrying a metal cash box, and large black book, worn at the spine, and held shut with a piece of elastic tied in a knot.

She puts them down on the table.

‘This is the rent book, and this box is where the rent money goes. When there are too many small-value notes, I go to the bank and get them changed into larger denominations. Everyone’s twenty-five per cent has always been kept here, in cash.

’ She rests her hand on the cash box.

‘Of course, no one knows about the arrangement. Not until later.’

Tess frowns.

‘You aren’t declaring it to the taxman?

’

‘It’s not my money.

’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘No, it’s like a savings account.

I give it back.’

‘You give—’

‘I don’t need the money.

I have the house and an inheritance I wasn’t expecting which has been invested and which gives me an income.

’ Georgia stops for a moment as though not sure if she should continue.

‘I live quietly, Tess. I like it that way. I have enough to run the house, pay for the council tax, the window cleaner, the heating, the phone, the repairs and the food for everyone. I don’t have a mortgage.

That money comes from my investments.

’

‘Gosh.’

‘I save the rent money, and on the first occasion that my young women come back to see me after they have moved out, I give them the money back.’

‘What? All of it?’

‘Yes, all of it. Two years of rent. Of course, each person gets a different amount because how much I have for them depends on how much they have earned over the two years.’

‘Wow. I had no idea.’

‘Why would you? I never talk about it, and all my former lodgers know how important it is that it remains confidential. In fact, you are the only resident who has ever been told about the arrangement. It has always been a secret. No one has ever suspected.’

‘And because Nicola never came back, she never got her twenty-five per cent?’

‘It’s all here, waiting for her.

When she first arrived she earned very little, but with some support and friendship she got a better job, and then an even better one.

There is just over eleven thousand pounds here, sitting waiting for her.

It’s not mine, it’s hers.

And I will keep it here safely until she comes back.

’

‘Wait a minute. You keep eleven thousand pounds in the house in cash?’

‘More, because your rent money is here too.’ Georgia opens the tin.

Inside, there are two envelopes.

She lifts out the one marked ‘Nicola’.

‘I always ask for brand-new notes when I go to the bank because I think that when I hand them over it will make it feel more special.’ She opens the fat envelope and takes out the red and white notes, fanning them like a hand of cards.

‘There are one hundred and ten of these, and a bit of change. The Bank of Scotland note is my favourite, of all the hundreds. The Kessock Bridge on one side, and Sir Walter Scott on the other.’

‘Put it away! Someone might see.’

‘Who? There’s only you and me here and I have my back to the window.

I’ve always done it like this.

It’s what Annie intended to do with her first lodger in 1931.

That was Keith. Of course, they fell in love so it didn’t quite work out the way she planned, but that was certainly her intention.

All the records are here in this book right back to 1931.

Every penny paid to Annie, and after 1964, to me.

And every penny paid back.

’

‘Why is it twenty-five per cent?’

‘It’s the number of the house, and Isobel thought of it.

I saw no reason to change it.

It’s fair as a rent goes; no one has ever thought it unreasonable.

Even if someone is on a small wage there’s enough left after they’ve paid their rent for them to be able to save.

And they all know they will be moving out after two years, so there is a target date.

All of them, even the two who had babies while they were here, saved hard because they thought they were going to need the money for a place of their own when they moved out.

Nicola was the only one who didn’t stick to it.

’

‘And you don’t know where she is?

’

‘No. But she knows where I am, and perhaps, when she is ready, she will come back. And if she does, there is eleven thousand pounds waiting for her.’

‘And if she doesn’t?

’

‘I don’t know. But I think she will.

She was a nice young woman who had more on her plate than she could really deal with.

Perhaps if I hadn’t been so strict about the two-year rule, things wouldn’t have happened this way.

It’s partly my fault.

’

‘How can it possibly be your fault?’

‘She wanted to stay longer. It was just after Christmas, and she asked me if she could stay for three years instead of two. I think with hindsight, she knew she was in trouble and was trying to sort it out on her own, but I said no.’

Tess shook her head.

‘I don’t think you should blame yourself.

’

‘I could have been a better listener. It was just before Hazel next door was unwell the first time, and Stan and I were trying to support her and there were a lot of hospital visits and so on. I was distracted and I wasn’t really paying attention to things.

Not properly, anyway.

’

‘I still don’t think .

.?.’

Georgia rearranged the red and white banknotes so they were all facing the same way and put them back into their envelope.

‘As I said, I was hurt at the time, but I can’t walk around feeling like that for ever.

And if she ever comes back, I will be pleased to see her.

You don’t live with someone for almost two years and share their birthdays and Christmases, and their successes and failures, without coming to care about them, do you?

’

‘I suppose not.’

‘Anyway, now you know how it all works, perhaps you won’t want me to save on your behalf.

After all, you are older and probably wiser, financially speaking, than my usual collection of residents, and I’m well aware you have excellent money management skills already.

’

Tess leans back in her chair and thinks for a minute before speaking.

‘Honestly, I’m very happy with the arrangement.

I’m a bit worried about all the cash, though.

’

‘I’ve been thinking about that ever since your man called.

’

‘He is definitely not my man. Not now.’

‘Of course. Sorry.’

‘You could lock the scullery door.’

‘Definitely not. But I’m thinking that maybe you could go up the ladder again, and put Nicola’s envelope into the attic for me.

You and I will both know it’s there, so if I lose my marbles or something, you can retrieve it and give it to her when she comes back.

Because I think she will.

One day.’

‘Deal. And perhaps something more anonymous than an old cash box for the rest of it might be a good idea too.’

‘Probably,’ concedes Georgia.

‘I’ll look in the charity shops next time I’m in Morningside. ’