Autumn Leaves at Mill Grange Jenny Kane (uplifting book club books txt) 📖

‘What’s wrong?’ Sophie and Amber exchanged puzzled glances, as Sophie asked, ‘Aren’t you thrilled?’

‘We are. At least, we are for you and Cornish Heritage.’ Shaun put an arm around Thea’s waist. ‘Just not so much for the team awaiting us at Mill Grange.’

‘Oh God, it won’t put back the dig will it?’ Thea swallowed. ‘I only just told Tina we were coming.’

‘It depends how many tiles there are, but getting home tonight is highly unlikely.’

*

Sam held out his tablet so Helen and Tina could see the plan he and Tom had sketched for the layout of the stable block.

‘We wanted you to see our ideas for the layout of this place before we order the shelving material.’ Sam stood in the open stable doorway. ‘Tom, can you do the running-around bit?’

‘Yes, boss.’ Tom headed to the back wall. ‘Start here?’

‘Yep.’ Sam, with Helen to one side of him and Tina on the other, pointed to the plan. ‘Where Tom is now, doing his impression of a model showing off fine brickwork, we thought of putting a long row of shelving, three layers high…’

Tom did a twirl, gesturing his arms up and down the walls to denote the area, making everyone laugh.

‘…then in the far right corner, we could have a set of drawers for pegs, string, small tape measures, pencils and so on.’

Helen indicated her approval, before saying, ‘Don’t make the drawers go too high up the wall. Some of us shorter folk hate having to balance on ladders to get a tent peg.’

Sam got ready to jot down some measurements. ‘Good point. How high is good?’

Pulling a measure from his pocket, Tom said, ‘Let’s sort that now. If you come here, Helen, we can measure your reach.’

Tina laughed as Helen’s expression creased into disbelief. ‘I’m pretty sure that isn’t how it works. Shelf units come in standard sizes, not short-people sizes. Just get a five foot one, not a six foot high one.’

‘Oh you’re no fun!’ Tom winked, and beckoned to Helen. Seconds later, she was standing in the corner with her arms up so they could see how far she could reach, and Tom was measuring her stretch from the floor up.

‘Why are we doing this?’

‘Partly because it looks funny, and partly because I am going to make the shelves myself, so we might as well get the height right.’ Sam wrote down the measurements.

Helen came to Tina’s side to look at the plan. ‘Hold on a minute, I’m only going to be here for another few weeks. Shouldn’t you go via Thea’s height if you want to bespoke the shelves?’

‘Thea’s about the same height as you, and in all seriousness, I think it’s a good idea to keep things at as low a level as is practical because of wheelchair users.’

‘We only have one wheelchair access room in the manor.’ Tina twirled a plait as she thought. ‘I hadn’t anticipated anyone in a chair being involved in the dig, purely because of the practical difficulties of getting in and out of trenches.’

It was Tom who spoke first. ‘But the option should still be there for them to learn the skills, don’t you think, Sam?’

‘Very much so.’ Sam surveyed the space before him. ‘It wouldn’t be easy to get wheelchairs down to the fortlet, but if someone really wanted to have a go, I wouldn’t want to stop them.’

‘The trestle tables.’ Tom pointed to the stack of broken tables in the corner. ‘Could we fashion some sort of smooth run from the house to the fort if we needed to?’

Sam grinned. ‘That is exactly what we could do. After that, if someone wants to dig, then they’d understand about having to be lifted in and out of the trenches I’m sure.’

‘They’d have faced worse indignities.’ Tom was lost in memories for a moment before he snapped out of it. ‘What about this wall? Hooks for shovels and so on?’

Helen, Tom and Sam were in deep discussion as to how many hooks would be needed and where the wheelbarrows could go, when Tina’s mobile burst into life.

‘It’s Thea.’ She waved a hand to ask for quiet as she answered. ‘Hi, Thea, we’re just sorting out where to put all the Landscape Treasures equipment when it comes…’ There was a pause while she listened to Thea speak. ‘What? You have got to be kidding!’

Sam looked up sharply and came to Tina’s side. ‘What is it?’

‘Hang on, Thea, Sam’s here too. I’ll tell him.’ Tina lowered the phone. ‘They were in the process of packing up when one of the trenches revealed some floor tiles. Saxon. Unbelievably rare.’

‘Which they have to stay and film?’ Sam closed his eyes for a second. ‘Right. So is the filming here off or simply uncertain again?’

Tina took hold of Sam’s hand as she returned to her call. ‘What does this mean for us, Thea?’

Everyone in the stable had held their breath as Tina hung up the call a few minutes later.

‘Everything is on hold for now. It could be a case of filming this extra development this afternoon but, should more tiles be found, they’ll have to hang around. It would be good for the Cornish episode as they had no finds as such, just the structure.’

‘Oh hell.’ Sam let out a puff of air as he pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. ‘I was going to talk to you about this once we were done here, Tina.’

She took the note from his hand. ‘What is it?’

‘I got a quote for renovating the greenhouse from that bloke Father recommended. It’s two grand cheaper than the last one.’

‘Eight thousand pounds,’ Tina whispered. ‘That’s how much Treasure Hunters are offering.’

‘Yes.’ Sam wiped a hand across his forehead. ‘I haven’t actually turned them down yet.’

‘You haven’t?’ Tina’s mouth dropped open.

Tom’s eyebrows rose as he asked, ‘You wanted to keep your options open. Just in case?’

‘More that there’s so much to do here, I simply hadn’t got round to turning their offer