Page 13 of The Winter Bride

‘Oh yes, where is it?’ They’d already looked at a number of properties but none of them had been right. They were either too big or too small or needed far too much doing to them.

‘It’s not far at all. Attleborough Road, so only minutes from here. I’ve arranged for us to go and see it tomorrow evening, if that’s all right with you?’

‘I shall look forward to it,’ Annie told him.

‘It’s got three good-sized bedrooms, and an inside bathroom upstairs.’ He seemed quite excited about it. ‘And downstairs is a parlour, a dining room and a kitchen. What do you think?’

‘It certainly sounds well worth a viewing,’ she agreed. ‘But are you sure we can afford it? I’m still ploughing all the profit from the shop into getting more stock, so I won’t be able to help much just yet.’

‘It’s very reasonably priced so don’t get worrying about that; I can more than afford it. But let’s wait until we’ve seen it before we make a decision.’

The following evening, they had just set off to view the house when they bumped into Reggie who was walking along Bridge Street.

‘If it isn’t the happy newly-weds,’ he said sarcastically.

‘Evening, Reggie, off somewhere nice, are you?’ Monty never allowed himself to be goaded by his brother, which only annoyed Reggie more.

‘I could ask you the same thing.’

‘As it happens, yes, we’re just going to look at a house I’m thinking of buying.’

Reggie looked shocked. ‘But I thought you were happy in your little love nest above the shop?’

This was Monty’s undoing and he snapped, ‘We are, but soon there’s going to be three of us, so we’ll need a bit more space.’

Annie silently groaned. No doubt Reggie would break his neck to get home and tell his parents the news. But still, she supposed they couldn’t have kept it a secret for much longer.

‘What . . .? You mean Annie is pregnant!’

‘She certainly is.’ Monty patted Annie’s hand, which was tucked into his arm, and gave her a loving smile.

Annie held her breath. She still lived in constant fear of Reggie telling Monty how he had once raped her.

‘Anyway, must get on, old chap. Goodbye for now.’ Monty moved on leaving Reggie gaping after them.

The walk to the house took but a matter of minutes and the moment Annie saw it she had a good feeling about it. It was quite close to St Nicholas Church, and was a sturdily built semi-detached building with a small walled garden in front of it. The agent was waiting for them and after unlocking the door he led them into a small hallway. There were Minton tiles on the floor with a staircase rising up to the first floor, and two doors leading off it. The first door led into a nice-sized parlour with high ceilings and a pretty, tiled fireplace. The previous owners had already left, so the house was empty but immediately Annie could picture them sitting in front of the fire on their little sofa on a cold winter night. Another door from the hallway led into a well-proportioned dining room, and further on from that was a large kitchen with a range cooker and a deep stone sink below the window. Outside there was a brick coal house and a lavatory, and the garden was a generous size – ideal for a child to play in. Just as Monty had said, the bedrooms proved to be generous too, as was the bathroom, which boasted a claw-footed bathtub. Admittedly the wallpaper in each room was a little tired and the carpets would need replacing at some point, but even so by the time they had finished the tour Annie was beaming.

‘So, what do you think?’ Monty asked.

‘I love it,’ she told him. ‘It’s just perfect and I can see us being really happy here.’ She left Monty and the agent alone to begin negotiations while she went off to look around on her own, and the more she looked at the house the more she loved it. The bedroom at the back would make a perfect nursery, she decided, and she and Monty would have the largest one at the front.

By the time she rejoined the men the sale had been agreed and a bubble of excitement formed in her chest.

‘It should take about six weeks for the solicitor to see to all the paperwork,’ Monty told her. ‘So hopefully we’ll be in and settled way before the baby puts in an appearance.’

Annie could hardly wait.

Chapter Seven

As Monty and Annie were making their way home, a dog suddenly darted into the road and straight into the path of an oncoming coal wagon. There was no chance for the driver to stop the horse in time to miss him, and the poor creature was flung to the side of the road where he lay whimpering pitifully.

‘Oh no! The poor little thing.’ Deeply distressed Annie ran across and dropped to her knees beside him. ‘Oh Monty, he’s hurt,’ she cried. It looked like he had got under the horse’s hooves and a gash on his side was leaking blood.

Monty scratched his head. Even without his injuries the dog looked to be in a bad way. He was so thin that every rib was showing and his coat was so matted and filthy that it was hard to tell what colour it was.

‘What shall we do?’ Annie asked, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

Monty sighed. She clearly had no intention of leaving him there. ‘I suppose we could get him to the vet,’ he answered. ‘But I don’t think there’s much chance for him, love, not looking at the state of him. He’s obviously a stray.’