A Perfect Proposal Read Online Free PDF

qualifications put together.
    By the time the train pulled in, Sophie was fired up with passion – for going to New York, for doing something for herself, and for making her family think for once. She pulled on her backpack and, glancing at the map she’d taken off the internet, she set off towards Uncle Eric’s house almost fizzing with determination to better herself.
    To their mutual surprise, for Sophie and Uncle Eric, it was almost love at first sight. Uncle Eric had assumed Sophie would be like the rest of her family, who he was convinced were idle and money-grubbing. He had only agreed to have Sophie as a holiday replacement for his regular housekeeper because it would save him the trouble of finding a more suitable candidate.
    Sophie had assumed he would be crotchety, set in his ways and ‘evil’ as described by her family, although she soon began to wonder why she’d believed them. They were so often wrong about things that mattered. But the moment the elderly gentleman opened the door to Sophie, in her skinnyjeans with her hair in some sort of nest on top of her head, she saw that while he might well be set in his ways and possibly a little bored, he certainly wasn’t evil. Sophie, expecting a combination of Fagin and Scrooge with a bit of Child-Catcher thrown in, saw a kindly old person, in a slightly shabby but once well-cut suit, a cardigan with a hole in it and a tie that needed a good press. She instantly wanted to darn him – if not literally, emotionally. He needed her practical skills and she determined he would get them.
    He led her into the sitting room and gave her a wine glass full of sherry. ‘You’ll need it, my housekeeper is going to give you a very long list of instructions about how I like my life to be organised.’ He sighed. ‘Not sure she’s got it right, actually.’
    Sophie took a sip of the sherry, which she decided she rather liked, and then went to find Mrs Brown, who, as foretold, had a timetable and a list of instructions that went on for several pages.
    Sophie scanned the pages and then looked up. ‘I don’t see much exercise on this list. Can he leave the house? Get about OK?’
    Mrs Brown nodded. ‘Oh yes, but he just prefers to read the paper and listen to the wireless. And very simple food. Nothing fancy. Good plain cooking, like I’ve always given him. I know how old people like things done.’
    Sophie had no idea how old people liked things done but she knew she wouldn’t much fancy such a restricted life. Maybe Uncle Eric needed a bit of a change. She took another speculative sip of her sherry.
    She was shown to a bedroom which had a single bed made up with sheets, blankets and a paisley eiderdown. There was a bookcase full of old-fashioned books by authors Sophie had never heard of: Ethel M. Dell, Jeffery Farnol and Charles Morgan. A silver dressing-table set comprising a handmirror, hairbrush, clothes brush and comb was arranged in front of a three-part mirror on which hung a little cardboard cone which Sophie realised was a hair tidy – somewhere to put the bits of hair you pulled out of the brush. It was sweet and appealed to Sophie, who liked old-fashioned things, aware that in some ways she was quite old-fashioned herself. At bedtime she snuggled down into the bed, which didn’t have the most comfortable mattress, and started reading one of the books. Two lines in she decided she should go to sleep instead.
    Mrs Brown called in at breakfast-time the following morning to make sure Sophie knew what she was doing.
    She explained, obviously feeling guilty for taking a long-overdue break: ‘I’ve been with Mr Kirkpatric for a long time and it suits me, but when my daughter in Australia arranged for me to visit I felt I must take the opportunity. My daughter says two weeks isn’t long enough really, but it seemed long enough to me. I don’t like leaving him.’
    ‘We’ll be fine,’ said Sophie firmly. ‘You just enjoy your trip. I promise I’ll look