The Unorthodox Arrival of Pumpkin Allan Read Online Free PDF

them into profit. Annie also wondered about the more lucrative option of using it as a ‘holiday let’ but she needed to do some more research into that.
     
    The day that Lois and Mel picked up the keys and fell over the threshold of Honeysuckle was the day that Annie had planned to sit Dave down over a nice glass of Shiraz and talk through her plans.
    Annie drove into the Park on autopilot. She had just met with an old friend who was a financial advisor and they had concluded that, with the sale of the boat and paddock, the renting of the new garage-flat and Annie’s temping, they could stay in Lilac Cottage for several years. This would allow Dave time to get back on his feet again, relatively stress free.
    Annie felt increasingly anxious as she passed the hotel and the cottages came into view. She suddenly felt unsure about some of the figures she’d worked out and wanted to have them clear in her head before chatting to Dave. She started riffling through the papers on the passenger seat, searching for the information. Annie glanced back to the road just in time to swerve around ‘Old Man Black’. He waved his arms around wildly, shouting at her, his face turning a dark purple with rage. At which point she wished she’d mown him down. “Miserable old bugger!” she said under her breath as she drove away, glancing in her rear view mirror to see his hunched figure shuffling angrily down the road.
    Her eyes saw Lois, Mel and what looked like part of a door, sitting in the front garden of Honeysuckle, but her brain didn’t register the spectacle. She was feeling quite shaken after her brush with manslaughter, adding to her anxiety over how Dave would respond to her proposals.
    Annie noticed Dave’s car parked at the front of the house. There was another car, a silver Mercedes, which she didn’t recognise. She assumed it must belong to one of Dave’s work colleagues. “Oh well, I’ll just have to wait,” Annie grumbled to herself, as she drove around to their second entrance and parked in front of the coach house. She walked up the external wooden staircase of the garage that led to the loft space, struggling momentarily to find the right key on her over-laden key ring, and then with the stiff lock. Once in, she found it smelt a bit musty, but not too bad considering it had barely been touched since it was built. It was full of junk, most of which should have been dumped years ago.
    Annie started thinking through the layout for the flat that she’d been considering. She took a notebook out of her handbag and jotted down a few possibilities for the conversion. She was convinced, as she stood there in the slightly dark, very cluttered space, that it would be possible to transform it into very pleasant place to live.
    Just as Annie was contemplating the best position for a shower room, to her surprise she heard voices and footsteps coming up the stairs. It was Dave, looking somewhat taken aback to see Annie there, followed by a woman. Annie’s immediate thought was, “Oh my God he’s having an affair!” and her next was, “in the loft space!” Then she took in the appearance of the woman, who looked at least ten years older than Dave, despite having a thick layer of very obvious make-up and quickly concluded that she really wasn’t his type. However, Dave had gone as white as a sheet and his forehead and bald patch were sweating profusely. “Ah, Annie,” he stammered, “um, may I introduce, Beryl Thomas-Clarke, uh, she’s a, um,” Dave’s knew that Annie would be furious that he had gone behind her back in organising a valuation of the house. His gaze dropped from Annie’s expectant face to his shoes, like an awkward schoolboy, caught-in-the-act.
    “I’m an estate agent,” Beryl butted in, in a ridiculously pompous accent. She stood with a broad, toothy, somewhat arrogant smile. “Delighted Mrs. Nutter, please, just call me Beryl, I’m from BTC Estates, I’m sure you’ve heard of us, we sold