Free Out of Step by Maggie Makepeace

ha!’ ‘No fitted carpets? Oh dear, that brings the price down a bit then.’ ‘Oh well, of course we’re used to built-in wardrobes.’
    To entertain herself further, she wrote out an honest description of the house –
Large, ugly, detached, unmodernised, 1930s 4-bedroom house, with 3 naff stained-glass windows, ostentatious double garage, and 100ft long high-maintenance garden. Situated in upwardly mobile area, close to local shops (selling ‘antiques’ but no food). On bus route to centre of boring Boxcombe. Would suit nostalgic, style-challenged Fat Cat, or sad, undiscerning DIY enthusiast with long-suffering partner
.
    She gave it to Mr Block who read it through slowly and carefully. ‘Just as well you’re not in my profession,’ he said seriously. ‘You’d have a lot to learn.’
    ‘You’d have a lot to learn!’
Nell mimicked his prissy voice on the phone to Elly, and they both dissolved into giggles. ‘How can anybody be so totally humourless?’
    ‘No luck so far then?’
    ‘No. Another couple are coming tomorrow evening. I suppose sooner or later someone is going to be deluded enough to want it.’
    ‘Could take years,’ Elly said soberly.
    ‘Thanks! You are so encouraging.’
    But the young man and woman who arrived with Mr Block at 6 p.m. the following evening were clearly impressed. ‘It’s so rare to find a place that hasn’t been the victim of
refurbishment,’
the man said, stressing the word as though it were the ultimate crime. ‘We’ve been trying to find a genuine period house like this for far too long, haven’t we, darling?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ the woman said eagerly. ‘And that fireplace in the dining room is quite marvellous, isn’t it? Theycertainly
knew
about tiles in those days.’ Nell stared at them in fascination.
    ‘You see,’ the man said, ‘we’re getting married soon.’ He said it with exaggerated modesty, as though he might be going to add, ‘although I say so as shouldn’t.’
    ‘And we want our first house to be perfect,’ the woman said, laying her hand on his arm and smiling up at him girlishly.
    ‘Ah well,’ Mr Block said, ‘wonderful, wonderful! Look no further!’ He rubbed his hands together in a frenzy of enthusiasm that Nell considered a bit over the top, until she realised why. Of course – first-time buyers – no chain! She allowed a modicum of optimism to be released into her bloodstream, and begin to diffuse… Maybe the fates were about to be kind.
    Cassie Hayhoe felt as though everyone was conspiring against her, especially Rob. She was sure he had sabotaged the sale of the cottage on purpose; his story of a broken chain was too convenient for words.
    She wanted the divorce – of course she did. What was the point of being married to someone you despised, a man who never asked you how you were or how you felt; who never noticed anything about you; never
encouraged
you? But she worried about how she would cope. She supposed she would have to get a job, but her secretarial skills were all but forgotten, and the chance opportunity she’d had years ago to present a clothes show on television was very much a thing of the past. If only she hadn’t fallen out with that stupid producer woman, she might have been asked back … Cassie sighed deeply. At thirty-three she was still young, but … She examined herself critically in the bathroom mirror. A cross, pinched face looked back at her. She tried smiling, but it didn’t come naturally to her and appeared more like a rictus, so she snapped it off again quickly.
    I’m not well, she thought. I can’t cope with the children. I can’t bear the loneliness. I’ve lost all my confidence, so how will I ever get a job? And anyway, how can I work with Rosie still at home, and Josh finishing school so early? God! Sometimes I wish they were grown up and off my hands altogether … I don’t know what to
do
. I need help. I think I must be about to have a nervous breakdown.
    She managed to get a