Behind a Closed Door (The Estate, Book 2) by Mel Sherratt Read Free Book Online Page B

your benefits last week?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘What about your bills? Have you registered the suppliers in your name?’
    Kelly nodded this time. Josie could feel her resistance to the questions.
    ‘That’s good,’ she continued, ‘because if you ever want to get out of here, you’ll need to prove you’ve been a tenant long enough to qualify.’
    ‘I told you I’m capable of surviving on my own,’ Kelly muttered. She turned to stare out of the window.
    Josie put her drink down on top of a coaster. ‘I haven’t called to spy on you. These are routine questions I ask all of my new tenants. I’m simply interested to see how the place is coming on. You have a real flair for making a home.’ Her eyes raced around the room again. ‘I’m genuinely amazed to see how much you’ve done in such a short space of time. Some of the tenants I signed up during the same week as you won’t have moved in yet, let alone started any decorating. Now that you’ve done that, though, have you thought any more about getting a part time job to tide you over?’
    Kelly sat down on the other settee. ‘Yeah, I need to do something. I don’t know how people manage on benefits.’ She grimaced, knowing how it would sound to Josie but when she’d lived with Scott, everything had been acquired without question; now she was fending for herself, she had to watch every penny.
    ‘Why don’t you come with me to look around Mitchell Academy?’ Josie suggested. Mitchell Academy was a high school on the estate that had been used as a community college on its closure. Originally the building had housed six hundred pupils, but government cuts had insisted that it amalgamated with another school three miles away. ‘What do you fancy doing?’
    Kelly sighed. ‘I don’t know what I can do. It seems so long since I left school. My mum reckons I could get some work at Miles’ factory because my auntie works there. I might give it a go.’
    Josie nodded. ‘Great. It will alter your benefits if you do over eight hours a week but I think you could easily combine the two. My husband works at Miles’ Factory; he does the day and noon shift.’ She checked her watch and shot to her feet. ‘I’d better get going. I need to call another couple of times yet though, just to see that you’re settled. Is next Thursday morning okay for my next call?’
    ‘Yeah, I suppose so. And I’d better rescue Dot from Emily.’
    ‘Don’t you mean rescue Emily from Dot?’
    Kelly shook her head. ‘I know exactly what I mean. That child can talk the hind legs off a donkey, given half the chance.’
    Josie smiled to disguise her feelings. Her biological clock had been ticking for quite some time now but Stewart wanted to wait until the timing was right for him too. Then again, with the relationship how it was, there didn’t seem much point in trying for a baby if they weren’t more of a unit first.
    ‘I’ll show myself out and thanks for the drink,’ she said. ‘I don’t accept such offers from everyone I visit, you know.’
     
    Later, as she went back outside to finish clearing up, Kelly recalled Josie’s visit. She found herself warming to the woman behind the coat of authority. Josie had no airs and graces, no false chit-chat. She was straight, to the point, yet never rude with it, and she didn’t judge people. But it was her ability to care without being patronising that she really found admirable.
    It also made Kelly realise how much she’d given up for Scott. She was twenty-four-years old and not a friend to her name. Everyone she’d been close to had eventually been driven away in case they became too familiar and saw or heard too much. If she had had someone like Josie around all the time, to share her concerns and talk over her worries, maybe she might not have got into this mess.
    Still, Kelly sighed, Josie was a housing officer. To her, a visit was part of the job. Kelly knew she must visit lots of tenants and make them feel that she was