It Had to Be You by Lynda Renham Read Free Book Online

myself soon. I groan and the phone clicks again just as the television automatically turns Jeremy Kyle back on.
    ‘ So you’ve slept with fifteen of your fiancé’s friends?’ shouts Jeremy to a spotted face woman.
    I don ’t believe this.
    ‘ Hello, Miss Grayson?’
    I wonder if I should explain that it isn ’t me that has slept with fifteen of my fiancé’s friends.
    ‘ Yes,’ I answer quietly, thinking it best not to get on the wrong side of her.
    ‘ Putting you through to Mr Hayden now.’
    Thank goodness. Another click and there is a male voice.
    ‘Miss Grayson? I’m pleased to hear from you. We were thinking you had perhaps gone away for Christmas.’
    ‘ Something like that,’ I laugh.
    ‘ Right, let me have a look at what we have for you,’ he says thoughtfully.
    I cross everything and say a quick prayer.
    ‘Ah yes, I remember. Mrs Vera Cramton.’
    I hear a rustle of papers.
    ‘Here we are. Yes, your great aunt has left you Driftwood.’
    I don ’t want to seem ungrateful but what did Aunty Vera expect me to do with an old plank of wood?
    ‘ Driftwood,’ I say feeling my heart sink.
    ‘ We have the key if you would care to collect it. If you could bring your passport, we can hand it over.’
    ‘ Key?’ I echo.
    He laughs.
    ‘To the property. Driftwood is a house just on the outskirts of Hampstead Heath. Lovely name don’t you think?’
    ‘ Great Aunty Vera has left me a house, are you sure?’ I ask.
    ‘ There’s no mistake. If you could bring your driving licence if you don’t have a passport.’
    What a cheek, of course I have a passport. I ’m a woman of the world after all. A property in Hampstead Heath? Oh my God. I never even knew Great Aunty Vera had a house. She never mentioned it. Thank you, thank you so much Aunty Vera. It is bound to be worth at least a hundred thousand, if not more. I can barely control my excitement and have to fight back a scream.
    ‘ Yes yes of course. Is it a large house?’
    ‘ I don’t have those details I’m afraid.’
    Oh well, it ’s a property. He didn’t say caravan did he?
    I arrange to pick up the key tomorrow. I click off the phone and cheer. I feel vindicated. I call my hairdresser Wesley, and book myself an appointment for the morning. Oh yes, I am a woman of property now. Stick that up your arse Oliver Weber.

Chapter Seven
     
    My exuberance is quickly dampened by Muffy and totally quenched by my mother.
    ‘ It’s probably a complete dump,’ says Muffy, chopping a green pepper.
    I ’m sure they were happier when I was falling apart. I was just starting to get a new perspective on everything too. This could be a turning point for me but oh no, not according to Muffy and Mother.
    ‘ Yes, she is probably right darling,’ agrees Mother as she cleans up behind Muffy.
    I wouldn ’t mind but it isn’t even her kitchen. Honestly, talk about dissing the first bit of good luck that comes my way.
    ‘ It may not be,’ I say while feeling a little twinge of doubt.
    Supposing they are right and it is just a dump? No one seems to know about this house that Great Aunty Vera apparently owned. It will probably turn out to be a tiny tumbled down studio apartment in the back streets, well that ’s not so bad is it? It’s more than I have at the moment, and I can always sell it.
    ‘ She never said a word about a house. Mind you, she was very secretive. Even your gran doesn’t know about it and she was her sister. I can’t for the life of me fathom why she left it to you though,’ mumbles Mum while emptying the dishwasher. God, I so wish she would sit still for five minutes.
    ‘ Gran can barely remember me, ’ I scoff. ‘So we can’t really take anything she says as gospel.’
    ‘ Well, that’s true,’ quips Dad from behind the paper. ‘And you did visit her from time to time when you were younger. She probably had no one else to leave it to. Old people do that kind of thing don’t they? At least she didn’t leave it to her