A Perfect Home (ebook)

Argumento de A Perfect Home (ebook)

Claire appears to have it all - the kind of life you read about in magazines; a beautiful cottage, three gorgeous children, a handsome husband in William and her own flourishing vintage textile business.

But when an interiors magazine sends a good-looking photographer to take pictures of Claire?s perfect home, he makes her wonder if the house means more to William than she does.

This is the beautifully observed and poignant love story of a woman who has to find out if home really is where the heart is.

The phone rang. Claire thought about ignoring it. It was probably her mother, but it might be William telling her he was stopping off at Homebase to look for flathead screws or tile grout. Worst of all, it might be her mother-in-law. While she dithered, Emily jumped to answer it.?It?s a strange woman,? she said in a stage whisper.A loud, gushing voice greeted Claire as she took the handset.?Claire, darling, how are you?? The woman on the other end of the line gave no time for Claire to answer. ?Wonderful, wonderful ??She realised it must be the journalist, Celia Howard, from the magazine. She took a tissue and mopped ineffectually at the stain on the floor as she held the receiver under her chin.?Enjoying the sunshine in that lovely country home of yours? Not like us stuck here in stuffy London,? Celia was saying. ? Super . How lucky you are. Now, darling, about this photo shoot ? we?ve been thinking about it in the office and we think your house would be just perfect for our Christmas issue. We?re writing features for that now so if we just change you to a festive shoot it will fit in wonderfully.??So you?re not coming to photograph it at the end of August?? asked Claire, relieved at the idea of a postponement. She could put off all that cleaning now.?That?s right darling; that date?s all off now. We work four months in advance and the Christmas issue comes out at the beginning of November so the timing for this is fabulous. I?ve arranged it all and we?ll be with you on Thursday.?Claire stifled a cry. It was Monday afternoon ? and Thursday gave her only two days to get ready and she had the school fête the next day and Oliver?s piano exam and Emily?s ballet class and she had an appointment at the dentist and Ben wasn?t booked into nursery and the plug on the Hoover was broken; her mind spiralled into panic.?Celia, I don?t think I can ???It?s a two-day shoot so the photographer will be with you on Friday as well,? Celia interrupted. ?Unfortunately I?m up to my eyes this week so I can?t come to do the actual interview until next week. Now, of course we?ll need to decorate the house in festive style. If you could get out a few decorations; just your usual ones. I don?t want you to go to any trouble.??You want me to put up Christmas decorations in July???No, you don?t have to put them up, dear. Leave that to the stylist,? said Celia. ?She?ll bring a tree and decorate it herself.??A tree???Yes, she?ll bring a Christmas tree. Unless you can get a tree locally ? a good bushy one. You know, a silver Scots Pine or something like that.??I think I?d better leave that to you.? Finding the perfect Christmas tree in July would be difficult. Finding a good one in December was hard enough.?And could you make some beautiful Christmas stockings to hang on the mantelpiece, in your lovely Emily Love style?? Celia went on. ?Covered in your gorgeous pearly buttons? We could feature them as a reader offer ? I?m sure you?ll get lots of orders. Oh, and some mince pies would be lovely. We always have mince pies.??OK,? said Claire, though it really wasn?t OK. She felt a tight knot of anxiety forming in her stomach. Where was she going to find the time??Now I told you about the fabulous photographer, Sienna Crabtree, that we were going to be using for the shoot???Yes, she sounds great.? Claire desperately tried to re-arrange all the things she was meant to be doing, in her mind.?Sienna really is wonderful, but she isn?t available now, so I?m sending a photographer called Stefan Kendrick. He?s very good, recently back from working abroad. He?s a brilliant photographer and a big hit with the female staff round here and some of the men are rather smitten too. You?ll absolutely love him, darling.?Claire made a face at the phone. She didn?t care how gorgeous he was; she just wanted someone to help her tidy the house from top to bottom, wipe the jam-smeared doorknobs, scrub the kitchen floor, dust the Cornish ware on the dresser and most of all someone to help her get the raspberry juice out of the floor boards before William came home.?Must dash,? said Celia. ?A million and one things to do. I wish I had your life in the heavenly countryside ? totally stress-free, I?m sure. Lots of love.?Celia was gone before Claire had a chance to reply. She stayed squatting behind the sofa, staring at the soggy tissue and pink stain, trying to understand how she had suddenly found herself getting ready for Christmas during a July heat wave. She looked down at the bulge her stomach made above the waistband of her skirt and hoped she wouldn?t be expected to be in the photographs. She?d felt fat and frumpy since Ben had been born; there never seemed to be the time to lose that extra stone or get a proper haircut.She licked raspberry juice from her fingers and wished she?d never let Sally get her into this in the first place.0