‘My head hurts. There are so many problems with this.’

‘List them, then.’

‘Meat. Would he want to eat meat?’

‘He can eat meat away from here if he wants, just not in the house. Not cooked in our pans.’

‘What about rent? Although I can see your point about getting the walls painted and everything tidied up, it’s all a bit tired now.’

‘You don’t have to decide about that just yet. After the place is painted, you could charge some rent.’

‘How much?’

‘I don’t know, do I?’ Irritation crept into Isobel’s voice momentarily. ‘How much do you want to charge?’

‘I have no idea. And I’m not sure that he would be able to do the work on his own. The ceilings are high and I don’t think the staircase could possibly be a one-man job.’

Isobel began to patiently tick off the objections on her fingers, one by one. ‘See if he has a friend; he surely must know someone who would give their best shirt for some work at the moment.’

Ann’s eyes widened at Isobel’s suggestion. ‘Wait a minute, are you saying that we ask not one, but two strange men to live in the house?’

‘I don’t know, but you are making obstacles where there are none. What I do know is that he seems decent and quietly spoken and needs a place to live. You have that place.’ She paused before pulling out her trump card. ‘And I think Ursula would approve. She would have done anything to have Finlay back. Think of it as Finlay’s legacy, helping other people when he isn’t here to do it himself.’

Wisely, Isobel left the idea to percolate, while she added sugar to the plum juice in the pan and put it on the hotplate.

Ann watched her as she worked. ‘If we offered Keith a room, how long would he stay? I don’t want him to move in and live here for a few weeks while he does some painting and then move out again. I mean, it might be awful and I might want him to leave,’ she paused, ‘but if we did this and it worked then maybe . . .’

‘Maybe what?’

‘There might be other folk who need a room. There’s far more space than we need, even with Keith staying.’

Isobel concentrated on stirring the plum sauce. ‘I don’t think either of us would want it to be like a tram ride with people only stopping for a week or two.’

‘Definitely not.’

‘You could tell people you expect them to stay for a year. Or perhaps two years would be better. Time to get settled and be part of the family, if you know what I mean.’ Isobel couldn’t help smiling. ‘But of course, you might want a different rule for Keith?’

Ann ignored the loaded question. ‘What about the rent?’