‘I’m sure you were. Pass that wooden spoon, please, this needs a stir.’

*

The guests come around the back of the house, as everyone does, except those delivering parcels or flyers for the local pizza place.

‘Hello there.’ Fiona is carrying a bottle. ‘My goodness, Georgia, what a difference.’ She looks up and down the new scullery-kitchen. ‘Very nice indeed.’ She nods to Tess and thrusts a bottle of fizzy white wine at her. ‘This could do with cooling down, I think.’

Georgia is standing on the steps between the kitchen and the scullery. ‘If you like that, just wait until you see what’s been happening in here.’

‘It’s all so exciting.’ Fiona follows Georgia up the steps. ‘Let me see what you’ve been doing to the old place.’ She stops. ‘Wow! You said you were ripping things out and you’ve certainly done that. He’s a good plasterer, my cousin, isn’t he?’ She strokes the smooth surface, now a delicate shade of very pale peach. ‘I keep trying to get him to do the ceilings in my place but he never has time.’

‘A case of the cobbler’s child having no shoes?’ says a voice from the doorway.

‘Sorry, Georgia. This is Cait. I’ve known her since Primary Five and she’s an expert in all things financial.’ Fiona looks around the kitchen as though seeing it for the first time. ‘Amazing. Look at that old range. I shouldn’t really say this, but if you ever want to sell, that’s a property photographer’s dream shot.’

‘It was behind the chimney wall all the time,’ says Georgia. ‘It was when I was at university, the summer before I went to Germany for third year. Annie and I went away for a couple of weeks and when we came back it had all been covered up and the wall was painted.’

Fiona laughed. ‘When I think about all the times we used to sit here having dinner with the others and listen to you reminiscing about it, and we had no idea.’

Tess caught the scrap of information. ‘Did you live here too, Fiona?’

‘I did indeed. Two years.’ She points at Georgia. ‘I don’t know how this saint put up with me.’

Tess suddenly has a hundred questions but it’s already too late, and the conversation moves on.

‘Does it work?’ asks Cait.

‘Stan says that it’s sound enough, the fireplace in Tess’s room upstairs uses the same chimney stack. But I think I need someone a bit more expert to look at it, and of course the chimney will need to be swept.’ She points at the grate which is full of pinecones. ‘I picked those up in the park and they look pretty enough for now. I think I’d need to use smokeless fuel, so I’m not sure I’ll ever light a fire in it.’