Amy knocked on the door and they heard footsteps approaching. A woman with a wonderfully friendly smile appeared.

‘You must be Elise. I’m Nell.’

‘Lovely to meet you. And this is Amy, my driver.’

She nodded a greeting. ‘Is this your other item? Do bring it inside.’

Amy set it down where she pointed then turned to Elise. ‘I’ll go and feed my face in town now. Give me a ring when you’re ready to be picked up.’

‘All right. Thanks.’ She turned back to see her hostess glancing down at the painting.

At that moment a breeze blew the covering piece of material aside and Nell looked shocked at what she saw. ‘That’s our path, surely? Yes, it is! It’s the one through the little wood at the other side of the property.’

Elise was puzzled. ‘If there’s a resemblance, it’s purely coincidental. I made up the scene. Well, I dreamt about it one night, which amounts to the same thing.’

Nell lifted the cover off without asking and let out a soft whistle. ‘Then you dreamt of a real place, Elise. This is definitely our wood. Why, even the details of the tree branches are accurate.’ She heard faint, tinkling laughter in the distance and saw Elise and Stacy both staring in the direction of the wood, as if they’d heard something too.

Angus shook his head slightly as if to tell her to let the matter drop, so she didn’t pursue it. But as she introduced the two women, her eyes kept going back to the painting. It seemed like a sign that the older woman belonged here and she really liked Stacy as well. She realised Elise was still waiting for an answer and said quickly, ‘It’s beautiful, Elise, exactly what our bluebells look like in spring. They seem like a blue-lilac mist under the trees from a distance.’

There was silence for a moment or two, then Nell grew brisk again. ‘Shall we go round the upstairs of this house, then next door? These two houses are just about ready. Let’s see if they catch your fancy as possible places to create and sell your work.’

Both visitors approved of the upstairs amenities.

As they walked along to the next house, Stacy asked hesitantly, ‘Um, how much rent are you charging? You didn’t say. But I’ll be using my savings to come here so I have to be careful.’

‘It’s rent-free for six months to give you a start, but we’d have to charge you twenty-five per cent of anything you sell through our café-cum-gallery, once it opens,’ Angus told them. ‘An agent would charge at least thirty, so it’s a good bargain.’

‘You’d pay for your own electricity, though,’ Nell put in.

‘What if we don’t sell anything?’ Stacy asked. ‘I’m only just starting up, you see.’

‘Well, you’ve sold something today, haven’t you, Stacy?’ He looked at Nell ruefully. ‘I’ve just bought her steam punk montage. I fell in love with it. She doesn’t know what price to charge, but we’ll ask Matt Tolson what would be fair, eh?’