Pushing the problem with the council to the back of her mind, she picked up her pencil to draft the advert. They were both keen to put tenants into the second and third houses as soon as possible, not only for the money but for security reasons.

After that she might get Angus to sign a form authorising her to represent him at this projected meeting with the council. Yes, that would probably be the way to go. She was far less likely to lose her temper than he was.

If this was legitimate, there would no doubt be some fiddling little rule that they’d infringed and it’d mean filling in a few acres of official forms.

People were getting snowed under with paperwork these days. So much for the ‘paperless office’ predicted at the beginning of the computer age. Well, at least she could spare Angus one tedious chore.

But what if what Hobkins was doing wasn’t legitimate? How would they even know that?

She still had a very uneasy feeling about this.

Part Three

Chapter Sixteen

Stacy was having a lazy start to her Sunday, having worked hard at her unit the evening before. She’d been pleased by what she’d done, but creativity could drain you, especially after a full day’s work. The guy she was working for temporarily seemed to think that everyone loved working 24/7 on his project, as he did, and it was the last thing she wanted.

Yawning, she leafed through the Sunday paper, then shoved it aside and glanced out of the window. It was sunny, even if cold. She’d go for a walk.

The supplements and advertising material that came with the newspaper were numerous and slippery, and of course they fell off the side table and scattered across the floor when she stood up. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she bent to pick up the various bits of paper. One fell open at an article which caught her eye: Art and Crafts Village Opening in Wiltshire.

She spread it out and read it carefully, sighing wistfully. It sounded like her dream, to live in a place where art of all types was valued, where there were like-minded people to chat to. It sounded as if the housing in this one was deliberately being kept at an affordable price and the occupants would be able to sell their work directly to the public.

Where was this Sexton Bassett anyway? She looked it up online and found that it was about half an hour’s drive away. There was no website or address given for the place, merely a suggestion that artists interested in applying for a residency, which offered a rent-free, six-month tenancy of a cottage, could email a certain address. They should give a brief description of their work and say what their goals were in no more than 250 words, and should attach no more than two photos of their work.

She read it again. This time she noticed a note in smaller print at the bottom which said ‘Artists at all levels of their career are invited to apply’.