 Artistic
Licence
Fed up with looking after a houseful of students,
Thea throws caution to the winds and takes off to Ireland with Rory,
a charming but feckless artist.
But Thea’s old life isn’t so easily cut
off … The arrival of Molly, her bossy friend, demanding to
see Rory’s stunning paintings (and to find out what Thea is
up to) is bad enough, but why did she have to bring Petal along
for the ride? And worst of all, Petal has brought her uncle, the
enigmatic Ben, a man Thea has sworn never to like …
The timing is terrible – Rory’s dog is
about to have puppies – but even more alarming is that the
more Rory pursues Thea, the more maddeningly attractive she finds
Ben …
Chapter One
Thea was standing in the rubbish bin, trying to crush its contents
enough to get the lid on, when she heard people approaching down
the hallway. They were talking.
‘Come into the kitchen and excuse the mess, it’s always
been a tip,’ she heard as she crushed a pizza box beneath
her heel.
Petal, her youngest and most demanding lodger, followed by a man
Thea had never seen before, entered the kitchen.
‘Hi, Thea! What are you doing in there?’ Petal said,
curious but not interested enough to hear the answer. ‘This
is my Uncle Ben. Oh, that’s my phone.’
While Petal searched in her bag for her fifth limb, Thea tried
to step out of the waste bin without falling over. There was nothing
to be ashamed of in compacting takeaway cartons, cereal packets
and Pringle’s tubes, thus reducing landfill, but she could
have done without witnesses. Petal, having dived on her mobile phone
like a gull on a fast-food leftover, went out of the room, talking
hard.
Thea, unreasonably annoyed, reached for the wall to balance herself.
The bin teetered and her foot penetrated the layer of cardboard
to the substratum of detritus underneath. Trying to pull herself
free, the heel of her shoe caught round the loop of a drinks can
holder and Thea began to lose her balance. For an instance she had
an image of herself surrounded by eggshells, banana skins and coffee
grounds. She put out a hand, groping for something to hold on to,
but couldn’t reach the wall.
The stranger, seeing her predicament, crossed the room and caught
the flailing hand and then her body, steadying the bin and holding
Thea upright.
Maybe if she hadn’t been in such a bad mood, she could have
seen the funny side and laughed up at him. As it was, she just blushed
furiously while he supported her, unwilling to see if he was laughing
at her. ‘Thank you so much,’ she muttered to the bin,
as she rammed the lid back on. ‘What a ridiculous thing to
have happened.’
Cover Illustration: Mary Claire Smith; Calligraphy:
Stephen Raw
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