THE Guest
It was hopeless. No matter how many times she added the figures up, Nora couldn’t see a way she could make ends meet comfortably. Once she’d paid the mortgage and other regular bills, there was very little left.
‘You all right?’
She jumped a mile when she heard her younger sister’s voice. Elle had moved in with her after a row with their parents, and the rent she paid was helping, but wasn’t quite enough. Nora wasn’t prepared to ask her for more. This was her mess, after all.
‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Have you eaten?’
‘Yeah,’ Elle said, then she pulled a face. ‘Oh dear. Household accounts.’ She looked at the laptop screen. ‘Is it really as bleak as that?’
Nora laughed. ‘No.’ She closed the laptop, hiding the worrying truth. Elle knew she was struggling, just not how much.
‘Something will come up. Has all the money Nan left you gone?’
Nora nodded.
She’d lost her job immediately after buying the house and had been lucky to find another, but had to take a drop in salary. She had the security of savings and the money her grandmother had left her to fall back on until her salary improved, but now it had virtually all gone.
Elle had spent her own inheritance on university and, thanks to Nan, had come out of it debt-free. Nora’s had been wasted.
‘It would help if someone took the spare room,’ Elle
