Your great-aunt Rose needs someone to help sort through all her stuff.’
Mary-Anne had been staring out of the window of her one-bedroom flat, her mind working overtime as she tried to figure out what to do now that she’d been made redundant from her sales job after 10 years. She’d almost forgotten she was on the phone with her mother.
‘What was that, Mum?’
Her mother sighed. ‘I said, you could always go and live with your great-aunt Rose for a while. I was talking to her yesterday and mentioned your situation.’
Mary-Anne wasn’t sure if she’d imagined the hint of an accusation in the word ‘situation’.
Her mother continued… ‘She says she could do with some company, plus she wants to sort through all the clutter she has stored in her two spare rooms – imagine having a house big enough to have two spare rooms.’
‘That doesn’t sound like a full-time job, Mum. I need to earn a living.’
‘You rent your flat, don’t you? Just pack up and leave. Move into Aunt Rose’s house. It’s in Hampstead. I can’t believe you haven’t visited her. You’re only half an hour away on the Underground. She’s worth a small fortune, you know.’
Mary-Anne had only met her mother’s aunt a few times, and at the last meeting, Mary-Anne had been just a teenager. She remembered Rose as a formidable character, a successful actor, who always swept into a room as if making an entrance from stage left.
Living with her wasn’t an instantly appealing
