Out of Step Read Online Free

came down to the grey water. The grey trees stopped just short of the grey mud. A few new-fallen grey leaves covered the grey path between wood and river. She looked downstream at the greyly ebbing tide and a few grey birds poking about in the distance. The sky was especially grey.
    ‘Isn’t it paradise?’ Nell said.
    ‘It’s certainly exclusive, but it would be much too secretive and claustrophobic for me.’
    ‘Some people have no soul,’ Nell said cheerfully, putting on scarf, gloves and a woolly hat. ‘This is where I get out. Don’t be long though; it’s a bit nippy to be hanging about for ages.’
    ‘Right,’ Elly said, restarting the engine. ‘I’m not at all sure about the rest of this road though. Sure you won’t come?’
    Nell shook her head.
    ‘How much d’you want for your drawing?’
    ‘Oh, I hadn’t though. Twenty?’
    Elly drove slowly on down the track alone, bottoming out twice and having to choose her route with care. No one in their right mind would want to live here! she thought, except of course Nell (and maybe Sibyl?); the unworldly in thrall to the impractical.
    At the turning place, she parked by a Land Rover and looked critically at the house. She saw it as a ‘Before’ photo in a renovation portfolio. She banged on the front door with her knuckles and then brushed flakes of paint off them, holding the picture frame under one arm. No answer. She tried again.
    ‘Can I help you?’ a voice said from behind her. A man and two small children were walking up the path from the river. The elder child’s wellington boots were making squelch-squelch noises with every step.
    ‘Are you Mr Hayhoe?’
    ‘That’s me.’
    ‘Oh good.’ He’s quite good-looking, Elly thought. Lots of curly brown hair. Mid-thirties, early forties? A bit thin. ‘I’ve brought this to show you.’ She held out the drawing.
    ‘Want to see!’ The boy with the sodden wellies rushed up and snatched it from her.
    ‘Gently, Josh,’ the man said. ‘It’s breakable, OK?’
    ‘Me, me,’ the small girl insisted, letting go of her father’s hand and bumbling forward.
    ‘Let Rosie have a look too,’ he said, squatting down beside them. ‘I’ll hold it for both of you.’
    ‘That’s my bedroom,’ Josh said, jabbing his finger at the window and leaving a smudge on the glass.
    ‘And Rosie’s too,’ his father reminded him.
    ‘I’ve got my own room at home!’
    ‘Yes, well, we’ve only got two bedrooms here, haven’t we?’ He glanced up at Elly. ‘Sorry, these two monsters do rather seem to take things over.’ The children swaggered a little. He looked properly at the drawing. ‘This is very good. Did you do it?’
    ‘God, no! It’s by a friend of mine. She’s very talented but she’s no good at self-promotion, so I…’
    ‘Dad! My feet are cold.’
    ‘Rothie wants to do a weeee …’
    ‘Sorry,’ Rob said. ‘I’d better just deal with … Come on …’ He handed the picture back to Elly and followed his children through the front door. Elly brought up the rear, and waited in the kitchen/living room as the three of them went upstairs, boots and all. She saw that this could be a very stylish room indeed if a great deal of money were to be spent on it. The floor was still covered by its original flagstones. The stove was set in a broad chimney alcove under a thick wooden beam where an open hearth had once been. There was an inglenook – a little seat – on one side of the stove, and an old bread oven on the other. Facing the back door on the opposite wall was a woodenstaircase to the first floor, and next to it a large scrubbed pine table, but there all charm ended. There seemed to be no storage cupboards or work surfaces to speak of. The sink under the back window had only one basin and one draining board, and an old plastic drying rack that looked distinctly dirty. A few blackened pans hung on hooks from another beam. There were no curtains or blinds at the window, and any space on