Chapter 416 Lori's Wonder:>37

• Jimmy lived in a single-room studio flat in Bermondsey, and I promised him a better deal than that; there were several three-and four bedroom cottages dotted around in the grounds of Denham Hall, a hang-over from the days when the house had been the hub of a working estate, complete with farms, smithy, cider-press, brewery and dairy. Now there was just the house, about 50 acres of meadow and woodland, and the cottages, all of them empty. I was sure one or all of them could be made habitable, and if things worked out, he could have one.
• Jimmy was overwhelmed; life hadn't exactly been a champagne rollercoaster since he'd left the service, now he had his own limousine, a well paying job, and the prospect of a home of his own. He tried to thank me, but I made light of it; I had no intention of ever living at Denham Hall; it was a frightful, creepy, semi-derelict pile of crumbling sandstone, still standing only because all the walls were leaning against each other and propping the others up, and hadn't yet summoned up the courage to do me a favour and collapse; the only way you'd get me in there was at gunpoint; even the Ghostbusters would have lit-out at a dead run from that spooky, creepy, scary place.
• As for the cottages in the grounds, they'd been deserted since before I was born, so major renovation was called for. When he wasn't being Lori's right-hand man, he was tasked with managing the renovation of the cottages, with Lori sticking her oar in as and when she felt like it; his instructions were to humour her, then do it his way unless she was watching, then he'd have to do it her way until she left, then do it his way again...