There was a stunned silence for a moment. ‘Roland? As in Hugh’s other best man Roland?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Um, right—if you didn’t catch the message I was in the middle of leaving, it’s Bella’s sister Grace. There’s a flood at the flat and I need an emergency plumber.’ Her voice took on a slightly haughty tone. ‘I assume that you, as the landlord, have a list of tradesmen you use.’
So that was why she thought he’d pay the bill for an emergency plumber. ‘I’m not the landlord.’
‘Ah. Sorry.’ The haughtiness disappeared, and there was the slightest wobble in her voice. ‘I don’t suppose you know the landlord’s contact details?’
Why on earth would he know something like that? ‘No.’
‘OK. Never mind.’
And there it was.
The tiniest sob. Muffled quickly, but he heard it.
It brought back all the memories of Lynette. Her heart-wrenching sobs every single month they’d failed to make a baby. The guilt about how badly he’d let her down and how he’d failed her at the last.
Plus Grace was his best friend’s sister-in-law. If Roland’s sister had called Hugh for help, Hugh would’ve come straight to Philly’s rescue. So Roland knew he had to do the right thing.
‘I’m sorry to have bother—’ she began.
‘Grace. How bad is the flood?’ he cut in.
‘You’ve just told me you’re not the landlord, so don’t worry about it.’
He winced, but he knew that he deserved the slightly acidic tone in her voice. But there was one thing that was bothering him. ‘Where did you get my number?’
‘Bella left me a note on the fridge—a phone number for emergencies.’ She sighed. ‘Again, I apologise. I assumed it was the landlord’s number. Obviously I was wrong.’
That didn’t matter right now. He was focused on the flood. ‘Have you turned off the water?’
‘Yes. I’m not an airhead,’ she said drily. ‘I also turned off the electricity supply to prevent any problems there, and I’m currently draining the system to try and stop any more water coming through. I need a plumber to fix the burst pipe, and I also need to tell the people in the flats upstairs, in case the problem in my flat has affected their water supply, too.’
He was surprised that Grace sounded so capable and so organised. It didn’t fit with what he’d been told about her. But she’d said there was a burst pipe, and clearly she didn’t have a number to call for help—apart from his, which Bella had left her in case of emergencies. He could hardly just hang up and leave her to it. ‘What’s the address?’ he asked abruptly.
‘Why?’
‘Because you just called me for help,’ he said.
‘Mistakenly,’ she said crisply. ‘For which I apologise. Yet again.’
‘Bella obviously left you my number in case of emergencies—and a burst pipe counts as an emergency.’ Although Bella had forgotten to tell him she’d given Grace his number, that wasn’t Grace’s fault. ‘Where are you?’
‘Bella’s flat.’
‘I don’t actually know the address,’ Roland explained.
‘Oh. Right.’ Sounding slightly reluctant, she told him the address.
‘OK. I’m on my way.’
‘Are you a plumber or something?’
‘No, but I know a good one. I’ll call him on the way and have him on standby in case you can’t get hold of the landlord.’
‘Thank you,’ Grace said. ‘I appreciate this.’
Roland called his plumber from the car, warning him that it was possibly a storm in a teacup but asking him to stay on standby. But, when he turned up at the flat, he discovered that Grace had been underplaying the situation, if anything. The water had clearly been gushing for a while and the carpets were soaked through; they’d need to be taken up and probably replaced. The sofa also needed to be moved, because water was seeping into it. And he felt another twinge of guilt as he noticed that Grace looked as if she’d been crying. Although she was clearly trying to be brave, this had obviously upset her.
‘Did you manage to get in touch with the landlord?’ he asked.
She shook her head. ‘His details are probably somewhere in Bella’s shoebox—but I’m not blaming her, because I should’ve checked everything properly myself before she and Hugh left. I live here now, so it’s my responsibility.’