Playing Grace by Hazel Osmond Page B

raised his eyebrows at the tone, but carried the kettle back over to the wooden table.
    ‘I’m sure it’s not a mess, Alistair,’ Grace soothed. ‘I will ring the electricity company. I’m presuming you haven’t done that?’
    ‘When have I had the time?’
    She did not say, during the two-hour lunch breaks you seem to be taking these days , and she ignored the way Gilbert was rolling his eyes, secure in the knowledge that with his back turned to Alistair, he would not be seen.
    ‘If we pay by direct debit,’ Grace said reasonably, ‘then this bill is obviously a mistake. If we don’t, we’ll simply send them a cheque, explain the problem. There’s no way the electricity is going to go off.’
    At that moment there was a clunk and the lights went out.
    Alistair bellowed into the darkness, ‘I was right, but oh no, you wouldn’t have it. And now look.’
    ‘She can’t look, it’s gone dark,’ Gilbert said from somewhere near the wooden table and there was a stumbling noise and then an ‘Ow, bugger,’ which Grace hoped wasn’t Alistair attempting to find Gilbert and grab him by the throat. The sound of china hitting against china suggested Gilbert was trying to move around too.
    ‘Stay still, both of you,’ she said, ‘you’re going to hurt yourselves. Let your eyes get used to the gloom. And Gilbert, did you just switch the kettle on?’
    ‘I did. And then the lights went out … Ah.’
    ‘It’s tripped the switch on the fuse box, that’s all. There’s obviously something wrong with it. Nothing to do with the red bill.’ She started to feel around her desk until she reached the drawers. Pulling open the middle one, she extracted a torch and, when she had turned it on, shone it first at Alistair to make sure he was still upright, and then at Gilbert. ‘Unplug the kettle, will you?’ she said, ‘I’ll just go and turn the electricity on again. I’ll only be a couple of seconds. Don’t move.’
    She picked up her chair and, carrying it and the torch, made her way slowly back out into reception. The electricity box was high up on the wall just outside the front door and soon, by climbing on the chair, she had opened it andfound the switch that was in the ‘off’ instead of the ‘on’ position. She flicked it back up and there was that clunk again, and then light. She blinked at the brightness and closed the front of the box.
    When she got back to her office, Gilbert was sitting on the edge of her desk with his trouser leg rolled up, examining a red mark just below his knee.
    ‘Desk or easy chair?’ she asked.
    ‘Both,’ he replied.
    Alistair appeared to have calmed down. ‘Thank you, Grace,’ he said and looked shamefaced. This was the nice Alistair, the one who, although frustrating to work for, made up for it by being kind and funny. The other Alistair appeared to have melted away into the dark.
    She put the torch carefully back in the drawer exactly where it had been lying before and held her hand out for the papers. This time Alistair gave them to her and she put them on her desk and flattened out the creased evidence of all the waving and fretting to which Alistair had subjected them.
    A quick skim over the figures left her none the wiser, and then something caught her attention.
    ‘Alistair, this bill isn’t ours. It’s not even for anyone in this street. Saracen Place, that’s quite a hike away.’
    Alistair came and looked over her shoulder.
    ‘But the bill came to me.’
    ‘When? I’ve never seen it. I’d have noticed if it had been hanging around since the end of August. Where did you find it today?’
    ‘My in tray.’
    ‘This isn’t making sense. Your in tray has been cleared out many times since August.’ She didn’t say by her. ‘When I had a quick peek last, you were more or less up to date.’
    Alistair picked up the papers again. He was frowning, but as Grace watched she saw a tiny relaxation in the frown as if he’d just had a