In the morning light the house looked worse than it had last night. Dust mud and leaf litter was on the floor of most of the rooms. A colony of spiders lived in the house from all the cobwebs on the ceiling, and there were empty candle holders in every room. This made it clear to her that this house had never had electric lights. After a cereal bar Ella counted up how many candles she’d need for the house to be fully illuminated, found that the cupboards were empty of cleaning supplies or utensils, and decided a shopping trip would be in order. She couldn’t really begin a full assessment of the house until it was free of debris and dirt.

Ella bounced around the place as she hurried to prepare herself for a drive to the nearest town. She sang to herself as she changed into a pair of her favourite dungarees she wore when decorating and cleaning over a long sleeved brown turtle neck. She wrestled her curly black hair into a scrunchie and a high ponytail, pulled on a pair of work boots, and started writing a shopping list as she walked about the place. I have literally nothing here. I’ll need a broom, mop and bucket, floor and surface cleaner, dusters, and floor polish. No electrics means no hoover. Dust pan and brush. Lots of clothes and sponges. Man the works! Ella sighed as she anticipated many man hours of just cleaning ahead of her. Not to mention I’ll be living here so I’ll need food and a way to cook it. She found that the stove worked, I theory, but she had no wood or coal to burn.

“Time for a shopping trip.”

Ella took the dirt roads steady as she headed back towards the last town she drove through last night. A lucky find really, as it wasn’t on her satnav. Strange, really. Normally for a village or town to not be on the map, it had to be recently built and therefore her satnav would need to be updated. But this small town was clearly established a really long time ago. Ella drove past a welcome sign and thought it was odd. Gleann Caillte. The place literally means lost valley. Huh…

It was a self contained town, with a store for everything you’d ever need, and no high chain brands in sight. She pulled up at a local hardware store and immediately noticed how passers-by looked at her. They did a double take, hushed whispers and used their phones with a sense of urgency. Openly frowned with confusion at their reaction. Wow…they must not get many strangers out here.

Ella shrugged it off. Stranger or no stranger, her money was good. She entered the local hardware store, scooped up a basket on her way and started to fill it up as she walked down the aisles. Ella hummed happily to herself as she tried to think not about the long and back aching task ahead of her, but about her end destination. To get her ever closer to martinis and sunbathing her days away. She daydreamed about it as she read the back of some wooden floor polish and turned down the next aisle.

“Ooof-” Ella turned the corner and bumped into someone. Her basket, and theirs, fell to the floor and their items scattered around their feet. “Oh I am so sorry.”

“That’s alright.” His voice was deep and rumbled with a gruff edge. He lowered to one knee a bit slower than Ella as she dropped to all fours to scoop up her cleaning products. “No harm done.” She saw a pair of firm calloused hands reach in between hers and retrieve a few ready meals and instant noodle pots. He has to be a bachelor. Ella raised a brow as she looked up and got a good look at the guy. And apparently a police officer. From the GARDA printed on his high viz yellow and black jacket he was definitely a police officer. He wasn’t wearing a hat, and his jacket was open over his black uniform shirt, belt and trousers. His black boots were polished and he looked immaculate until Ella looked up to his face. He had a thick ebony mane of hair and a full beard. He’d make a great Santa Clause one day when he turned white. In the mean time he could do with a trim, but that was just Ella’s opinion. The rest of him looked pretty nice actually. As they finished picking up their items and stood back up Ella secretly appreciated the guy’s physique. He was tall and very muscular. It was clear to see even through his uniform that this officer was very fit. Ella felt a bit self conscious in her dungarees and absently fussed with some stray hairs to tuck them behind her ears. “A new comer? I’d ask if you were passing through, but I doubt you came out to our neck of the woods to buy bleach?” He grinned and offered the bottle to her to add to her basket. “What brings you to Gleann Caillte Mrs…?”

“Miss Murphy.” Ella transferred the bleach to her basket and then offered her hand to the officer. “Ella.” They shook hands and she felt those brown eyes were warm and jolly enough to belong to a future Saint Nick. “Work brings me here. I’ve been hired to renovate a property so the owner can sell it.”

“Ah.” He nodded with the basket handles resting on his left elbow and his right hand perched with authority on his right hip. “Which property?” His smile was kind and Ella had no reason to lie to a police officer, so she obliged him happily.

“It has a name…hang on.” She put her basket down to retrieve the print out of the property and nodded when she found what she was looking for. “Ah. Deer-view house.” She nodded and looked up…to find the officer looking at her in shock. For a split second he looked pale beneath his beard but he cleared his throat and schooled himself to look politely interested.

“Oh that old place? Yeah, every now and then someone comes with the hope of polishing it up to sell.”

“They do?” Ella put the envelope back into her front pocket and retrieved her basket. “Huh. The owner said he’d been trying to sell it for a while, but didn’t say he’d sent someone out to renovate it already? Are you sure?” Ella chuckled and shrugged. “Because it doesn’t look like anyone’s tried to do anything to that place.”

“Yeah. A real lost cause huh?” The officer cleared his throat. “Probably more hassle than it’s worth. If you’re here looking for work I could introduce you to Bob?” The officer was overly friendly then and pulled his phone  out of his jacket pocket. “He owns a decorating and interior designing busines. We go way back, so I could introduce you no problem.”

“You haven’t even introduced yourself yet?” Ella challenged him cheekily and dutifully got her cell out. “Officer…?”

“O’Hara. But everyone calls me Aiden. Small town, everyone knows everyone, and all that.” He shrugged and opened his address book on his mobile. The exchanged numbers and Ella had to wonder if this was just a local officer being friendly, or a weird sort of pickup line. Either was fine, but she hoped it was the latter.

She’d always had a thing about beards. Officer O’Hara could do with grooming his, but he had a rugged attraction about him. Her smile was a tad coy as she finished entering his number and smiled up at him. “So you been up at Deer-view long?”

“I arrived last night. I-”

“At night?” Aiden flustered a moment, then cleared his throat and smiled at her again. This time it was strained. “It rained pretty hard last night. You and your team managed to stay out of it alright?”

“My team? Ha, I wish.” Ella chuckled and put her phone in her front pocket. “It’s just me. I’m the project lead, but I’m a team of one. So more scrubbing and cleaning for me. Yay.” She mocked herself, only for her smile to slip from the way Aiden stroked his mouth and beard once in alarm.

“So you’re up at Deer-view alone?”

“Yeah. It’s dirty and bare, and has no electricity, but it’s secure and intact.” Ella was less comfortable around the officer as the seconds ticked by. The way he was looking at her? It was like she’d said something horrific.

“You’re only there during the day to work, right? Where are you staying now?” Aiden got his phone back out of his pocket. “Katherine Morris owns a BnB nearby and she’s a sweetheart. She always has a spare room and I’m sure she could put you up there while you work.”

Okay, the cute cave man is getting weird now.

“That’s kind but no thanks.” Ella took a step back. “I have more shopping to do and a lot of work ahead of me, and you’re in uniform so you must be on duty, so I’ll stop taking up your time. Sorry again for bumping into you.”

She made a point of walking at pace around the rest of the shop as she filled her basket and balanced larger items like a broom and mob under her arms. Ella kept looking over her shoulder to make sure the officer hadn’t followed her. That was too weird. Ella paid for her items, loaded up the car, and walked on to the next store to do some grocery shopping.

All the while the locals kept staring and whispering, which gave Ella goosebumps. What is their problem?

After all of her shopping was done she returned to her car to find Officer Aiden waiting for her there. Okay…this is creepy…why is he waiting for me? She reasoned Aiden had seen her load her car after the hardware shop so it wasn’t odd that he knew that the Toyota was hers. What was odd was the way he seemed to be lost in thought, with his forearms braced on the roof of her car and texting away, right up until the moment his brown eyes locked onto her with recognition. Then he put his phone away and was very animated as he walked around it to meet her at the boot.

“Miss Murphy.” He cleared his throat and seemed on edge as she loaded up the rest of her shopping. “Deer-view is no place for a young woman to be alone at night in the forest. You really should stay in town where there are locks and lights. It’s really not safe out there for you.”

“The doors lock.” Ella rolled her eyes. He was no longer cute. Aiden was no just annoying. She waved one of many candle sticks at him. “And I have light. I also slept perfectly fine last night. Even better tonight now I have wood for the fire.”

“Last I checked that place was empty. No bed or anything. You shouldn’t be sleeping on the floor alone up there. Kathrine really wouldn’t mind putting you up.” He was nodding like a bobble head and desperately trying to convince her to stay in town

“I have a sleeping bag. I’ll buy furniture for the place once I’ve cleaned and made any repairs it needs.” Ella shut the boot and hurried to the driver side door. Man this guy is really not backing off. Take no for an answer already.

“But it’s not safe up there.” He begged her and held her door to stop her from shutting it after she got behind the wheel.

“Why?” Ella challenged him and leaned up with narrowed blue eyes. She had the officer in her sights and demanded answers. “Why isn’t it safe up there?” Aiden opened his mouth, then shut it with a bitter sigh. “I have a lot of cleaning to do. Good day.” She started her engine and Aiden looked forlorn as he release her car dor. She slowly drove off and clocked him running his hands through his ebony hair in her rear-view mirror. He called someone in a hurry and seemed to be ranting as he walked towards his own vehicle. “What got his panties up in a punch all of a sudden?” Ella shook her head and pushed it aside for now. She really did have a lot of work to do. The sooner I start, the sooner I finish. The sooner I finish, the sooner I’ll be on my way towards cocktails and cocktail dresses.