Maeve BinchyPraise for Maeve Binchy
‘One of the world’s best-loved writers’
Woman’s Weekly
‘Binchy weaves her magic once again in an addictive story about families and people who aren’t always quite what they seem’
Woman & Home
‘It’s little wonder that Maeve Binchy’s bewitching stories have become world-beaters’
OK! Magazine
‘Make no mistake, there is magic at work’
‘Once you read Maeve you are hooked for life’
Sunday Times
Irish Times
‘A Maeve classic, it’ll leave a warm, fuzzy feeling in your tummy’
Company
‘An absolute delight from the most loved of storytellers’
My Weekly
For dearest Gordon, the kindest man on earth.
Full House
Maeve Binchy
Contents
Cover
Praise
Dedication
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
About the Author
Also by Maeve Binchy
Copyright
Chapter One
It had been a long day for Dee Nolan. Up at four in the morning and a quick clear-up of the kitchen, then down to the end of St Jarlath’s Crescent to wait for Josie. Josie had a van and would come by at four-thirty on the dot. The van was full of vacuums and cleaning materials.
Josie and Dee were J.D. Contract Cleaners.
From five to seven they cleaned offices. Then they went to apartment blocks and did halls, stairs and landings. Dee liked that, they weren’t messy like the offices that she had to clean. It was only a question of running a
Dyson over a smooth thick carpet and wiping the skirting boards.
Josie would sing old music-hall songs to herself, it helped the hours go by.
Dee would clean on cheerfully and imagine to herself what it must be like to live or work in the places she cleaned.
Sometimes she knew what it was like to live in such comfort because J.D.
Contract Cleaners did work in people’s homes from nine to one o’clock. They had more keys than a jailer, and they found the places in varying degrees of mess. Like that woman Sonia, who was a real tramp. Her clothes were all over the place. They had once found her bra up on the light shade. She always left wet towels in a puddle on the bathroom floor. She seemed to eat food all over the house, there were dirty plates in every room.
She also left little notes.
Ladies
Please be sweethearts and take all the dirty sheets and things to the launderette down the road for a service wash. Thank you so much, you are such angels …