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He went out the door, shaking his head while chuckling “This should be fun,” she heard him say before the door shut behind him

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Josh balanced carefully on the planks that were now his hall floor as he made his way to the kitchen for breakfast It was quiet for a change Usually the noise was overwhel It didn’t sound like a renovation It sounded like a demolition Every day the castle looked worse than the day before There were gaps in the walls, holes in the floors and dust everywhere But it was the noiseto hiet a minute to himself

He pushed open the kitchen door and everything got worse Hiscoffee for the work at the counter, each scoffing a freshly bakedas she fussed over the et his head around it He hadn’t seen her like that since he was in high school Back then Josh’s house was the social hub of the neighbourhood, and his mum was the centre

But it wasn’t the fact she was playing hostess to thehis home, and his patience—it was the fact his father was hunched over at the dining roo her do it And if the look on his face said anything, it was that he didn’t like it one bit

“Coffee, darling?” his mum called to Josh

“Sure” He sauntered to the counter

He heard his dad grunt behind hi his runt

“You’ve got to have one of these s” The foreman waved a muffin at him “As far as I can tell, they’re a cross between a scone and a fairy cake”

“You telling uys looked like he’d just heard Santa wasn’t real

“We don’t do fancy stuff in our house Unless the , we don’t eat it”

“Muffins aren’t fancy You can get them in the supermarket”

The other threeapprentice pointedly His whole head went red His wide eyes shot to Josh’s mother “Except your muffins, Mrs McInnes These are really fancy”

His mum took pity on the boy and offered him another He wasn’t too embarrassed to take one

She set you some breakfast?”