Once he'd left the room Lily glared at her mother "How can you treat Mr. Shepherd like that? That wasn't very nice!" she complained.

"He offered!" Joanne hissed.

"After he generously freed you from finding me a place to live!" Lily admonished.

"He offered." she said weakly.

Lily just scowled at her mother and went back to knitting.

Ten minutes later Ben returned and went over his findings. Again, the house was in pretty good shape but the furnace and water heater were in need of replacing and electrical panel was full. It would need replacing if Ben were to do any renovations. He explained his finding and described the...