The two families had never really got on. Much to Eleanor, Lindy’s grandmother’s indignation, Edward’s family didn’t feel Lindy was good enough for their son. Eleanor said the only difference between the two families socially was money. Edward’s family had lots, Lindy’s very little. But breeding? Eleanor, who wasn’t usually remotely snobbish, said the Fredericks were ‘nouveau riche’ and not nearly as posh as they liked to think themselves.
It was generally felt that the Fredericks moved away from the area to escape the shame of having a son who, having got her pregnant, was forced to marry a girl who’d been to a comprehensive school. Since then, they’d disapproved of her from a distance.
But she’d never really known Angus. He’d been kind, polite and studious. She wondered now why she’d thought he was so amazing when she hardly knew him. But she
had
thought he was amazing and he was still polite; he’d brought a very nice bottle of wine and flowers for Sarah. He just wasn’t much of a one for chat.
Lindy, her father and Angus had been standing in the sitting room clutching glasses, seemingly for hours, when at last they heard the boys’ arrival, signalled by the sound of the front door opening and a loud ‘Raaaaaaaaa!’ Then a small herd of elephants rushed along the corridor and entered the room. They both fell abruptly silent. A moment later, Billy burst into tears and ran behind his mother. Ned stood in the middle of the room as if wondering how he’d got there and how to escape. There was a stranger present.
‘Oh God, I’m so sorry,’ said Sarah, following them into the room, ‘they’re not usually as noisy as this.’
Lindy, embarrassed by her sons and annoyed by her mother apologising for them, said, ‘Billy will be fine in a minute. He just wasn’t expecting to see you, that’s all. Billy, Ned, this is your Uncle Angus – Daddy’s older brother.’ Billy was still clinging to her and Ned was looking nervously from his mother to Angus.
‘Hello, Angus! Glad you could come! Lindy, Billy got upset when Gran didn’t come back with us,’ Sarah went on. ‘She’s having lunch with a friend.’
‘I don’t know if it’ll make things worse, but I have got presents for them.’ Angus put his hands in his pockets. ‘Of course I have no idea what might be suitable so feel free to take them away if they’re all wrong.’
Lindy, who knew how that would go down, hoped he hadn’t got them fireworks.
Angus handed them each a parcel. Ned got his open first. Lindy’s heart plummeted. It looked horribly like a penknife. But as Ned inspected it she saw it had a lot of gadgets on it but none of them seemed to be sharp.
‘It’s like a Swiss army knife,’ said Angus.
‘Cool!’ said Ned, smiling now.
Billy got his wrapping off and revealed a torch. ‘Cool!’ he said, sounding very like his older brother. ‘I love torches!’
‘Goodness me, Ned,’ said James. ‘That looks a jolly useful bit of kit. Can I have a look?’
‘And that’s a lovely torch,’ said Sarah, ever the diplomat.
‘If you twist the end it changes colour,’ said Angus. Just for a few moments everything went well but then, inevitably, they began to squabble, wanting to play with the other’s gadget.
Sarah swept in. ‘Boys! Come with me into the kitchen. I’ve got special drinks.’
‘I’ll see to them,’ said James. ‘I want to check on the spuds. Come on, chaps.’
After minimum discussion about what the special drinks consisted of, the boys were herded out of the room by their grandparents.
‘I’m sorry!’ said Angus. ‘I obviously gave them the wrong things and caused a riot.’
‘Not at all. Honestly, they get given really boring things, like gloves and scarves, and still fight over them.’ She tailed off, remembering who gave them the gloves and scarves. ‘They get over it very quickly. Most of the time.’ She didn’t want Angus to be put off being a more interactive uncle. It meant a lot to her that he was trying.
‘Your parents seem to enjoy being grandparents.’
‘Yes, thank goodness. I’d be stuck without them. And my grandmother.’
‘My parents are too wrapped up in their own lives to care much, I think.’
Lindy totally agreed, but she said, ‘Well, to be fair, becoming a grandparent is something that happens to you and you don’t have any choice about when it happens.’ She was aware how her motherhood had affected her family. They’d been wonderful but it must have been a shock, becoming grandparents so young. It had been quite a shock for her, too, but at least it had been as a result of her actions, not another’s.
Angus opened his mouth to speak and then changed his mind. At that moment the boys thundered back into the room, Billy trying to grab Ned’s gadget and his older brother pushing him away. They rushed round the room, squabbling loudly as Sarah hurried in after them. Sarah eventually managed to calm them down and collapsed on to the sofa where Billy climbed behind her so he was completely hidden, just as Ned picked up a gas firelighter and started playing with it.
Lindy tried to distract him with one of his favourite toys but he held on to it, teeth clenched. ‘It’s mine,’ he said stubbornly. ‘You can’t have it!’
‘It’s not yours, it’s Grandpa’s,’ said Lindy, calm in appearance only. ‘Now give it back to me.’
‘Nooo!’ said Ned.
‘Ned!’ Lindy used her ‘warning’ voice. ‘Darling. Please remember you are a schoolboy, not a baby.’
‘I’m not being a baby,’ Ned declared. ‘I just want this.’
Had he not clicked it on at that moment, Lindy would have lived with the situation, but as the house going up in flames seemed a real possibility, she felt she had to act.
‘Please don’t do that. And give it to me. Now.’
God, what must Angus think of them all? Billy would hardly show his face and when he did he bickered with his brother, and Ned was being beastly. And here she was seemingly unable to control her own children. Angus might not exactly be Mr Tumble but he might have taken them fishing, something she was not prepared to do herself. She only hoped he wasn’t completely put off.
‘I want it,’ repeated Ned. He flicked it on again.
‘Tell you what,’ said Angus. ‘If you let your mother have that, I’ll show you my knife. It has twelve functions. Some of them are lethal if used in the right way.’
Lindy wasn’t sure that Ned knew what ‘lethal’ meant but he obviously picked up that the knife was dangerous and therefore desirable. He dropped the lighter. Lindy had been about to revise her opinion of Angus’s suitability as an uncle but now she was just grateful that he’d managed to achieve what she hadn’t. He smiled at her now as she picked the lighter up and went with it into the kitchen. ‘Is lunch nearly ready, Dad? The boys – well, Ned really – are being a nightmare.’
Somehow the meal passed. The boys were calmer, probably tired out, and Ned had even insisted on sitting next to Angus. Lindy half listened as her mother and Angus – in between chatting to his nephew – discussed the state of the hall. Angus seemed much more talkative now – but then her mother had that effect on people. She tuned out the chat, lost in thought. When she’d first seen Angus outside the hall, her heart had fluttered. She was a young and healthy woman; it was natural to fancy attractive men, especially if they were probably her first love. It was one thing to fancy someone, but could she actually have a proper relationship with a man? A proper relationship would involve her boys. Apart from her family, she and the boys had been a close little unit for so long now, would it feel safe to let someone new in? And what if the boys weren’t happy about it and showed it? She couldn’t be torn between a man and her sons. Her sons would have to win, which meant, realistically, that she couldn’t have a man. And boys were notoriously protective of their mothers. She did sums in her head. She worked out she would have to be her mother’s age, late forties, before she could safely assume her boys had left home. It was rather late to be embarking on a romantic journey. She would probably have shrivelled up entirely by then. She laughed at herself and tuned into Billy who was refusing the green beans his grandfather was trying to persuade him to eat because they squeaked. It was a lost cause.
‘More pudding, anyone?’ asked Sarah, looking hopefully round the table.
‘At the risk of seeming incredibly greedy, I’d love some,’ said Angus. ‘I was living on hotel food before I found my house and now I’m at the pub. Sukey does great food but a proper home-made pudding is a treat.’
Sarah, who was a feeder, scraped the last of the pudding into Angus’s bowl and passed the cream and the ice cream. ‘So how long will it be before you can move into your own house?’
‘There should be a usable kitchen fairly soon. But the house itself is a very long project.’
‘Like the hall,’ said James.
‘We’re doing really well with it though,’ said Lindy, feeling protective of it for some reason. ‘Raff and Rachel are putting a mist coat on it today.’
Billy splatted the back of his spoon into his pudding. Lindy took the spoon away from him. ‘I should think you two could get down now.’
‘Please may I get down please!’ the boys chorused and ran off.
‘You’re such a brilliant cook, Sarah,’ said Angus.
‘Well, I am, of course, absolutely brilliant,’ said Sarah, ‘but James cooked the main course and Lindy made the pudding.’
Angus looked at Lindy. ‘Goodness! Well, it was delicious!’
‘Thank you! I’ll go and make some coffee,’ said Lindy.
‘I’ll do it!’ said Sarah.
Lindy shook her head. She knew perfectly well Sarah was trying to keep her and Angus together. While Lindy was quite keen to spend time with him, she wanted it to be because she wanted it, not because her mother was such a matchmaker. ‘Why don’t you get out the puzzle?’
‘I like puzzles,’ said Angus.
‘I like them too,’ said Ned, who looked up from his game. ‘But I like knives better.’ Then he flushed. ‘I liked your present,’ he said, addressing Angus, but clearly unsure what to call him.
Lindy left the room. She didn’t want to ask Angus if he’d like to be ‘uncle’ because it seemed to carry more weight than just being a name. When she came back with the coffee and some chocolate Rice Krispie cakes the boys had made recently, she assumed the matter had all been sorted out. She’d ask the boys.
Referred to as uncle or not, Angus proved a good jigsaw puzzler. He handed Billy pieces facing the right way up so he could easily see where to put them. The pieces were fairly large and on his own Ned would have finished it quite quickly. But Ned was a good older brother when he wasn’t snatching his brother’s toys from him, and made sure Billy was included. It was all going so well that Lindy felt she could go and clear up the kitchen and load the dishwasher. While Angus had said he wanted to see the boys, he hadn’t said anything about wanting to see her.
At last it was time to go home. The jigsaw pieces were put away, coffee drunk and the boys’ various items of outdoor clothing found.
‘Angus will give you a hand getting the boys home, I’m sure,’ said Sarah.
‘I think I can manage, Mum! I have been taking them home on my own for a few years now.’
Not content with trying to get Rachel hooked up with someone who was just wrong for her in every way, she was throwing her and Angus together in a really embarrassing manner. After a shaky start the day had gone well but Lindy’s feelings for Angus were still somewhat confused. She’d been a different person when she’d first fallen for him. It was one thing the boys getting to know him properly, but for her it was much more complicated. The last thing she needed was her mother interfering. She knew what Sarah could be like: everything was done with the best intentions but once she had an idea in her head there was no diverting her.
‘Actually,’ said Angus, getting up, ‘I will walk with you a little way if you don’t mind. I want to go into the hall and see what’s been happening. I really enjoyed helping out yesterday. And I’ve got a key. Sarah kindly gave me one.’
Sarah nodded. ‘With all the renovations, I didn’t want to be the only one with a key so I had lots cut and shared them round.’
‘Rather takes away the point of locking it, doesn’t it?’ said James. ‘If so many people can get in.’
‘Local people aren’t going to do anything bad,’ said Sarah. ‘I was a bit selective about who got one.’
Lindy laughed. ‘And actually, it’s highly likely that Raff is still there. He was going to do the mist coat.’
‘What is a mist coat?’ asked James. ‘People keep talking about it!’
‘You put a very fine mist of paint over everything. It’s usually white,’ said Sarah, with the confidence of one who’d had it all explained to her quite recently.
‘There’s probably not a lot happening but we could certainly go and see,’ said Lindy. ‘Boys? We’re going!’
‘Is he coming?’ asked Billy, looking up at Angus.
Not sure if she was making a serious mistake, Lindy said, ‘For a little of the way.’
‘Oh, good,’ said Billy, satisfied with this reply. Ned was chatting away happily to Angus. Lindy wasn’t sure if she was pleased about the boys’ acceptance of him or not.
At last they were out of the house walking towards the hall. There were lights on. ‘I think Raff must still be doing the mist coat. I wonder if it’s safe to go in?’ She had visions of her and the boys coming out looking as if they’d been in a flour fight.
‘I’m prepared to risk it,’ said Angus. ‘I’d like to see if there’s access to the roof space and have a look at what’s going on up there. I didn’t get a chance yesterday.’
Lindy wasn’t going to let Angus know more than she did about the hall. It was Vintage Weddings’ project. ‘I’ll come in with you, then. I’m desperate to see what it looks like.’
Angus opened the door and they went in. The hall looked very, very different. ‘It’s like – fairyland!’ said Lindy to Rachel, who was wearing her snow-white boiler suit. She had obviously decided she didn’t quite trust Raff to mist-coat without her supervision.
‘It’s lovely, isn’t it? Such an improvement. I just wish they’d let us keep it white, but I don’t expect they will.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Angus, having a good look round. ‘You could maybe convince them to go the Strawberry Gothic route. It could look brilliant in here.’