‘No. So I keep being told.’ Lyn packed the shopping into her haversack. ‘Thanks Sally. I’ll probably be back tomorrow.’
The buggy seemed heavier on the way back, or perhaps it was that she was tired. Lyn regretted for a moment that she hadn’t begged a lift from Janet, then she remembered why. Janet would have lectured and hectored her and tried to put on the pressure to bring the boys to stay at the farm, when all Lyn wanted was to have them to herself while she had the chance. Plodding on she glanced up at the sky. The clouds were becoming heavier and more threatening; she would be lucky if it didn’t rain before she got home. She glanced down at her charges. Both warmly wrapped and tucked beneath their blankets they were sound asleep.
The first rain drops were beginning to fall as she reached the gate and began the last haul up the drive.
The house seemed very dark as she came round the corner. Puffing along behind the buggy, forcing the wheels through the muddy gravel, she glanced up at the rain-streaked windows. There was a face at the attic window above the front door. She stopped and stared. Was Joss home? Squinting, she shook the ice cold drops of sleet off her eyelashes, trying to make out who it was for several seconds longer, then she headed for the back of the house and the kitchen. The courtyard was empty. Jimbo appeared to have closed up and gone – for lunch she supposed. There were no other cars there. She frowned. Who on earth was it then at the window? Groping in her pocket with ice cold fingers for the key she pushed the door open and bent to lift Tom out. ‘Come on, sausage. You know I can’t lift you both up. You’ll have to run inside for Aunty Lyn and open the kitchen door. Shall we try and do it without waking the tornado?’ That was their private name for Ned.
Tom giggled and pushed himself out of the chair, rushing ahead of her into the kitchen. Turning she bumped the buggy up the back steps and manoeuvred it past the coats and into the kitchen before stopping to unbutton her own jacket. ‘Tom? Come and take your coat off.’
There was silence.
‘Oh Tom, not again. Come on.’ She sighed, turning to hang up her coat and shake and fold the damp blankets onto the rail in front of the stove to dry. ‘Tom? Come on, then you can help me get lunch.’
The door to the hall was open. With a glance at Ned who was still asleep Lyn left him in the buggy and ran into the corridor and through into the great hall. ‘Tom? Come on. Where are you?’ She stopped, staring at the fireplace. A fire was burning in the grate. She could see the logs, neatly heaped into a pyramid, the blown ash swept up, the room warm and filled with the sweet rich smell of burning oak.
‘Joss? Luke? When did you get back?’ She went to the study door and peered round it. ‘Where’s the car? I didn’t see it?’
The study was deserted, the curtains still half drawn as she had left them that morning.
‘Joss? Luke? Where are you?’ Lyn stood for a minute at the bottom of the stairs. Then she began to climb.
38
Luke neatened all the small empty pots and containers and lined up the knives and forks on the tray in front of him with precision and pushed it to one side. He glanced at Joss. ‘Not long now. We’ll be landing in about fifteen minutes I should think.’ The stewardesses were trundling their carts along the plane, collecting all the rubbish. He looked down at Joss’s meal. She had barely touched anything. ‘They’ll be all right. Lyn’s just been out that’s all.’
‘Out late at night, with two small children? Out again first thing in the morning?’ She shook her head in despair. ‘We should have rung the police, Luke. Supposing something’s happened to them.’
‘Nothing’s happened to them, Joss.’ He gave a deep sigh. ‘Look we’ll try and phone again from the air terminal, and if we can’t get through to Lyn we’ll try Janet again. There’s always the chance of course that they’ve gone off on a spree together. Don’t forget they’re not expecting us yet.’ He reached for her tray and passed it with his own to the flight attendant. ‘Come on. Cheer up. We don’t want to undo all the good the rest has done you.’
‘I know.’ She nodded wearily. ‘I did enjoy it. I did like Paul.’
She fell silent. Paul had arranged the flights – getting them on the plane at short notice by pulling one or two strings with someone he knew – and he had insisted on driving them back to Orly. There had been tears in his eyes as well as Joss’s when they finally embraced at the check in. ‘Come and see us,’ she had whispered. ‘If it doesn’t make you unhappy to come there without her, come and see us.’
‘Of course.’ He kissed her on both cheeks. ‘And you will come back to stay with me in the summer and you will bring your little boys with you.’
There had been a moment’s silence as they had both thought the unthinkable and he squeezed her shoulders again. ‘They will be all right,’ he said, watching as Luke pushed their passports over the counter. ‘You will see. They will be just fine.’
In the phone booth in the high airy terminal building at Stansted Joss stood listening to the line ringing. There was no reply. She glanced at her watch. The boys should be resting by now after their lunch. With a glance at Luke who was standing only three feet away watching their luggage she dialled Janet. This time there was an answer.