Three days later Lucia and Polly are on the train into town, giddy with excitement at what they are about to do. Polly has asked Lucia’s good friend Rowan to look after Reggie for a couple of hours. Rowan runs the village post office with effortless efficiency, adores babies and always makes a big fuss of Reggie. Polly is somewhat edgy about leaving him to begin with but once she’s had a message with a picture of the little boy playing happily, she relaxes and throws herself into the escapade.
‘But what’s Des going to say when he finds out you’ve blown nearly all Tommy’s present on an old camper van?’ Polly says, not for the first time. ‘He’s going to go mad, Lu. He really is.’
Lucia shrugs. She’s not ready to admit that Polly could be right. It’s her turn to make a decision, for once. ‘He’ll get used to the idea,’ she says, straightening her shoulders and ignoring the little worm of doubt creeping into her mind. ‘He’ll be happy about it once I’ve filled him in on all the places we can go. Isaac must come too.’
‘Right.’ Polly looks out of the window. ‘And I suppose if he doesn’t come round, you can always sell it again.’
‘Why are you being so defeatist, Poll?’ Lu says, turning to face the younger woman. ‘I thought you’d be all for the idea. You’re always saying we should have more fun. Well, this is the start of it. A whole new chapter.’
‘I’m not trying to slap you down. I just don’t want you to be disappointed when … I mean if Des doesn’t jump for joy at the thought of a long holiday with you.’
‘And Isaac. Don’t forget him.’
Polly is silent for a few moments. Then she says quietly ‘I haven’t known you all very long, I guess, but Isaac doesn’t strike me as one of life’s great adventurers, Lu. I’ve never actually seen him go anywhere except to work.’
‘Exactly. That’s why we need to do this, before it’s too late. Isaac’s world is his room and his flipping computer. I don’t know what he finds to do on it all those hours, do you? I’ve thought this through, Poll. I hardly slept last night. It’s the right thing to do, I know it is.’ Lucia reaches into her bag, fingers automatically searching for the cool comforting feel of the compass. Polly stares at her.
‘You’ve been acting very suspiciously ever since you got that gift from Tommy, touching it it all the time when you think nobody’s watching. You’re doing it now, aren’t you? Come on, Lu, what’s all this about?’
Lucia feels her cheeks burning. She’s checked the barometer several times today already and she still thinks it might be broken. The needle is stuck on change and the compass is firmly set to south west.
‘Look, we’re nearly in Stowhampton,’ she says with relief. Explanations can wait.
Lucia and Polly hurriedly follow the directions on Polly’s phone and reach their destination with five minutes to spare. Lu’s out of breath and her hands are shaking. She clutches Polly’s arm as they approach the house where the vehicle in question is parked in the driveway.
‘Oh …’ Polly gasps.
Lucia blinks. ‘He didn’t say it was decorated,’ is all she can think to say.
As they stand gazing at the amazing spectacle of a converted transit van with a giant rainbow painted all down one side, the front door of the house opens and a willowy man comes towards them holding out both hands. His grey hair flows down his back and his feet are bare apart from several jewelled toe rings.
‘He’s going to get gravel rash in his feet if he doesn’t watch out. That or frostbite,’ murmurs Polly.
Lu snorts, but quickly pulls herself together. ‘Erm … Donovan Partridge?’ she says. ‘We spoke on the phone yesterday. I’m Lucia Lemon.’
‘Of course you are. What a wonderful name. How did you choose it?’
‘I … well … my mother picked it for me, I suppose, and then I married a Lemon.’
Lucia can hear Polly’s strangled giggles now and she coughs loudly. ‘Yours too, your name I mean. It’s … unusual.’
‘Donovan after the greatest folk singer this county has ever known. You know ‘Catch The Wind’? No? ‘Universal Soldier’? ‘Mellow Yellow’?’ he adds rather desperately. Polly’s face says she thinks he’s speaking in tongues but Lucia nods.
‘Absolutely,’ she says firmly, nudging Polly hard with her elbow. ‘And Partridge?’
‘In a pear tree?’ Polly says, and then has to cover her mouth.
Donovan fixes her with a glare. ‘The Partridge Family. Home of David Cassidy and the marvellous Shirley Jones. Anyway, enough about me. Here …’ he gives an expansive flourish, ‘Here she is.’
‘She?’
‘Flora the Explorer. It breaks my heart to let her go but we’re emigrating to Thailand next month and I can’t take her with me.’ He sighs, and ushers Polly and Lucia around to the other side of the van.
Lucia opens her eyes wide and Polly lets out a squeak of pure admiration. The rainbow on the driver’s side is beautifully executed with all the colours clear and bright but the passenger side is completely covered with flowers of every kind. Polly sees lilies, tulips, roses, daisies and a whole host other kinds that are like nothing she’s ever seen blooming.
‘Wow. Just wow,’ Polly breathes.
It takes all Lucia’s well-learned powers of calming excited children to get her friend back on track, but soon Polly has her head under the bonnet, moving speedily on to taking them for a test drive on the bypass and casting stern looks at Lucia as they negotiate a fair price. While Polly’s busy doing a final check and Donovan has nipped inside to the loo, Lucia slides the compass’s case from her bag and flips open the lid.
The feel of her new treasure in her hand is reassuring. Her fingers slide over the smooth surface and almost immediately the needles react. A shiver of excitement runs right through Lucia’s body. The compass is still pointing to south-west but the word on the barometer dial where the other needle rests is fair. Of course it is.
Donovan turns out to be deceptively shrewd when it comes to his finances but Polly and Lucia together are more than a match for him. In next to no time Lucia has done a direct transfer of cash and having checked it’s gone through he waves them off, albeit with tears in his eyes.
‘Goodbye darling Flora,’ they hear him cry as they chug away down the road. ‘Happy exploring! I know you’re going to …’
His voice fades away as they turn the corner and Polly giggles. ‘I hope he wasn’t going to say, “I know you’re going to break down as soon as you get on the motorway” because my impressive knowledge of engines doesn’t include being able to replace one,’ she says.
Lucia is too busy getting used to this cumbersome new vehicle and way too full of joy in her ownership to pay any attention. It’s not until she pulls up beside the Skoda at home and the van splutters to a standstill that the enormity of what she’s done hits her. She and Des have never had that amount of money in the bank just sitting there for no reason, and now most of it has gone. As she climbs down from the drivers’ seat, she sees her husband’s astonished face at the window.
‘Now we’re for it,’ Polly mutters.
The row that follows is one that Lucia will never forget. Des is incandescent with rage when he realises what his wife has done ‘without a by-your-leave’. He stomps around the living room bellowing about ridiculous women who have no common sense and zero consideration for others and it isn’t until Reggie is delivered home by Rowan that he stops shouting.
The house is very quiet when Des has slammed out of the door to go for a pint at the pub, but Lucia and Polly are soon distracted by showing the new purchase to Rowan and then again to Isaac when he arrives home on his bike. Rowan is full of admiration and is easily persuaded to stay for dinner with them all. Isaac says very little.
Rowan goes upstairs with Polly to help bathe the baby and Lucia finds herself alone with her son in the kitchen. Before he can escape up to his room, she hands him a knife. They sit down at the table and begin to peel potatoes, a companionable silence falling between them until Isaac clears his throat and says, ‘So I’m getting the hint that Dad wasn’t impressed with your masterplan?’
Lucia rolls her eyes. ‘You could say that. It’s best to give him time to calm down. A pint or two and a game of darts should do the trick.’
Isaac doesn’t reply, and Lucia glances across at him with a ripple of motherly pride. She knows she’s not the only one who thinks her son is an extremely good-looking young man. At almost twenty-one, Isaac is even taller than his father, with a slimmer build but strong muscles from all the cycling he does. His fair hair is cropped very short so there is no sign of Des’s greying curls or Tommy’s wild mop of white locks. The Lemon males are a handsome bunch, Lucia thinks, with their brilliant blue eyes and their tendency to tan easily. The memory of month after month of disappointments and then the gruelling round of fertility treatments were worth every painful step along the way to her dream of being a mum.
‘So what about you, Isaac?’ she asks after a few moments, swallowing a wave of emotion. ‘I’m guessing you’ll have heard from Uncle Tommy by now? About the cash?’
‘I have. I wanted to talk to you about that. It’s a hell of a lot of money, Mum. Why would he do that? Should I refuse it, do you think?’
‘Refuse it? Not on your life. He just wants to help us all out. It’s Tommy’s choice what he does with his savings surely? Did you get an email telling you about it?’
‘Yes.’ Isaac rubs a hand over his face, reminding Lucia of the little boy who had always been deeply troubled by surprises. ‘He seems to think I should make a splash. Buy a car, put a deposit on a flat, that kind of thing.’
‘Is that what you want?’
Isaac busies himself cutting potatoes into chunks before answering and Lucia holds her breath. Bringing up Isaac has never been easy, not helped by her feelings of guilt at holding him back. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t been a better mum to you,’ she blurts out eventually.
‘What are you talking about?’
Isaac looks genuinely confused by the sudden apology, so Lucia ploughs on. ‘I mean, I should have encouraged you to be more outgoing when you were small. I gave in too easily when you didn’t want to go places, because well, I was always happier staying put too, if I’m honest, love.’
‘What’s brought all this on? I’m not complaining.’ He grins at her and Lucia tries to smile back but there’s a lump in her throat. That smile. It’s always melted her heart. ‘Anyway, what about Dad?’ Isaac continues. ‘He’s not exactly led the way, has he? When did he last suggest going out?’
‘True enough. Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,’ Lu says. ‘I want us to have some fun in the future, like a proper family. Outings, holidays … it’s not too late. Are you up for that?’
Isaac shrugs. ‘What does Polly think about all this?’
He’s avoiding her eyes now and there’s a faint flush on his cheeks. Lucia smiles to herself. Aha. So Isaac isn’t impervious to Polly’s charms. She suspected as much.
‘Polly’s all for it. Maybe we could persuade her to come with us.’
Lucia flinches at the thought of not only getting Des onside but persuading him that any road trips should include their lodger, not to mention her small child, with the additional challenge of talking Isaac round, but she swallows her doubts and gets on with the dinner preparations. Shortly afterwards, when she receives a text to say Des will be eating at the pub tonight, she heaves a sigh of relief. There will be plenty of time to make plans when the dust of the fierce row has settled. However Des doesn’t return home until much later, when his exhausted but exhilarated wife is already in bed and fast asleep.