Isaac, Polly and Reg arrive back in Chandlebury at lunchtime four days later and roll onto the drive with a familiar crunch of gravel just as Tommy approaches the house from the other direction carrying his faithful old knapsack.
‘Welcome home,’ Tommy says, helping Polly out of the van and reaching for the baby. ‘I hope Lucia’s in.’
‘Where have you been?’ Isaac asks.
‘I told you, didn’t I? Decided to stay in a room over the shop for a few days.’
‘Did you? Why?’ Isaac frowns at this idea but Tommy just shrugs and unlocks the front door. They go into the hall, but the only voices that can be heard are coming from the back of the house. They follow the noise and find Lucia and Peter in the garden trying to put together what looks like a new swinging seat. Nigel is running around barking, chasing his tail, and Petula is lying in a patch of sunshine washing her face with a paw.
‘Isaac!’ Lucia yells when she spots Isaac. ‘Hooray, you’ve just come at the right time. And Polly and Reg too. Oh, Tommy … I wasn’t expecting you until later, but I guess you can help us.’
‘I can go back to Sandy’s again if I’m in the way,’ Tommy says, picking up his knapsack from the floor and turning to leave. He’s never felt awkward with Lucia before, but now he finds he can hardly meet her gaze. The phone call to ask if he could come round just for today so they could have a good chat seemed to surprise her, but she’d agreed to his offer of cooking dinner for them both this evening and his bag is full of everything he needs to make the best cottage pie in the world. Now he’s going to have to stretch the ingredients to feed not only his old mate Peter, who surely should have been railroading around Italy by now, but also a veggie version for the others.
Lucia stops what she’s doing and smiles at him at last. ‘Don’t be silly, Tommy, it’s fine. I’m sure one of you will be able to get this thing sorted. Peter’s had it delivered for us from the garden centre this morning. The old one collapsed. I think there’s something wrong with the instructions though.’
‘Hello, Pete, great to see you again. I thought you were setting off on another adventure?’ says Tommy, through gritted teeth.
‘Yes, I’m still going away, but the dates were changed. I’m travelling next week instead. The holiday I picked was under-booked so they’ve combined it with the next one. A tour of Italy by train. I can’t wait! Pompeii again after all these years, Sorrento, Naples and beyond.’
Peter shakes Tommy’s hand warmly and kisses Polly on both cheeks, tweaking Reg’s nose and making him chuckle. He turns to Isaac and envelops him in an unexpected bear hug, then Lucia takes over to do the rounds of hugs and kisses, avoiding getting too close to Tommy, to his disappointment.
‘Lucia has very kindly offered me the spare bedroom and the camp bed until I go away,’ says Peter. ‘My apartment won’t be ready until I get back.’
‘Oh. That’s nice,’ says Tommy. He’s beginning to get a headache, something that almost never happens unless he’s really stressed.
Lucia and Peter abandon the random pieces of seat for now and go into the kitchen, where Polly produces a large tin full to the brim with cherry scones.
‘Isaac made them,’ she says proudly, ‘from my mum’s favourite recipe.’
‘Polly’s taught me lots of things.’ As soon as the words are out of Isaac’s mouth he blushes scarlet but luckily Lucia is busy finding jam, butter and so on.
Tommy watches as Polly puts a hand on Isaac’s shoulder and gives it what looks like an encouraging squeeze.
‘Mum, me and Polly … Polly and I … we …’ Isaac falters.
Polly steps in, squaring her shoulders. ‘Lu, we were wondering if Reg and I could live here on a permanent basis from now on? I could share Isaac’s room and Reggie could move to the box room. He needs his own space now. I’m always accidentally waking him up. We’d pay more rent, of course. What do you think?’
‘Of course you can, love, and Peter can have your old room for now. Are you two … I mean …’
Tommy sighs. All this shilly-shallying is getting on his nerves and his head is pounding now. ‘It looks like they’re an item, Lu,’ he says. ‘Which in my book is excellent news. Congratulations to both of you.’
Isaac’s still quite pink in the face and is clearly uncomfortable that everyone is looking at him fondly. He raises his mug of tea as a distraction but Tommy hasn’t finished speaking
‘I was trying to decide whether to go down to Pengelly for a few weeks and visit my old friend Angelina,’ Tommy says, looking Lucia straight in the eye. ‘And now I’ve made up my mind.’
‘You’re not really going to stay with Angelina, are you?’ asks Lucia. Tommy’s heartened to see that she looks rattled. ‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea. She’s still very attached to you, you know.’
‘I’d go along with that advice, my friend.’ Peter nods. ‘She’s a charming lady, but rather … well … alarming?’
Polly grins. ‘You’d never keep up with the gin intake, Tommy. Don’t go, we’d all miss you.’ Isaac says nothing but leans forward and pats Tommy’s arm.
Tommy laughs, suddenly feeling a weight lifting from his shoulders. Four people he cares about are making the effort to think about his future. It feels like a turning point.
‘Okay, this is my news,’ he says. ‘I’ve put a deposit down on a narrow boat and I’m going to have a permanent mooring next to the Chandlery. It means I can go travelling whenever I like and still live in the village the rest of the time.’
‘Really? That’s great!’ Polly is beaming now and Tommy carries on, encouraged.
‘And I’ve been making some enquiries about joining the local driving volunteers. You know, the social car scheme? They take people to and from hospital appointments and shopping and suchlike? Sandy told me all about it. He’s been part of the gang for years in his spare time.’
‘But you haven’t even got a car, Tommy,’ Lucia says, frowning.
‘Ah, there is that. I wondered if we could maybe buy some sort of vehicle between us, for us all to share? Maybe we’ll go somewhere together again?’
‘Sounds great. I’m not getting rid of the van but it isn’t easy to park when you’re at the supermarket. And I’m getting itchy feet again too. I’m planning another trip myself soon,’ Lucia tells Isaac. ‘So you and Polly and Reg will have the place to yourselves for a little while. Do you think you’ll be okay without us?’
Isaac looks at Polly and they smile. ‘Oh yes,’ Isaac says. ‘I’m pretty sure we can cope with that.’