Sam is on his way back to Salcombe but this time he’s driving. This late in the year he should be able to find a parking place somewhere and it’s good to have his own wheels. He’s pleased that Amy has invited him to Jack’s party. Max passed the message on to Sam, phoning him to check that he was free.
‘It’s going to be much the same as last time,’ Max said. ‘It seems that it might be a bit of a squash at Jack’s so we’re going to the pub again. Same group as last time, plus Judith, of course.’
Sam wonders how Judith will fit into the group. He can’t see her bonding with Charley, somehow. The thought makes him smile just a little bit. Judith: correct, smart even when she’s casual, not very relaxed out of her comfort zone. Charley: so laid-back as to be horizontal, very peace ’n’ love. However, if they’re all at the pub it should go smoothly, everyone on neutral territory, no judgements to be made.
He thinks of that last lunch at the pub and the way Charley had drawn him out and he determines that this will not happen again. She’s put a bit of a spell on him, clouding his vision rather than making it clearer. Each time he decided he would talk to Fliss and Hal about it, during the last few days, the words seemed to stick in his throat. He couldn’t quite find a way to start the conversation and he slightly dreads their expressions of surprise, disappointment. Part of him wonders if it’s simply the commitment that the navy demands that’s beginning to worry him and that the idea of having a vocation is just a way of backing out whilst looking as if he’s doing something rather noble. Certainly Charley was impressed but he’s not certain that Hal and Fliss would see it all in that light.
Driving through the quiet roads in the autumnal landscape, he finds the tension sinking away from him. The bare bones of the countryside are beginning to show through: crisp yellow and brown leaves drifting from the tall, stark trees; the last of the scarlet berries trailing in bare twiggy hedges. Glimpses of the distant moors, barely more than a charcoal scribble against a golden western sky, and, nearer at hand, small dun-coloured fields and round green hills, dotted with sheep that look like small granite boulders.
He drives on, feeling calmer, though he has yet to take a decision. Instead he thinks about the coming weekend: Jack’s party, seeing his friends again. He wonders if Cara has any clearer ideas about her future or if she feels as indecisive as he does.
When he arrives at the house in Buckley Street, Judith is talking on her phone, Max is sitting at the kitchen table staring at the screen of his laptop whilst Cara sits opposite writing in a birthday card. They look round as he ascends the stairs. Max raises a hand, Cara beams at him, Judith glances at him, gives a little nod and moves away, along the passage towards her bedroom, still talking. Oscar’s tail wags as he gets up to greet him.
‘Bit of a crisis in Oxford,’ Max tells him, as if to apologize for Judith’s offhand welcome. ‘Good to see you, Sam. How’s everything? How are Fliss and Hal?’
‘Everything’s fine,’ he answers. ‘People staying, family at the weekend. Usual stuff.’
‘It must be rather wonderful,’ says Cara, ‘to have lived in the same place for all of your life, and your ancestors before you. Such a sense of continuity. Of belonging.’
She sounds wistful and Sam sees Max glance at her.
‘You wouldn’t have wanted to stay in Sussex,’ he says, almost bracingly. ‘It’s not always as idyllic as it sounds.’
‘No,’ she says quickly. ‘No, I wouldn’t. But The Keep seems rather different somehow. Wonderful vibes.’
Judith comes into the kitchen, greets Sam, and begins to talk to Max about some drama with the family in Oxford. Max stands up and they move back towards the bedroom. Cara smiles at Sam.
‘Families, eh?’ she says. ‘Fancy a stroll? Oscar hasn’t been out for a proper walk yet.’
‘I’d like that,’ he answers at once.
He feels slightly de trop with the discussion going on in the passage and he’s aware of a different atmosphere now that Judith’s home. The easy, laid-back feeling has evaporated and there’s a faint tension.
‘Good,’ says Cara. ‘I’ve got to post this card and then we’ll take him round the creek and up to the Point. We don’t want to bother with cars, do we?’
She calls to Max and Judith, telling them her intentions, and she and Sam go downstairs, followed by Oscar. Sam’s wondering whether to invite Cara to The Keep but can’t decide if it looks like he’s assuming that she feels as he does. On previous occasions when he visits, Max usually takes him sailing and to the pub. He doesn’t really know Judith very well and it might be wrong to assume that Cara doesn’t get on well with her sister-in-law, although she’s hinted once or twice that it’s not an easy relationship. Better wait to see how the weekend goes. He follows her out, clips on Oscar’s lead, and they set off together.
Judith hears the door close behind them and she moves back into the kitchen. This is the perfect moment to tell Max her new plan. A new series of problems in Oxford, Freya’s mother needing to get back to her work and her own responsibilities: the timing is right.
‘There always seems to be so much drama going on,’ Max is saying, impatiently. ‘I can’t see why Paul being on a lecture tour is such a big deal. I used to go away to sea and leave you coping with babies and moving house.’
‘I wasn’t working,’ Judith reminds him. ‘We moved around too much for me to keep a job. But I’ve been thinking, Max. It would be good to be more involved with the children. I’m not just talking about childcare, I’m talking about spending time with the whole family. I’m thinking we should sell up here and move to Oxford.’
He is staring at her in amazement. She can see dismay behind the shock and she stiffens herself as if she is preparing for battle.
‘Are you serious?’ he asks. ‘I thought you were happy here.’
‘We have been,’ she assures him quickly. ‘But things move on. I want to see my grandchildren growing up. Staying with them is going to be even more difficult now, space-wise, and Oscar is always a problem. I know it’s lovely when they come here but that doesn’t happen very often, does it?’
Max still seems knocked sideways by her suggestion. She can see him calculating all that he would miss, here in Salcombe, and she cunningly makes her next move.
‘I had another idea, too. Cara seems to be settling in so well here, making friends, and she clearly loves the area. Why shouldn’t she buy this house? Then she’d be in a lovely community and you could come down and stay with her and go sailing and see all your friends.’
Quite deliberately she doesn’t say ‘we’. She knows perfectly well that Max and Cara enjoy each other’s company and she’s trying to make it more attractive to him.
‘We can all come down,’ she adds quickly. ‘It would still be a family house. And Cara can afford it. I checked on Zoopla. She got a small fortune for the house in Fulham.’
Max begins to laugh, but not in an amused way.
‘You never cease to amaze me, Judith,’ he says. ‘So how long have you been planning this for us all?’
‘I told you. The idea came to me when I got back, although I was thinking about it a bit when I was in Oxford. I love it there. You know I do. It’s so central for everything and it would cut out all this awful travelling when we want to see the children. That won’t get easier as we get older, you know. I think it solves a lot of problems in one go. Why are you frowning?’
He shakes his head. ‘I think it’s the casual way that you decide Cara’s future for her. We don’t actually know that she wants to be in Salcombe. She came here to be with us.’
‘To be with you,’ Judith corrects him sharply. ‘Be honest. She has to stand on her own two feet, Max, to build a whole new life, and this could be perfect for her. She loves it here. It means you could keep the boat, go sailing with your friends, and spend time with Cara, and the children could come to stay with her. Try to see it clearly.’
‘How ruthless you are,’ he marvels, but his eyes are cold.
‘No, I’m just realistic,’ she answers. ‘You like Oxford, you love to spend time with the children, it seems a very good solution to several problems.’
Max sits down at the table. She knows that he is trying to marshal all kinds of arguments against her plan but is unable to think of anything really plausible, apart from the fact that he wants to remain in Salcombe. She also knows that it’s in his nature to weigh up both sides and see things rationally. She’s counting on this and on his loyalty. Once Cara and Sam come back it will be difficult for him to be as outspoken as he might be if they were alone. She’s factored this in and hopes it will count on her side.
‘If you’re totally committed to spending the rest of your life here,’ she says lightly, ‘then that’s that, I suppose we’ll stay. But do at least consider it. We’ll ask Cara what she thinks when she comes back.’
He looks up at her, almost alarmed. ‘You’re going to tell her?’
She stares back at him as if puzzled by his question. ‘Of course. Why not? Cara’s part of the equation. We could sell the house, anyway, but I think we’d be doing her a favour as well as saving money on fees and things. Want a cup of tea?’
He nods and she turns away to fill the kettle. Some instinct tells her that the first round is to her.
Max listens to the sound of the tea-making, his thoughts fluttering in his head like moths around a lamp. His first reaction is dismay. Ever since they bought the house back in the eighties, when the submarine was running out of Devonport, he’s loved being in Salcombe. They never spent very long here – Judith preferred to move with him, letting out the house when they went to Washington and Naples – but it was here to return to, waiting for the time when they could retire and live here permanently.
If he’s honest, he knows that Judith hasn’t been quite so happy in Salcombe as he has since he retired, but then Judith has very specific requirements and he’s not certain that he knows where the perfect home for her might be. Nevertheless, it’s a very big step to take and he’s not sure that he’s ready for it. And as for suggesting that Cara should buy the house! Max gives a little snort of disbelief at Judith’s presumption. Why should Cara, after just a few weeks here, suddenly agree to make it her home, whilst he and Judith disappear away to Oxford? He had a twinge of temptation at the thought of trips down to see her, to be able to keep his boat and go sailing, to go to the pub and the Island Cruising Club, which would definitely be a plus, but the whole prospect dismays him. To pull up their roots and move to a place where they know very few people fills him with a kind of panic. Slowly he tries to see this panic clearly. He loves his family, loves to spend time with them, but he realizes that he needs his friends, too. The camaraderie of the navy has meant a great deal to him. He misses it. He finds it hard that he no longer has a specific role, a job that defines him. This sense of belonging, of being viable, has been replaced in part with his cronies at the sailing club and people like Jack Hannaford and a few others: mates down at the pub. He tries to imagine a life where there is no relief from Judith’s company and feels another shiver of panic, and an even stronger sense of guilt. Judith has been a loyal, capable wife and she’s devoted to Chris and Paul, but he worries that she is beginning to rely too much on her grandchildren as the focus of her life; to want too much influence in their lives. He tries, sometimes, tactfully to remind her how she resented her own mother’s interference when their boys were small but she can’t see the connection.
Judith puts the mug of tea down in front of him and he glances up at her, smiling his thanks. His smile isn’t particularly convincing and she pats his shoulder as if he is a recalcitrant child.
‘If you can just give yourself a chance to think about it clearly,’ she says, ‘you’ll see that it could be the best of both worlds.’
She puts her mug next to his and sits down beside him, pulling his laptop towards her, opening it. He watches her, puzzled, as she taps away.
‘This is just so as to give you some idea of what we could afford,’ she tells him, ‘assuming we decide to go for it. Now then …’
He looks at her, wondering if he’s ever truly known her, feeling the indomitable strength of her will.
‘One thing, though,’ he says, hitching his chair so that he can see the screen. ‘I’d rather you don’t mention this to Cara until after the party tomorrow night. I don’t want everyone talking about this before we’ve had enough time to discuss it properly.’
He can see Judith considering this, seeing the wisdom of it whilst believing that she’s won a point because he hasn’t rejected it out of hand. She nods, starts to show him properties. Max picks up his mug and begins to drink his tea, wondering how Cara and Sam will react to this suggestion, trying to prepare himself for the battle ahead.