The Homecoming

by Rosie Howard

  ‘I’m not deaf, woman,’ said Patrick. ‘I’m right here.’

  ‘I’ve got nothing to hide from you,’ said Helen. ‘I just don’t want you getting ill, that’s all.’

  ‘You might have me well and truly on the scrapheap by this time tomorrow,’ said Patrick gloomily. ‘I’ll be no good to anyone with no pub, no livelihood and no roof over my head. Never mind “ill”, I might as well be dead.’

  ‘Don’t you dare say things like that,’ said Helen crossly. ‘Where would that leave me?’

  ‘Ah, young love,’ said Zach, smiling at Maddy. ‘Bless ’em, eh?’

  It was a relief to get back to Serena to help with packing the orders.

  ‘It’s not looking good,’ Maddy commented to Serena, checking out the whiteboard on the way into the kitchen. The line showing the sales they had to meet and the sales they had so far were still a long way apart.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Serena, ‘it could be worse … The deadline for first class post is tomorrow – gosh, less than a week ’til Christmas! – but there’s always Special Delivery. Makes a hole in our profits if we resort to that … Also, I think I rather overestimated the amount of packaging, though.’

  ‘You’re not kidding,’ said Maddy, surveying the scene. Every flat surface, including the floor, was covered in boxes of stock, rolls of brown paper, stacks of cardboard boxes and clouds of woodshavings.

  Serena was battling with parcel tape and address labels, ticking off on a printed list once a parcel had been packed and despatched.

  ‘How many more to do?’ asked Maddy.

  ‘This many,’ said Serena, handing Maddy a dauntingly long list.

  ‘It may not be enough to dig us out of a hole but, from a packing point of view, it actually seems like quite a lot,’ said Maddy, with a sigh. It was clearly going to be a long night. ‘Any chance the team could give us a hand?’

  ‘I don’t like to distract them. I had a word with Flora about it, but they’re working so hard to produce stock. We need samples for the exhibition too, remember.’

  Maddy did. Straight after the property auction tomorrow she and Serena were going to have to start getting ready. It was going to be an exhausting couple of days.

  ‘Right then, where do you want me?’ she said, squaring her shoulders.

  ‘Making tea,’ said Serena. ‘I’m parched.’

  But before Maddy could lift the kettle onto the stove, the kitchen door burst open with a crash. Giles ran in looking grim-faced.

  ‘Phone,’ he barked, pointing to the work surface.

  ‘What is it, darling?’ said Serena, frightened, as she reached behind her and handed him the handset, but Giles didn’t reply, just jabbing the emergency number and then clamping it to his ear.

  ‘I need an ambulance,’ he said. ‘One casualty. Head injury. Probably other injuries too. It looks serious.’

  As he was talking, he was grabbing Serena by the arm and lifting her out of her chair. ‘You need to come with me,’ he said to her before returning to his call. ‘It’s Josh.’

  Maddy followed them both out of the kitchen door with a stomach-churning sense of foreboding.

  Stopping dead, she clapped her hands to her face in horror.

  ‘Talk to him,’ Giles was saying to Serena as he led her towards Josh, who was lying, deathly still, on his back, underneath the oak tree at the top of the horses’ field. He was white, like a corpse.

  Serena ran over on unsteady legs and fell to her knees beside him and grabbed his hand in hers, using the other to stroke his face.

  ‘Josh? Josh …’ she was saying, over and over, tears running down her face.

  Giles, meanwhile, was still on the phone. ‘He’s eleven. Yes, usually. No, he’s not been conscious at all …’

  At last, he spoke to Serena again. ‘They’re sending a helicopter. It’s the quickest way, and they can land right here.’

  Serena let out a wail, but Giles intervened. ‘You need to stop that,’ he said. ‘You need to talk to him. Come on, darling, reassure him. He may be unconscious but he might be able to hear and he doesn’t want to hear this.’

  Serena looked at her husband and rubbed her eyes as if she was seeing him for the first time. ‘Of course,’ she said, taking a deep breath. ‘Quite right.’

  Maddy suddenly noticed Harry, standing, rooted to the spot, a few yards away. He was pure white too. Even his lips. She hurried over to him and put her arm around his shoulder.

  ‘Let’s go inside, my lovely,’ she said.

  He seemed barely aware that Maddy was there, but he allowed her to lead him away. Giles briefly nodded his approval. ‘I’ll come and speak to you in a minute,’ he said, before returning to his call where he was giving coordinates for the helicopter to land in the nearest safe location, which – he was persuading them – was the horse field just adjacent to the farmhouse.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  ‘He fell,’ said Harry faintly, as Maddy sat him at the kitchen table and drew up a chair next to him.

  ‘Out of the tree?’

  Harry nodded. ‘He went really high. He always does. Higher than me. And then, when he was coming down, he slipped. First I thought he was going to be alright but then he fell some more … and then he fell all the way down to the ground. And then he didn’t move. He didn’t get up and I went over and he was …’

  Harry’s eyes were blank as he relived what he had seen. ‘I thought he was dead,’ he blurted.

  God help him, thought Maddy. What if he truly had witnessed his own brother’s death?

  She gathered him into a hug, rubbing him to warm him, but he barely responded.

  ‘Look,’ she said, ‘Josh’s alive. He’s not dead but,’ she chose her words carefully, ‘he is hurt. He needs to go to hospital so they can look after him and make him better. Accidents like this happen all the time. People do fall out of trees. We have to not worry …’

  Just then, Giles came into the kitchen, ruffling Harry’s hair reassuringly as he met Maddy’s eye over his head. His expression was grim.

  ‘They’re airlifting him straight to the trauma centre in London. It’s his best chance. Better than the local hospital and quicker too, if they fly him.’

  Maddy nodded.

  ‘I need to drive Serena up there by car. No room in the helicopter. Okay if we just go?’

  ‘Of course,’ she said, getting up and giving him a quick, intense hug.

  Harry and Maddy watched the helicopter take off from the horse field and wheel in the direction of London.

  ‘A trip in a helicopter, eh?’ said Maddy. ‘He’ll be gutted to have missed it.’

  ‘He can always do it again when he’s better,’ said Harry. ‘Both of us, though, not just him.’

  ‘Of course both of you,’ she said, smiling at the tiny hint of sibling jealousy.

  ‘Right,’ she said, when the noise of the helicopter had died away completely. ‘Come on, we’ve got work to do for Mum.’

  The parcel packing was perfect for keeping Harry busy and distracted. Maddy kept an eye on the time and at about seven-thirty she made him beans on toast with ice cream to follow. Sensing weakness, he asked for Coke but she made him settle for lemonade instead, which she was sure Serena would think was nearly as bad.

  The kitchen clock ticked away the minutes and then the hours, still with no news of Josh. She kept Harry chatting about school, riding and the latest computer games. He was a sweet boy, she discovered, and she felt he was enjoying having her undivided attention. She suspected he got to say less than he wanted to with his confident older brother around.

  Maddy had her phone on the table next to her and was constantly checking for a text, although she would hardly have missed the alert. When it did sound, she grabbed the phone with trepidation but was relieved when she saw it was from Ben, commiserating on the Development Committee result. It felt like something that happened days ago. She yearned to text or call him back, to tell him the news and have him hurry to he
r side, but – remembering his and Jonno’s mysterious apparent interest in the pub’s fortunes, and his refusal to explain more – she thought perhaps she wouldn’t. Not until the auction was over. Which, she realised with a start, was tomorrow morning. What if she was still looking after Harry? She wasn’t going to bother Giles and Serena with childcare problems.

  ‘Come on, you,’ she said to Harry, who was now fiddling with the parcel tape gun. ‘You’ve done a fantastic job! Look, we’re all done,’ she said.

  There was a mountain of carefully stacked parcels awaiting courier collection by the door and the boxes on the other side of the kitchen, with the stock in, were now seriously depleted.

  ‘Time for bed, I should have thought,’ she went on, pointing at the clock.

  Harry stood up floppily and went to slouch out of the room and then he stopped. ‘You won’t leave me on my own, will you?’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said brightly, although she hadn’t thought what she was going to do. ‘Will you show me your room?’

  Harry and Josh’s room was large and shambolic, with a pair of single beds, one against each wall and a daunting mess of what appeared to be Lego, socks, railway tracks and Meccano in a pile between them.

  ‘Mummy wants us to clear this up,’ he said apologetically, ‘but Josh won’t help me, and I don’t want to do it on my own.’

  Suddenly his face screwed up and went red. Maddy reached for him and pulled him towards her. At first he resisted and then he pushed his head fiercely into her tummy and threw his arms around her, squeezing her surprisingly tightly for such a little boy. She waited. At first he held his breath, but then – after a few seconds – he began to sob, wrenchingly and painfully. She held him until his grip loosened and the sobs had resolved into occasional hiccups.

  Maddy steered him onto what she guessed was his bed and sat down next to him. He rubbed away the snot and tears with his forearm, slumping exhausted against her. There was a floppy brown dog on his pillow, which he picked up in both hands, clutching it to his chest.

  ‘What’s his name?’

  ‘“Doggy”. Josh says I’m too old for him now.’

  ‘I don’t think you are,’ said Maddy. ‘I’ve still got my teddies and I’m very old.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘“Really” have I still got my teddies, or “really” am I very old?’

  ‘Teddies,’ said Harry, clearly feeling the other was obvious.

  ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘One teddy in particular. He’s called “Teddy”, oddly enough.’

  Harry thought for a bit.

  ‘Don’t tell Josh I cried,’ he said. ‘He’ll call me a baby.’

  ‘I won’t,’ she said. ‘And you’re not a baby. You’re really brave.’

  By the time Maddy had got him into pyjamas, washed and into bed it was nearly eleven o’clock. Not wanting to leave him alone, she lay down on Josh’s bed, with her phone in her hand, intending to get up when she was sure he was sleeping.

  Within minutes, reassured that he was soundly asleep, she tiptoed downstairs and opened her laptop. She had an email to write and she needed to write it and send it before she chickened out.

  ‘Dear Simon …’ it began, and – in it – she tried to explain her innermost thoughts: her absolute certainty that – however, she lived her life, wherever, and with whoever – she knew she would not be doing the right thing in taking up his offer of partnership in the business. Like their relationship, she tried to explain, habit, convenience and coincidence were not enough. She was certain he would find better people to work with by striving longer and compromising less.

  It was still several days to the bid for the contract. She had prepared the presentation, which she attached to the email, wishing him well and saying she looked forward to hearing how it went. She pressed ‘send’ and then, despite the acute stresses of the day and her concern as to what the next day held, she lay down, in her clothes, on Josh’s bed, and fell immediately fast asleep.

  When the text signal came in she woke instantly. Sitting up, she looked over at Harry. In the light from the hallway, she could see he was fast asleep, mouth open, head back and his Doggy tucked tightly under his chin.

  She stole out and closed the door quietly. It was fourteen minutes past two in the morning and there was a new text from Serena, a brief message asking her to call, which she did with trembling fingers. After a single ring, she heard – not Serena – but Giles.

  ‘Maddy?’ he said curtly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Look, Maddy, Serena and I can’t thank you enough … How is everything at your end?’

  ‘Harry’s fine. Fed and fast asleep, but how are you all?’

  ‘Josh’s in surgery.’

  Her heart sank.

  ‘Why?’ she said faintly.

  ‘They need to relieve the pressure in his skull. It’s touch and go for the next twenty-four hours, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Has he woken up?’

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘but they’ve got him in a drug-induced coma now, anyhow. He’s on a respirator. We won’t know anything until they wake him up. That’ll be at some point in the next day or two, if all goes well. Poor chap’s broken his arm, it turns out, so they’ve set that too, although obviously it’s the least of his troubles.’

  ‘Serena?’ asked Maddy. ‘Can I speak to her?’

  Giles hesitated. ‘The poor old girl’s in a bit of a state at the moment,’ he explained. ‘I’ll get her to call you when she’s a bit more together …’

  Tears sprang to Maddy’s eyes. ‘Give her my love, won’t you?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Giles. ‘Now listen, we need to talk logistics here. How are you placed for looking after Harry? I’m grateful you’re there for him tonight but what about tomorrow?’

  ‘Erm, it’s fine,’ she said, thinking guiltily of the pub sale. ‘Of course I’ll be with him if it helps.’

  ‘I know you’ve got the property auction,’ said Giles, cutting across her, ‘so I’ve put a message in to Flora. She’s hopefully going to relieve you at breakfast time and make sure Harry gets off to his piano lesson. He goes on the bus into Havenbury for it luckily. He’s done it before – part of Serena’s training to make them independent. Best to keep things normal. With luck, Serena or I will be back with you by the afternoon. How does that sound?’

  Weird, thought Maddy. She suspected that, even if Josh recovered, nothing would ever be the same again, not for Giles and Serena anyhow, their marriage changed irrevocably into a new relationship forged – or perhaps broken – on the anvil of terror that parents share when their child comes to harm.

  ‘Fine,’ she said.

  After her brief nap she didn’t sleep at all, mainly because she was worrying about Josh and wondering about Simon’s reaction to her email. She was wearily making herself a cup of tea at around seven in the morning when Flora burst in.

  ‘God, Mads,’ she exclaimed. ‘This is just awful. How is he?’

  She told Flora what she knew and impressed on her the need to keep to Harry’s routine.

  ‘God, yeah, absolutely,’ she said, staring into space. ‘Bloody awful. Poor Serena.’

  Maddy placed a large, strong cup of tea in her friend’s hand and offered sugar, which Flora spooned in copiously.

  ‘Are you alright to get Harry up and off to school?’ she said. ‘I really need to go and get myself cleaned up and dressed.’

  Flora nodded but didn’t move.

  Maddy had to assume the nod was sufficient, so she left.

  The atmosphere in the function room of one of the larger town hotels was electric.

  There was a podium with a lectern branded prominently by the auction house hosting the morning’s event. There were several pages of lots to be auctioned. The Havenbury Arms was one of the first.

  Maddy looked around the room from her vantage point at the back. There was a nervous-looking couple with a very young baby and several older retired couples who looked as if they spent
much of their lives on cruises and had presumably turned up to add to the property portfolios that funded them. She could see Patrick and Helen at the front of the room. Patrick, clutching a folder of paperwork, was pacing like a lion and Helen was trying to get him to sit down.

  Just as she was resolving to join them, the door beside her opened and Jonno came in, followed by Ben.

  She turned away. Whatever gave between her and Ben – his apparent hatred of her mother, his mysterious pact with Jonno – she realised suddenly the last thing she wanted to do was tackle it now.

  Ben had other ideas.

  ‘Maddy,’ he said, pulling her into a hug. Feeling his strength and warmth, her knees went weak and her eyes filled.

  ‘I heard about Josh,’ he said, into her ear. ‘Are you alright? Have you spoken to Serena today?’ He released her and looked down into her face.

  Maddy ducked her head to hide her sudden tears. ‘Yeah, yeah,’ she said. ‘I’m fine. It was awful, though … I talked to Giles last night, not Serena. We don’t know anything yet.’

  ‘I might go up there after this,’ he said. ‘Do you want to come?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Maddy, with relief, partly because she wanted to see how Serena was, partly because she loved the idea of spending a couple of hours in the car with Ben, drawing strength from him and sharing the horrors of the previous few hours with him. ‘I’d love to come. Let’s do that.’

  ‘Excellent,’ said Ben. ‘Right, let’s get this over with eh, Jonno?’

  He and Jonno then took up their places near the back and Maddy, reluctantly, went to the front to join Patrick and Helen.

  ‘Ready?’ she said, as she sat down beside them.

  ‘As we’ll ever be,’ said Patrick, patting his folder of paperwork and waving his auction paddle. ‘We can go to three hundred and twenty-three thousand – a damned fair price. It’s not worth more.’

  ‘Not as a pub, it’s not,’ said Helen, giving him a frustrated look. ‘But if that property developer is here …’