Freddie dashed outside, to join them. ‘Come in and see what I had for Christmas, there’s too much to bring out here, and,’ he carried on excitedly, ‘you said you’d help me with my car, Julius. You’ll like it too, Luke.’ He went on to describe it.
‘Hang on a minute, Freddie,’ Julius said, laughing. ‘Luke and I have come up to see what needs to be done for a wedding we’re having here. We have an appointment with Nell and Tessa, they’ve come in especially today and it’s bad manners to keep them waiting, but we’ll pop in after to sort out his car, if that’s OK.’ He smiled at Anna, who was still clutching Ozzie who was struggling to escape. ‘I did promise.’
His eyes drifted over to the huge lump of metal that Grania had arrived in and he turned away, seemingly sunk in thought.
‘If you have time, Julius, that would be wonderful, thank you,’ Anna called after him before going back inside with Ozzie.
Grania’s mobile rang and she went into the kitchen to answer it. Anna, guessing it was James, shut the door to give her some privacy.
She told Freddie he could play outside, but not to bother Julius and Luke if they were busy and, leaving the front door on the latch, she returned Ozzie to his home.
After a while Freddie came rushing back inside to fetch his car. ‘Julius is ready now to help me, and Luke said he’d had a car like mine once and he’s going to show me how it works,’ he exclaimed excitedly, running into the living room in his muddy boots, snatching up his car and running out again.
The door to the kitchen was still shut, so Anna put on her coat and went outside. Julius had taken Freddie’s car from its box and was putting in some batteries, while Luke made a sort of track on the ground out of bits of twigs and small stones.
Julius looked up as she approached them. ‘Haven’t seen one of these for ages,’ he said, ‘but you must be careful, Freddie, not to get it wet, or go into any puddles, though I can’t see any round here just now, but there will be if it rains again.’
Luke seemed almost as excited as Freddie and took the now assembled car from Julius and showed Freddie how it worked, and it shot off down the track and Freddie laughed and jumped about and he and Luke raced it up and down together.
Julius watched them, ‘We’re all children at heart. So,’ he looked over towards the Jeep. ‘You have a visitor?’
‘Yes, an old friend, come to visit for a few days,’ she said, wondering how long Grania would stay and if James would persuade her to return at once.
Julius stayed silent, his hands thrust in his pockets vaguely watching Freddie and Luke chasing the car. He said, ‘So you and Freddie will stay here the whole month? If you need to leave earlier, let me know, won’t you, and I’ll try and get a rota together now everyone is back.’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘No, it’s quite decided. You can see how much Freddie loves it here, all the fresh air and things going on.’
‘Good, I just wondered if you were missing your… friends,’ he said uncertainly, glancing again at the Jeep.
‘I’m enjoying it here, I’ve met lovely people like Mattie and Lucy.’ She would have said and you, Simon and Luke, but she didn’t.
‘Good, to hear it.’ He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes and he called for Luke, as there were other things to do.
The door to the flat opened and Grania came out and took in the scene: two attractive men playing with Freddie. There was rather an annoying smile playing on her mouth. ‘Hi,’ she said, ‘I’m Grania, an old friend of Anna’s and one of Freddie’s godmothers.’
Luke and Julius nodded at her. Julius gave her a wonderful smile, which made Grania blush and look delighted.
‘I’m heading back now,’ she turned to Anna. ‘Sorry, I rather flounced out and now James has sent his girls back to their mother, told them he wouldn’t tolerate any rudeness from them. So the least I can do is to go back.’
‘S’pose so, well lovely to have a glimpse of you,’ Anna said, ‘you must take back your hamper.’
‘No, course not, keep it, James and I won’t have time to eat it.’ She winked.
‘Where have you got to get back to?’ Julius asked.
‘Near Peterborough, not too far,’ she said.
‘Well, it was nice to meet you briefly and we’d best be getting on ourselves. Luke, come along, we’ve got lots to do,’ Julius said cheerfully, smiling at Anna. ‘See you soon, Anna. We’ll be working quite often up here now, getting things ready for the wedding after the New Year.’
‘Oh, great,’ Freddie said, clutching his car to him. ‘Can I help?’
‘I expect we can find you things to do,’ Luke said before rather reluctantly following Julius to their vehicles.
‘I think it’s a good thing I’m leaving,’ Grania said, watching the two men drive away.
‘Perhaps it is,’ Anna said, suddenly feeling that she wanted to keep their time here to herself and not have her girlfriends blundering in trying to match-make.