After breakfast the following morning, feeling in need of fresh air, Anna and Freddie went down to the village.
It was cold, though there was a softening in the cloud and a pale gleam of the sun. Freddie ran down the hill from the castle zigzagging across the road, though Anna warned him to take care in case a car came up the hill, which, indeed, two did – Simon followed by Luke in their Land Rovers. They both stopped when they saw Anna and Freddie.
Simon wound down his window. ‘How are you both?’ he asked cheerfully.
‘We’re fine, thanks. We felt in need of a walk, so we’re going down to the village to see what’s going on.’
‘There’s a lot of action down there today, builders and cleaners and all, to see what can be done to get things back to normal as soon as possible.’ Luke had got out of his Land Rover and was play boxing with Freddie. ‘We’re just going up to the castle to help people move out. You know, the insurers said they could only stay until after Christmas.’
‘Oh, I’d forgotten,’ she turned as if to go back. ‘Perhaps Mattie needs help packing up. I know she’s moving into Lucy and Colin’s granny annexe,’ Anna said, ‘but have the others found somewhere to go?’
‘They’ve all got somewhere now Christmas is over and don’t worry we’ll help Mattie. Enjoy your walk.’ He glanced over at Freddie, smiling as he saw him wrestling with Luke.
‘We both felt in need of some exercise,’ Anna said, ‘just hope it’s not going to rain again.’
‘I hope nothing more happens to spoil your stay here, Anna. We must get on; they’ll be waiting for us in the castle. Let’s go, Luke. Bye, Freddie,’ Simon said and waved to him. ‘Take care, Anna,’ he said softly, the warmth in his eyes lifting her spirits even after he’d driven off.
‘Bye, Freddie,’ Luke got back into his Land Rover and followed Simon up the hill.
Freddie watched them go. ‘Mum, I like living in a castle.’
‘Remember we are only here for a few weeks. It’s Philly and Sidney’s home, not ours,’ she reminded him gently.
‘Oh, I forgot, they live there.’ With that, he ran down the road, arms out like an aeroplane, leaving Anna to her thoughts. Freddie was blossoming here, and it was not only from running free in the country air. He’d bonded so well with Luke, Simon and Julius, which would surely make him long even more for a Dad of his own. Perhaps they should leave now before he got even closer to them, for how bleak it would be to return home and leave them all behind.
When Anna and Freddie reached the village, the floodwater had mostly gone from the main street that ran through it, but it had left behind silt, mud and other bits and pieces deposited by the water. The doors of the shops and some cottages were open to air them and to try and get rid of the stench the water had left behind.
There was plenty of activity; builders assessing the damage, electricians making buildings safe and all sorts of items ruined by the water being dragged out and dumped in skips to be taken away.
Marcus was darting about with a wheelbarrow, picking up things here and there.
Anna called to him, ‘Hello, Marcus, you seem busy.’
‘Yes, if these dry out, they might work,’ he said, pointing at the objects he’d placed in his barrow. ‘People are too tired to go through everything, so I can help them. I’ll store them in our garage; it’s not been flooded.’
‘Good idea,’ Anna said, and Freddie looked into the wheelbarrow with interest and would have picked up some things himself if Anna hadn’t stopped him. ‘It’s filthy water, sewers and all,’ she said, ‘you might get ill touching them. Marcus has gloves on,’ she added, before saying goodbye to Marcus and taking Freddie’s hand to carry on.
‘We never got to buy sweets,’ Freddie stopped in front of the sweetshop. The doors were open, as with the other buildings, and inside he could see that the shelves were empty – all the glass jars of sweets gone.
The flooring had buckled and it was being pulled out, thrown on the pavement. A pale-faced woman, her hair plaited and wound round her head, was supervising. Noticing Freddie looking on, she said, ‘It’s all right I’ve put the sweets away out of the wet. I hope to open again soon, and then I’ll give you some for free. Come back then.’
‘I will, thanks,’ he said, delighted.
The bookshop was the saddest sight: mounds of sodden books were piling up in a skip. The shop had been lined with bookshelves and there’d been a couple of tables in the body of the shop, the books on them were safe and so were the ones on the higher shelves, it was the lower shelves and the children’s corner that had been destroyed.
Freddie could not believe such devastation and when he saw Julius coming out with a pile of ruined books to toss in the skip, he said, ‘Are there any books left? Can they get dry?’
As Julius straightened, Anna took in the dark shadows under his eyes. His suntan fast fading, he looked exhausted. He pushed back a lock of hair that fell over his face, leaving a smudge of blue dye from a damp book on his forehead. Anna felt a ridiculous urge to wipe it away. Hastily she shoved her hands in her pockets.
‘Not these books, Freddie, the paper is far too wet; the pages just come to bits when we touch them. But fortunately there are lots on the higher shelves that were saved. Anna, hello.’ He smiled at her. ‘I hope all’s well with you, and Grania got home safely; she didn’t stay long.’
‘No, she’d just got married again and acquired two difficult stepdaughters,’ she explained, quietly. ‘And she was missing having her own children for Christmas; they were with their father.’
‘These things can be tricky,’ he said. ‘Adults can hopefully work things out between them but it’s a different thing altogether if children are involved.’
‘Of course.’ For some reason, his words made her feel inexplicably sad. Freddie’s wish for a dad had not taken into account that there may be other children, resentful, damaged children, in the equation too.
‘There’s so much to do to get things straight again,’ Julius said, ‘but we’ll get there eventually. It looks terrible, but in fact the flood wasn’t as bad as they had up north, with cars and such being washed away.’
‘It’s bad enough though,’ she said. ‘You’ll let me know if there is anything I can do to help, won’t you?’
‘I will.’ His eyes lingered on hers a moment, before glancing away. Then he said in a more upbeat way, ‘We’ve got New Year coming up and however bad things are no one will let that pass without a celebration’
‘Sounds great.’
Freddie, who’d been wandering around watching the clear up, came back to join them. ‘How’s Felix, is he here?’ he asked Julius.
‘No, he’ll get in the way, and the water’s contaminated and unlike you he can’t wear boots, so he might get something nasty on his paws. He’ll be up at the castle soon, we’ve got to get things ready for the wedding,’ Julius said. ‘Now I must sort out all these poor books, see you soon.’ He smiled at them before going back into the shop knee-deep in soggy paper to finish the job of throwing away the ruined books.
For a moment Anna felt bereft, she really was behaving most strangely, perhaps it would be better, all round, to return sooner to London after all, get back to the life they knew.