A Dad of His Own Read online

  ‘That’s a great idea and it’s a lovely setting, a sort of secret garden; I’d never guess it was here. That path must go down behind us and I never saw it,’ Anna said.

  ‘Yes, you wouldn’t know unless you walked behind the castle on that side,’ Simon said.

  ‘Freddie would love to see this,’ Anna looked round the small garden. There were bright berries among the dormant plants and trees.

  Simon stood beside her, pointing out some landmarks and then the path sloping down in front of them. ‘I don’t think you’ll be disturbed with people going up and down. I suspect most of them will stay inside as they are so exhausted by all this and it’s so cold and damp outside.’

  ‘Don’t worry about us, we will be fine.’ Anna thought of Daisy’s remark about how easy and uneventful it would be to stay here enjoying the country in a castle in a pretty village. ‘I wonder what Philly and Sidney will make of this,’ she said.

  ‘There’s no need to let them know until they get back as it will ruin their time out there. They really need this break,’ Marian said with feeling. ‘I know they’ve arrived safely, they sent me a text. I’ve told them to switch off and enjoy themselves and not worry about anything here as it’s all being looked after until their return.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Simon said, ‘whatever can they do from Boston? There’s no need to worry them and make them feel they should come back early, it’s not as if the castle is floating away.’ He smiled wryly.

  It was the afternoon now and soon it would be dark. With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, Anna realised Simon and Marian were in a hurry to get everyone settled.

  Marian thought they could produce about five keys to the outside door in the tilting yards. There would be some in the offices of Tessa and Nell and she thought there was one in Philly and Sidney’s flat, which they’d leave there in case of emergency.

  ‘I think we ought to quickly go down to the lower floor by the kitchen and check out what rooms they can use there,’ Marian said.

  ‘I think it best if we ask them to use the stairs in the tower,’ Simon said, ‘of course we can trust them all, but we’d better suggest they don’t go into the long gallery at all.’

  ‘Good thinking.’ Marian opened a small door into a tower at the start of the upper gallery and Anna saw a stone staircase curling round the inside of it.

  ‘Hope you don’t get dizzy,’ Simon joked as he led the way down, round and round the tower until Anna did feel a little strange. She worried for Mattie, wondering if she’d manage to go up and down these winding stairs without much to hold on to. She didn’t mention it, what else could be done in such destructive circumstances?

  They arrived on the lower ground floor, where it was darker, gloomier than the spacious rooms upstairs. The grey stone walls were bare and various openings yawned from them. Anna saw a pile of logs in one and various boxes arranged on shelves, along with all the china and cutlery for the weddings and such.

  ‘At the end there are the kitchens and various rooms the old staff used in the days when the place was full of servants,’ Simon said. ‘The rich family lived upstairs and the staff lived down here, though some of the rooms changed when the last of the family lived here and they didn’t have such a huge staff.’

  Simon had switched into control mode now, deciding which rooms could be used by the people staying here, using the kitchens and dining room for the Christmas lunch. He opened the door to a large, low-ceilinged room with a vast oak table and chairs round it.

  ‘There’s plenty of room for us all to eat here and we can mill about in the billiard room as well.’ He went back into the passage and opened another door, where there was a green baize billiard table with a stack of cues on one side and a fireplace with a fireguard round it.

  ‘Yes, all this will more than do us, I think there’s more room than in the Partridge,’ Marian said.

  ‘I’ll get hold of Victor.’

  Simon took out his mobile and rang the Partridge to discuss the logistics around cooking the village Christmas lunch at the castle. Meanwhile, Marian called in some of her staff to get the bedrooms ready for the people with nowhere else to go.

  Simon finished his conversation and told them that Victor, and Jade his wife, were coming up to the castle now to make sure it was feasible to cook the Christmas lunch there. While he was waiting for them, he rang various numbers to try to sort out the insurance. With everyone tied up, Anna felt she’d leave them to it, and decided to go and see where else she could be of help.

  ‘Simon, I’ll go back to join Luke in the village as I have to collect Freddie soon enough, thanks for letting me see inside the castle, and let me know if there’s anything I can do.’ She touched his arm as she left, wishing she could be more help to him.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Simon said, waiting for someone to answer his phone call, his eyes tender as they looked at her, making her heart race. ‘You and Freddie came here for a lovely, country Christmas and instead it’s turned into a tragedy.’

  ‘It’s hardly your fault, and we’re not affected, it’s those poor people like Mattie I’m so sorry for.’ Anna felt drawn to him and had a sudden urge to take him in her arms and hold him close. She was going mad and she must leave at once. ‘Let me know if there is anything else I can do.’ Her voice came out quite harshly and she turned and fled down the long gloomy passage to the stairs and outside door.

  Once in the village she headed straight for the church hall. Quite a few people had left, but Mattie and a few others were sitting in a forlorn group looking tired and confused. Luke was trying to raise their spirits by telling rather bad jokes and even suggesting a singsong and his face shone with relief when he caught sight of Anna.

  ‘Simon just called. He’s finally managed to get hold of Julius; he’s agreed that the few who need to stay on at the castle can use the rooms in the red passage. Thankfully there are not many of them.’ He smiled at the small collection of people sitting around him. ‘Simon will come here soon with the Land Rover and I’ll use mine and we’ll drive you and anything you need up to the castle and settle you in.’

  ‘I’d like to go home and see what’s what,’ Mattie struggled up from her chair, ‘and fetch some things.’

  ‘I’ll take you,’ Anna said. ‘I can help you carry anything you need,’ she added, thinking how traumatic it would be for Mattie to see the inside of her cottage in the daylight.

  Mattie stumbled and Anna took her arm, she looked defeated now, exhausted by her ordeal. She wore a pair of bright red wellingtons, which almost matched her hat, and she went with her out of the church hall and stood looking round her. The church and hall in this part of the village were barely covered with water, but as they walked together towards the main street, the water became much deeper, lapping at the shops and cottages surrounding it. Anna wondered what to do; Mattie could easily fall. A punt suddenly appeared with a young man steering it.

  Seeing them, he came over, saying cheekily, ‘Signora your gondola awaits.’

  ‘Oh, Marcus, trust you to make fun of this, but thank you, you can take us to my cottage and then bring us back when I’ve got my things together. I am staying in the castle for Christmas,’ Mattie explained.

  ‘Let me help you in, Mattie.’ He threw a rope at Anna, who did her best to hold the punt steady while Mattie clambered in, the water almost to her waist, clinging to Marcus’s arm. ‘There’s room for you too,’ Marcus said to Anna when Mattie was settled.

  ‘Thanks, but I’m fine, I’ll walk it, or rather paddle it,’ Anna said. She was soaked herself now and felt if she too got in the punt it would surely capsize.

  ‘OK, see you there,’ Marcus started off as if he were in a race, the punt rocking alarmingly, making Mattie cry out and tell him to slow down.

  Anna wondered who he was, he seemed very young, but he certainly had a good idea bringing out the punt. She decided to go round the back of the square and try and get to Mattie’s cottage that way as the water was not s
o deep as it was in the main street. She reached the cottage before them, getting thoroughly wet again as she went to the front door.

  Luke, wearing waders, was behind her with two other people who were going home to collect their things and, seeing Marcus, he sighed. ‘Marcus will always find a way to surmount any problems, though they are not always sensible.’

  ‘He seems to have the right idea with that punt,’ she said. ‘It is certainly very deep and I’m soaking,’ Anna said, wondering which was safer: for Mattie to walk through such water holding on to someone or be spun away with a young man in a boat.

  ‘Marcus always has different ideas to everyone else,’ Luke said, and then before Anna could ask more about him, he went on, ‘Simon will be here soon and will start to ferry those who are going to stay at the castle up in his Land Rover. Cathie and I and a few others who work on the estate will make sure the buildings in the village are locked up and safe. I’ve got the local locksmith to see to that. Simon is also wondering if some of us shouldn’t sleep near the main rooms in the castle where all the treasures are, to calm the insurance people.’

  ‘At least Julius has been able to take responsibility now and let poor Simon off the hook,’ Anna said.

  ‘Yes, he has the right contacts for the insurance people, the council and emergency services and things, though you know what these people are like, they make all sorts of complications, if asked for money.’

  ‘But surely he’ll let these homeless people stay in the castle for Christmas?’ Anna was rather dreading the return of this man, who she suspected would not match the friendly relationships she had with the other people here.

  ‘It might not be up to him, but if it all goes wrong Julius will be held responsible even though he’s not here,’ Luke said with despair.

  Eight

  Marcus, the punt and Mattie arrived in style in front of her cottage. Marcus threw Anna a rope and she clung on, while he helped Mattie disembark. The water was not as deep here and the punt scraped on the bottom, but even so the water was over Mattie’s red boots and Anna was so wet she barely noticed any more.

  Mattie fumbled for her key, her face taunt with anxiety at what destruction she’d see. She handed the key to Anna. ‘Would you mind going in first Anna, I know it’s going to be a disaster, but I’d just like you to see it first, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘Of course I will, but take care not to fall.’ Anna didn’t want her standing in the water too long.

  She braced herself for a scene of destruction as she took the key from Mattie’s trembling fingers.

  ‘I’ll come back in about twenty minutes,’ Marcus said, as he picked up the pole and sped out into the middle of the water, which covered the street, eager, like a child faced with an adventure.

  Anna unlocked the door, but the wood had warped in the wet so she had to shove it hard to open it. Was it only a couple of days ago that she and Freddie had come here for coffee? She turned round and tipped out her boots, then leaving them off padded into the cottage in her soaking socks.

  It was the smell that hit her first, damp, putrid, clinging smell.

  Then it hit Mattie, who let out a little cry. Even if, as some people had said, you could come back and live upstairs while the lower floor was repaired, the smell was horrendous, even dangerous if the water held sewage and perhaps chemicals from the nearby fields.

  Anna went further inside the small hall and made her way to the living room. A thick coat of sludge covered the living room carpet and the bottom of the walls and clung to the curtain hems. She squelched back to the front door hoping to shield Mattie from the sight; she could fetch whatever was needed from upstairs while Mattie stayed sheltered in the church hall, but Mattie was made of firmer stuff.

  ‘I’ve got to see it, Anna, face up to it. It can’t be as bad as seeing streets demolished in the war, their belongings and sometimes bits of them scattered everywhere. I was only seven, but I’ll never forget it.’

  ‘OK, but it’s… unrecognisable from the comfortable pretty rooms you had,’ Anna was almost in tears herself, imagining how shattering it would be to find her home stinking and ruined like this.

  She put out her hand and grasped Mattie’s and Mattie stepped into the cottage and looked around. Her face set hard there were no words. Mattie let go of Anna’s hand and went into the living room, feeling her feet squelching on the wet carpet beneath her. She opened the cupboard, which held the toys Freddie had been playing with, and water dripped out. She went into every room, the kitchen, a small shower room and a study, while Anna stayed in the living room, leaving Mattie to absorb the devastation in her own way.

  When Mattie returned, there were tears on her cheeks, but her voice was firm. ‘It’s obvious there’s a lot to be done, but the important things are safe, my photographs are high in the bookcase in the study, but perhaps this damp atmosphere is bad for them. Somehow I’ll get through this. I must ring the insurers, perhaps get everything into storage.’ She went over to her desk to search for the file to find the emergency number.

  ‘I wonder how long you should stay here with the smell if it’s toxic,’ Anna said.

  ‘That’s the least of my worries, dear,’ Mattie said, ‘but if you see Marcus floating around perhaps you could ask him to come and help lift some things upstairs. He’s a dear boy, an unexpected child to a now retired couple who live near Lucy. The medics have given him some fancy label, but I was taught to take folk at face value, and just look how kind he’s being to all of us today.’ Mattie located the folder and took out her unwieldy mobile, stabbing in their number.

  Leaving Mattie to her call, Anna went outside and, seeing Marcus and his punt not far off, she ushered him over. It had been obvious to her that Marcus still held onto a childish excitement of adventure, which she might have found disconcerting, but Mattie accepted, and Anna sensed, respected him as he was, so she would do the same.

  ‘Is Mattie ready to go?’ he asked eagerly.

  ‘Not yet, she wondered if you could help her. I’m Anna, by the way. I’ve come with my son, Freddie, to stay at the castle, and look after it while Philly and Sidney have gone on holiday,’ she explained.

  Marcus seemed to be too busy tying up his punt to Mattie’s fence to show much interest in her introduction. He smiled at her in a friendly way before coming into the cottage, looking round with interest. ‘Very dirty,’ he said.

  Mattie called to him and he went to her and she, still waiting for the insurance firm to answer, told him what she wanted taken upstairs. ‘Put them in the room at the top please, Marcus, high up in case the water comes in again, and shut the door on them in case this damp atmosphere gets to them… and perhaps we could open the windows, let in some fresh air.’

  ‘I’ll do that,’ Anna said, going over to the front window.

  ‘OK, Mattie,’ Marcus looked round, wandering from room to room. Anna said nothing, wondering if he understood what Mattie meant him to do. Then, opening a cupboard in the kitchen, he began to take out any large bowls he saw, picked up the washing up bowl and some large saucepans high on a shelf over the cooker and piled them all on the kitchen table.

  Anna was about to say she thought these things were safe and would he like her to help move some of the ornaments and more fragile things, but he picked up a large saucepan and went into the living room, where Mattie was now grappling with her insurers, and filled it with the things off the mantelpiece and carried them upstairs. He filled all the containers he had taken from the kitchen with various things and carried them all upstairs.

  ‘That’s a good idea, far quicker,’ Anna said, and he beamed with pleasure and asked if they were ready to go back in his punt yet.

  ‘Marcus has his own way of seeing and doing things,’ Mattie said, after Marcus had dropped them off and while they were waiting back in the church hall for Simon and Luke to drive those staying in the castle to their rooms. ‘He goes to a special boarding school, but we are all pleased to see him when he comes back
for the holidays, he’s as much part of the community as the rest of us are.’

  ‘He’s certainly been very helpful with his punt,’ Anna said.

  She was beginning to wonder if she should call Lucy and see if she wanted her to collect Freddie. It was dark now, even though it was only four o’clock.

  There were half a dozen people waiting to go to the castle, their faces drawn and sorrowful, they slumped in their chairs with the few belongings they were taking with them around them. Mattie had a couple of bags with her; she roused herself.

  ‘Everyone, this is Anna,’ she said, ‘She and her son, Freddie, are sitting in for Philly and Sidney and the poor woman has come here from London, no doubt hoping for a little holiday in the fresh air of the country.’

  The others nodded at her.

  Mattie went on, going clockwise round the group, ‘Raymond and Patsy,’ a middle-aged couple, he concentrating on his iPad, she giving her a shy smile. ‘Everard,’ who she remembered speaking to earlier. ‘Nicole and Ingrid,’ two rather classy women who nodded royally, appearing as though they thought they were in this group by mistake.

  Simon and Luke came into the church hall, approaching them smiling, though Anna could see the exhaustion on Simon’s face.

  ‘There’s no more rain forecast for tonight or tomorrow, which is the only good news I have, I’m afraid,’ Simon said. ‘But are you all ready to come up to the castle to the dry, warm rooms we have ready for you?’

  ‘Thank you, I’m longing for a hot bath,’ Patsy said, getting up from her chair.

  ‘Let’s go, then. We’ve managed to find five keys to the outside door, so couples will have to share for the moment. We have left the one you have, Anna, at the flat, and if you don’t mind letting people in and out if they lose theirs until we get more cut – though I expect after such a traumatic night and it being so cold most of you will be glad to stay inside. Luke and I will be sleeping in the castle tonight and we’ll make sure we all have each other’s mobile numbers.’