Frowning I peered at the word, ‘A ceilidh,’ I laughed, ‘It’s Scottish dancing.’
‘Christ,’ Luke said in alarm, looking up at me, eyes wide. ‘Dancing.’
‘Quite,’ I took a sip of my wine.
‘What’s a day of conchology?’
‘A conch? Er . . . Something to do with shells . . . ?’
‘Bell ringing!’ He guffawed. ‘Not sure that was ever a romantic day out.’
‘Geoffrey added it. I think they need bell ringers in the church – might have been motivated by that thought. Anyway, we don’t have to do any of this stuff, it was just a crazy idea. They’ll be over it after the next bottle of gin. I mean, who has time to attend dancing lessons with work and everything else? And I’m sure they just got fired up and have now moved on to another hot topic, like how to release equity from their home.’
Luke had grown still.
‘Luke . . . ?’ I prompted.
He circled the top of his pint glass with a finger. ‘Well, they did seem very keen on the idea. And did you see your Grandad? He hasn’t looked like that in months.’
I opened and closed my mouth, knowing I couldn’t argue as I had thought the same thing. Grandad had been transformed for a moment, his words fast, spilling into each other. His laugh louder, longer.
Luke returned to the list. ‘And some of these don’t exactly look time-consuming. Actually, they look like they could be fun. Although admittedly I can’t read a lot of them. Jesus, your grandad has bad handwriting.’ He was squinting at the last one. ‘Does that say Genital?’
I snatched the sheet back, reading ‘General Knowledge Quiz Night’. ‘General.’
‘That’s a relief.’
It had been good to see Grandad fired up again, bent over that stupid piece of paper as the others had egged him on. Luke had suggested some modern dating methods (Grandad had thought speed dating involved running and his bemused chuckle had lifted my heart). I had forgotten his laugh, gravelly and drawn out. Selfishly, as well, I knew that if he was busy focusing on this project I wouldn’t have to spend so much time worrying he was on his own or trekking across to check on him. I tried to dismiss that thought the moment it arose – but the last few weeks had been exhausting and maybe it would be nice to feel freer. I glanced at the list.
‘It might be good for him, you know,’ Luke said, folding the sheet in half again. ‘Something to do, a pet project.’ He raised one eyebrow at me.
I paused, finished the last of my wine. ‘No, we really can’t. I mean, a jigsaw-puzzle evening, Luke? Seriously.’
‘OK. Fair enough, you’re right.’ Was there a hint of disappointment in his voice or did I imagine it?
I desperately tried to stifle a yawn.
‘Come on,’ he said, finishing his drink and sliding off his bar stool, ‘let’s get you back.’
He flung an arm around my shoulders as we pushed our way out of the pub and back into the street.
‘Thanks for coming over tonight.’ I looked at the silhouette of his profile in the lamplight.
He stopped on the street. ‘Lottie, I miss you.’
‘Me too. These last few weeks have been a bit mad.’ We walked in silence for a while back to Grandad’s, both lost in contemplation.
‘We don’t have to do lots of all-singing, all-dancing dates,’ I said as I reached for his hand. ‘It’s fine just to have evenings like this. We should do them more.’
He circled his thumb over mine. ‘We should,’ he agreed. ‘Absolutely.’
Darling Cora,
I never watched Bake Off with you but working my way through your recipe books is bringing some small joy into the lonelier days. Today I am trying to make banana muffins. All the ingredients are sitting in a Pyrex bowl waiting but I have been scuppered by the lack of a muffin tray. A muffin tray is different to a cupcake tray, the book tells me.
I remember you made me take a box of kitchen items up to the attic a year or so ago and I am hoping I will unearth it there. It was a heavy box. We’d had quite a disagreement about whether you really needed three glass juicers and you’d finally allowed me to put one up in the attic. Maybe it should go to the charity shop, I had suggested, but you had looked at me in that withering way you had, asking me that what would happen if the other