dainty bones. ‘Cassie said something similar,’ she admitted.
They watched the TV together for a while. It was a documentary about World War II. Nan had been a teenager for most of the war, had known gas masks and evacuees and how people had helped each other.
‘I chatted with Nico after you’d left,’ she said suddenly. ‘He was so looking forward to his trip home. But now he’s worried about his dad and managing Maria. You can’t expect as much of a two-year-old as you can an eight-year-old if there’s a lot of hanging about in hospitals.’
Hannah considered what she knew of Nico’s circumstances. ‘I know he left their old nanny behind in London and his cousin has uni. Maybe he has relatives in Sweden who’ll help.’
Stiffly, Nan edged round to face Hannah. Her age showed in the sad drooping of her wrinkles. ‘I asked him. No grandparents left alive and no aunts, uncles or cousins who aren’t busy working. He says he’ll try and get a temporary nanny from an agency when he gets there, if he has to. Cost a packet, I bet.’
‘Poor Nico. He’s stepped up to have Maria and been left to cope with the extra hassle.’ Hannah thought of the sunny toddler and her chatty big sister. Lovely kids, but lively.
‘You speak Swedish,’ Nan said.
Hannah swung her gaze on her grandmother. ‘And …?’
‘Those little girls know you.’ Nan pursed her lips and her wrinkles reassembled in a new pattern.
‘Barely!’ Hannah protested instinctively. ‘I’m not a nanny. I know nothing about kids. Nan, you’re not suggesting I save the day by volunteering to go with them, are you? It would be like one of those non-empowering chick flicks when a woman offers herself as a support act to a man.’ Especially when she’d just heard he wasn’t trying again with his ex-wife after all.
The lines of Nan’s face deepened. ‘You’re not going to be working at Carlysle Courtyard. You could track down that Albin and get your money back while you were there.’
‘I’m not here to work at Carlysle Courtyard. I’m here to help you. I can’t leave while your arm’s in a cast. I know Rob and Leesa are back but they have full-time jobs.’ Hannah patted her grandmother’s soft, crepe hand. She thought about being back in Sweden, with Nico, and a wistful note crept in. ‘It’s a point about Albin but you need someone to get your meals and help with zips and things.’
A few minutes later Hannah popped out to Booze & News to buy Oxo cubes for the supper casserole, glancing down Little Lane in the direction of Honeybun Cottage and hoping Lars was OK and Nico would cope. She hadn’t missed that he’d been too upset to eat properly at lunchtime, though he’d put on a show for the kids. She rarely heard Nico complain. He set his jaw and tackled every obstacle. She felt guilty about her waspish remark to Nan about women supporting men. It hadn’t been Nico who’d made her position untenable, like her ex-boyfriend Luke; or taken her business from her, like Albin; or viewed her as a potential date instead of taking her seriously as a person, like Simeon. But she couldn’t abandon Nan, even if Nan was the one to suggest it.
The shop door gave a ting and clattered shut behind her. She chatted to Melanie, whose op had been postponed because of pressure on beds, then hurried home again, a box of beef Oxo in her pocket but thinking more about Nico than casserole.
She found her grandmother replacing the phone in its wall cradle. ‘Right,’ Nan said briskly. ‘I’ve telephoned Brett to settle our differences.’
‘Blimey, that’s an about-face.’ Hannah halted, wrong-footed.
Nan grimaced. ‘I suddenly saw how self-centred I’ve been. My refusal to speak to Brett tied you to me and the village. You’re a wonderful granddaughter to have given up so much time but Brett’s invited me to stay with him. So that frees you up.’ Nan gave Hannah a very direct look.
‘Frees me up to act as Nico’s nanny?’ she asked slowly, trying to keep up with this dizzying change in circumstances and examine how she felt about it.
Nan grasped Hannah’s hand with her one good one. ‘It wouldn’t be about being Nico’s nanny. It would be about being his friend. He needs one.’ As an afterthought she added, ‘And just don’t think about you being a woman and him being a man.’
Yeah, right.
Nico was exhausted. The girls, driven by Josie’s overexcitement about