out into the world as ‘reconditioned’. This Luke should have been smelling of patchouli oil and wearing a kaftan, with his fingers permanently fixed into outwardly turned Vs of peace.
‘No, Bridge, but I changed my diet, hit the gym, channelled my energies into something positive rather than negative, found—’ He stopped short. It would have been crass to continue and say, ‘found the right woman’, but it was true. Carmen acted like a balm on his soul. She was the calmest, most kindhearted woman he had ever met. They had differences of opinion but they could dispute without throwing things at each other, name-calling, hurting, blaming, fighting. The make-up sex with Bridge had been pretty spectacular – and they’d had a lot of that – but with hindsight it wasn’t worth the fall-outs they’d had to merit it. He had happily forgone urgent, fervid make-up sex in exchange for never going to bed on an argument and never having to play silent-treatment, sulking, one-upmanship, point-scoring games.
‘What about your family, Mary? Will they be worried about you?’ asked Robin, expecting the answer to be yes after their discussion while they were making breakfast.
‘I expect they will be. I told my brother I was driving Jack yesterday but I didn’t get the chance to tell him that I was okay. But they know me, they know I’m not the damsel-in-distress type.’
Jack felt a pang of guilt. What would Mary’s family think about her driving him up to the north-east when he should have driven himself if Fred couldn’t do it? They must have watched the snow start and panicked for her. He hoped that she’d told her family enough about him for them to be assured that she was safe with him, that he’d treat her with respect if they’d had to spend a night – or two – taking cover together. It didn’t make up for the fact that she’d miss Christmas with them because of him, because he had to meet Chikafuji to talk about scones on the morning of Christmas Eve instead of arranging to communicate with him via a screen. Because of her selflessness, she was in a proper pickle now.
Mary drained her cup and said, ‘I think I’ll look around and see if there are some games or anything like that in a bit. They’ll help to pass the time. There must be a pack of cards at least somewhere in the place.’
Charlie leaned over, picked up a log and tossed it on the fire. ‘We’re running low on these. Maybe we should ration them and just keep the fire ticking over rather than blazing.’
‘There’s a log store outside,’ said Bridge. ‘I saw it when I was trying to find a way into the place yesterday. There’s plenty of logs in it.’
‘We should get our luggage from the car, Robin,’ said Charlie. ‘We have a case full of boots and jumpers that we can share around if anyone needs to venture out.’ He began to rise from his seat. ‘I’ll go and get—’
‘You’ll do no such thing,’ said Robin, pushing him back down into the chair by his shoulder. ‘You’re in no fit state to do anything that will exert you, you old fart. I’ll go and get the cases.’
‘I have plenty of pairs of socks, and packs of pants, all brand new, which you boys could have if you needed them. I do like fresh underwear for a holiday,’ Charlie went on. ‘I always over-pack.’
‘We may have to take you up on that if we’re here for the duration,’ said Luke.
From behind him Radio Brian’s voice drifted out of the speaker.
‘Do not go out even if it’s necessary, that’s the advice the other BBC is giving, fully endorsed by Brian Bernard Cosgrove – the real BBC.’
* * *
Robin insisted on going out to the car to fetch their suitcases alone, but Luke equally insisted on accompanying him. He begrudgingly removed his dry socks and slid his bare feet back into his still wet boots, already counting down the minutes until he could pull them off again. When Robin opened the door, the snow swirled in along with wind noise that belonged on a ‘serious winter sound effects’ album. Another inch at least had fallen since Jack and Luke had been out earlier.
‘Stubborn fool,’ said Charlie, standing with the others and watching Robin wobbling and sliding even on the relatively short trip to the car. ‘He’s got a dodgy knee, a creaking hip and an arthritic shoulder