‘Thought we’d better feed the helpers.’
‘Is that one for me?’ Radia asked, pointing to a second, smaller package.
‘If you like,’ he told her, passing her the leafy bundle.
‘Lettuce?’ Far from being disappointed, she thought his gift hilarious.
‘Chinese leaf, celery and dill, and there’s a fresh baguette in there too,’ Monty smiled, and Radia laughed again. ‘Shall we cook it up?’
‘How?’ Radia squinted up at him. ‘Our kitchen’s all wrapped in plastic.’
Monty glanced at Joy whose shoulders dropped.
‘It’s true,’ she told him. ‘I didn’t get a chance to strip the protective wrapping off everything.’
‘How have you been eating?’ Monty asked.
‘We’ve managed.’
‘Yeah, cereal and toast,’ Radia dobbed her in.
‘Hey, my toast’s the best in the whole world, remember? Your words, not mine.’ Joy smiled for her daughter, who conceded that much was true, actually.
‘I think we can do better than a bit of toast tonight,’ Monty put in gently. ‘Listen, there’s a brick barbeque in the yard round the back of the shop, built it myself in the spring with Alex and Magnús. There’s a bag of charcoal too. Let’s fire it up.’
Telling him every fish fact she knew, Radia followed Monty round the back and through a little blue gate into a yard surrounded on all sides by the white walls of squat old cottages and stone outbuildings.
A patch of newly rooted turf, already getting overgrown in the summer sun, reached all the way to a completely bare half-moon flower bed by the barbeque.
‘You need to get some flowers in there,’ Monty told Radia, only just realising Joy had followed them round to keep an eye on him. ‘And in the window boxes.’
‘I don’t have any,’ Radia said with a shrug. Charley fox dragged on the grass at her ankles.
Joy wanted to say there was no point planting things they wouldn’t see growing but, not wanting to upset Radia, she didn’t. Instead she kept her distance, arms folded, watching Monty start up the barbeque.
‘What’s that?’ Radia asked as he sparked his lighter.
‘Oh, it’s a, it’s…’ He turned to Joy as if asking her permission.
‘It’s a cigarette lighter,’ Joy told her.
‘You smoke cigarettes!’ Radia blurted, dismayed.
‘Well, sometimes,’ Monty told her. ‘But I’m definitely going to stop.’
‘Today?’
‘Umm, well…’
‘Come on, Rads. Let Monty sort the food.’ Joy tried to pry her away, and Monty smiled back, apologetically.
‘’Ow do,’ called a friendly voice from the courtyard, and Radia instantly abandoned Monty in favour of finding out who it was that sounded exactly like a pirate.
Before Joy and Radia could round the corner, a small, curly coated dog padded towards them.
‘That’s Aldous,’ Monty told them as he tipped the coals out onto the grill.
Radia dropped to her knees to cuddle him.
