‘Right,’ said Jago, who had obviously been waiting for her. ‘I’ll introduce you to Fred.’
Although he was making all the right gestures, Jago’s manner was making Helena feel unwelcome and if she had had her car outside she would have got into it and driven away. But she didn’t have that choice.
Jago ushered her into the front room, which was small but had the most amazing view. An old man was sitting in an armchair there; next to him was a small table covered with invalid paraphernalia. Going on what she could see, Fred was in need of quite a lot of support. ‘Fred? This is Helena. Helena? This is Fred. Right, I’ll make tea.’
‘Don’t rush off, lad,’ said Fred, who looked frail but seemed to be in command of all his senses. ‘Is Helena your girlfriend?’
Jago looked at Helena and gave a tiny shrug, as if he didn’t know. Then he went to make the tea.
‘Yes,’ said Helena firmly. ‘Yes, I am his girlfriend.’ She went further into the room and sat on the chair next to Fred’s. ‘This view is wonderful! I could look at it all day.’ It was similar to the view that had inspired Helena so much from the kitchen doorway but at a different angle and there was no river at the bottom.
‘That is pretty much all I do these days: look at the view. And yes, I’ll miss it,’ said Fred.
‘You’re leaving here?’
‘Didn’t Jon tell you? I can’t manage here on my own and my daughter is going to have me with her. But she’s having the house made suitable and there are complications. Aren’t there always when there are builders involved?’ He said this with a twinkle but Helena realised he was a bit fed up.
‘I suppose when you start building work, problems you never knew were there are revealed,’ said Helena.
‘Yes, well,’ went on Fred, ‘they wanted me to stay in hospital until the work was done, said I couldn’t come out and live here as it wasn’t fit for an elderly and infirm person who’d just had a serious op. Well! I wasn’t staying in that place with all those ill people. They’d call me a bed-blagger – blocker – one of those things. I put in a call to Jon and he came straight up here.’
‘He’s very kind,’ said Helena. This was demonstrably true and she’d experienced it herself. But there were still an awful lot about him she couldn’t be anything like as sure of.
‘He’s a good lad. It wasn’t fair, what happened to him.’
‘What did happen to him?’ Although it felt a bit wrong to grill a sick old man for information this did seem too good an opportunity to miss.
Annoyingly, before Fred could tell her anything, Jago – Jonathan – came back into the room with a tray. He found another little table and put the tray on it. On the tray were three chipped mugs of tea and a packet of Rich Tea biscuits.
‘The biscuits are a little stale, I’m afraid,’ said Jago. ‘I haven’t been able to go shopping.’
‘I’ve got shortbread in my car,’ said Helena. ‘Sadly it’s down the hill and quite a way away. The road was closed, which was why I walked up.’
‘You walked up the hill to see me?’ said Fred, astonished.
‘Sorry to break it to you,’ said Jago, ‘but I think she may have walked up here to see me.’ He gave her a sideways glance and a little smile that reminded her of how he had been when they’d been together. Why was he so different now?
‘It’s quite far,’ said Helena, ‘or I’d run back down and fetch them. The running down part is fine but walking back up is a bit exhausting.’
‘Why don’t you go down in your pickup, Jon?’ suggested Fred. ‘Leave me and your young lady to talk.’
‘That’s a good idea!’ said Helena.
‘No it’s not, not even for shortbread, even though Helena’s mother does make amazing shortbread.’ Jago was firm. ‘Now, Fred, do you want tea? Or are you full of healthier fluids?’
‘Tea doesn’t taste the same any more,’ said Fred sadly. ‘But shortbread would.’ He looked pleadingly at Jago, who shook his head.
‘Maybe later Helena could sit with you while I go shopping and collect what she needs from her car. But she’s only just arrived and she can’t be in charge of you without the proper training.’
‘Really?’ asked Helena. ‘Did you have training, Ja— Jonathan?’
‘No, he didn’t,’ said Fred. ‘And he lied to the woman from social services and said he was my son. Poor woman was so overworked and desperate for my bed that when Jon said he’d take full responsibility she let him.’
‘And also Helena probably needs to get back. When were you thinking of leaving?’
Jago obviously wanted her gone. Helena’s heart sank. ‘As you know, I’ve only just arrived and, having come all this way, including walking up a very steep hill, I’d like an opportunity to get to know Fred a bit.’
‘Considering you didn’t know Fred existed until a few minutes ago I’m surprised at your enthusiasm for his company,’ said Jago.
