“We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.”
Somehow they would need to find a way.
Chapter Nineteen
Summons
Leonard hadn’t seen Adrian for three weeks.
Three whole weeks since he had shared a bed with his lover, and, of course, since someone had tried to burn the house down. Which is why he had been relieved to hear Adrian enthuse about the comprehensive security system, one the installers had shown Adrian how to control using his mobile phone. Adrian had talked Leonard through installing the application and they had set a secure password together, so Leonard could now view all around the house externally, and also inside the downstairs living areas.
And in those three weeks, while Leonard had been running around England and Ireland on business, Adrian and Toni had made incredible progress. Adrian had kept him in the loop, naturally, with photos showing the transformation.
Leonard had felt a personal pride in finally getting the old family home restored. Moreover, if he was going to be perfectly honest, he had also enjoyed letting go and trusting Adrian to work his magic without Leonard being there. He knew Adrian would work to Leonard’s same exacting standards.
With the new windows, window boxes, external painting, garden, guttering and roof repairs completed, they had turned their attention to completing the final tasks. The house now had a new open kitchen and bathroom suites, fully compliant electrics, plastering, painting and tiling, treated and polished floorboards and staircase. On his instruction, Pippa’s team had even replaced the garden patio and low surrounding wall, matching the original design they’d seen in Freya’s snapshots as well as adding boxes with flowers and herbs around the patio. All he needed now was to fit in the pieces of furniture he had chosen with Adrian.
But in Leonard’s mind, all of their hard work would have proven pointless without one final arrangement. To fill the house with friends, family, fun and laughter. And with that thought in mind, he had already contacted his friends and colleagues to tell them to reserve a date for a house-warming at the end of June. All he needed to do now was to talk to the locals he knew around the area.
Early in the week, Adrian confirmed that Toni and her partner would stay over on Friday night, in part to help them put the furniture in place but also to be his first official guests for dinner. Once they left on Saturday morning, he would have Adrian all to himself.
Everything seemed to be going exactly to plan.
Until Wednesday morning when Mary had sent him a cryptic text message to tell him her mother, Aunt Millicent, had asked to discuss something urgently with him and could he drop in to see her. At first he’d hesitated, wondering why they couldn’t simply speak over the phone or why his aunt couldn’t meet him halfway. Mary had explained how her mother rarely left her flat, and what she wanted to discuss needed to be done face-to-face. Leonard had finally capitulated and arranged to see her at midday on his way to Wales.
“It’s not a worry, Lenny,” said Adrian, placating him again on Friday morning, as Leonard sat in his car readying to leave. “The important thing is that you’re going to be here later today.”
“We could have been having lunch together if the woman would deign to use a phone. Anyway, depending on what she has to say, I should be with you by four, at the latest.”
“Then chill. But remember it’s Friday, and traffic will be manic.”
“Listen out for the furniture truck. You’ll need to check everything and sign off for me. I doubt they’ll be able to get down the drive, but you can try. If not, you may have to help them unload.”
“If you’re not here when it arrives, do you mind if I get Toni and Jack to help me arrange the furniture in place? I already know where you want everything.”
During their weekends together, Adrian had helped Leonard choose the furniture and decide what would look best in which part of the house. They had agreed on most things, and the few they had disagreed about, Adrian usually had a better, more practical reason for the placement.
“As long as you guys don’t mind. Will be great to see the place finished. But I’m not being much help, am I?”
“I’ll think of a few ways you can pay me back when you’re here.”
Leonard laughed aloud and felt instantly better. He’d missed Adrian. With everything finished, he would need to sit Adrian down and figure out how they were going to move forwards. One thing was for sure—he wanted Adrian in his life.
Before setting off, he checked the address and postcode given to him by Mary and tapped the details into his GPS. From previous conversations, he seemed to remember people saying they lived in Clifton in the Bristol area, but the address of the flat was for somewhere called Broadmead. Not knowing the city, he assumed the latter to be a neighbourhood of Clifton.
Even with the GPS, he still managed to get muddled and stopped to ask a passer-by for directions. Just as well, too, because the old chap he spoke to recommended he park up at a nearby municipal car park then walk the five or ten minutes to the council flats. If he chanced parking outside in that part of town, his ‘nice-looking motor’ would either get towed or stolen or stripped bare. Those were usually the three options in that area, he was told.
So he chose to walk and arrived at an uninspiring low-rise apartment block, nothing out of the ordinary, just before midday. Despite an apparent attempt to spruce up the external façade of the building, the interior felt old and tired and worn.
His aunt’s flat stood on the second floor at the end of a long walkway. The peeling purple door had a once shiny stainless-steel letterbox cum knocker, now mottled by opaque blotches. Unable to find a doorbell, he knocked and waited. A few minutes later, someone unlatched the door.
“Ah, Leonard,” said his aunt, smiling thinly. “How nice. Please come in. Go through to the parlour.”
Although she still had the same pinched and guarded expression, the same dark, suspicious eyes, she seemed older somehow than when Leonard had seen her at the funeral. Grey strands of hair, those that had escaped the brutal restraint of her black headband, fell to the sides of her face. Over a drab but straightforward stone-grey dress, she wore a baggy black cardigan with a hole in the left arm, the pale flesh of her forearm showing through and a dried mustard-coloured stain near the neckline. Only the pink woollen fluffy slippers seemed at odds with the rest of the sombre ensemble.
She opened the door wide, and he entered into the corridor of the duplex, the stairs to his left. As he approached the back room, he noticed a large crucifix fixed above the entrance.
The room seemed comfortable enough if a little spartan. A two-seater sofa and single armchair in faded green corduroy faced an ancient box-like television, the view from the windows obscured by bleached-white net curtains.
