‘It’s almost ready,’ he said, grinning up at her as he slid the tray of golden potatoes back into the Aga. ‘Aunty Marge gave me a call on the way, said you’d be staying for a bit. It’ll be great to have you.’
Helena felt awkward enough that she was intruding on their Sunday lunch, let alone their home, but Johnny put her at ease immediately, engulfing her in a bear hug like a long-lost friend and chattering away as though moving into someone’s house with absolutely no notice was the most normal thing in the world. She noticed that he was rather endearingly wearing Margery’s floral pinny.
‘Let’s leave your stuff for now, we can bring it in later,’ Margery said, pulling a bottle of wine off the rack. ‘I expect you could do with a drink, Helena.’
‘Let’s crack this open,’ Johnny said as he located the corkscrew and poured a glass.
‘I’m actually okay thank you,’ she said, thinking about howmuch she had been drinking these last few weeks and how it was about time she stopped using alcohol to numb her pain. ‘I’ll just have some water if that’s alright.’
‘Of course,’ Johnny said, handing the wine to Margery and filling a tumbler from the tap for Helena. ‘It sounds like it’s been a rough few weeks.’ He gave her a sympathetic smile.
‘It certainly has,’ Helena said, grateful that he wasn’t forcing her to elaborate. She knew Margery would have filled him in. She wondered what he must think of her, if he would judge her for having been left like that by Noah, as if she was somehow responsible. But the expression in his eyes was so understanding and so kind, Helena told herself to relax. She was sure in Margery’s account of events that Noah would have come across as the villain.
‘Cheers!’ he said as he clinked his glass against Helena’s. His blue eyes crinkled as he dazzled her with the warmest of smiles. ‘It’s lovely to see you again.’
‘Thanks for having me.’
‘I hope you like roast pork?’ he asked as he carefully removed a sizzling joint from the roasting oven, covered in golden, bubbling crackling.
‘It’s my favourite. It smells divine,’ Helena sighed.
‘Well that’s a relief,’ Johnny laughed. ‘It’s my first time doing a roast in the Aga so let’s hope it’s turned out okay.’
Margery noticed Helena glancing across the road to Banham Cottage. ‘Does it feel awfully strange knowing someone else will be there soon?’
‘It’s so weird. I’m not sure I’ll be ready to meet the new inhabitants for a while. I think they’re moving in any day now.’
‘Well there’s no need to rush into that,’ Margery smiled. ‘Oh yes, I completely forgot. Have you heard about the Crooked Hook?’
Helena shook her head. ‘What’s happened to it?’
‘It’s closing down at the end of the month.’
‘No!’ Helena gasped. ‘Why?’
‘I was in there the other day for a pint, chatting to Dave,’ Johnnyexplained. ‘Apparently it’s been making a loss for a while and it’s no longer a viable business. He is devastated.’
‘I can’t believe it, where will he go?’ Helena asked.
‘He’s still going to live in the flat above for now.’
Margery took a sip of her wine and sighed. ‘There are hardly any pubs left around us. First the White Swan, then The Bell…’
‘It’s so sad.’ Helena frowned. ‘Isn’t there anything we can do?’
‘I don’t think so. It’s such a terrible shame. The last village amenity, gone,’ Margery shook her head.
‘My dad owned a pub,’ Johnny said as he splashed some red wine into the gravy and gave it a stir. ‘Growing up it was hard to imagine a village without one.’
‘I didn’t know that!’ Helena smiled at the thought of little Johnny, remembering a photo Margery had of him up in her bedroom, sitting on a tractor with a beaming grin, next to a tall man with a big beard. ‘Was he your brother, Margery?’
‘He certainly was. A publican through and through.’
‘Our pub was the life and soul of the community,’ Johnny said. ‘Like so many others, it’s no longer there.’
‘Like the village hall,’ Margery said. ‘Where I used to do my performances and where we had the community choir. Do you remember Johnny? You know there used to be a village shop, and a post office too when we first moved here. Now all we’ve got is the pub. And without that, there’ll be nowhere for anyone to go.’
‘Poor Dave,’ Helena said, she knew it must have been a hard decision to make.
