Page 38 of Mistletoe and Mulled Wine at the Christmas Campervan

‘Nice to see you dressed,’ the old lady added, cool as a cucumber.

With another hour before Marjorie was due back to pick Nonna up again, they decided to take her across to the Driftwood Café for a bite of brunch. She’d already had her porridge this morning, apparently, but admitted with a twinkle in her eye that a toasted teacake and a nice cuppa might not go amiss.

Whilst Jack and Lucy tucked into sausage baps, made with the famous Bamburgh Bangers from the butcher along the coast, Nonna told them all about Rothbury life, including the latest gossip from the bowling green, with the pompous Vice Chair found to be cheating, surreptitiously shifting his opponent’s ball with his foot – scandalously hilarious amongst the older generation of the village. And Mrs Devlin, a mere snippet of a thing in her forties, had left her admittedly grumpy and rather lazy husband and moved in with recently widowed Mr Clark, who was well into his sixties, and a keen member of the tennis club. With the village verdict undecided as to whether they might have already been seeing each other for some time beforehand, or whether it was mere cuckoo-style opportunism.

‘So.’ Nonna moved the conversation on. ‘What have you two got on? Any plans for the day?’

Jack mused wryly at that point that his intended plan for a long and leisurely lie-in with her granddaughter had had to be curtailed, but he found he couldn’t be annoyed with the old lady. He had to admit it was nice that she’d wanted to see Lucy, and had made the trip over. Jack’s own grandparents lived further away, one set were based in Yorkshire, where his father had been brought up, and he had a granny in Devon, so their visits were less frequent. He was very fond of them, however.

‘Well,’ Lucy answered, ‘just a quiet one really. We’ve both had a lot on lately …’ Her voice trailed. Wary of looking too clingy, she didn’t want to commit Jack to have to do anything in particular.

‘Ah, we’ll probably walk the beach at some point. Maybe go for a little drive in Ruby,’ Jack mooted.

Nonna raised her eyebrows inquisitively, ‘Ruby?’

‘Oh, that’s my campervan,’ Jack explained. ‘She’s a real character, and she’s ruby red. Hence the name.’

‘Ah, yes, I remember seeing her at Lucy’s party now. Lovely looking camper, she is. A Westfalia, by any chance?’

‘Yeah, how do you know?’

‘The left-hand drive and the layout of the front screen were a bit of a giveaway. Oh yes, me and Lucy’s papa had a few adventures back in the day. Our friends, Stan and Lorna, had a campervan very similar to that. We had some wonderful weekends away with them. It was compact, to say the least, so me and Papa would be tucked up on blow-up lilos in the awning overnight.’

‘Really?’ Who knew? Nonna’s antics never ceased to amaze Lucy. She had certainly lived a full and interesting life.

‘Oh yes,’ the old lady began to chuckle, ‘it was all great fun until the time your papa’s lilo punctured in the middle of the night. We used to line two single ones up together. Woke up on the floor, he did. Said it was like sleeping on a bed of rocks. Oh, and his back … He could hardly move that next morning.’ She smiled nostalgically. ‘I remember it like it was yesterday. Could hardly walk … looked like John Wayne, just off a horse. Well, me and Lorna had to stifle our giggles. It was unlike your Papa, but he was so grumpy that next day. Like a bear with a sore head. Ah, those were the days …’

The two younger ones smiled at her fond memories.

‘In fact, I’m thinking of planning another little adventure,’ announced Nonna. ‘Yes, something for next year. Well, me and Marjorie, that is. She seemed quite up for it when I mentioned it the other evening.’

‘Ooh, what’s that then, Nonna?’ Lucy was curious.

‘Spring in Sorrento. A bit of a final fling.’

‘Oh …’ The words final fling stuck awkwardly in Lucy’s mind. The thought of Nonna jetting off to Italy set off huge alarm bells. ‘Well, I hope you’re not thinking of popping your clogs while you’re over there?’ Lucy was joking, but her words suddenly felt foreboding. All of a sudden it hit her that Nonna wasn’t getting any younger. She was no spring chicken, after all. What if anything should happen to her beloved grandmother whilst they were away? It was only last year she’d been a bit poorly. ‘Have you thought it through, Nonna? You’d need proper insurance in place, and that could be expensive.’ Lucy’s sensible streak was coming to the fore.

‘Well, I think it sounds amazing,’ Jack chipped in. ‘I’ve spent some brilliant times in Italy. Such a cool place. All that history … Had a real memorable night drinking Negronis down by the Coliseum.’

Jack was encouraging her now too. Crikey, it was all a bit different from Nonna’s usual organised coach trips to Scarborough. In fact, the furthest her grandmother had travelled in the past ten years was the Lake District. She wondered if her mum knew about any of this. Or had Nonna been planning to launch it on them as a done deal, flights booked and everything? She wouldn’t put it past the wily old girl.

‘Well, I’ve looked into insurance, yes,’ Nonna answered pragmatically, ‘and Saga do a good one. It’s a bit expensive, but it’ll be worth it.’

‘Ri-ght,’ Lucy was still a bit dumbfounded. She wasn’t quite sure why all this was worrying her so much, it wasn’t like they were heading off somewhere really dangerous, but she just felt suddenly protective of her precious grandmother.

‘I want to go while I’m still able,’ Nonna explained. ‘I want to go back and visit all the old places me and Papa were so fond of. See some of his relatives too, there are a few still remaining. We still send each other Christmas cards. I might even get to meet their grandchildren, the next generation.’ She was smiling wistfully.

‘Well, that sounds a great idea, Nonna,’ Jack said, clearly backing the plan. The world adventurer that he was … Lucy found herself feeling irked. They’d all be bloody well setting off now …

‘Any top-ups, folks?’ Louise appeared with a fresh cafetière of coffee, and offered to make Nonna another pot of tea.

‘Oh, that’d be lovely, dear. Thank you.’ Nonna lifted her cup with a smile.

‘Now then Lucy,’ Lou took up, ‘don’t forget it’s Christmas Book Club this week. Followed next week by the grand Christmas Tree Light Up on the village green.’

‘Ah, okay, thanks. Yes, I’ve been catching up on my festive reading. Looking forward to it. And the Christmas tree in the village, that sounds good, too.’ Lucy gave a weak smile, her mind still fizzing about Nonna’s possible foreign trip, as she accepted a top-up of coffee.

‘Don’t know where the time is going, November is whizzing by … Christmas’ll be here before we know it,’ Lou said with a happy tut.